Sunday Recap: Despite your individual decisions and choices in life, it's your family of origin that has most shaped you into the person you are today. Thus what's going to transform you more than anything else isn't moral or spiritual resolutions, but a new family of origin. How is this possible? As J.I. Packer aptly put it: "adoption through propitiation." Adoption into a new family with a new set of parents, new siblings, and a new set of values Through Christ, we are able to receive "sonship" with God. Sonship gives us status, shared resources, and an intimate access to the Father like none other. The deeper we grasp our "sonship" the deeper the brotherhood in our church. The deeper the brotherhood, the more life-shaping our impact on one another. The elder brother in the parable was upset. Why? The younger brother, who having squandered his inheritance, was received back by the father on sheer grace. So what? Sheer grace isn't free grace. It costs someone something. And for the younger brother in this parable, grace came at the expense of the elder brother's inheritance.
Jesus is the "elder brother" in our story. Unlike the elder brother in the parable he willingly gave up, not only a portion of his inheritance, but all of it, in order to pay for the grace behind our adoption.