In a sense there were two prodigal sons, and both grew up in a religious culture that praised rule keepers and punished rule breakers. Notice how this chapter begins: \u2018All the tax collectors and sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, \u201cThis Man receives sinners\u201d\u2026 So He spoke this parable to them.\u2019<\/i> (Luke 15:1\u20133 NKJV) <\/p>\n
Here Jesus talks to two different groups: <\/p>\n
(1) Rule breakers like the Prodigal Son,<\/i> who know it\u2019s only through God\u2019s grace we are saved. <\/p>\n
(2) Rule keepers like the older brother,<\/i> who think they can earn or contribute to salvation by doing good works. That makes rule keepers judgmental towards rule breakers. <\/p>\n
The older brother refused to attend his brother\u2019s homecoming party. Why? Basically: \u2018Father, unlike him, I have served you and kept your commandments. This isn\u2019t right or fair.\u2019 (See Luke 15:29). Sound familiar? <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what the father told him: \u2018Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.\u2019<\/i> (Luke 15:31 NKJV) Observe the word \u2018son\u2019<\/i>. Jesus was teaching that we\u2019re saved by \u2018relationship\u2019, not \u2018rule keeping\u2019. The older brother thought his father\u2019s acceptance depended on his performance. Yes, there\u2019s a place in God\u2019s Kingdom for performance. Your rewards in Heaven are based upon your performance on earth. <\/p>\n
But your redemption depends on Christ\u2019s performance only: \u2018By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.\u2019<\/i> (Ephesians 2:8\u20139 NKJV) Yes, God will challenge, chastise, and cleanse you in order to change you into the person He wants you to be. But you are saved by grace alone. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a sense there were two prodigal sons, and both grew up in a religious culture that praised rule keepers and punished rule breakers. Notice how this chapter begins: \u2018All the tax collectors and sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, \u201cThis Man receives sinners\u201d\u2026 So He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}