Friday, May 1, 2015

Much grace and mercy, much one can love

Preamble:  This article will be preached as a sermon on 2 May 2015 in a Divine Healing Meeting/Service at TradeHub 21.  The gray-highlighted portions in this article are NOT necessarily shared because of time constraint.


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This is a continuation of a series on the secret to well-being of a believer. 
First, the “secret” is: we loving God.

But many could NOT get to the place of loving God (and, men, too). How do we get there?

We have covered of one of three channels to get our love capacity restored, i.e. to receive in, forgiveness.  Much one is forgiven, much one can love; this being gleaned from Luke 7:36-48 – the account of the sinful woman at Simon’s house.

Today, we are covering the 2nd of the channels, although it is NOT unlinked to forgiveness; and it is: Much grace and mercy experienced and received in, much one can love.

When much grace and mercy of God is poured out and received in, the one who received it, much would his capacity to love, be healed and restored, and much he can love; even believers around who understand it, can have their love capacity enlarged.

Where can this be gleaned from? It can be gleaned from the account of The Road to Damascus; the story of conversion of Saul (aka Apostle Paul).

Acts 9:1-20 – 1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.  “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered.  11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” 

13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” 

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” 

17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.

20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

The background of Saul is this: 

He was a thoroughbred Jew, from young he learned and kept the Judaism faith, the faith of the OT Jews. He learned from the great teacher of Judaism, Gamaliel, who was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin (Church Council).  He knew God (Yahweh) and the Spirit of God.  In those days, OT Jews, they knew God and the Spirit of God, but NOT the Lord, the Son of God.  And so, Saul championed his faith fervently, and went round persecuting the believers (this was after Jesus already died and was resurrected), and blaspheming the Son of God, the Lord Jesus.  He would throw in lots to have disciples of Jesus, Stephen for example, to be stoned to death.

On the account of the Road to Damascus, Saul had gotten letters from the Sanhedrin to go to Damascus to arrest believers to have them persecuted and to have them deny Jesus.  As we read from the scripture passage above, he had an encounter with the Lord.  Christ Jesus spoke to him, and said Saul was persecuting Him (persecuting believers for their faith and asking them to deny the Lord, is in effect persecuting the Lord).  In the course of his zeal, Saul also blasphemed the Lord who was by then already in Heaven as the restored Son of God. 

Was it NOT great mercy, the Lord had shown to Saul? Jesus said Saul was persecuting Him.  Even if the Lord would strike him dead, it would NOT be too great a punishment, but the Lord did NOT; and that was mercy.

Mercy is the Lord withholding (or avoiding for you) the punishment due you; meaning you get off, with lesser punishment, or NOT punished at all.  In Saul’s case, for example, the Lord only blinded him for 3 days. What is grace of God, then?

Grace is the Lord blessing you (or enabling for you) to receive good thing(s) you don’t deserve.  For example, when I receive the anointing to pray for you to be healed, I receive the anointing by grace, because I do NOT deserve it.

What is important for us to note, is this:

1.   God poured out grace and mercy,
2.   Paul perceived (understood) it [as grace and mercy from God],
3.   Paul received it, in; and
4.   Paul even understood that God had forgiven him, and
5.   Last but NOT least, he obeyed the leading of the Lord.

In the exposition of the first channel (forgiveness, specifically) as that which God would use to restore the love capacity of believers, I stressed, the Lord looks at humility.  This humility factor is also equally applicable to today’s discussion of grace and mercy.

I told that one needs to be like David, humble or be easily humbled and that there are 2 ways to be humbled before God.  Before I reiterate the 2 ways today, for the benefit of us all, I want to, additionally, give us a good picture of what God is always looking for, in men:

Isaiah 66:1-2 (NIV84) - 1 This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? 2 Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?" declares the LORD. "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.

Now the 2 ways to be humbled before God:

One is that, one is to get to the state of readily be able to be humbled, and so, easily you humble before God, and two, one is sovereignly humbled by God. 

You get to the state of readily be able to be humbled if you do NOT grieve the Holy Spirit.  Because it is the Holy Spirit, who convicts you of sin and causes you to enter into godly sorrow, which leads to humility and repentance.  Sinning repeatedly hardens one’s heart, and when it is hardened, it doesn’t get convicted easily. 

