To continuously “get the gospel of grace” awakens His joy and compels the disciple of Christ to servanthood (and emboldened) sacrifice.

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"  Luke 15:25-32

In the story of the prodigal son and the elder son, Jesus is saying that both the lack of repentance on the part of the younger son who had brazenly left his father, and the moral accomplishment mindset of the elder son, (who dutifully stayed at home) can keep you from entering the kingdom of God. Both can be spiritual dead ends.

“There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely, by faith. And this is the meaning. The righteousness of God is revealed by the Gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which the merciful God justifies us by faith. Here, I felt that I was altogether born again and the very gates of paradise opened up before me.”  Martin Luther, (1483-1546)

“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”  John Wesley, (1703-1791)

• The father/Father entreats and invites. 

• We easily forget grace and join in the “elder brother blues” (Galatians 3:1-3).

"What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me."  Galatians 4:15

What then has come of all your joy?

• The gospel must be continuously learned and applied. 

The results of “getting the gospel of grace alone.”:

1. We laugh/rejoice more.

2. There is comfort: the past is the past and is covered by the mercy of the cross of Christ.

3. Confidence: the future is in the all wise hands of Abba Father.

4. There is a sense of honoring God by living as joyful servants.

“Should Christians Fear Death? Although the dying process is not pleasurable, those who find forgiveness and life in Christ need not fear death. To depart and be with Christ is far better. The prospect of our death should produce in us a holy solemnity and devoted obedience, knowing that we will one day appear bodily before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for every idle word and deed in this our bodily life. This should cause us to live with holy focus and unspeakable joy as we contemplate the weight of eternal glory that awaits us in God’s presence forevermore.”  Ewan Goligher & Kyle Hackmann, On Death and Dying: A Catechism for Christians

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

1. What is the “elder brother blues”?

2. How can we stay on the porch and not enter the celebration? (Define semi-Pelagianism, or “all men are worms but I am a glow worm.")

3. What understanding caused Luther to say that he had “gone through the open doors into paradise”? How did his understanding of Romans 1:17 change?

4. Why was John Wesley “strangely warm”?

5. How do we show that we live with a sense of gospel-gladdened and gospel-laden sobriety and solemnity?