Chapter 4
The Happiness of Heaven in the Repentance of Sinners
(Luke 15)
Thabiti Anyabwile
“Unashamed.” That’s the theme of this book. But stop for a minute. How many of us feel unashamed when we think of our lives of personal evangelism?
Every preacher should be a man of integrity. When he proclaims God’s Word he should do so with an honest and humble heart.
For that to be true of me, I must begin by confessing. I am not the greatest evangelist in the world. I am not the greatest evangelist in this multi-authored book. I am not the greatest evangelist in my present or any past church. If I were in a room by myself, I’m not sure that I would be the greatest evangelist in the room!
I do the work of an evangelist. And I do it happily, but far too infrequently. I’m learning something about my heart. I suffer from two afflictions. Perhaps you can identify. First, I don’t care enough about the lost. I do care, but my concern and love for the lost are not yet at the driving, animating level that prompts more zealous personal evangelism. Second, there’s a defect in my approach to evangelism.
Perhaps this second affliction deserves a little more explanation. In his 1970 book called Today’s Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic?, Walter J. Chantry writes,
In the twentieth century the church has tried to see how little it could say and still get converts. The assumption has been that a minimal message will conserve our forces, spread the Gospel farther, and, of course, preserve a unity among evangelicals. It has succeeded in spreading the truth so thinly that the world cannot see it. Four facts droned over and over have bored sinners around us and weakened the church as well.12
All of my life has been lived in the wake of Chantry’s words. I came to faith in and have lived my Christian life in an era largely characterized by a doctrinally light and sudden-conversion focused form of evangelism. Which means, I’m having to overcome certain attitudes, beliefs, and approaches to evangelism that are well-intended but perhaps not so biblical. I notice that I can shrink back and grimace when it comes to sharing the “hard parts” of the gospel, like the call to repentance. Repentance can be a footnote, a passing mention, in many of the gospel conversations I have.
I don’t think I’m alone in this. When major televangelists—televangelists!—appear on national talk shows and downplay the importance of sin and hell, then there’s bound to be a weakness in our evangelism. When major Christian leaders look for a way to accommodate certain sinful lifestyles without calling for repentance, then something has gone wrong not just with my evangelistic efforts but with that of many others.
Here’s the problem I want to address in this chapter: if we get the motive and method of evangelism wrong, we will find ourselves betraying the very motive and method of heaven.
And here’s the main point I want to make drawing from Luke 15: when it comes to evangelism, nothing is more important to emphasize and more joy-producing in heaven than the sinner’s repentance. Understanding why heaven rejoices in the repentance of sinners helps me with timidity and impatience with the “hard parts” of evangelism. It helps me to be unashamed.
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
“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.’”
The context for this chapter is provided in verses 1 and 2. In verse 1 we’re told “the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.” What an amazing sentence! What an amazing circumstance! Since Adam and Eve in the Garden, men in their sin have sewn fig leaves and hidden themselves from God. But here, they come close to him. They want to hear him. This might surprise us if we keep in mind a passage like Isaiah 53, where we’re told:
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind. . . .
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. (vv. 2–3 niv)
Nevertheless Jesus draws sinners to hear him.
But Luke 15 alerts us to a conflict. Verse 2: “The Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’” What the Pharisees think they see disturbs them. All they see are sinners. And all they can think of is how unclean these sinners are, and how inappropriate it is that a rabbi, a holy man, should dirty himself with their presence. They say, “This man receives sinners . . .” and that’s bad news to them. They utter the most precious words imaginable—Jesus receives sinners—not to commend Jesus but to condemn Jesus along with sinners.
The Pharisees don’t see the truly beautiful spiritual realities behind “tax collectors and sinners . . . all drawing near to hear” Jesus (v. 1). In reply, Jesus tells three parables that make one over-arching point: heaven rejoices over every repentant sinner. In the first two parables we get the statement of the main point. In the third parable we get an illustration of the point. These three vivid stories are designed to open the blinded eyes of the Pharisees. This one main point provides, I pray, motivation in evangelism to emphasize the necessity and beauty of repentance.
