Thoughts on the Way: What is the Bible All About?

A young man asks a timeless question, and an old man answers with a story that reveals the heart of the Bible's message.

A young man and an older man walked along together, talking about all sorts of things. The young man said to the old man: “As you know, I’ve been reading the Bible, and I’ve been studying the first principles, and I agree with them. But I’d like you to tell me: What is the Bible all about? Tell me, what’s the bottom line?”

What did he expect to hear from the old man? Something like: “I tell you, son… just give all the right answers, get baptized, and come to meeting, and I can guarantee you’ll be saved.”

We understand that believing the fundamentals of Bible teaching is very important. It is clearly the place to start! These ideas represent the gospel—the good news of the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ.

But the really good news is that we can be saved! That is what the Bible is about! And that concept ought to take our breath away… It ought to make us get up every morning with a smile on our faces and a song in our hearts. It ought to be our daily food and drink, our warmth in the coldest weather, and our cool shade in the heat of summer. Not only can we be saved, but we will be saved!

The gospel is the story of salvation from Genesis to Revelation. One of the most important stories is a very simple one, so simple that we can all easily grasp its meaning.

The old man stares off into the distance. His eyes are a bit dim now, but he seems to see something that the younger man can’t quite make out. “Son,” he says, his voice trembling just a bit, “Let me tell you a story…”

There was a man who had two sons. (Luke 15:11).1

And their father, being a good father, loved them both very much.

The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” (Luke 15:12). 

The younger son’s first request is the cry of a child: “Give me!” as though it had suddenly dawned on him that his father had wealth that would be his one day.

So [the father] divided his property between [the two sons]. 

The young man was “grown up” now, and ready—he thought so anyway!—to take what was his and enjoy it. And the father does not say, “No!” Instead, he gives his son what he asks for. As the old saying goes: “Be careful what you wish for. You may get it!”

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. (Luke 15:13). 

“Got together” in this case means to convert to cash. The young man literally “cashed in” his property; he got his hands on money that he could carry away, and carry it away he did! He was not content to stay at home; the world was an inviting place. “I’m outta here! Look out, world, here I come!” He traveled far away and carelessly wasted all his father’s blessings and gifts.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. (Luke 15:14-15). 

To a Jew, the pig is the dirtiest, most despised of animals. Now, the young son finds himself in a place of “pigs,” living with unclean beasts and doing unclean things.

He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. (Luke 15:16). 

It’s a fact of life: the world gives nothing away. Nothing, that is, except poverty, illness and regret. Sadly, the young man came to realize that it was all “vanity and vexation of spirit.” Whatever he begged, borrowed or stole from the world was never going to be enough to fill the aching void inside himself.

When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!” (Luke 15:17). 

The memory of his father’s love and a safe home touched him even in the distant land. “He came to his senses.” Now we can imagine that the angels begin to pay attention because there is about to be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

I will set out and go back to my father. (Luke 15:18). 

He had suffered so much in strange places, with strange people. But he had learned a valuable lesson: Suffering is not punishment if it brings us back home.

I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants. (Luke 15:18-19).

This is definitely a story of salvation:

First, he realizes his own sins, and he knows he needs help.

So, he confesses: “I have sinned.” No whitewash, no explaining away, no excuses, just “I have sinned.”

He has the profound feeling of not being good enough: “I am no longer worthy.” News flash: he never was! Nor are we worthy of God’s greatest gift!

And finally, there is the second request by the young man to his father. It is no longer “Give me!” That was the first request, the prayer of youth and greed. Instead, here is the prayer of a much wiser son: “Father, I don’t care about what I can have; I care about what I can be. Don’t give me anything. Just make me one of your servants—someone worth keeping!”

So he got up and went to his father. (Luke 15:20).

What he needed was a new beginning, and he could only find that new beginning by going back to where he had started, finding his roots, and returning home to his father!

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20).

Even before he got back, his Father watched for him, looking down the road. He must have been watching for a long time, ever since his son had left. At last, he saw him in the distance—the sad, ragged figure of his once proud young son, struggling back up the road to the old home. The Father can scarcely contain himself. He is “filled with compassion.” He ran to his son with the urgency of parental love, and he embraced him and drew him into his bosom. There was no bitterness, no reservation, no dignity, or formality. The one he had held in his heart all the time he was gone had come home. And now he embraced him, not wanting to let him go.

