What you think about God is the most important thing in your universe, because it determines how you live, how you respond and how you see Him. I believe God is trying to teach the church to see. We need to see as He sees, and you don’t see with your eye; you perceive with your heart. How we see ourselves is the starting point of how we learn to see at all.
When the Prescription Changes
Some time ago I picked up a new pair of glasses, and the prescription had changed. Walking was a little weird at first. The world around me hadn’t changed, but my eyesight, my perception, had changed, and so my interaction with the world changed too.
As a pastor, I deal with this all the time. A lot of people have had some really dreadful pastors; there seem to be abusive pastors out there. Many people are not dealing with me as I am. They are dealing with me through the lens, the grid, the memory and the perceptions of every other pastor they have dealt with before. It takes a while to get them to recalibrate to me. I am there in the room. I am not some man who shouted at them and demanded to be called Reverend and Pastor. My name is Graham. I am a person. How we see things determines how we treat people, and how we see ourselves is where it all begins. As written in Proverbs 23:7, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”
The Younger Son
In Luke 15, Jesus tells three parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, the one we often call the prodigal son. You probably know the story, so let me run over it quickly.
A father has two sons. The Bible doesn’t give their ages, but they have come to maturity; they are probably somewhere between their mid-twenties and mid-thirties. The younger son comes to his father and asks for his inheritance. From a Western perspective that seems very strange. If my children came to me and asked me to sell my house and give them their portion, I would lovingly slap them. (Don’t try this, Dylan.)
Some cultures are different, though. In Western culture, a child receives an inheritance when the parent dies. In Jewish culture (and frankly, it is more of a biblical culture) a son received his inheritance when he came to maturity, when he had fully grown up. This is the point Paul makes in Galatians 3 and 4. As written in Galatians 4:1, “Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all.” You could be born in the royal house, but while you are still a child, you are no different from a servant. Only when you come to maturity do you receive your inheritance.
There are four Greek words in the New Testament used to describe a child or son. One is literally a newborn baby. One is more like a toddler, a young child. Another describes an older child, and the last, huios, a fully mature son. In Jewish culture, a boy becomes a man in one sense at his bar mitzvah, but he really becomes a man nearer the age of thirty. It was at thirty that Jesus entered His ministry and heard the Father say, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
What I want you to see is that it wasn’t wrong for the younger son to ask for his inheritance. What he did with it was wrong; what he did with it was foolish. His father gave him his inheritance and hoped he would deal with it wisely. The younger son went off to a far country and wasted it on wild living, on parties, drinking and prostitutes. The Bible isn’t specific, but he threw it all away.
He ended up in that far country with no money, and in the end he took a job looking after pigs. We read that through Western eyes and think of sausages and bacon, but this is a Jew working for a pig dealer, caring for pigs and longing to eat the pigs’ food, because he was so poorly paid he couldn’t even feed himself. A pig will eat anything; in a way, that is why they were called unclean.
When He Came to Himself
The Bible says there came a time when he came to himself. It was as though his eyes were opened. As it is written in Luke 15:17–19, “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”‘”
He gets up, leaves the pigs and walks a long way back. As he nears the house, he sees his father in the distance with his arms wide open. The father runs to him. The younger son tries to go through his speech (“I have sinned, I am not worthy”), and the father says, in effect, “Forget it. I love you. You are my son.” He puts a robe on him, a robe of righteousness, and a ring on his finger. In that culture a ring signified identity, who you are. Then comes the feast.
Son, All I Have Is Yours
Then we have the story of the elder brother. From the outside, he has done nothing wrong. He comes to his father and says, “I won’t celebrate my younger brother coming back. I have worked for you all these years, and you never even gave me a young goat to celebrate with my friends. Now you are happy because this one has come back.”
The father says some amazing things to his elder son, and this is where I want to land. He says three primary things. As written in Luke 15:31, “Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.” First, son: he establishes identity. Second, all I have is yours: inheritance. Third, you are always with me: presence. Identity, inheritance and presence.
Both of these brothers had perspective problems. Neither of them really understood who they were. The younger brother came back into that place of identity a lot more quickly and easily than the elder brother did. We could pick two believers, both living in the Father’s house and both accepted in the Beloved. He calls both of them sons. He says to both, “Everything I have is yours.” As written in John 1:16, “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” God is not holding out on you. He wants to bless your socks off. Everything He has is yours, and He is saying, “I am forever with you. You are always in My presence. I will never check out on you.”
Step Into Your Identity
So much of what we do right, or what we do wrong, depends on how we see ourselves. The elder brother is working in his father’s house, and he thinks his father is mean to him. That is what he experiences. Yet his father is not mean; his father is glorious. You will receive from God based on how you see God, and you will receive from God based on how you see yourself.
We need to ask God to give us our identity. What we need is what was done for the younger brother, and in a way God has already done it. He has adopted us. He has cleansed us, put a robe of righteousness on us, put a ring on our finger and blessed us. Now we have to step into that identity.
Don’t miss this. Most of us, and I am talking about born-again, Spirit-filled believers, are living in the Father’s house like pig keepers. We think we still smell of pigs. We think other people keep their distance because we still smell like a pig keeper. We think we are not worthy, and that we should be like one of His hired servants. Then there is a breakdown in our relationship with the Father, because the Father won’t relate to us as a servant, only as a son.
We have to recalibrate, readjust and realign, and learn to put on that identity, as Paul writes in Colossians 3. If we will step into that new identity, our whole lives will be transformed.
Scriptures for Study
Luke 15:1–7, Luke 15:8–10, Luke 15:11–16, Luke 15:17–19, Luke 15:20–24, Luke 15:25–32, Proverbs 23:7, Galatians 3:26–29, Galatians 4:1–7, Romans 8:14–17, Romans 8:32, Ephesians 1:3–6, Ephesians 1:11, John 1:12, John 1:16, Matthew 3:17, Isaiah 61:10, Hebrews 13:5, 1 John 3:1, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Colossians 3:9–10, 1 Corinthians 3:21–23, 2 Peter 1:3, Psalm 103:13
10 Questions for Reflection
- How has your past experience of leaders or authority figures shaped the way you see people now?
- In what ways does your view of God determine how you live and respond?
- Do you relate more to the younger son or to the elder brother? Why?
- What does it mean to you that it was not wrong for the younger son to ask for his inheritance?
- What “pig keeper” thoughts still shape how you see yourself in the Father’s house?
- How does the father’s word “son” challenge the way you see yourself?
- What would change if you truly believed that all the Father has is yours?
- How might seeing God as mean, rather than glorious, be limiting what you receive from Him?
- Where is God inviting you to recalibrate and step into the identity He has already given you?
- What is one practical way you can live as a son or daughter, not a servant?
