It's Not Fair: The Often Surprising And Always Amazing Grace Of GodSample

In today’s Scripture passage, we encounter a father who goes out of his way to show love to his rebellious child. In the parable, the father represents God. Even when we are stuck in a cycle of pursuing our own selfish desires, God reaches out to love us right where we are at.

The first brother (the prodigal son) asks his father for his inheritance early. In the time Jesus was telling this parable, an inheritance was something you received after your father died. To ask for it early was extremely selfish and rude. It was almost like saying you wished your father was dead so you could have his money. 

Once the prodigal son receives the money, he wastes it all trying to have fun in ways that are not honoring to God. When he ends up starving because he is out of money, he returns home to his father. We might expect his father to turn the son away because of how rude and irresponsible the son has been. Or we might expect his father to begrudgingly allow the son to work for him as a servant, as the son asks. This is often how we approach God. When we realize that we have been sinful, we come to Him full of shame, expecting Him to turn us away and hoping that at best He will allow us to live as one of His servants.

But God’s love is very surprising! Instead of turning the son away, the father runs to meet the son! He throws a big party to celebrate that the son is home. Jesus says this is how God loves us. When we come to Him in the midst of our sin and shame, He runs out to meet us and wraps us in His arms. God’s love does not make any sense at all. We may even say that God’s love is not fair. It would be fair for God to turn us away because of the things we have done. But no matter how far away from Him we have run, no matter how sinful we have been, even if we have wasted everything He has given us on sinful living, He always gives us grace.

It may be hard to believe that God really loves us this way. But He has already proven it to us through Jesus on the cross! Though we were still sinners, God became a man, Jesus Christ, and died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. The cross is one example of how God has already run out to meet us. Because of the cross, we may always remember that God loves us with unfair, grace-filled love. We may bring all our sins before Him without any fear because we know He will respond in love. What sins can you confess to God today? Based on today’s passage, how does God respond to you about those sins?