Repentance in the Gospel of Luke
In striking contrast to the gospel of John, however, are the two books written by Luke. Out of nearly sixty New Testament occurrences of the noun or verb for repentance, twenty-five are found in either the gospel of Luke or the book of Acts.
Repentance, therefore, is a theme which the third evangelist especially has stressed.
If for the moment we pass over Luke's references to this theme in the preaching of John the Baptist (Lk 3:3, 8; Ac 13:24; 19:4), we come to the first mention of repentance in the ministry of Jesus (Lk 5:32) where the striking charge is found that Jesus has fellowship with sinners!
In his narrative Luke tells us that, at Levi's feast for our Lord, the scribes and Pharisees complained to His disciples. And they said: "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" (Lk 5:30; italics added). But, of course, the charge was really directed at Jesus. Why did He eat and drink with such people? The Savior's response is familiar and much loved:
Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call [= invite] the righteous, but sinners, to repentance (Lk 5:31, 32).
"I am here," says our Lord, "to bring spiritual health to those who are sick with sin. I have come to invite sinners to the banquet of repentance."
That is what repentance is all about. It is all about the sinner finding spiritual health. It is all about the sinner "sitting at the table"-having fellowship-with God.
In thinking of matters this way, it is obvious that this is exactly what Luke's story of the prodigal son is all about as well.
No doubt Luke 15 is the greatest chapter on repentance in the entire New Testament, perhaps in the entire Bible. But here, too, the three parables on repentance spring directly out of a question about Jesus' table fellowship with sinners. The opening words of Luke 15 set the stage for our Lord's teaching about repentance:
Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them" (Lk 15:1-2; italics added).
"How can this man sit down with people like that?" say the self-righteous religious leaders. "How can He have table fellowship with the dregs of society?"
How? The answer was to be found in the heart of God. Like a loving and generous father, He waited to throw His arms around the returning sinner. But accepting that sinner hack was not all the Father had in mind. A banquet of joyous fellowship was also a part of His plan.
And that is the story of the prodigal son. out in the far country, reduced to desperation by his profligate lifestyle, this young man repents. The prodigal son's repentance is recounted by our Lord in these words:
And 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" (Lk 15:17-19).
"I want to live at home," the prodigal son is saying to himself, "so I will go back and offer my services to my dad in exchange for room and board." In effect, the young man decided, "I want to repair the breach between me and my dad. Maybe I can put things right with an apology and by working for him."
This was a good decision. But it was flawed. His father was not interested in making the bargain his son was thinking about. His dad was prepared to receive him freely. His love for his prodigal boy was not conditioned on any kind of pledge to serve on the farm. Restoring harmony with his father was going to be ever so much easier than he had imagined.
The story of the prodigal son therefore is not simply a story about salvation. It is a story about how a long-separated father and son were reunited. It is a story about a dad who did much more than take his boy back. In fact it is a story about how a father lavished his love on an erring son and sat down with him, in fellowship, at a splendid and joyous banquet.
Unmistakably, the story of the prodigal son is the story of the sinner's restoration to fellowship with God our heavenly Father. But repentance is always about that, even when the repenting sinner is already a Christian!
Let us reconsider the words of Jesus to the Laodicean Christians:
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me (Rev 3:19-20; italics added).
Repentance, dining with Jesus, fellowship-such are the intertwining threads which the Bible uses to weave this tapestry of truth. Harmony-fellowship-between a sinful humanity and a forgiving God must always be based on repentance, just as justification must always be based on faith alone.
To be sure, the prodigal son can represent an unsaved man whose repentance gets him turned in the right direction. Many an unsaved person has found salvation very much like that. Dissatisfied with a wasted earthly life, the unsaved sinner decides to "go home" to God, seeking harmony with his Maker. And though he may at first have the mistaken notion that he must work for God's acceptance, in time he will meet a forgiving Father whose love is utterly unconditional and whose salvation is absolutely free.
But the prodigal son can also represent a Christian who has drifted far away from fellowship with the Father and who likewise decides to "go home." Perhaps the Christian even plans to "make up" for failure by working extra hard for God. But on returning, once again there is the encounter with that same forgiving love first experienced at the moment of salvation-whether that moment was recent, or in the distant past.
It is always the same-whether we are coming to God for the first time or for the hundredth time. The Father is there with open arms and with an open heart.
"Take heed to yourselves," Jesus said to His disciples on one occasion. "If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, `I repent,' you shall forgive him" (Lk 17:3-4; italics added).
And why should the disciples of Jesus do that? Because that is exactly what God does for them-for us-every day!
The story of the prodigal son, therefore, is a story which repeats itself-in principle-over and over again in every Christian's life. It is far from exhausted by our initial experience of harmonious contact with God, and those who limit it to that have not really understood it.
And so the Reformers were basically right. It is essentially correct to say that "our Lord and Master Jesus Christ . . . willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance." For without repentance, repeated whenever the need for it exists, there is no fellowship with God.
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