Grace seems unfair when you keep score

The older brother sees the celebration and thinks of years worked, orders obeyed, and rewards never received. His brother's return brings him no joy because he interprets his father's love as a point-scoring system. If you also keep score, forgiveness shown to others feels like a cheat. "After what he did, how can he receive so much?" The question reveals that you were perhaps expecting to cash in on your goodness rather than share a home. Grace does not call harm good or wipe out its consequences. It affirms that no one is permanently reduced to their merits or their sins. The Father's love takes nothing from you when it lifts someone else up; you too live on something that you could never afford to pay back.