The Prodigal's Reception

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 

Luke 15:20

And if this morning my Father, and your Father, should come out to meet mourning penitents, in a moment He will show you that you are His children! You shall say, “Abba, Father,” on your road to your own house; you shall feel that your sins are all forgiven, that every particle of it has been cast behind Jehovah’s back; you shall feel today that you are accepted—as your faith looks to Christ you shall see that God accepts you, because Christ your substitute is worthy of God’s love and God’s delight. I trust you shall, this very morning, delight yourself in God, because God delights Himself in you. And you shall hear Him whisper in your ear, “You shall be called Hephzibah . . . for the Lord delights in you.” I wish I could picture such a text as this as it ought to be; it needs some tender, sympathetic heart, some man who is the very soul of sympathy, to work out the tender touches of such a verse as this. But, oh, though I cannot describe it, I hope you will feel it, and that is better than description. I come not here to paint the scene, except to be the brush in God’s hand to paint it on your hearts. There are some of you who can say, “I do not need descriptions, for I have felt it; I went to Christ and told Him my case, and prayed Him to meet me; now I believe on Him, and I have gone my way rejoicing in Him.”

We will just say these words and have done. In summing up, one may notice that this sinner, though he was a great way off, was not received to full pardon and adoption and acceptance by a gradual process, but he was received at once! He was not allowed to enter into the outer house first, and to sleep in a barn at night, and then afterwards allowed to come sometimes, and have his meals with the servants in the kitchen, and then afterwards allowed to sit at the end of the table and by degrees brought near. No; but the father fell on his neck and kissed him the first moment; he gets as near to God the first moment as he ever will. So a saved soul may not enjoy and know so much, but he is as near and dear to God the first moment he believes as he ever will be—a true heir of all things in Christ, and as truly so, as even when he shall mount to heaven to be glorified and to be like his Lord. Oh, what a wonder is this! Fresh from his pigsty, was he not, yet in a father’s bosom; fresh from the swine with their grunts in his ears, and now he hears a father’s loving words; a few days ago he was putting husks to his mouth, and now it is a father’s lips that are on his lips. What a change, and all at once! I say there is no gradual process in this, but the thing is done at once—in a moment he comes to his father—his father comes to him, and he is in his father’s arms.

The Prodigal's Reception, Sermon 588 - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Image: Rembrandt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons