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Justification
Part 5 - Luke 15 The Gift of Forgiveness1
This fall we’re talking about this thing, JUSTIFICATION = how you, a sinner, can stand before God and God say to you, “You are righteous. You are perfect. And you deserve to live in heaven forever with me.”
Letʼs read the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15.
A father has two sons. The younger son says something terrible to his dad: he wishes his dad was dead so he could get his dadʼs money, which heʼll get when his dad dies.
Amazingly, what does the father do?
Gives his younger son half of all his money.
Sadly, what does the younger son do?
He takes the money and goes and wastes it all on terrible things.
Does the younger son live happily ever after?
No! He runs out of money and gets so lonely, scared and hungry he goes back to his dad.
What is the younger sonʼs plan going home?
He plans to confess his sins to his dad THEN beg his dad to forgive him THEN beg his father take him back as a slave.
Does God forgive you your sins if you promise to be his slave?
No.
Amazingly, what does the father do when the younger son returns?
The father runs out to meet his son and the son starts his apology speech and the father hugs him and kisses him and brings him home and then gets him new clothes and then puts on the biggest party ever to celebrate his child is alive and home!
But, HOW can the father do this? The father has given everything to his two sons as if he were dead. So whose stuff is this he gives to the younger son?
This is all the older brotherʼs stuff. Which means to forgive the younger son itʼs going to cost something. The father forgives the younger son at the cost of his older son. The father takes the older brotherʼs money and divides that up and gives half to the younger son. The older son must pay the way for the younger son to come back into the family.
Does that sound like the gospel?
Weʼre like the younger son, weʼve been terrible to our father and wasted all his good gifts to us and lived how we want to live.
What will it cost our God to forgive us?
Godʼs oldest son, our older brother, Jesus, will have to sacrifice for us to be forgiven.
What does our forgiveness cost Jesus?
Everything. His life and his death on the cross to forgive us our sins.
Is Godʼs forgiveness something you earn by doing a lot of work? Or is Godʼs forgiveness something that is given to you as a gift, a gift you donʼt deserve?
Does God forgive you because heʼs nice and sin is no big deal?
Does God forgive you because heʼs so busy and forgets about the bad stuff youʼve done?
Does God forgive you because youʼve been such a good Christian lately?
Does God forgive you because you promise to be on your best behavior and do better and never be bad again?
Does God forgive you because youʼre so sorry for your sin?
Does God forgive you because you promise to love him?
No. You should try to be good and you should be sorry for your sin and you should love God but thatʼs not why he forgives you.
Why does God forgive you your sins?
Because of Jesus. Which means heʼll always forgive you. Does that make you love him less or more?
What is something we just learned that we can: 1 praise God for and 2 ask God for?
1 Kevin DeYoung, The Biggest Story Bible Storybook, Chapter 73, Lost and Found, Luke 15 374379.