You read in various places in scripture where Jesus came to save that which is lost, in particular the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:6; 15:24; 18:11; Luke 19:10). There is a consistency in scripture that Christ’s love for and grace towards the lost came from a place of devotion, knowing the heart of God our Father. Our love for our neighbor stems from a mutual exchange of love between God and us. It should not be something we ignore or avoid, but it is a mandate upon us to have compassion on the lost. We must do what is necessary to shine God’s light because if we keep it boxed in, it remains hidden to them who are lost (2 Corinthians 4:3). 

What does it mean to be lost? Being lost is losing sight of where you currently are. It is stemming from your original path of intention, and when you look at your surrounding, you do not recognize anything! You try to no longer remain in a place of wandering, but you seek for familiar territory to head to the right direction you were heading. This is why Jesus speaks in Luke 15 concerning a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son. All of them are lost in sin! Everything was originally in a right place of order. The sheep was once with the shepherd, but with its head buried in the ground and following the greener grass, it drifted in the wrong direction. The coin was once in the right pocket, but because it had been mishandled, a cleaning party had to take place to find its exact location. The prodigal son had once been with the Father and received from him his inheritance, but he wasted all of it, and it was in this moment that he knew in his conscience and conviction he had to go back to the Father. It had to hit rock bottom before he realized it! 

When you are lost in sin, it means that you were once in righteousness, but you headed back in the wrong direction. As a lost sheep, you were just attracted to the wrong grass and wondered aimlessly to the wrong place. As a lost coin, you was mishandled by church leadership, and the wound caused you to settle in a crevice or place of darkness until you realized a love and concern from God’s people pursued you to the point there was no escape. As a lost son, you may have ran from the Father to do your own thing, but you had to fall flat on your face and mess up big time before you realized life was so much better at the Father’s homestead! No matter what situation reflects your lost state, you can be found and restored back to Christ. That is the reason why He came to earth! He came to save the lost.

But here is the awesome thing! You can either be lost in sin or lost in grace, and I am not talking about using grace as a crutch to sin. In each of these three parables in Luke 15, there was a party and celebration, a time of rejoicing for the lost being saved. They got so “lost” in His glory that nothing else mattered. They lost sight of their agenda or schedule. The work day had a break in it. It was about basking in the glory of the presence of a loving Father. You get lost in His glory where your focus is simply on Him. You lose sight of everything else but the gaze of His eyes. You are saturated in a joy, love and peace that the world cannot give or take away. I can try to describe it to you, but there are not enough words in our language that can describe the beauty and love of our God! It is getting so lost that what you valued as important and priority is ugly to you in comparison of dwelling in His presence. You can be lost in sin or lost in grace! I would much rather be so consumed by the limitless treasures of His grace that literally nothing else matters.