1 John 4: 10; “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (KJV).
Jesus told two parables in Luke 15: 3 – 10 to illustrate God’s attitude toward lost people. The first parable is about sheep. Verse 4 says, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” (KJV).
If a shepherd loses a sheep, does he say, “Sheep, if you want to wander away, so be it. I hope you get eaten by a coyote or wolf’? No. He leaves the other sheep to search for the one that is missing, and he rejoices when he finds it. In verse 7, it says, “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” (KJV).
Then Jesus said in verse 8, “Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek the house, and seek diligently till she find it? (KJV). She does not say to the coin, “If you want to escape from me, so be it. I will just keep the other nine,” No, she searches for that which is lost.
In these parables, I find two common themes. First, lost things have value. The shepherd and the woman did not write off their losses and move on. No, they valued those things which were lost. In the same way, even though we are infected with sin the moment we are born we are still of great value to God. As a matter of fact, you are of such value to God that God was willing to pay the ultimate price to redeem you in sending His own Son, Christ, to die for you.
The second theme in these parables is the activity of a loving God. In each case, the one who lost something took the initiative in searching for that which was lost. That coin that was lost (maybe under a sofa cushion) did not awaken one day and say, “You know, it’s dark and moldy down here, and so I think I want to go back and get in the woman’s purse.” No it didn’t. The woman took the initiative in searching for the lost coin. It’s the same way for us. We do not wake up one morning and say, “You know what? I am lost. I think I want to be saved.” It doesn’t work that way. We’re not the ones who take the initiative in sour salvation; it is God who always takes the first step. We have free will to choose, so God lays the path out there for us.
Romans 5: 8 says; “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (KJV). We did not go searching for Jesus; God came running after us.