NOTHING TO PAY
Luke 7: 36-50
Three miracles are recorded in Luke 7. First there is a great miracle, the healing of the centurion’s servant. Second there is a greater miracle, the raising of a young man from the ;. Lastly there is the greatest miracle of all, the forgiving and restoring of a sinful woman.
I believe that forgiveness of a lost sinner is the greatest miracle our Lord ever performs. Forgiveness
produces the greatest results. Most of all, forgiveness requires the greatest price.
It costs very little for God to heal the sick, but it cost His Son’s on a cross for Him to forgive sinners.
Why Simon the Pharisee invited Jesus to his home for a meal we do not know. Perhaps it was, mere curiosity. After all, Jesus was popular, a great Teacher, and a miracle-Worker. Perhaps it was concern about what Christ’s ministry meant to his own religious profession. It may be that Simon wanted to criticize, to find some fault with Jesus. Whatever Simon’s motive, this much is certain: the dinner did not turn out quite the way he had planned.
When you or I give a dinner we invite our guests and exclude others. However, this was not the custom in our Lord’s day. The houses of well-to-do people were built round an open courtyard, and there in the warm weather meals were taken. It was the custom that when a Rabbi [Teacher] was at a meal in such a house, all kinds of people came in - they were quite free to do so - to listen to the pearls of wisdom which fell from a Rabbi’s lips.
However, the appearance of this woman was certainly an embarrassment to Simon.
However, Jesus used her interruption to teach some important lessons about forgiveness, and He uses the parable of the two debtors!
I. The MUST OF FORGIVENESS
Simon, the Pharisee and the woman (who was known to be immoral illustrated different kinds of sins. and that the fact that everyone needs God’s forgiveness.
A. There are sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit.
Maybe Simon was not guilty of immorality, but he was still a sinner. Simon was guilty of the sin of pride. He wrapped himself with the mantle of self-righteousness; satisfied with his own goodness, dignity, and importance. He looked down at her in order to exalt himself. Simon compared himself with this woman instead of with the Lord.; the common mistake so many make.
Now Jesus stated the woman was a sinner (vv. 47-48). She was guilty of gross sins of the flesh, but Simon was guilty of sins of the spirit. The late British Bible expositor, Dr. G. Campbell Morgan called these "the sins in good standing."
B. There are sins of commission and sins of omission.
Simon knew what the woman had done, but forgot what he himself had not done. He had not even shown Jesus the common courtesies of the home - the kiss of welcome, water for His feet, and oil for His head. It iso bad that this woman fell into sin, but it is even worse that Simon was living in sin and did not know it. The person who does not do what God requires is just as guilty as the person who does what God
forbids.
C. There are open sins and hidden sins. Everyone at the feast knew who the
woman was and what she had done with her life. Her sins were open. But only Jesus (who can read men’s hearts) knew the sins in Simon’s life.
It is important to realize that we are sinners whether we feel guilty or not. That is the whole point of the parable of the two debtors (Luke 7:41-43). Both of the men were in debt and were bankrupt. The difference between 500 pence and 50 pence is not a difference in guilt, for if we disobey in only one of God’s laws we are guilty. The two amounts represent a difference in their sense of guilt. The woman was not more lost than the Pharisee. She only felt her guilt and need for mercy far more than Simon did.
Thank God for people like the unnamed woman, who feel their need and come to the Saviour! We cannot help but pity people like Simon.
II. THE MIRACLE OF FORGIVENESS
Forgiveness is a gracious gift of God. Forgiveness is the greatest miracle God ever performs. Notice what is involved in this miracle.
A. FACT OF THE DEBT
Both men were in debt. This was their condition. They were unquestionably in debt. If they could have disputed the creditor’s claim, no doubt they would have done so. If they could have pleaded that they were never indebted, or that they had already paid, no doubt they would have been glad to have done so; but they could not raise a question; their debt could not be denied.
Another fact was also clear to them, namely, that they had nothing to pay with. No doubt they had made diligent search; they had emptied out their pockets, looked to their cash reserves, and they had found nothing. They had nothing at home or abroad that they could sell. Things had come to such a pass with them that they had neither stock nor money, nor anything in reserve which they could draw upon: they were brought to the last extremity, reduced to absolute debt.
This truly sets forth the condition of every man who has not come to Jesus Christ and received His forgiveness of his sins. We are all by nature and by practice plunged into debt because of sin.
Our sins, sins against light and knowledge, our sin as against our parents, our sins against all our relationships, our sins against our God, our sins with the body, our sins with the mind, our sins of forgetfulness, our sins of thought, our sins of imagination- we are in debt. To think that we can ever meet such a debt is to prop up ourselves with a notion that is utterly absurd:- we have nothing to pay.
B. FREENESS OF THE DISCHARGE - “He frankly forgave them both.”
It was all of grace.
"He frankly forgave them both"
(v. 42). Forgiveness is not something we may purchase or earn, because we are bankrupt-we have nothing with which to pay.
What a blessing they obtained by facing the matter! These two poor debtors, when they went into the office, were trembling from head to foot, for they had nothing to pay; however, when come out with lighten hearts, for the debt is all disposed of, the bills are receipted, the records are destroyed.