Heaven Rejoices Over Every Repentant Sinner
We see that heaven rejoices over every repentant sinner in each of the three parables. The parables are parallel, teaching much the same thing with slight differences in emphasis. But notice first the punch line for each parable:
This picture of rejoicing is what the Pharisees missed, and what we perhaps seldom consider. Repentance brings happiness to heaven. Repentance isn’t merely a duty that men perform. Repentance isn’t merely the “hard part,” the unpleasant conversation that saints must have with sinners in evangelism. No! Repentance is one fountain of joy in heaven! Nothing prompts a party in heaven like the turning of a soul from sin to the Savior!
And there’s a disproportion here. Think of verse 7 again. Ninety-nine righteous people cannot produce more happiness in heaven than just one sinner who turns from their sin toward God! Angels sing and celebrate over a single soul who repents.
And what of this rejoicing? This joy in heaven—what is it? And what is it like?
Heaven’s joy is not a fleeting, temporary, misty joy. All rejoicing on this side of glory is temporary and marked by decay. Our longest periods of happiness seem so short-lived. Soon circumstances change and our happiness is dashed. Before long our hearts cool and our memories fade and along with them goes our joy. We now lack the ability to perpetually enjoy ourselves on this side of glory.
Our hearts fail to exult in God even when something as miraculous and glorious as repentance unto eternal life happens. I know this in my own life. I sometimes remember a person’s repentance unto faith and am moved. Sometimes. But I mourn in shame that those remembrances are so infrequent and quickly passing. My heart is sometimes unmoved even at the remembrance of God’s sovereign work in my own repentance!
But heaven’s happiness is not like our fleeting happiness in this life. The joy of heaven is constant, full, permanent, and solid. This means the rejoicing in heaven over a sinner’s repentance never goes away or fades.
It’s a joy that expands in quality. It is everlasting, never diminishing, always wonder-filled rejoicing. This joy grows richer, deeper, stronger, more satisfying, fulfilling, agreeable, blessed, delightful, good, gratifying, pleasing, exhilarating, elating, and enlivening for all eternity.
And it is a joy that expands in quantity as well. Verse 6 again: “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’” And verse 9: “And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’” And then verse 23: the father says to his servants, “let us eat and celebrate.” The chorus of celebrants grows as each individual sinner is brought safely home in repentance. Friends, neighbors, and angels are called together to share the joy.
Who are these friends and neighbors? It must be us—the Christian, the evangelist. We are not only the means of bringing heaven joy through evangelism, but also the invited guests who share in that joy! When we do the work of evangelism and call people to repentance, we store up our own eternal joy. For we will forever partake in this celebration. Our God will one day call us into the halls of his banquet and bid us delight in the miracle of those once-lost, now-found repentant sinners brought home on the shoulders of Christ Jesus through evangelism. If heaven is happy at the repentance of sinners, evangelists will share in that happiness for preaching repentance to sinners. We will experience this rejoicing for all the unending days of glory!
Heaven rejoices over every repentant sinner. Do we anticipate sharing in that rejoicing when, in evangelism, it comes to explaining repentance?
Seven Reasons Repentance Is Particularly Beautiful to Heaven
But we might ask ourselves, what is it about repentance that makes it so beautiful to heaven? What does God see in the nature of repentance that Pharisees and some evangelists miss?
These three parables show us seven reasons heaven rejoices over sinners who repent, and these seven reasons should motivate us in evangelism.
1. Because the repentance of the sinner is the goal of the gospel
In the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin, Jesus puts the hearers in the story. “What man of you” (v. 4) and “Or what woman” (v. 8) includes every man or woman. In choosing a story with which everyone could easily identify, Jesus also puts his hearers in the point of view of heaven. That’s what the Pharisees were missing—heaven’s point of view. Here’s what they are meant to see standing in the shoes of the imaginary shepherd and woman: God making a sacrificial and diligent search for the lost and reaching his goal.
