"And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee. . . . And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him" (Luke 15:17-20).

It is a wonderful moment in the history of the soul when the sense is borne in upon it that the lowest person that has to do with God is infinitely better off than the highest person in the world. This is not a mere notion, like people saying God is good. The reality of the thing comes out when there is a definite turning from everything that constitutes one’s life as in the world, and a turning to God. The moment that point is reached everything is accomplished.

"Sinned against heaven" is a remarkable expression. If my whole course has been contrary to the mind of heaven, and I have been sinning before God, what reception am I to expect? If I have expected good from God, will He be as good as I expect Him to be? The Lord says that He will be infinitely more gracious than the largest expectation that I ever had. In the parable the father saw the prodigal a great way off, he had compassion, he ran and fell on his neck and covered him with kisses, the most ardent expression of affection. And this was before the prodigal had said a word of confession of any sort. This is the God we have to do with; there is no barrier, for as soon as we judge ourselves and expect goodness in God, He will do everything for us, lavish everything upon us, cover us with kisses. The only time that God is in a hurry is when there is a repenting sinner. The covering with kisses gives the consciousness of God’s love; that is bound up in the gift of the Spirit.

It would help us much to get a profound sense of the joy God has in seeing us turned to Himself. Everyone who has judged himself and turned to God has ministered profound joy to the heart of the blessed God. That gives strength to self-judgment. In the far country the prodigal said, "I have sinned against heaven and before thee," but it must have been a ten times deeper self-judgment when the father’s arms were around his neck and he was covered with kisses. The real basis of happiness and vigor spiritually is that we know how to judge ourselves in the presence of divine grace, so that we never look for anything from self but look for everything from God. Have you ever had the indescribable sense of the love of God and the pleasure He has had in turning you to Himself? God delights to give it; we cannot give it to one another. I do not think anyone could tell what it is, the indescribable consciousness that He loves me and that I am an object of delight to Him because I am self-judged and repentant, and I have turned to Him. The sense of that in the soul is produced by the Spirit. All the love concentrated at Calvary is now diffused in millions of hearts by the Spirit, and every one of them is conscious of having been kissed.

The basis of it all is reconciliation which has been effected in the death of Christ. The parable has an intimation of this in the fatted calf being killed, which suggests the death of Christ. There was such a work wrought in the death of Christ that everything unsuitable to God was removed. Here in Luke 15 it is the experimental work in the soul by which we come into the fruit of reconciliation. Colossians 1 says, "Reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight." The prodigal is presented thus "holy and unblameable and unreproveable"; it is the fruit of reconciliation. If reconciliation had not been effected in the death of Christ, we should never have had Luke 15 in our Bibles.

When the father kissed the prodigal nothing could be added on the father’s side; He covered him with kisses. He could do no more_the robe, the ring, and the shoes are all subordinate to the kisses. If a person kisses me ardently, there is more affection in it than in giving me a coat. The kisses are the profound depth of the heart of God breaking out, and the prodigal feels that God loves him with all His heart.

Then things are needed on the prodigal’s side, so the robe, ring, and shoes come in in order that the prodigal might be invested with conscious suitability to the One who had kissed him. The best robe seems to be connected with God’s purposes; we might say it was there from eternity. If one is conscious of being kissed, nothing would satisfy the heart but to be conscious of suitability to the One who has kissed me; so with the best robe one is invested with conscious suitability. The person who has been kissed is now accepted in the Beloved.

In the beginning of Ephesians Paul speaks of God having chosen the saints in Christ before the foundation of the world that they might be holy and without blame before Him in love. Think of such a proposal! Think of the character of holiness and blamelessness that had taken form in the thoughts of God in Christ before the foundation of the world! It is not Adam innocent or fallen, or even Adam restored, but it is the kind of suitability to God that had taken form in His thoughts and heart in Christ before the foundation of the world. This wonderful robe was there from eternity, but it could not be brought out until these precious thoughts had taken form in Christ as risen and glorified. When one is clothed with the best robe one divests oneself of all thoughts of self, either good or bad; and one is invested with the precious thoughts of God that took form in purpose in Christ before the foundation of the world. We start from a new point altogether. One clothed with the best robe is entirely delivered from the world, the flesh, and all the religious, order of things that is found here, because he is invested with something that belongs to eternity, to the eternal thoughts of God in Christ. Nothing is more important than that the saints should be clothed consciously with the character of holiness, blamelessness, and irreproachableness such as God thought of in Christ before the foundation of the world. I must have that or self; it may be good, religious, reformed, or christianized self, but self is not Christ.

The ring in Scripture seems to be connected with public honor. Joseph was given the ring by Pharaoh, and in Esther we read of the king putting his ring on Haman and then on Mordecai. When Pharaoh took off his ring and put it on Joseph he invested him with public honor as administrator of everything in Egypt. Likewise, the sons of God are to appear in a position of great honor with God, so that nothing that is undignified or mean would be suitable in persons who wear the ring. When the sons of God are manifested they will liberate all creation. I wonder what we should be like if we moved in the dignity of that? Paul said to the Corinthians, Do you not know that you are going to judge the world, that you are going to judge angels, and yet you are squabbling about a little money matter? It is a rebuke to them; they had not the ring.

We are sons of God now, and we have the same dignity with God now that we shall have in the day of glory. It will be manifested then, but even now God would invest us with this dignity. God would have us think about ourselves as He thinks about us, as He cherishes in His heart His thoughts which have taken form in Christ.

As far as we can we should like to relieve sorrow at present. When the Lord was here He was the great reliever of every sorrow and pressure_that belongs to the ring. The Lord was here to administer all the wealth of heaven, and in measure we are set up to be representatives of God, to carry His signet. It is humbling to think of how little we stand in the dignity of it; but God is not glorified if we do not.

The shoes or sandals speak of how we are to move in conscious sonship. It was only sons who were allowed to wear sandals in the house. We are to move as sons of God, as persons led by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:14). The Spirit could never lead me to do anything like a natural man. It was a reproach that Paul threw at the Corinthians_"Ye . . . walk as men" (1 Cor. 3:3). The liberty of sonship is ours; we are invested with what belongs to new creation. It is not Adam made better, or flesh made better, but a new creation in Christ, and every part of it brought about by the death of Christ. The best robe, the ring, and the sandals formed no part of the prodigal’s first inheritance, but he is invested with them, and then the fatted calf is killed and they sit down and begin to make merry. I have no doubt that the blessedness of this is intensified in seeing that it all comes through the death of Christ. That will be our festivity forever when we are in the blessedness of new creation; we shall enjoy eternally with God the thought that it has all been brought about through the death of Christ.

The fatted calf suggests Christ as the One in whom we have seen the tenderness and excellency of love that would secure all the thoughts of God righteously in a way suitable to God; all is secured through death. If we know in any measure what it is to be clothed with the best robe, to have the ring and the sandals, how precious it is to think with God that it is altogether the fruit of the death of His Son!

(From An Outline of Luke’s Gospel.)