Still at times, by the mercy and grace of God, some people still receive a forceful conviction that break the heart of stone.  And when that happens, the person is humbled.  The case of Saul falls into this.

Now, the important point to stress is that, from that incident, Paul perceived the grace and mercy of God; received it, in, and also perceived in it, the forgiveness of God, and received that in, too, and he obeyed the leading of the Spirit of the Lord, and he continued to do so; and after repeatedly in such posture, his capacity to love the Lord, and so, men, too, becomes restored greatly by God.  And we know that Paul went on, to say that which is commonly quoted - “to live is for Christ, to die is gain.” (Phil 1:21).

Paul loved the Lord so much that his life was to live for Christ.  Saul, who became Paul, was capacitated by the Lord to love Him, and men.

On the occasion that I talked about forgiveness being the most important channel, to get our love capacity restored, I said, often, there is a part of us to play, although it is God who forgives, and it is also God who heals and restores our capacity to love (our part, is to come to the place of forgiveness).  It is similar here; often, we need to get to the place of grace and mercy, to receive the much grace and mercy of God.

Remember, I said the two channels are NOT completely unlinked, because the latter (grace and mercy), has the mercy element in it, and mercy got to do with punishment and so, forgiveness. 

Here, I will give the critical understandings needed to get to the place of grace and mercy:

1.   Always bear in mind we have love-covenanted with God.  You and I have love-covenanted with God; we need always bear that in mind.

2.   And all of us have to understand: love is first, a choice, and then a commitment. 

God chose to love you and I, and we have chosen to love Him back.  It is the exercise of your volition. When you and I have that covenant in mind all the time, NOT just any covenant but that love-covenant, we are to remind ourselves, that we have committed to love Him.  That is the posture that will draw God’s grace and mercy to you.

Further elaboration: We cannot merit or earn God’s grace and mercy, and we cannot arm-twist God to give us grace and mercy, but we can attract His grace and mercy.

Now, which come first? You love God and God pours out grace and mercy to you, or the other way round, God pours out grace and mercy to you and then you love God?

Those who have heard my sharing on the “secret” to the well-being of a believer, being loving God, would know that I gave 3 sets of the most wonderful and powerful promises of God to illustrate it; where each has the element that the promises are for those who love God.  Promises coming to pass, is grace and mercy of God, for we are NOT receiving anything from God through our merit, but by grace and mercy.

The 3 sets are Rom 8:28, Ps 91:14-16 & 1 Cor 2:9 (You are encouraged to go and read them).

Which comes first, you love God, and then you get the grace and mercy (including goodies promised), or you get grace and mercy first, so that you could love God?  Appear circular doesn’t it?!

For now, I will give us the short version of the understanding (we will have the long version when we next discuss the 3rd channel, through which God restores our love capacity). 

This is how we are to understand it (short version):  God first, men subsequent; there was God, first; men were NOT there when God started out. God then made Man; God the Creator, Man, the created.  It was also God who first loved men; and men to love God back. 

Men fell, and men’s capacity to love God was diminished or impaired.  Prior to the Fall, Man had no problem loving God perfectly, and Scripture painted for us the picture of Man serving God gladly; looking after the Garden God assigned to him and his wife (Adam and Eve); it was a huge garden, by narration given in Scripture. And we also read that God would come to fellowship with Man, like having high-tea in the Garden!  After the Fall, all of these changed.  It got to do with Man’s loss of righteousness, which we will cover only when we look at the 3rd channel, another day. 

After the Fall, it became complex and difficult for Man to love God. We will cover the complexity and difficulty only in the 3rd channel lesson; in brief, I will just mention that it got to do with the knowledge of good and evil. Because God knows it is hard for you and I, to love Him (that we have knowledge of good and evil), He will keep enlarging our capacity to love, if we allow the works of His grace and mercy to affect and effect you. 

In fact, God started doing that, right from the beginning, after the Fall.  The portions of Scripture post-The fall revealed to us, thus.  Examples are Gen 3:21 – God still made garment of skin for Man; Gen 3:16-19 – God did NOT put Man to death immediate, but allowed them to live on, but with secondary penalties (Gen 2:17 – you will surely die).

