Luke 7: 36-47
When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said.
“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been FORGIVEN – as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
The sinful woman was so overwhelmed by the enormity of her debts that she wept, unlike Simon. That broken penitent spirit led her to love Jesus much. Her great love for Jesus effected a lavished action upon Him. That is the “forgiven much, love much” heart of the sinful woman.
Without this heartfelt contrition of the tremendous enormity of our debts and feeling godly sorrow for our miserable and helpless state, and the tremendous gratitude for the forgiveness in spite of our sin, we have not fully appreciated the grace of God.
Today, the hyper grace false teachers are teaching exactly the opposite to have the “forgiven little, love little” heart of Simon. They taught that repentance is merely a change of mind and downplay the enormity of sin and rubbish any godly sorrow for the enormity of sin. The hyper grace believers can never have genuine love for our Lord if they really have this “forgiven little love little” heart because our Lord had said that whoever love Him will obey His teachings and whoever does not obey His teachings does not love Him. John 14:23-24. The genuine believers will obey out of gratitude and love. Their genuine love will effect outpouring of good works like what the sinful woman had done.
Our Lord said that it was possible to honor Him with our lips but our hearts could be far away. Matt 15:8. The hyper grace teachers and their believers may praise Jesus all the time, but they deliberately ignore His exemplary prayer exhorting us to seek God’s forgiveness of our debts as we forgive others because they do not believe in feeling godly sorrow for sins, subsequent confession of sins and seeking the Lord’s forgiveness. Matt 6:12.
The sinful woman was JUSTIFIED for her repentant response to the grace of Christ.