See the sacrifice in verse 4? The shepherd “leaves the ninety-nine in open country” to “go after the one that is lost, until he finds it.” Some commentators suggest the ninety-nine were in a place of safety, so the shepherd could afford to leave them for the one. But the text doesn’t say that. It says the flock was in “open country.” They were vulnerable to attack, to wandering, to the elements. The point is not that the ninety-nine were safe, leaving the shepherd unencumbered to find one. The point is the shepherd loves the one with such love that he’s willing to take great risks to secure the one lost sheep. He would do that for any single sheep appointed to his fold.
Moreover, God’s search for the lost is diligent. That is pictured in the woman’s search for the lost coin. Verse 8 again: “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?” That coin was a drachma, about one day’s wages. One day’s earnings out of ten is no small portion. How many of us have had a wallet full of cash and realized we misplaced a $5 bill? And though we have nearly all our cash, we look frantically for that $5, don’t we? So see the woman’s diligence: She lights a lamp. She sweeps the house. She seeks—diligently.
The result is that the shepherd and the woman find what they seek: the lost coin and the lost sheep. Repentance is another word for heaven’s finding lost people.
Don’t miss this: these two parables present repentance as the accomplished work of the One who searches. Repentance is God’s work in the sinner. The New Hampshire Confession of Faith captures this well: “We believe that Repentance and Faith are sacred duties, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God.”
So does the Canons of Dordt. Article 10, entitled, “Conversion as the Work of God,” reads,
. . . conversion must not be credited to man, as though one distinguishes himself by free choice from others who are furnished with equal or sufficient grace for faith and conversion (as the proud heresy of Pelagius maintains). No, [conversion] must be credited to God: just as from eternity he chose his own in Christ, so within time he effectively calls them, grants them faith and repentance, and, having rescued them from the dominion of darkness, brings them into the kingdom of his Son. . . .
The mission of our Lord is a diligent search and rescue of lost people. Jesus remarks a few chapters after our chapter, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Evangelism is but the continuance of that mission to seek and save. Each time the evangelist succeeds and a sinner repents, heaven rejoices because heaven’s mission is accomplished in miniature.
2. Because the unrepentant sinner is of great worth in heaven’s sight
Heaven rejoices because the unrepentant sinner is of great worth in heaven’s sight.
Why doesn’t God relax and settle for the great numbers he already has in his possession? Why doesn’t he look at the ninety-nine and feel satisfied? Why doesn’t he clutch the nine coins and shrug off the one? Why carry out such a diligent search?
Is it not because God places such high value on the soul that belongs to him? These are sheep and coins with owners. This one wandering lamb belongs to a shepherd. This one missing coin belongs to a woman. They are owned, so they are valued.
There is a poverty that comes to their owner when they are missing. There is a wanting in the owner’s heart. The owner feels their absence. That is why he cannot remain with the ninety-nine but feels compelled to go after the solitary sheep. That is why she cannot sit comfortably in the house but must ransack it until she has the coin. Each feels the loss. So when the sheep and coin are found, the owner feels their value once again. There is a satisfaction in possessing them again. Their value and worth are realized in the owner’s sight.
So consider verse 5: “When he has found [the lost sheep], he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” He places the sheep in a place of safety. In his happiness, after perhaps a long and wearisome search, strength returns to his body and every burden is light. So it is when Christ finds the lost sheep through repentance. “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart” (Isa. 40:11 niv).
When the unrepentant is found by the Owner of their souls, their worth and value are once again felt and realized by God. Heaven rejoices over every repentant sinner—because the sinner is of great worth to God.
3. Because life apart from God is so devastatingly ugly (vv. 12–16)
Heaven also rejoices because life apart from God is so devastatingly ugly. In other words, the beauty of repentance is seen most clearly against the backdrop of sin. Consider the younger son’s steady decline into squalor in verses 12–16.
