Luke Chapter 746 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
How much have we been forgiven? What kind of sinner do we reckon we were?It is very tempting to view ourselves as having not been forgiven much. Many times in my life I have looked at christian brothers and sisters who exuded joy and passion for their savior and noted how visibly wild and lost they appeared to live before they came to faith. "Ah...If I had been on drugs, and slept around a whole lot like him, I would probably love God like that myself...". I thought my sins were greater than the goody goods, and that I was somewhat better off than the really lost types who were really bad. I viewed sin on this sort of man made scale.
For the person raised in the church this understanding of sin and forgiveness prevents joy from growing in the heart. Those who see themselves as having not been forgiven much cannot understand the joy of being forgiven an incredible debt.This is why I am thankful for the doctrine of depravity, or the teaching of the scripture about how evil we are apart from God. While this doctrine sounds negative, the Spirit can use it to bring great joy to our hearts. This is because the scripture makes us aware of our true nature apart from Gods grace. We were all desperately wicked. All of our good deeds were made without Jesus in mind in an attempt to develop our own righteousness. In Isaiah God says that this righteousness is like a menstruous rag.
The imagery is clear. Not only our bad deeds, but our good ones also are filthy before God apart from the righteousness provided by Jesus. Paul says that he counted all his "good deeds" as a Jew as "dung"(do a word study on that).I think we would do ourselves a great service to study this doctrine out more fully, and pray that the Spirit would illuminate the reality of it in our hearts so that we can see just how much God has forgiven us.
Martin Luther said, "A person must confront his own sinfulness in all its ravaging depths before he can enjoy the comforts of salvation."
Imagine if you lived in an ancient society under a king. Imagine that you owed him all the money in the world. If you cannot come up with the money your life will be required of you. On the day of your execution you receive a dispatch from the Kings court. "The King has seen fit to pay your debt for you, adopt you into his family, name you an heir, and promises you will inherit his kingdom." When you ask him why he does this his answer is simple, "because I love you". This is the gospel, the great news! Dont be deceived, you have not been forgiven a little debt and offered a small government stipend. You have been forgiven a monstrous debt and offered everything seen and unseen! If the Holy Spirit would make this real to our hearts, oh how we would live with an attitude of rejoicing always.
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