Do you remember Luke 15? There you have a prodigal son and his father. The prodigal son left his father and squandered his estate. But when did the prodigal son become prodigal? Was he a prodigal son when he had a lot of money in his pocket and was living lavishly in a distant country? Or did he become a prodigal only after he had spent all that he had and was hungry while he fed the hogs? Actually, he was a prodigal the day he left his father's house. Before he even spent a dime, he was already a prodigal. He did not become a prodigal only after he had spent all that he had and was feeding the hogs and eating the carob pods and while his garments were torn and his stomach was empty. He became a prodigal when he left his father's house. Let me ask you a question. Suppose the younger son had not spent any money when he was in the distant country. Suppose instead that he had earned a lot of money, that he had gone into business, made a fortune, and became even richer than his father. Would he still have been a prodigal? Indeed he would have. In the eyes of his father, he would have still been a prodigal.

Today there is a very wrong concept that must be rooted out of our mind. We think that because a man has failed to do good, he becomes a sinner. This is absolutely wrong. As long as a man has departed from God, he is a sinner. Even if he is ten times more moral than others, as long as he is away from God, he is a sinner. You must remember therefore that as Christians, we may perform all the outward services that there are to perform, and we may fulfill all the outward duties that there are to fulfill; we may pray as we always have, and we may read the Bible and attend church meetings as we always have; we may do everything as we always have, and may even do them more. Yet if there is a problem between us and God, we have sinned. When the first love is gone, there is a problem. Who is a prodigal? It is not simply one who has squandered his father's estate, but rather one who has just left his father's house. The moment that a person leaves his father's house he becomes a prodigal. Even if he makes a fortune while he is away, he is still a prodigal. Of course, there will never be a prodigal who makes a fortune in the world. A prodigal will never prosper. A prodigal will always squander away all the money he has. God allows the "money" to be squandered, so that man will know that it is not a good thing to depart from God and will realize that he is a sinner after all.

We now see how we have received the qualification of a sinner and how we have become sinners. We become sinners by developing a relationship with sin, and we commit sins by developing a relationship with sins. There is a difference between the two. Since I was born in Adam and am under sin's dominion, sin has become the principle of my life and my living, and I have become a sinner. In the same way, the many individual sins outside of me have made me one who commits sins. Committing sins has to do with sins, and being a sinner has to do with sin.