God continued to grant grace and mercy throughout the OT history of Man, and we read of them in the lives of many Bible characters, including those of Hannah (mother of prophet Samuel), King Hezekiah, and King David.  Yet, lovers of God were truly few; something was needed to address the potent change (Man’s loss of righteousness) at the Fall.

Finally, the way forward is provided by the Lord, Jesus; and God sent Him to restore the capacity for Man to be righteous, and so, the capacity for Man to love God.  We will cover the connection between the capacity to love and righteousness, when we discuss the 3rd channel (not here, today).

So, the answer is God had to move first, God got to grant the defining grace and mercy first, the grace and mercy that was in Christ Jesus’ suffering and death as a Man. 

The defining grace and mercy in the works of Christ Jesus, for one thing brought us the indwelling Holy Spirit who could help us deal with the knowledge of good and evil and He, the Holy Spirit, helps us with the understanding of spiritual things, so that grace and mercy of God granted us or experienced by us (both as the minister or ministee), can have the effect of restoring our capacity to love God, and men, and more importantly, rightly; love rightly.

We need to come into the place of experiencing the grace and mercy of God.  The grace and mercy of God can be talked about loosely, as 2 categories, the quiet grace and exceeding grace.  Example of quiet grace is God sends down rain to you and I – the common good occurrences we often take for granted.  Example of exceeding grace is when you get healed by, say, a prayer of a servant of God, when you had had not able to get healing through consultation with a medical doctor. Another way of seeing exceeding grace is breakthroughs helped by God.  Signs and wonders and miracles or interventions of God come under this. 

There is the need for many, to experience the exceeding grace and mercy of God to appreciate the quiet grace of God, and to be transformed of heart, to be more loving towards God, and men, too.

I honestly think we are NOT surprised that many believers actually stay away from God’s grace and mercy, for all kinds of reasons or excuses.  They would say, they want the grace and mercy of God, but actually they want them at their own terms, NOT on God’s terms or according to His righteousness. 

3 common negative scenarios I will cover here (to help us get away from the negatives, into the positives):

1.   Want to engage in unrighteousness.  Believers know it, yet many just brushed it off.  God is everywhere, but He is also NOT in evil and wickedness.  So, you and I, will find difficulty experiencing the grace and mercy of God there.  But if you will turn back, you can experience it. 

How are you going to love God, and men, too, when you are into evil and wickedness, or throwing self-control to the wind?!  Split-personality; juggling both; you won’t have peace and joy having that!

2.   Many believers do NOT want transparency, but without transparency, God’s grace and mercy is NOT readily attracted to you, and when they are NOT being poured out to you, they cannot do their works of healing or enlarging back, your capacity to love God, and men.  People who find it difficult to love God, and men, often have much baggage or bondages they are NOT wanting them dwelt with. Now, these people may want to love God, but they are unable to come to the place of loving God, we say.

3.   Unwillingness to serve. Some years back, God revealed His longing in this area (believers are to serve), to me, for a local church; His Spirit revealed that God’s children should be serving. 

In serving, the children of God can experience and see God’s grace and mercy, and from it, they will develop greater love for God, and men. So, I recommend, as far as possible, we serve in some way, say, in a church, for example.

What do we see as the issue?  Yes, unwillingness. Are you protesting that you are NOT unwilling to love God?  We will all say, we are NOT unwilling to love God; but when we break it down, we can see it there, there is a great deal of unwillingness on our part to love God.  We are unwilling to be righteous in our thoughts and actions; we are unwilling to be transparent, and we are unwilling to serve.

What is the solution?  A master chef will tell you, you need to cut open or peel open, an onion to make it beautiful.  And so, too, we need to come under the Master’s hand to peel us open and work in, His grace and mercy.  In order for the Chef to work on the onion, the onion cannot hide away in the closet; so, too, you and I cannot just staying away or hide away in own preoccupations.  The longer you resist that, the longer you are finding it hard to love God, and men.  And when you accept that as the way of life, you are going to be missing the peace and joy that other brothers and sisters who love God, are enjoying; and you are going to answer to the Lord ultimately, the lukewarm-ness of your love for Him.
The take away for this message is that you need to get to the place of grace and mercy.


