Ephesians 2:8-9

New International Version

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

For Encouragement

He was the obedient son, always doing the will and bidding of his dad. On the day his lost brother returned home from the far country, broken, tattered, and smelling like a pig, the older brother had gone to work in the field. He returned tired and needed rest. But then he heard jubilant sounds coming from their home. What’s going on? He had not heard a festive sound in their home for a long time. What could the father be celebrating, and why in his absence? Couldn’t he wait for his return?

If anybody deserved a celebration, it must be him. After all, his other brother had turned his back on the family and absconded with his portion of the family property. He had disgraced the family, and there was no way their father would accept him back. How wrong was he?

 So, he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come …and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. (Luke 15:26-27).

Has some news ever jolted you out of your ignorance and pride? One moment, the elder son stood tall in self-righteousness—the only favored son in the house. The next minute, he stood outside, lost in his presumptuous ideals and refusing to come home.

We are who we are because of the mercy and grace of God. Without His saving and sustaining grace, we would be like the demoniac in the tombs (8:27), and the likes we pass daily in the streets.

The two brothers were both lost, needing grace to come home for good. One openly rebelled and left home with his share of the family property. The other remained home but yearned for the same, though he could not ask. His obedience did not flow out of a sacrificed and humbled heart, the kind of loyalty that honors the father (15:29). The younger brother’s return exposed the ugly truth about this older brother’s heart. They both needed the father’s intervention, so he pursued them with love and compassion and brought each home in their own time.

That is the situation of every one of us, but for the grace of God through Christ Jesus.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).

How then do you see yourself and the unsaved? Do you sit in a lofty chair, sneering on the lost and wishing they remain in the cold and freeze to death and hell? Why can’t you pray for their salvation? Can you rejoice when they come home to Jesus eternally?

Hear the voice of our Father in heaven pleading with you to empty yourself and come home, too (Luke 15:31-32). It’s all grace, my friend.