Alive, Dead, & Alive Again

Parable of the Prodigal or Lost Son

Luke 15:

11 And he said, A certain man had two sons:

    Specifically, Jesus shares a parable detailing the relationship between a father and his sons.  This is a direct comparison between God the Father and his sons (and daughters).    The Bible references believers only by calling them the sons of God.  An unbeliever is NOT considered a son of God.

12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

    living - bios - life i.e. the present state of existence, by implication the means

    of livelihood.

    The Father gave his sons life -- all that they needed in order to live.  This is a direct example of God giving believers life through Jesus Christ.  This parable is not about a person physically existing.  It is about spiritual and eternal existence.  The sons were physically existing before the father gave them “his living”.    He is giving them what they need in order to live eternally.

13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

    The younger son chooses to leave the Father after that son received his father’s

“living” or what was necessary to live.  He leaves his father’s presence and begins sinning - “riotous living”.  In other words, the believer chose to step out of the will of God, began sinning, and chose the “world” over his Father.

14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

When the son had spent all of what ?  All of his “living” - His father gave his son all that the son would need to live.  Again, these sons were already physically living, so this is a reference to a believer being given eternal life, and that believer chose to waste the gift of the Father.  The Father gives all believers LIFE through Jesus Christ; however, believers can choose to squander or waste the gift of the Father.   What happens to the son who wastes the “living” or life given to him?  He gradually begins to starve - famine in the land & be in want. There is only one land that offers eternal life, but the son chose to depart from that land, and now he is spiritually dying.

15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

The son chooses to remain separated from his father (God).  He continues “in the world” and all of the sin associated with the “world”.    The word “joined” is used meaning “to glue or to stick.”    He has firmly attached himself to a citizen of “that country.”  Notice the citizen’s treatment of the son in contrast to the father’s original treatment of the son.  The citizen puts the younger son to work in one of the most degrading jobs of the time - feeding swine.  When we think of the Jewish people gathered around listening to Jesus speak this parable, we can more clearly understand how far the lost son had fallen - feeding swine would have been symbolic of the lowest point of existence for a human being. The Jewish considered swine filthy. We do not read in this verse that the “citizen” gave the younger son “his living.”  The best anyone in the “flesh” or in the “world” can offer another is filth  - swine.  Nothing compares to the gift from the Father.  Only the Father can give us LIFE.  However, when he gives life, we can choose to waste His gift by returning to the world.

16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

    The son, who no longer has what his Father gave- life, is now so desperate that he fantasizes about eating the slop that is being used to feed filthy animals.   He wilfully chooses to remain in the world and longs for the things of the world.  The word fain is used, which is the Greek word epithumeo, and means “to set the heart upon, i.e. long for.”  He does not long for his Father here.  He longs for or covets the sin of the world.  The second portion of the verse again shows that “life” can only come from the Father.  No other man could give the younger son what he needed to live.  Again, this is spiritual.  The son is physically alive; it is his spirit that has died because he has chosen to be led of the flesh.   

17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

20 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.

    He arose - He is turning from his sin.  He does not remain in sin.  The Father will not forgive a person (believer or unbeliever) until that person has a change of heart regarding the sin he or she has been practicing.

21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

    This is repentance.

22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:

When the son returns to the Father in repentance, it is then that God the Father gives the repentant son spiritual life again -   The robe, when examining the Greek, is a long fitting gown that represents dignity.  Dignity is “the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect.” The son is not clothed in honor until he returns to the Father.  When he is feeding swine, there is no robe, no ring, and no shoes of dignity.  There is nothing to indicate righteousness. Furthermore, the Father will not accept the son wearing the rags of the world.  He is newly clothed in royalty and clearly an heir to what the Father has to offer.  We do not read that the son, when dead/lost, was clothed with the robe, shoes, or ring while he partook in the world and its sin.  The shoes are symbolic of the protection that only the Father can offer.  Shoes offer protection to one’s feet  when traveling.  Believers have protection under the Father when we abide with the Father.   We are made righteous by abiding in Jesus.  

23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:

24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

    The Father does NOT say, “This is my son who has been alive in a far country and now has returned.”  No, the Father says his “SON WAS DEAD.”  When the youngest son was away from his Father, he was WITHOUT LIFE = DEAD.  We know that he never physically died; instead, he was spiritually & eternally dead.  Recall that earlier in the parable the son was alive when the Father gave him his LIVING.  Early in the parable, the Father acknowledged his son’s spiritual existence by giving him His “living” = eternal life.  The son died when he chose to waste the life his father gave him.    At no point in this parable is the son ever physically dead.  It is his spiritual life and death that are being described.  

25 Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing.  

    In addition, one cannot say that the son did not receive spiritual life when the father gave him his living because the elder son’s presence would contradict that.  The elder son, like the younger son, was given his living at precisely the same time as the younger.  The elder never leaves his father.  This verse says that the “elder son was in the field.”  Whose field?  His Father’s field.  The elder son has remained faithful to his Father - the same father who gave him eternal life at the beginning of the parable.  In other words, the elder son is a believer who abides in the vine of Christ.  The younger son did not abide and was dead until he returned deeply repenting the fact that he sinned against his Father.

26 And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.

27 And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.

28 And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.

29 And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:

30 But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

The father reveals that only one son had access to his father’s “living”/”life” the  entire time = the elder son who obeyed the father and remained in his father’s presence.  It was not until the lost son returned that the father’s “living” was made available to him again.  The Father who represents God does not say to the lost son that he was “ever/always” with Him.  Who has all that God the Father possesses?  Only those who are “WITH” the father.  The lost son was not “with” him when the lost son chose to leave the father for the world.  The lost son was not “with” the father when he was practicing sin and feeding swine.  The lost son was not “with” the father when he chose to join himself with a citizen of another land - not his father’s land.    If a believer is not “with” - abiding in the Father, then that believer has forsaken all that the Father offers - eternal life.  If a believer returns by way of repentance, he is again “with” the Father and has all that the Father has.  

32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

    One must be born again in order to inherit eternal life.  The word “be” is a present state of existence, not a past event.    Many use the argument that a person who is “born again” cannot be unborn.  We know that nothing can be UNborn, but what is born can die.  That is precisely what happened to the younger son.  He was in a present state of being born again when his father gave him his living.  However, when the son chose to squander what he had inherited, he died spiritually. The very life given to him was wasted and no longer presently available.  If a son or daughter of God does not obey the Father, then we are no longer born again and instead, we are dead to the Father.  When the son chose to return in repentance - seeking forgiveness -- -notice that he left his sinful lifestyle - that is true repentance.  It was then that his Father forgave him and gave him life again - eternal life.  He did not have eternal life when he was wilfully sinning in the far country.  As the father said, “HE WAS DEAD.”  He is not alive again until he repents, returns, and is in his father’s presence.  Thus, the lost son who returned to God the Father is born again in that very moment of returning to the Father.   Upon the younger son’s repentant return, the Father is then able to say that his younger son “IS ALIVE AGAIN.”  We must not forget that the elder son never died after he received his father’s “living” .  Both sons received the living at the same time.  Both sons received the gift of salvation at the same time, but one chose to waste that gift and die spiritually. The elder son remained in his father’ s presence, labouring in his  father’s field.  The younger son left his Father and laboured in another man’s field -- In other words, the younger son chose to worship an idol - another master who could only place him with filthy swine.  We, as believers, must repent when we choose to sin.  If we do not repent, we cannot be forgiven, and we cannot be clothed in the Father’s righteousness.  

No one will enter the Kingdom of Heaven without repentance and faith toward Jesus.