Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
3/1 Reading Portions: Exodus 12:22-51; Luke 15; Job 30; 1 Corinthians 16
Luke 15:7
“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.”
REPENTANCE
In Luke’s 15th chapter, the Lord Jesus tells three parables in response to the grumbling of the scribes and Pharisees over Christ receiving sinners and tax collectors, and dining with them (Luke 15:1-2). Each parable has its similarities and differences, yet all contain eternal truth with a particular emphasis upon repentance.
By His statement, Jesus wasn’t calling the disgruntled scribes and Pharisees righteous, although they may have seen themselves as righteous in their own corrupt opinions. Who needs repentance? Every descendant of Adam. The only person who lived a life without the need for repentance was Jesus of Nazareth. Repentance is a grace of God that is so attached to faith that it not only gushes forth as a wellspring from the initial revelation of Christ at salvation, but it also springs forth in the believer with every true view of Jesus in His holy life lived and His holy sacrifice given.
When the Lord Jesus speaks of the joy of heaven over one sinner coming to repentance, we find that the One with whom Christ refers in these events is God, as the joy in heaven is…
“…before the angels of God…” Luke 15:10
—and most specifically, He speaks of the heavenly Father (Luke 15:24). This doesn’t mean that the angels aren’t rejoicing, however. How could they not rejoice over the joy they see in God? In fact, there is a command for all to rejoice:
“Rejoice with me…” Luke 15:9
Why is the Father overjoyed over the sinner who repents? Because repentance in sinful man comes from godly sorrow (2 Cor 7:10), a sorrow which can only exist by the power of the cross. The Father has the most joy and receives the greatest glory in the testimony of His crucified and risen Son. Are you rejoicing over the Father’s joy?
The Father is most overjoy’d
In sinners who repent;
Religious fools are living void
Of Christ, whom God has sent.