Repentance and New Life in the Parable of the Prodigal Son

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Right before I've started writing this post, I was watching a friend give a sermon in a class as one of his assignments. As you can guess by this post's title, his sermon was on the Parable of the Prodigal Son. While this wasn't one of the points my friend expounded on (if my memory serves me correctly), an insight that has dawned on me at previous times due to the treatment of at least two Bible teachers on the same text is how the parable relates repentance and new life to each other. Allow me to explain!

In Luke 15:1-2, as various kinds of sinners come to hear Jesus, the Pharisees and scribes criticize Him for receiving and eating with them. In response, the Lord tells three parables consecutively in Luke 15:3-32. In verses 3-7, He tells a parable about a lost sheep whose shepherd finds it, and He concludes it by saying there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents than ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance. In verses 8-10, He tells the parable of a woman who loses a coin and, after diligently searching for it, finds it, concluding this parable by saying that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. In verses 11-32, Jesus gives the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In verses 24 and 32, Christ has the prodigal son's father characterize his son's repentance as once being dead but now being alive again. 

So, to sum up the point I'm trying to expound on in this post: one Divine description of repentance is moving from death to life, spiritually speaking.