“And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.”
The son starts with everything. But he’s ungrateful and impatient, so he makes himself fatherless (v. 12). Because he wants to gratify his sinful desires, he also makes himself homeless in “a far country” (v. 13). Without self-control or delayed gratification, he ends up penniless (v. 14). In the end he is friendless and foodless (vv. 15–16).
Right about that time he’s singing a little Billie Holiday: “When you’ve got money, you’ve got lots of friends. They come crowdin’ around your door. When the money’s gone and spending ends, they don’t come ’round no more.” His life slides deep into squalor and loneliness. If you live for yourself you’ll soon live by yourself.
This is what our lives look like from the vantage point of heaven. God the Father watches his rich but rebellious children squander his love and his riches as they run from him.
So it is with sinners and God the Father. Sinners want all the wealth of creation and all the “freedom” of life apart from God. They do not want God himself. They do not understand his fatherhood. They refuse to requite his love. Unless God restrains them, they squander their lives and waste away as they chase every desire.
Against this backdrop, repentance is beautiful! Repentance appears as the good life that it truly is. The saltiness of sin gives way to the sweetness of sanctification. “Life” apart from God is really a slow death. Apart from God we are living to die. But repentance is dying to live. It is dying to self to find life in Christ. That’s why repentance is so beautiful to heaven’s sight and causes such rejoicing.
4. Because repentance begins to value God properly (vv. 17–20)
Repentance appears so beautiful to heaven because it begins to value God properly. Notice what happens to the son in verses 17–20.
First comes a recognition. Verse 17: “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!’” Repentance recognizes the goodness of God. The son was a servant in fields begging for the pods that swine eat. But in his father’s house, the hired servants have more than enough bread! Unlike the master in the far country, the younger son’s father is generous toward those who serve him. In turning, the son begins to recognize something about the goodness of his father.
Second, comes a resolution. Verse 18: “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.’” The son decides his place is with his father. And more than that, he decides to make one of the greatest confessions in the Bible. He confesses that He has sinned against heaven (God) as well as his father. One commentator observes, “He was aware of a holy God and a broken Law.”13 And another: “He confesses without conditions and without qualifications. He makes no excuses. He offers no explanations. He had sinned. Period. The problem with most confessions is that they primarily express regret for the consequences of sin rather than regret for sin itself.”14
Third, there comes a resignation. Verse 19: “I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” He sees himself and his sins in light of God’s goodness and greatness. Knowing his depravity, he resigns any thoughts of sonship. He would settle to be a servant in his father’s house. He can’t claim to be a son given his sin. He can only hope to serve. Consider what Charles Spurgeon said about this:
The prodigal, when he said, “I will arise and go to my father,” became in a measure reformed from that very moment. How, say you? Why, he left the swine-trough: more, he left the wine cup, and he left the harlots. He did not go with the harlot on his arm, and the wine cup in his hand, and say, “I will take these with me, and go to my father.” It could not be. These were all left, and though he had not goodness to bring, yet he did not try to keep his sins and come to Christ.15
So it is with true repentance. The men and women who turn to God begin to see God as they never have before. They begin to recognize the greatness of God’s love. They begin to see his generous character. They understand the holiness of God and the wretchedness of sin. They’re brought low. They’re humbled. They know God is generous so they come to him. But they know their sins are great, so they make no demands on God. The humility of repentance does not set its gaze on much, just the hope of inclusion. The repentant person pleads only for a servant’s place.
In all of this the praiseworthy character of God is shown. Repentance is beautiful because it finds God beautiful, just as this young son now sees his own father as wonderful.
5. Because repentance is the occasion for the display of the riches of God’s grace (vv. 22–23)
Sure enough, the son returns to the father and makes his confession in verse 21. No doubt he is filthy and ragged. He was once finely manicured, a prince at the party. But now he returns a pauper, thinking himself orphaned by his sin. He has no claim to sonship and does not expect to be treated as one.
