As Christians, we should not look at God as our Judge anymore. He is not sombre and serious.

But He is our loving Father who delights in providing a feast of the joy of salvation.

Let us see how God’s nature is described in the parable of the prodigal son:

Luke 15 “²⁰ “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. ²¹ The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat, and celebrate; ²⁴ for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.“

Before we believed in Christ, God our Father was not sitting with a mad frown on His face. He was eagerly waiting and looking for us to come to Him.

When we believed in Jesus Christ, the Father ran and embraced us with warm kisses!

We may have tried to say sorry for all the wrong things we did….but the Father was not interested in our lengthy apologies or speeches.

He simply gave us the best of His love!

• The BEST robe – the robe of Christ’s righteousness! We are no longer naked in our sin but we have been clothed as royal sons of the Father!
• He put the ring on our hand – signifying unbreakable union in marriage with Christ our beloved bridegroom. He will never divorce us because He we are one with Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17)
• He put sandals on our feet – our feet will no longer be dirty with sin because we are forgiven! Our feet are fitted with the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15).
• He provided the best fattened calf and cooked it for a fine meal of celebration! The Christian life should be a life of celebration without any fear of judgment.

God says that we were lost but now found! There is great rejoicing in heaven when a sinner believes in Jesus Christ to be saved!

Luke 15:10 “¹⁰ Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.””

God says that we were dead but now alive because of His great love!

Ephesians 2 “⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; ⁸ for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, that no one would boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.”

We are now alive with Christ as God’s beloved children, seated in heavenly places, feasting on His great love! This is all by grace through faith and not by works!

Let us rejoice in Daddy’s love for us as believers!