Anthony Chia, high.expressions

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Much one is forgiven, much one can love

Preamble:  This article has been shared as a sermon in my Divine Healing Meeting/Service on 21 March 2015.  The gray-highlighted portions in this article are NOT necessarily shared in the sermon session because of time.
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In one of my recent sharing, I shared about the “secret” to the well-being of a believer is loving God.  I ended with the note for people to meditate on how they can love God.  And so, I am intending to be able to share on that aspect of the theme. 

However, as I pondered about it before the Holy Spirit, I believed I was led to re-read one of my blog article entitled, “as her great love has shown”.

Now, if you want to get hold of the message on the “Secret to the well-being of a believer”, you can read it from my blog, here.

But why this article, “as her great love has shown”, I asked the Lord.  As I re-read it, I realised that the Spirit was saying this:

“Okay, you have spoken about the ‘secret’, is loving Me, and you have told the need to look into how to love Me.   Yes, people can’t just love Me in words alone!  But that they know, they still find themselves not loving me; you got to give some understanding concerning that. How can they get there, to love Me?”

And so, how do we begin to get to the place of us able to love God, NOT  in just (empty) words?!  This is what today’s message is about.

One answer is: Receipt of forgiveness.  This is the important channel, if NOT the most important channel, through which we can have our love capacity healed and restored.

The phrase, “as her great love has shown” comes from a verse in Scripture, and that article of mine (as her great love has shown) explained why a woman loved Jesus and went about expressing her love, NOT by mere words, but by actions.  In that account, which is an account in Scripture, taken from Luke 7, Jesus contrasted that woman with a man called Simon, a Pharisee.

Luke 7:36-48 - 36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 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. 38 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. 39 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.”

40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 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?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

44 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. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 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—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Who was this sinful woman in the account? Just simply a sinful woman? 

I have this belief of who this woman was, but if you just want to regard her as simply “a sinful woman”, it is fine, too.

This is my postulation:
I believe this sinful woman could have been Mary Magdalene who was Mary Bethany, the sister of Martha Bethany, and was the woman who was delivered of demon possession {Luke 8:1-3} (prior to this event at Simon’s house); in other words, set free by Jesus, earlier, and forgiven by God of her many sins, came and did this washing of Jesus’ feet; and who went on to support Jesus’ ministry, introduced Jesus to her sister, Martha (and Lazarus, too) of Bethany, and later, followed Jesus down to Jerusalem on His last leg of His journey; and was at the crucifixion, at His burial, and was the first person, Jesus met up with, when He resurrected. 

If you want to know how I come to my belief, you can read this: Were Mary Magdalene and Mary Bethany the same person?

As I have said, if you want to just regard this woman as simply “a sinful woman”, it is fine, too, but you may have some difficulty in coming to how is it that this woman could come to love the Lord so much, if you do NOT think she was the same once decadent woman who was delivered of demonization, as given in Luke 8:1-3. 

Of course, you can also believe there was no prior incident, and that the moment the woman was at the house (of Simon), she was touched by God; but my take is that it was NOT so, for she came prepared – the alabaster jar of perfume showed it.

What is the key lesson to be drawn from the story?  What picture was it painting? 

The key is in verse 47.  Jesus said, “… her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown.”

What this verse is saying is that the sinful woman’s many sins had been forgiven her, and we could come to that conclusion, because her great love indicated so.

In other words, Jesus was saying to the tune of, “Suppose now you have a tree before you. You see this fruit, here, hanging from a branch; it is an apple.  This tree must be an apple tree.”  If the tree is NOT an apple tree, will you get apples? No.  If you want apples, what must you have?  Apple tree.  If you want to be able to love, what must you have?  Receipt of forgiveness.  Jesus said her great love pointed to her having received forgiveness. In order for Jesus to say it, like that, it means receipt of forgiveness is needed before one could be loving.

How come she could have developed great love for the Lord, but Simon did NOT?  Or maybe we ask first, did Simon have also, great love for the Lord?

The answer is No. Why?

Because, expressions of love in the form of deeds and sacrifices, did NOT show at all, for Simon. 

How come Simon did NOT have great love, the woman had? 

Jesus said the woman had received something, implying Simon did NOT.  That something was forgiveness; God’s forgiveness.  Jesus was saying, “Simon, you see all these expressions of love; they showed her love for Me; and her great love showed that she was forgiven much.”

Why no great love, for Simon? The answer is Simon did NOT receive forgiveness!  Now, was it God did NOT give it?  Yes? Or No? 