But his repentance creates a theater for the display of God’s rich grace. See how the father responds to the lost son. Verse 20: “He arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” And verses 22–23: “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate’” (emphasis added).
See the excellent qualities that shine forth from the father. There is compassion. There is tenderness in his embrace and his kisses. There is adoption and generosity. The father receives his son as a son. He places a robe and ring on him, signs of his sonship. And there is that joy again—kill the fattened calf and let’s celebrate!
Here’s where the gospel defies all human expectation. We think the son might be chastised. We think the father would have been generous to allow the son back as a servant. We think the son could and perhaps should have been cut off. He has spent his inheritance. How can he come back asking for anything?
But the father in the story, a pale reflection of God the Father, pours out the storehouses of his grace and mercy at the far away sign of his son’s repentance! The far-away sighting of a sinner’s return elicits the fountain of God’s love! The sinner who turns finds that he turns right into the waiting arms of his God. God receives the penitent with the riches of heaven—the robes of Christ, the signet of sonship, the banquet of salvation! A kingdom for a beggar—that’s what heaven is! And it makes the riches of God’s grace all the more glorious.
As evangelists, we get to call people back into the rich, merciful arms of the Father. Calling people to repentance isn’t a rude intrusion in their lives. It is an indescribable invitation to the tenderness and compassion of the Father.
6. Because repentance reflects the miracle of the new birth (v. 24)
Verse 24 reads, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” Repentance causes heaven to rejoice because it reflects and is a fruit of the new birth. When we see a repentant man, we know a resurrection has happened. The one who was dead in trespasses and sins in which he once walked has been made alive again through Christ!
The lostness wasn’t just a misplacement. It was a death. The son had been dead to the father. But in the miracle of repentance he has been raised to newness of life. He has been brought back—not as a corpse for a funeral—but as a living soul for a banquet. Heaven finds repentance beautiful because it brings back to life those that sin had killed.
7. Because the sinner’s repentance exposes the hardness of the self-righteous (vv. 25–30)
There’s one final reason heaven finds repentance beautiful. It’s because the repentance of one sinner exposes the unrepentance and self-righteousness of others. That’s what we see in verses 25–30.
The second son, the older brother, comes into the picture. He hears the party (v. 25) and seeks an answer (v. 26). When he hears the brother has returned and the fattened calf killed because his brother is “safe and sound,” he loses it. Verse 28: “But he was angry and refused to go in.”
Though his father entreats him gently, all the older son can see is his own righteousness. Leon Morris observes, “The proud and self-righteous always feel that they are not treated as well as they deserve.”16 So he makes his case with his father. Verses 29–30: “Look, these many years I have served you [literally, slaved for 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!”
How many of us have a difficult time detecting the fault in the older son’s thinking? How many of us sympathize with him? The Pharisees certainly did. In fact, Leon Morris writes, “We can easily imagine the elder brother saying of his father, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’”17
The father’s response shows the son’s heart. The elder son did not know what he had: “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours’” (v. 31). Again, to quote Leon Morris: “He did not really understand what being a son means. That is perhaps why he didn’t understand what being a father means. He could not see why his father should be so full of joy at the return of the prodigal.”18 He could not see that celebration is necessary. The father says in verse 32, “It was fitting [or necessary] to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”
The sinner’s repentance exposes the hardness of the self-righteous. A sinner’s repentance should be good for a saint’s heart. Though we like to imagine ourselves to be the younger brother, many of us are actually the older brother. In our self-righteousness, we tend to think that self-help is how we made it. We tend to think those broken by sin ought to mend themselves and their ways. Then they become to us the “deserving spiritual poor.” Then, maybe—just maybe—we will celebrate at their repentance.
But in God’s sight, the first sign of repentance requires a celebration by the godly. Repentance is for the joy of the church. It is for our revival and celebration.
Applications
There are five things I am now fighting to remember as an evangelist, based on studying Luke 15. These things encourage me to emphasize repentance when sharing the gospel rather than to shrink back.