Reading your comment brought to mind the parable Jesus gave of the prodigal son who took his inheritance and ran off to live in debauchery. It was when he was at his lowest point - out of money, no more fair-weather friends, jealous of the food the pigs were getting fed - that he finally came to his senses and in humility and repentance returned back to his father's house. At least he might let me be a servant and I can get something to eat, he thought. But what DID happen? His father never stopped looking for him and the moment he saw his son approaching he ran to him, kissed him, hugged him, clothed him, put a ring on his finger, threw a feast for him because his son was lost but had now been found. I was thinking that the son squandered his inheritance, didn't he? But here was his father receiving him back to the house, NOT as a servant but as a son, giving him clothing and a ring (probably not a cheap one) and throwing a party so that all his friends could join him in his rejoicing.
Some people want to take that parable of Jesus and claim it says the son represented a Christian who went off into sin and who was now going to hell because of it. I don't see it that way at all. The son never stopped being a son. The father (representing our Heavenly Father) never gave up on him and never rejected him. The son DID come to repentance and DID return home and the father forgave him and restored him to the family as if he had never left.
It's curious how the "good" son that stuck around was so jealous and miserable to see how his father was acting towards his brother. He doesn't deserve ANY of this, he probably thought, and that IS true - NONE of us deserves grace or mercy. Those who come to God with a broken and contrite heart will not be turned away. It is what God desires from us all. Would it have been better had the son never left and gone off into sin? Sure. But I guarantee that it was the prodigal son who lived in greater gratitude and love for the father for the rest of his life than the son who considered himself better than his brother.
Like you said, Metmom, those who have experienced the genuine mercy and grace of God - who have recognized their own utter depravity and inability to ever merit or deserve heaven - are the ones who truly understand what living in grace is all about.
The ring signified authority in the father's household. It gave him command over servants. Likewise, God gives us authority as members of His family.