Let’s say for a moment, God did NOT give it; is it necessarily that God was at fault? 

It could be Simon did NOT ask!  Scripture said you do NOT get because you do NOT ask (James 4:2).  Granted, sometimes, people have that yearning in their hearts for forgiveness, but they have NOT muttered the words (like the woman, in the account), but that too, God knows, and could honour that.  But it is a different thing, if you do NOT think you need forgiveness, meaning you do NOT think you are wrong; you are prideful.

In ministry, the most difficult people for us to help, are the ones who are sick but do NOT think that they are sick.  They are the most impaired and most difficult to help.  When that sickness is NOT physical, but referring to spiritual unwholesomeness, such an individual cannot love correctly or properly.  Such people rarely think that they are wrong, in terms of their claim of NOT being unwholesome, or in their love or lack of it, or their improper love; true humility is absent.

How to help, if they stubbornly insist, “There is nothing wrong with me.  I am NOT wrong.  I am NOT at fault. He is at fault.  He is wrong.  You (the minister) are wrong!”  How to help when they are so prideful, always holding to the posture that they are better and know better, even better than the very one whom they are talking to, for help.

Was not Simon, the Pharisee, like that?

He was.  We can see it even from the short account given us.

We read it in v39. I reproduced vv38-39 here: 

38 As she {the woman} stood behind him {Jesus} 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. 39 When the Pharisee {Simon} who had invited him {Jesus} saw this, he said to himself, “If this man {Jesus} were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner. 

Now, where is the true humility of Simon? 

Pride is usually what prevents a person from asking for forgiveness. The Ps 51:17 (NIV84) of King David we read this:

The sacrifices of God are a broken [humble] spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

One needs to be like David, humble or be easily humbled.  There are 2 ways to be humble before God.  One is that, one is to get to the state of readily be able to be humbled; two, one is sovereignly humbled by God. 

You get to the state of readily be able to be humbled if you do NOT grieve the Holy Spirit.  Because it is the Holy Spirit who convicts you of sin and causes you to enter into godly sorrow, which leads to humility and repentance.  Sinning repeatedly hardens one’s heart, and when it is hardened, it doesn’t get convicted easily. 

Still at times, by the mercy and grace of God, some people still receive a forceful conviction that break the heart of stone.  And when that happens, the person is humbled.  And so, the stressing here is that, once we have been humbled and so, our heart is once again made flesh (the Bible said), you must try to maintain and sustain that posture.

Was Simon humble?  No. In fact, he thought he was above Jesus! He also said to the tune of “the woman was a sinner-what”, as if he, himself, was NOT!  Metaphorically speaking, do you think Simon thought that he was sick, would he go to the doctor? Would he listen to the doctor?

So, you see, if we would come to God penitent, why would God NOT grant forgiveness?!  He would.  You cannot come to Him prideful, especially, in asking for forgiveness!

Am I suggesting we should allow ourselves to be sinning greatly, so that we can be forgiven much, so that we can be humbled, turned grateful, and be restored of our capacity to love, and so able to love greatly like the sinful woman?  No, that is NOT my drift; and so, please do NOT go sinning, in the hope of being able to love greatly. 

The Apostle Paul did address similar questioning, and in Gal 2:17 said this - "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! We don’t go round sinning so that we could magnify the grace of the Lord through His forgiveness for us, by grace.

Honestly, we all have areas of weaknesses, sinned, including sin of omission.  God is sovereign, and if He wants to force you to your knees, so to speak, He can, but a lot of the time, He is waiting for you to exercise your volition to come to kneel before Him, to come to the place of forgiveness.  He does help you along, to come, through the convictions of the Holy Spirit, but generally, it is still you have to come. The drift was NOT Simon was NOT as sinful as the woman, but it was that Jesus was pointing to the need to come to the place of forgiveness, and actually receive in, forgiveness, so that one can be healed and restored of one’s capacity to love God (and following from that, fellow men). 

Scripture has parables and stories, incorporating this way of God.  For example, in the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, the banquet was made ready and the invitees were to come, but many would NOT come. 

Then, is it NOT true, we even say, we still have to come to the Cross, despite Jesus already died on the Cross; everything necessary He has made ready, and before He gave up His breath, He said, “It is finished”.  We have to come into salvation; even as the Word said in 1 John 2:2, that Jesus is the propitiation for the world (died for all men).

