Jesus told a parable of a prodigal son and his brother. You can find it in Luke 11:15-32. It is not a stretch to equate the father in the parable to our Heavenly Father—as far as I am aware, every other time Jesus used the term “father” it was in connection with God the Father, and I doubt that this instance is an exception. The father in this familiar parable had two sons. Incredibly, although he was still very much alive, he consented to divide the inheritance between them. Both of them went off, the older one to his field nearby and the younger to a far county. The older son labored at agriculture—the family business, so to speak. The younger one wasted his resources, falling into extreme poverty.
We can look at these sons as representatives of two groups of people, Jews and Gentiles. The Jews had been chosen as God’s firstborn among all of the nations. They were descended from the patriarchs. They had God’s law. And, while they retained vestiges of a relationship with Him, they had gone their own way.
The Gentiles were from all the other nations. They lived separate from God. “But now,” the apostle Paul writes, since the Father raised Jesus from the dead, things have changed:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. Ephesians 2:13-18.
Right at the outset of our transformation journey, God has established all of us believers on an equal footing. In Jesus’s time on earth, there were clear-cut distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, freemen and slaves, males and females, wealthy and poor. In modern times we have added others such as race. In the cross all of these were abolished. God recognizes only one race, one people group, in His Son.
And why has He done this? We seek transformation in Jesus Christ but we’re not the only ones who have an interest in our progress. I used to think that God’s transforming work was all about me, and for me. You may think that it is about you and for you. But it is really about, and for, Him. Paul continues,
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22.
God’s goal is for all of us to be joined together as a home for Himself. For us, home is a place of security, comfort and intimacy. In the parable both sons—regardless of their pursuit of their own agendas—had a sure place in the father’s house, where they would always be welcome. God is at work, pursuing us, gathering us, uniting us into that “one new man” with whom He can dwell in security, comfort and intimacy (2 Corinthians 6:16-18). We get transformation in all of its aspects. Amen. Transformation, at least in its initial stages, is a preparation for living in Christian community. Everyone is coming into conformity to the image of His Son. Ultimately, the Father gets a holy temple, a place where He can dwell in the company of His own household.