Jesus once told a story about a shepherd who left his ninety-nine sheep to search for a lost one. It’s a beautiful parable. A sheep is missing. So the shepherd, even though he has ninety-nine other sheep, searches for the “lost one…until he finds it.” Then once he does, “he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing” and inviting all his friends over: “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost” (see Luke 15:4-7).
Many of us know this beloved story. But we what we might pass over is how Jesus then quickly interprets the story for us in the final verse. We’d probably assume that Jesus would explain it with something like, “So it is for sinners. We are lost, but God seeks sinners out.”
Yet he doesn’t. That’s how we interpret the parable; and it’s right to see in it God’s seeking of the lost. But that’s not what Jesus emphasizes when he describes it. Rather, Jesus explains,
“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).
What an unexpected way to apply the story! The sheep isn’t said to do anything itself in the story. Rather, it’s the shepherd in the story who leaves the ninety-nine, finds the wandering sheep, puts it on his back, and then invites others to rejoice with him. The story is not about a willfully repentant sheep; it’s about a wandering sheep brought back by the shepherd. In fact, the story is even so one-sided that Jesus says the shepherd carries the sheep on his back to bring return it. Once again, the sheep doesn’t do any action in the parable.
And yet, Jesus interprets it saying that this is a story about “one sinner who repents.” He says it’s a story about repentance. Specifically, it’s about a sinner doing the action of repenting.
This is incredibly insightful. For what does “repenting” look like then? According to Jesus, what does it look like for you and I to do the action of “repenting”? What does the lost sheep do? According to this short parable, repenting is doing nothing of your own (except for being lost and wandering!). Repenting instead is being found, grabbed, carried, and rejoiced over by the shepherd.
There’s no 50% the shepherd and 50% the sheep following him back. Not even 99% and 1%. And even more importantly, there’s no call of the shepherd to return and then the shepherd waiting to see if the lost sheep will willingly listen and obey and follow him back.
Rather, the sheep is lost, found, and carried—all by the shepherd. And that, according to Jesus, is a sinner repenting.
This means that a sinner returning to Jesus is Jesus seeking and sovereignly returning the sheep. Or in other words, we as lost sheep saved by God do return (which is the meaning of “repent”), but if we do return, it is ultimately the unilateral work of the Shepherd.
Repentance, therefore, is the sovereign work of the Shepherd. I think there’s no other way to interpret this first Parable of the Lost Sheep in Luke 15. And as confirmation, the same goes for the second parable of the chapter. In this Parable of the Lost Coin, the woman loses a coin, searches until she finds it, and then invites her friends over to rejoice. And once again, Jesus surprises us by interpreting this as picturing “one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:8-10). And here it could be argued that it’s even clearer that repentance is the unilateral, sovereign work of God. For certainly the coin didn’t find itself. Nor did the coin heed the call from the woman. Nor did it willfully choose to be found. According to Jesus, the sinner (represented by the coin) did “repent,” but such repentance was the sovereign finding and returning of God—the coin did nothing to be found and returned.
This all connects to why Paul, when writing to Timothy about ministry, said that repentance must be granted by God. It cannot be merely willed. There isn’t just a blanket invitation of God and then we, apart from God, can heed his call. Rather, repentance itself must be given as a gift. Like the Shepherd leaving the ninety-nine to go and unilaterally bring the one lost sheep back, so must repentance be given to us by God. Paul instructs Timothy,
“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” (2 Timothy 2:24–26)
Paul is clear: If someone is to repent—if they are to “come to their senses and escape the sane of the devil”—they must be granted repentance by God. We cannot do it on our own. We’re the lost sheep; he must come after us, pick us up, carry us on his back. If we are to return, he must be the Returner.
Why does this matter? Because it explains why you and I, if we’re Christians, have repented and believed. For those of us who have returned, the Shepherd sought us out, and not only that, he is the one who sovereignly brought us back. And so, if we have turned from darkness to light and do genuinely have faith in God (Acts 26:18), we should be thankful to God and give him alone the glory for it. It wasn’t us. It wasn’t 1% us and 99% God. It was him. We only have returned and believed because he unilaterally came after us, picked us up, and carried us on his back. What an infinitely kind Shepherd we have.
And the same applies those who are lost who we long to return to God—we can pray to the Returner that he sovereignly brings them back as well.
Which brings us finally to the famous Parable of the Prodigal Son. With all this said, it is fascinating and insightful, then, that Jesus tells this famous Parable of the Prodigal Son third—right after these two parables. For all three parables are about repentance and returning, but only in this final one do we see any actions of returning done by the sinner (Luke 15:11-24). But since Jesus already has shown us twice that repentance is the unilateral, sovereign work of God in the Parable of the Lost Sheep and in the Parable of the Lost Coin, we now know who’s truly behind the prodigal son’s return. Yes, the prodigal recognizes he’s a sinner. Yes, he runs back to his Father. Yes, he himself returns. But thanks to the Sheep and Coin parable, we know that he’s only returning because he’s already been sought out. His returning is a picture of the Shepherd finding, picking up, and bringing the sheep back.
Perhaps this is why the Father in the prodigal son story is looking far off waiting for his son to return. He’s already sought him out; that’s why the prodigal is returning in the first place.
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A final note: All of this about repenting being God’s sovereign action also makes sense for why heaven is rejoicing so much “when one sinner repents.” Is heaven happy because a sinner is saved? Yes. But we’re mistaken (and man-centered) if we think this is mainly it. Heaven is not a place where the ultimate joy is in sinners being saved. Rather, from beginning to end the Bible is clear that heaven is a place where God is glorified (often in sinners being saved). So why are they rejoicing? Yes, because a sinner is saved, but given what Jesus says, we should take it a step further. They are rejoicing “when one sinner repents” not merely because a sinner is saved, but because this repenting is the work of God. Salvation is his work not just in the cross he provided for that sinner’s salvation, but, as Jesus makes clear in the Sheep and Coin story, also because God himself does the returning.
This then is why heaven ultimately rejoices: Because salvation—from the cross all the way to the repenting of individuals—is the sovereign work of God for the glory of God. Heaven rejoices at sinners repenting not mainly because someone is saved, but even more so, because such returning is the sovereign, saving work of God. The glory and joy are unto to his name.
