If Jesus had not come in the flesh, if He had not been here to say, "Come, Matthew;" "Come, Zacchaeus;" "Come, Mary (Magdalene)" --- today, I will have dinner at your house--- if we had not seen it with our own eyes, if we had not heard it for ourselves, how would we know that God accepts sinners?
Not only "accepts" but invites us to sit at His own table, in fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Not in stiff formality, but in singing, laughing, dancing -- as at a wedding. And He is willing to eat at our table, poor as it is.
And those who had obeyed the law from birth, the good ones, the "true Israelites" -- what about them? They, too, would eventually realize that they were loved even when they became corrupt.
Like Peter.
He told us in the Old Testament that our sins would be washed white as snow. But, still, it was hard to forgive ourselves, much less to assume that we would be forgiven and accepted as sons and daughters of God Himself. But then came the parable of the Prodigal Son. And it was revealed that He had been looking out the window the whole time we were gone. And that when He saw us returning, He left home and came running to meet us before we had a chance to apologize.
How would we have known unless we had seen it for ourselves?
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