Contrary to some perceptions, it is not true that we are the ones who want people to be saved and God is the one who wants to condemn.
We don’t initiate the joy and welcome that should always accompany the prodigal returning.
We just have the privilege of joining in with God’s celebration.
From Of First Importance.
The returning prodigal is met not only with the tear and the grasp of parental forgiveness, but high festival is kept within these paternal halls. ‘It is fit that we should make merry and be glad.’ The gladdest countenance in that scene of joy is not that of the haggard wanderer, but that of the rejoicing father, exulting over his lost and found son.
‘There is joy in Heaven among the angels of God over one sinner that repents’ — but it is a joy which, though spreading through the concentric ranks, and reaching to the very circumference of glory, is deepest in the centre. It begins at the throne — the keynote of that song is struck by God Himself.
— John MacDuff
“The Thoughts of God”
mgpcpastor's blog 