Reading the Parable of the Prodigal Son on the Shoulders of Giants

Voices from the Previous, Knowledge for the Current

The ESV Church Historical past Research Bible is grounded upon the essential level that we now have a lot to study from those that have gone earlier than us. Charles Spurgeon as soon as inspired his college students to learn commentaries, noting that the Holy Spirit isn’t an unique or particular person present to anyone believer. Since we all know that the Holy Spirit teaches us, we will know that the Holy Spirit teaches others. And the Holy Spirit has been instructing the church all through the corridors of time. We stand downstream from two millennia of gifted lecturers and instructing. This examine Bible goals to introduce readers at this time to those lecturers from the previous.¹

Learn under alternatives from the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 and mirror on the magnificence of this story from Jesus together with commentary notes from gifted lecturers all through church historical past comparable to Martyn Lloyd-Jones, D. L. Moody, and B. B. Warfield.

¹¹And he mentioned, “There was a person who had two sons. ¹²And the youthful of them mentioned to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that’s coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. ¹³Not many days later, the youthful son gathered all he had and took a journey right into a far nation, and there he squandered his property in reckless dwelling. ¹⁴And when he had spent the whole lot, a extreme famine arose in that nation, and he started to be in want. ¹⁵So he went and employed himself out to one of many residents of that nation, who despatched him into his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and nobody gave him something. —Luke 15:11–16

As the primary two parables have careworn God’s exercise alone with out telling us something concerning the actions or reactions or situation of the sinner, so this parable is spoken to impress that facet and that aspect of the matter, lest anybody must be so silly as to assume that we should always all be mechanically saved by God’s love even because the sheep and the misplaced coin have been discovered.
—Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son”

The prodigal son is the symbol of a sinner who refuses to rely upon and be ruled by God. How harmful is it for us to need to be at our personal disposal, to dwell in a state of independency, and to be our personal governors! God can’t give to wretched man a higher proof of his wrath than to desert him to the corruption of his personal coronary heart.
—Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible

In that nation that’s removed from God, in that state of coronary heart and life during which males are alienated from the information and love of him, and shut out from all intercourse with him, they are going to ere lengthy discover a mighty famine arising and will likely be in excessive need of the whole lot calculated to make them joyful.
—Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Previous and New Testaments

It was forbidden to the Jews to eat swine, and naturally it was illegal to maintain them. To be compelled, subsequently, to interact in such an employment was the deepest conceivable degradation. The thing of this picture, as utilized by the Savior within the parable, is to indicate the loathsome employments and the deep degradation to which sin leads folks, and no circumstance might presumably illustrate it in a extra hanging method than he has completed right here. —Albert Barnes, Notes on the Complete Bible

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¹⁷“However when he got here to himself, he mentioned, ‘What number of of my father’s employed servants have greater than sufficient bread, however I perish right here with starvation! ¹⁸I’ll come up and go to my father, and I’ll say to him, “Father, I’ve sinned in opposition to heaven and earlier than you. ¹⁹I’m now not worthy to be referred to as your son. Deal with me as one in all your employed servants.”’ —Luke 15:17–19

That’s truly what the person did! He confronted issues out with himself and did so fairly frankly. He noticed that his troubles have been fully as a result of his personal actions, that he had been a idiot, and that he ought to by no means have left his father, and may definitely by no means have handled him as he had completed. He checked out himself and will scarcely imagine that it actually was himself. He regarded on the husks and on the swine. He confronted it instantly. Have you ever completed that? Have you ever actually checked out your self?
—Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son”

It’s not sufficient, after we repent, to depart previous sins, however we should have interaction in God’s service, as, when the wind leaves the west, it turns right into a opposite nook. The repenting prodigal didn’t solely depart his harlots however did come up and go to his father. In true repentance the guts factors on to God, because the needle to the north pole.
—Thomas Watson, A Physique of Divinity

Let none assume that, as a result of they’ve been extra ethical than the prodigal, they don’t must repent like him. All of us with out exception have walked after the creativeness of our personal hearts, with none like to God’s presence or regard for his authority. Let all of us then cry for mercy as depressing sinners. The extra vile we’re in our personal eyes, the extra acceptable we could be to God.
—Charles Simeon, Horae Homileticae

²⁰And he arose and got here to his father. However whereas he was nonetheless a great distance off, his father noticed him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. ²¹And the son mentioned to him, ‘Father, I’ve sinned in opposition to heaven and earlier than you. I’m now not worthy to be referred to as your son.’ ²²However the father mentioned to his servants, ‘Deliver shortly the perfect gown, and put it on him, and put a hoop on his hand, and sneakers on his ft. ²³And convey the fattened calf and kill it, and allow us to eat and rejoice. ²⁴For this my son was lifeless, and is alive once more; he was misplaced, and is discovered.’ They usually started to rejoice. —Luke 15:20–24

Oh, my associates, come dwelling! God desires you. His coronary heart is aching for you. I don’t care what your previous life has been. Upon the authority of God’s Phrase I proclaim salvation to each sinner. Each sinner has a false thought of God; he thinks God isn’t prepared and keen to forgive him. He says it’s not justice. However God desires to deal in mercy.
—D. L. Moody, The Prodigal

Even the vilest sinners discover their hopes not solely realized however far exceeded. They arrive for pardon and procure pleasure, for deliverance from hell and get a title to heaven. Their utmost ambition is to be thought to be the meanest of God’s servants, and they’re exalted to all of the honors and happiness of his beloved kids.
—Charles Simeon, Horae Homileticae

²⁵“Now his older son was within the discipline, and as he got here and drew close to to the home, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶And he referred to as one of many servants and requested what this stuff meant. ²⁷And he mentioned to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, as a result of he has acquired him again secure and sound.’ ²⁸However he was offended and refused to go in. His father got here out and advised him, ²⁹however he answered his father, ‘Look, these a few years I’ve served you, and I by no means disobeyed your command, but you by no means gave me a younger goat, that I’d rejoice with my associates. ³⁰However when this son of yours got here, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ ³¹And he mentioned to him, ‘Son, you might be all the time with me, and all that’s mine is yours. ³²It was becoming to rejoice and be glad, for this your brother was lifeless, and is alive; he was misplaced, and is discovered.’” —Luke 15:25–32

The episode of the elder brother seems not as an excrescence upon the parable however as a vital factor in it. Its object is to carry up the mirror of truth to the Pharisaic objectors that they might see their conduct and perspective of thoughts of their true gentle. Their transferring precept was not, as they fancied, a zeal for righteousness that will not have sin condoned, however only a mean-spirited jealousy that was incapable of the pure response of the human spirit within the presence of an excellent blessing. The impact, you see, is to put the Pharisaic objectors themselves within the class of sinners, aspect by aspect with the outcasts that they had despised, to probe their arduous hearts till they acknowledged their misplaced property additionally and so to convey them as themselves prodigals again in repentance to the Father’s home.
—B. B. Warfield, “The Prodigal Son”

The “searching for love” of God that’s not signalized within the parable as regards to the misplaced—the confessedly misplaced—son is introduced earlier than us in all its lovely attraction as regards to these but unrepentant elder brothers. For, you’ll observe, the daddy doesn’t watch for the elder brother to return into the home to him; he goes out to him. He speaks soothing phrases to him, addressing him tenderly as “baby,” proffering unbroken intercourse with him, endowing him with all his possessions—in a phrase, pleading with him as solely a loving father can.
—B. B. Warfield, “The Prodigal Son”

This text is customized from the ESV Church History Study Bible: Voices from the Past, Wisdom for the Present.

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