Just like the Prodigal son who went on his way away from his father, all the way to the fields with the swine. He never stopped being a son, even at the lowest point of his life. Like him, the sinner can and will get up and decide to return to the Father! He won't stay in the pigpen forever because deep inside he knows that's not the place for a son to be!
“A prince, while he is a little child, is presumably as willful and as ignorant as other little children. Sometimes he may be very obedient and teachable and affectionate, and then he is happy and approved. At other times he may be unruly, self-willed, and disobedient, and then he is unhappy, and perhaps is chastised—but he is just as much a prince on the one day as on the other. It may be hoped that, as time goes on, he will learn to bring himself into willing and affectionate subjection to every right way, and then he will be more princely, but not more really a prince. He was born a prince” (C.I.Scofield, Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth).