THE CHRISTIAN
GOSPEL EXPLAINED

In the Bible, in Luke chapter 15, verses 11-32, we read the parable of the prodigal son. A parable is a story with an important message behind it. ‘Prodigal’ means extravagant, reckless, wasteful. In this parable, told by the Lord Jesus Christ, a foolish son decided to leave his family home, taking with him his inheritance money, even before his father had died. He then went abroad in search of the so called good life. 

He recklessly used up all his money seeking after pleasure and ‘self-fulfilment’ (“he wasted his substance with riotous living” - Luke 15:13). Then what he least expected happened - there was a famine in the land, and he became destitute. He could find no one to help him, and had no choice but to become the slave of a pig farmer. His task was to give scraps of barely edible rough food to the farmer’s livestock. In hunger he longed to eat the scraps himself. 

He then came to realise his utter stupidity in having left his home, where he would have been happy, secure and lacking nothing. At his wits’ end, he decided to travel back to his own land and to return to his father. 

Upon reaching the family home, he said to his father, "I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son" (Luke 15:21). The father’s response to this acknowledgement of his sinful and reckless behaviour was to joyfully welcome his son with open arms. 

What happened to ‘the prodigal son’ illustrates the dangerous condition which every non-Christian is in today :  

• All without Christ are far off from their heavenly Father, as if living in a foreign land.
• All without Christ are slaves to the desires of their sinful and corrupted hearts.
• All without Christ are dying of spiritual hunger. 
• All without Christ, as they reject God, will one day discover their terrible mistake. 

However, there is a remedy for the non-believer’s desperate condition. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, will freely forgive all who acknowledge their foolishness, repent of their sin and come to Christ for mercy. 

Our Lord Jesus died on the Cross, bearing the penalty for our sins. By His death, which satisfied God’s justice, He has opened up the way for the sinner to return to God the Father. If you humble yourself and turn from your sin, as the prodigal son in the parable once did, our heavenly Father will receive you, welcome you and wash you clean, but only if you come to Him through His appointed means, by trusting in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.