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‘Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.’
Luk_7:47
I. The root of the mistaken view lies in the wrong punctuation or emphasis of the sentence. It ought not to be, ‘Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much’; but, ‘Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much.’ ‘She loved much’ is rather the reason why He says it, than of the fact that she was forgiven. The reason why we are forgiven is not because we love; but the reason why we love is because we have been forgiven. The test of the forgiveness is love. And the more the forgiveness—or, which is the same thing, the more the sense of the forgiveness—the larger will be the love.
II.—Forgiven!—I do not know when the woman was forgiven. But I think no one in the world doubts that, when she took her place at Christ’s feet, and began to weep her tears, and with those tears to wash His feet, and then to wipe them with her hair, and kiss them, and to anoint them with the ointment out of the alabaster-box,—she had been forgiven. Mere sorrow for sin never did that! Sorrow will weep; but sorrow alone would not kiss the feet, and store the ointment, and wipe away her own tears with her own hair. There was more love than sorrow there; there was more peace and joy than there was sorrow there. Take care that you know the precedence in which these things come. You say—penitence, forgiveness, love. Yes; but much more—forgiveness, love, penitence.
III. Do not be afraid to take forgiveness.—Never think of working up to your forgiveness; accept it; lay it as the basis of your spiritual life. It is the great element of your sanctification. You will do very little without it. Your active, useful, honouring life will begin at the date when you rest in the sense that you are forgiven. It is the most wonderful part of all spiritual transformations—that sin turns into love!
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Rev. James Vaughan.