The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. (Luke 15:21).

It was not enough merely to think the words to himself, as the young man had done before beginning his journey home (Luke 15:18-19). He had to say them. He had to make a public confession of his sin and unworthiness in front of witnesses. There had to be no doubt as to his intentions in the minds of others or in his own mind.

The father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.” (Luke 15:22). 

Just as quickly as the confession began, it was over. No one would use the evidence of his past sins to make him feel inferior. He had asked only to be one of his father’s servants, but his father now elevates him to the rank of a favored son. His father dresses him in the very best garments. And his father gives him a ring—the symbol of authority and of a new inheritance to replace the one he had lost.

Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. (Luke 15:23). 

The welcome is followed by a special meal of fellowship and rejoicing.

For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. (Luke 15:24). 

What power and what joy there is in those two little words: “of mine!” Now he belongs to the father again! His sins and all his past are set aside, and he is now someone worth keeping. “On the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him.” (Malachi 3:16).

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. “Your brother has come,” he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.” (Luke 15:25-27). 

We need to see clearly here. The older son should be commended. He had always been working—he was not a bad son. While the younger son had gone off to live a life of sin and selfishness, the older son had been doing his duty. And now it looked to him as though his younger brother had had all his fun and would also be the father’s favorite. It was just not fair! 

[So] the older brother became angry and refused to go in. (Luke 15:28). 

The problem is this: by keeping himself away from the feast of rejoicing with his younger brother, the older brother was also now keeping himself outside his father’s “house.”

So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!” (Luke 15:28-30). 

Sure, there is resentment here. We can understand that, can’t we? “But, Dad, I have been a better son than he ever was.” And he was right. But we hear the echo of a prayer a Pharisee offered in the temple: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people.” (Luke 18:11). 

There is a serious danger in that echo. Our business should not judge people. Our business should serve our Father!

Besides, how can the older son now claim perfect obedience when, at this very moment, he is going against his father’s wishes? One son may have been “lost” in a far-away land, but the “good” son is now showing by his attitude that he is “lost” too. He is lost at home, like the coin that was lost in the house, even though he never left home.

“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:31-32). 

The older son had called his younger brother “this son of yours” (Luke 15:30) as though to disclaim all kinship. But the father gently and patiently reminds him that he is “this brother of yours!” Like the sheep that wandered away from the shepherd and the flock, he was lost, but now he is found.

The power and beauty of Jesus’ story also lie in the fact that it is an unfinished story. There is a final, unanswered question: Did the older brother go into the house again, or did he remain outside? Was he lost right at home?

The question is left unanswered in the story because we are expected to answer it every day in our own lives.

Any of us can be like the older son. The stubbornness, the self-righteousness, is there within all of us. But forgiving our brother is not an optional matter. It is at the heart and soul of the gospel story. It is the only basis by which the Father will forgive us! 

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15).

We can, all of us, be like the younger son, too. We may not travel to a distant land to enjoy decadent living— maybe because we can’t get enough money! But we may take day trips, short vacations, or holidays away from our duty as children of God. Our lives may consist of many such little trips away from the Father. Then, each time, we hurried back and hoped that no one noticed we were gone. 

We cannot travel anywhere, not the farthest country, from which we cannot return to the Father’s love. The Father is always waiting. When men and women know they are “starving to death” spiritually, like the prodigal son was starving literally (Luke 15:17), then they are ready to come home.

The story of the Bible is the story of salvation. The story of salvation is the story of the wanderer coming home!

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31, 32). 

God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. (2 Corinthians 5:19).

The Father has made every effort and provided every opportunity by which we might be drawn to Him and saved. 

Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32).

If there is any single Bible story in which the gospel and all our hopes are expressed, then it must be this one. Everything else that we might learn from the pages of Scripture, everything else that we might glean from a lifetime’s experience in living the truth in a hard and sometimes cruel world, everything else we might know of the human condition and human need, ought to be viewed in the light of this simple picture. “I wandered away, but I came back. I was lost, but now I am found. I was blind, but now I see!”2 

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20).

May this be the last story, and the best story, in the lives of each one of us.

George Booker,
Austin Leander Ecclesia, TX