New Life

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

Daily Thoughts 

January 30, 2025

New Life

We 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 15:32

Read Luke 15:11-32

The young son’s homecoming is a compelling vision of new life in Christ that is often referred to as the Exchanged Life. The young son came to his father with all that he had: dirt, filth, sinfulness, and brokenness. Immediately, the father gives the young son all that he has: his love, blessing, and affirmation of the young son’s truest identity as the beloved child of his father.

The older son’s confrontation with his father is also a compelling vision of the Exchanged Life. The father, when he divided his estate between his sons, had already given to the older son all that was his. The older son is now sinning against his father by refusing to celebrate his brother’s return, and by denying his own kinship with his brother. Yet, the father goes out to him and continues to affirm the older son’s identity as his beloved child, affirming that “everything I have is yours.”

Jesus told this parable because the Pharisees objected to Jesus keeping company with tax collectors and sinners. When Jesus said, “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found”, Jesus hoped the Pharisees would recall Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37). In that vision, Israel, which was lost, is made alive again by the power of God. This is how Jesus saw the people who accepted his invitation to come into the Kingdom of God. These children of God were dead but are now alive again. That, Jesus believes, is cause for exuberant celebration.

My Takeaway: Whenever I read this parable, I recall Henri Nouwen’s wonderful book, The Return of the Prodigal. Nouwen notes that while we rejoice in the Good News that God makes us alive again in Christ, we, as the followers of Christ, are to step into our Father’s shoes and offer to others the forgiveness we have experienced through faith in Christ.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.