The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 15:7,
"I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."
There are three parables in Luke 15 that have a common thread: celebration in heaven over a repentant sinner. Of the three, the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son, two have a unique feature to them. In the lost sheep and prodigal son the celebration takes place in the presence of those "who do not need to repent." In the passage above we are told the rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner will be greater than over ninety-nine "righteous persons". In the account of the prodigal son, the father tells the other son, the faithful one, "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." Luke 15:31-32.
Rejoicing in heaven! One might muse over what God and those in heaven get excited about and Jesus tells us here. These parables tell us when a sinner repents, it becomes an event of joy and excitement. The woman in the parable of the lost coin tells her friends and neighbors, "Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin."
I do not understand these parables as teaching that love, affection, excitement and joy for the already-saved is in any way necessarily minimized in behalf of a newly repentant sinner. For me to think that would require an understanding that joy in heaven is a zero-sum game. I'm quite certain that joy in heaven is an ever-flowing and abundant fountain that is spiked when the acts of God are manifested in truly remarkable ways. Certainly, of those remarkable ways, one that brings great joy is the repentance of those to whom the Father sent his Son to gather for his kingdom.
Think of what this tells us of the heart of God concerning sinners!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
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