The Prodigal

I love to hear a good storyteller spin a yarn. Someone who is skilled at word-crafting can hold your attention for hours. They have the ability to keep you hanging on to every word, every phrase. Even when you know what you’re hearing is not the truth, because it’s skillfully presented, the one telling the story has your undivided attention.

No one could hold a candle to Jesus. He was in a class all by himself when it came to telling stories. He was the Master. Jesus had the innate ability to take something that was simply profound and make it profoundly simple. He could mesmerize an audience with his teaching ability. His choice of teaching methods was parables.

Simply stated, a parable is an earthly story that has a heavenly meaning: It is a type of metaphorical analogy. The Greek word for parable is parabole, which means to throw or lay something alongside something else for comparison. When Jesus, the Master Teacher, wanted someone to understand a heavenly truth, he would often make up an earthly story to place beside the truth he wanted them to understand. When they understood his made-up story, it made it easier to understand the truth he wanted them to comprehend.

Luke records one of the most familiar parables ever told by Jesus: the parable of the prodigal. The heavenly truth that Jesus wants us to glean from this earthy story is to understand what our heavenly Father thinks about us, how he sees us, and how he feels about us—even when we willfully make poor choices. Since this is one of the biggest issues—if not the biggest issue—Christians struggle with, it would be very beneficial to slow-walk our way through the entire fifteenth chapter of Luke. This is the purpose of The Prodigal: Seen through the Eyes of the Father.

You may be thinking what the majority of Christians think from time to time: Have I made too many mistakes or too big of a blunder for God to see me as his legitimate child? Have I gone so far that I’ve been disowned? Has he turned his back on me? Is he disappointed with me? Does he love me less now that I’ve made some bad decisions? No matter how badly you may have blown it by making foolish choices, God is not mad at you. He is madly in love with you. This is incredibly good news!

Your heavenly Father will never treat you in a way that is contrary to who you are. If you’ve had a born-from-above experience by accepting and receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you are his child, and that’s the way you will always be treated—even if you act out and besmirch your character. Your heavenly Father will always treat you like his child because that’s who you are. If this truth ever gets inside of you, it will be a game changer. It will not give you a license to sin, as some believe, but it will free you from the desire to sin. You won’t be sinless, but I am convinced you will sin less.

An Exchange of Genetics: Spiritual DNA

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV)

Let these words settle into your spirit before you continue reading. When you accepted the Lord’s invitation to life, you were born again (John 3:16 NKJV). To be born again literally means to be born from above. In other words, you gained a second birth date. As a believer, you have been born twice. Your first birth date is natural (physical), and your second birth date is spiritual. You had the DNA that comes from human genetics when you were born the first time. You had absolutely no say-so about that. There is nothing you can do that will ever cause you to lose your physical DNA. You can change your name, be disowned by your parents, deny your identity, act in ways that are unbecoming, make foolish choices, or whatever, but you will never lose the DNA you received at birth.

When you were born the second time (born from above) you received DNA that comes from divine genetics. This is exactly what Paul is saying in the verse you just read. When you accepted Christ, you became a new person. That’s right. Your old life is gone, and your new life has begun. There’s been an exchange of genetics. The new you bears the DNA of your heavenly Father. There is absolutely nothing you can do that will cause you to lose your spiritual DNA. The Father will always treat you like his child because that’s who you are—even when you don’t act like a child of God. You can’t lose with your bad works what you did not get with your good works. As God’s child, you bear his divine nature (2 Peter 1:4 NKJV).