The Prodigal Son

Quote:

Originally Posted by repentant

Answer, are you sinless? Since you know you are saved, does this mean that you don't sin. Obviously since you said the man who killed his wife wasn't saved, because someone who is saved wouldn't do that, then are you telling me you are sinless?

Obviously you have no idea what repentance is, and you have no idea of what the parable of the prodigal son means...

Luke 15: "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "
You see the son was with his father. The father represents Christ, the son represents us. He left his father and began to live a non Christian life, which would not please his father (Christ).

He then realized his mistake, and went back to his father and repented. The father immediatly forgave him, and even celebrated the occasion.

You see the son in the beginning was with his father and was alive(like a Christian accepts and is with Christ) then the son strayed and began to sin, and not live a good life (like a christian who sins).

Then the son realized his mistakes and repented and ask his father to forgive him "father I have sinned against you.", he said. (like a Christian who repents after sinning).

He was forgiven by his father (just like Christ will forgive us when we ask for him to after we sin, and he was made alive again)

So you see he was alive, sinned and died, repented and was alive again. In other words, was saved, lost his salvation because he sinned and left his father and was dead, then he repented and was forgiven, being made alive again.

This is what the Christian life is, falling down, repenting and getting up again. Not being saved for a one time exclamation of belief in Christ, with no consequences for sinning, or in your case, not sinning at all..

repentant,

There is a difference between being saved and able to still sin some sin, and that from murdering people. While you think saved people can murder their spouses for cheating on them [in the example you gave of thinking a saved person could do this], I don't think that is possible. It is unfathomable. Not even in a billion scenarios can such a possibility occur for the saved.

In the prodigal son, he did not murder his wife. He was saved, but his faith fell to the lowest level, still able to be recovered in God's infinite foreknowledge to know to give him His life in the first place to be the prodigal. He was as though lost like a sinner though still saved. He would lose the reward of reigning in the millennial kingdom if he did not return to the Father, and may yet have much overcoming to do to receive the reward.

We do not start out as the prodigal son. We begin as the lost sheep sought after first by the shepherd. In Luke 15, there are three parables: one concerning a shepherd who lost a sheep, who then went out to find it; another about a woman who lost one piece of silver, and who then swept the house to recover it; and a third that related the story of a father who received a repentant, prodigal son back home. Figuratively speaking, therefore, we see first, the Saviour who came to seek you; next, the Holy Spirit who enlightens you; and finally, the Father who receives you back having fallen in the faith (though still saved). Praise and thank God, He has sought us and continues to save us having already once done so.

You think the younger son took his share of his father’s property and wasted it in riotous living, and thus he later became a prodigal. Let me say, however, that the day on which he received his inheritance into his hands was when he became a prodigal, even though he was a wealthy man at the moment. He became a prodigal not because he had failed, wasted all his inheritance, and fallen into feeding swine. The moment he left his father to go into a far country was the moment he became a prodigal. When he stepped out of his father’s door, that was when he became a prodigal. His one fault that made him a prodigal was to leave his father. Yet suppose this younger son had become even more wealthy rather than poor abroad. Suppose that instead of having five thousand, he now had ten thousand dollars. His father could still not have said to him, Well done, good and faithful son. Even if he had become ten times richer, the younger son still remained a prodigal.

We who are saved are the prodigal son coming home to overcometh!

Many people such as yourself treat the Word of God as being mostly about salvation and not salvation and getting saved again because you had no faith to believe eternal life was eternal, but this is never found in the Scriptures.

Salvation is once forever, but we are to overcometh in that new life (mentioned 7 times in Rev. 2 & 3)-to overcometh! There will be some bumpy roads along the way that the prodigal son travels on. When we were first saved we were prodigals, still babes in Christ mostly of the flesh!

As the saved soul like the prodigal son who falls, he returns through true repentance and receives God's grace. The Bible is giving our relationship with Christ for we are already saved and will never lose that life.

Truly we have sinned, but equally true is it that the Savior has borne our sins. We may therefore boldly approach God and be accepted. If we do not have a Savior our conscience will never be at peace. Since the Lord Jesus has died and has accomplished redemption, the heavenly Father is now waiting to receive us. We should notice that when the prodigal son returned home his father did not utter a word of blame nor a word of exhortation. This is because the Savior has already accomplished redemption for him and the Holy Spirit has also enlightened him so that his sins are forgiven and washed with the blood.

The prodigal son's return is a power of overcoming the natural man for those who are already saved unto the power of resurrection life, again need the dying to one's old self and rising up anew to the Father once again.

Wow!