You’ve likely heard the phrase: “Falling from grace.” It’s
a familiar saying in our culture. It refers to a failure that brings a loss of reputation and good
standing. It might be a moral or ethical transgression that forfeits trust. It might be a criminal
act that brings shame. It might be a business or professional setback that derails a career or
humiliates someone who was once a rising star. Whatever the context, “falling from grace” is
never good. It means someone has blown it.
There are also some Christians who believe a person can “fall from grace” in the sense of
losing the forgiveness and redemption they once had in Jesus. I personally don’t believe that. It
doesn’t square with my reading of the New Testament. But there are some who would disagree
with me, who would say that a Christian can stray so far into disobedience to God that they lose
the salvation they once had. In that scenario, a “fall from grace” has eternal consequences.
You might be thinking, “Can that really happen?” Can a fall - a big, humiliating failure -
actually move you closer to grace? And if so, wouldn’t that be astoundingly good news for us
who stumble and trip and make such a mess in our lives?
11To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’
28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’” —Luke 15:11-32
Jesus told this story to teach us that not only is falling into grace possible, it’s actually
God’s plan for us fallen human beings. In the parable, the father represents our Heavenly Father,
the God who made us and loves us and wants us with him. The younger son represents us in all
our sinfulness, in all the foolish things we do to mess up our lives, to hurt ourselves and others,
and to separate us from the Father who loves us. And the older son…well, put a pin in that one.
We’ll talk about him more in a moment. First, let’s examine the younger son’s story and see
what it teaches us about falling into grace. We’ll call this,
How to Fall in the Right Direction
1) Recognize that You’ve Fallen
“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! —Luke 15:17
When he came to his senses. When the brutal facts of his
situation and how he’d gotten there got through his thick skull and penetrated his calloused
heart. When he came face to face with the ugly truth about himself, that the only person to
blame was the one staring at him in the mirror. That’s when the direction began to change in
the younger son’s life.
The Gift of Desparation
So maybe there’s been a moment like that in your life, or, frankly, maybe there needs to
be. The moment when you stop pretending, stop denying reality. The moment you face the
painful truth about who you are and what you’ve done and the destruction it’s caused. The
moment when you come to your senses and recognize, fully and completely and without
excuse, that you’ve fallen. I know from experience that it’s a painful moment, but it’s also an
essential moment. It’s the moment when a seed is planted and hope begins to sprout in the
garden of your soul. That’s when you begin falling in the right direction. So, step one, recognize
that you’ve fallen. Then, step two…
2)Get Up From Where You Are and Go To The Father
That’s what the younger son in the parable determined to do. He remembered how well
the employees, those who weren’t even family members, how well they ate back at dad’s place.
He figured he’d lost his place in the family, but maybe he could get hired on as a farmhand and
at least get a decent meal. So he prepared a speech for when he saw his father. It was a good
speech. It was a speech of honesty, confessing his sin, making no excuses or trying to put the
blame on anyone else. It was a speech of humility, making no claims that anything was owed to
him as a son. He just hoped his father would have enough mercy to take him on as a worker.
As Jesus told it, the point of the parable is that nothing makes our Heavenly Father
happier, nothing causes a bigger celebration in heaven, than when one of the Father’s lost
children comes home. In fact, that’s the whole theme of Luke chapter 15. There are three
parables in this chapter and in each one something valuable is lost. When it’s found again a big
celebration ensues. Luke 15:10 summarizes the whole chapter: “There is joy in the presence of
God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. —1 John 1:9
But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. —1 John 1:7
There’s one last thing we need to be prepared to do. You remember the older son in the
parable? Yeh, he was having nothing to do with that party. He was so full of his own
righteousness and so indignant toward his brother that he had no room for compassion. He
even made himself out to be the victim, accusing the father who had given him everything of
mistreating him and taking him for granted. Now if you go back to the first few verses of Luke
15, what you’ll find is that Jesus’ audience for these parables is a bunch of “older sons,” people
who can’t handle the fact that the Lord loves, receives and forgives sinners. Thinking of
themselves as the righteous and deserving ones, they were completely out of sync with the God
they purported to serve. Which brings us to the third step of falling into grace.
3) Ignore the Naysayers
There may very well be people, even people in the church, who don’t want to extend
forgiveness or compassion. There may be folks who take a warped pleasure in reminding you
how far you were from God, how underserving you are. They may not say it outright, but their
facial expressions will give them away. “How could God have anything to do with such as you?
Especially when he has such as me to be happy about?”
You know, maybe it’s been a long time since they fell into grace, if they ever did. Maybe
they’ve forgotten about the enormous debt of sin God removed from their own accounts.
Whatever the case, ignore them. They don’t represent God or God’s disposition toward you.
What they’re revealing is their own self-righteousness, their own misunderstanding of the Lord’s
heart. So do your best to make amends where necessary. Ask forgiveness where appropriate,
sincerely and humbly – no hedging or blame-shifting - but don’t let anyone else’s view of you
cloud your understanding of how the Lord views you. You are his beloved child. He’s glad to
have you home. He doesn’t throw parties without good reason, and you are his good reason.