Even does the Lord has blotted out the handwriting that was against us and has taken them out of the way, nailing it to His cross.
Now, the concept of grace was difficult for the Pharisees to understand because theirs was a religion of merit through good works.
The concept of grace is difficult for people to understand even today.
The only way sinners can be saved is by God’s grace, for they are too bankrupt to purchase or earn salvation any other way. "For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all" (Rom. 11:32).
The only person that can forgive a debt is he to whom the debt is due. God only can forgive sin, seeing it is a debt to him. He against whom I have transgressed is the only one that can pronounce my pardon; but if he forgives me, how effectual is the sentence! When the creditor said, “I freely forgive you both,” the deed was done. His lips had power.
When the Lord Jesus Christ is looked unto
by the eye of faith, there comes a voice from his dear wounds which cries to the poor trembling bankrupt sinner, “Your sins, which are many, are all forgiven. I have blotted out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your iniquities.” What an effectual pardon it is! He frankly, he fully, he freely, he effectually forgave them both.
1. Here is a A Saviour That Favors Sinners
2. Here is a A Saviour That Forgives Sinners
Forgiveness comes when self-sufficiency goes. When you come to point that you feel you have nothing to pay, you have come to the point at which God is ready to forgive. He that will own his debt, and confess his own incapacity to meet it, shall find that God frankly blots it out. The Lord will never forgive us until we are brought to the starvation of pride and the of our boasting. A sense of spiritual bankruptcy shows that a man has become thoughtful; and this is essential to salvation. God would have us know the seriousness of our danger. For only then do we treat the matter with seriousness.
III. THE MANIFESTATION OF FORGIVENESS
Forgiveness of sins always results in a changed
life. The woman’s faith in Christ granted her salvation, and that salvation gave her forgiveness of sin. The result was a changed life.
The condemnation and of the Law did not make her a new person, nor did the religious system of the Pharisees. It was the grace of God that changed her life.
What are some of the new things that characterized her changed life?
A. New love
An old Welsh proverb says, "In every
pardon there is love." A hardened criminal may not
love the governor and the judge who pardon him, but
the condemned sinner certainly loves God when he
experiences His pardon and forgiveness. When you
feel great guilt as a sinner, you experience great love
as a saint. This helps to explain why the Apostle Paul
loved Christ so much: he knew how guilty he was as
an unconverted sinner.
Love for Christ and love for others is evidence of having been forgiven. Love is mentioned as the effect and evidence, not the cause of her pardon. She knew that much had been forgiven her, and therefore she loved much.
This woman was not ashamed to show her love for Christ openly. People were watching, and some of them were embarrassed, but she went right on anointing Him and kissing His feet. Many citizens of
Chicago called D. L. Moody "Crazy Moody" because
of his enthusiastic love for Christ and lost souls, but
history has vindicated Mr. Moody’s faith and love.
God displayed His love for us openly at Calvary, so why should we be timid about openly
showing our love for Him?
It is quite evident that there are some Christian who love the Lord Jesus more than others. What causes this?
See verse 47. It is very often true that the greatest of sinners make the greatest of saints. Let me add that those who are the most conscious of forgiveness will be the most evident in their love. Oh for the need to sense how great sinners we are.
It is worth noting that this woman devoted to Christ all that previously she had used for sin. The
harlot used kisses, beauty, and spices to lead men into
sin, but the forgiven woman gave all of these to her Saviour.
The measure of our love will depend on the depth of our sense of guilt.
Our love is as the knowledge of sin. Our love grows in direct proportion of our appreciation of our pardon.
He who feels that little has been forgiven--that his sins were not as great as those of others will love little.
B. New labor
She is laboring for the Lord now. The woman was not forgiven because she loved or labored, but she loved and labored because she was forgiven.
1Thessalonains 1:3 “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love.”
Hebrews 6:10 “For God is not unrighteous
to forget your work and labour of love.” Now you can labor without love and you cannot love without laboring.
We are all great sinners. We can all know great forgiveness.
If man’s greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer. But, out greatest need was forgiveness, therefore God sent us a Saviour to die for our sins so we could be forgiven.
Conclusion
I close with a story with a story from the life of the great British preacher, Brownlow North. He had lived a wicked life before he was saved. One evening as he entered a church where he was to preach, a stranger walked up to him in a hurried manner, and said, "Here is a letter for you of great importance, and you are requested to read before you preach tonight." Thinking that it might be a request for prayer, he immediately opened it, and found that it contained a detail of some of the things he had done in the past. The letter concluded with the words, "How dare you, being conscious of the truth of all above, pray and speak to the people this evening, when you are such a vile sinner."
He put the letter in his pocket and when it came time for him to preach; he pulled out the letter and told the people what it said. He said to the crowded congregation, "What is here said is true, and it is a correct picture of the degraded sinner that I once was; and oh how wonderful must the grace be that could quicken and raise me up from such a in trespasses and sins, and make me what I appear before you tonight, a vessel of mercy, one who knows that all his past sins have been cleansed away through the atoning of the Lamb of God."