Concerning when the woman in the account, was penitent, I believe she was the decadent woman ministered to, by Jesus in Luke 8:1-3, but if you are NOT convinced that she was the same woman (Mary Magdalene) of Luke 8:1-3, who was decadent and had demons in her, and was set free by the power of God through the Lord, Jesus, you will just have to believe, at any earlier point, the sinful woman had met Jesus, and Jesus did something or preached something, and she responded, and God forgave her of many sins; and she was humbled and received it.  As the account has it, she came prepared - the alabaster jar of perfume showed it.

I repeat the critical understanding Jesus was giving, was that we need to be humble of heart, be turned grateful, and so, be restored of our capacity to love much.  (The conviction of the Spirit is what humbles us to repentance, if we are NOT already humble) The receiving in of forgiveness is that which would turn us grateful, and be restored of the capacity to love much, and so, love much.  The quoting of the forgiveness of debts (as a parable) was to illustrate this to Simon, and to us – the need of receipt of forgiveness, before we are restored of our capacity to love.

Without true humility, there is no true gratefulness, and without gratefulness, the capacity to love cannot be healed or restored, and great love does NOT come from such a vessel. 

From the Cross, we gotten the forgiveness, and the restoration of our capacity to love God back, is it NOT?  Yes, and when we love God, we love our neighbour (1 John 4:21).  This understanding is foundational, and when it is foundational, it is to be cascaded through and throughout our life.

So, while Jesus was NOT rebuking Simon in any harsh manner, the urge was for Simon to reflect, and in this regard, for us all, too, on his need for forgiveness for sins in his life; to be humble, be turned to gratefulness, and be restored of capacity to love more and more, God, and so, too, men or neighbours.

God is ever waiting to forgive you and I; we have to come the place of forgiveness, and we do need to be practising 1 John 1:9.

So, before I close, how do we get to place to be able to love God much?

1.   Be of the posture of humility (be humble)
2.   Be broken and contrite of heart
3.   Repent and ask for forgiveness
4.   Received in, the forgiveness, and
5.   Be turned grateful, and
6.   Be restored of the capacity, by God, to love.

It is God who heals and restores your capacity to love, but often, you have to come rightly before Him, even as the Holy Spirit draws you through convictions (and so, you must NOT numb your conscience).

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A side point: Jesus was saying it, after His Father (can skip)
There is still an interesting observation from this text of Luke 7; and it is this:  Jesus having said that the sinful woman was forgiven of many sins (v47), still said this, to the woman, in v48 - “Your sins are forgiven.” 

Why did Jesus still say that, that her sins were forgiven, when the woman was forgiven already, which led to her show of great love? 

My understanding is this: In verse 48, Jesus just declared it that the woman’s sins were forgiven, for Jesus knew God the Father had done so.  Jesus was so led by the Spirit (or abiding in God), that He knew, and in fact (John 5:19), Jesus did say He would do only that which He saw His Father (God) doing.  It was NOT after all that, which the sinful woman did, that Jesus forgave her sins; she was in no way meriting her forgiveness; her deeds and sacrifices of love came after her forgiveness and restoration.

Verse 47 is saying love is evidence of forgiveness received.  Or forgiveness received, empowers love.  And of course, I have taken the liberty to expound on, love got to show up in deeds and sacrifices, or that it cannot be, that you love, when you have nothing to show it, by deeds or sacrifices; only words!


Anthony Chia, high.expressions

PS: This account of Luke 7:36-50 is different from the account in John 12 and Mark 14; the later happened at Bethany, days from Jesus crucifixion; this Luke 7:36-50, happened early in Jesus’ ministry, back in the north, in Galilee.

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1 page sermon note – Much one is forgiven, Much one can love (by Anthony Chia on 21 March 2015)

Previously shared: Secret to the well-being of a believer is loving God.

So, we are to meditate on how we are to love God

But, before that, many are having the problem of “although they know they are to love God, but they seemed NOT able to love God”

So, “How do we get to the place where we are able to love God”

Jesus told us how, in Luke 7:36-48 – 36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 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. 38 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. 39 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.” 40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 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?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. 44 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. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 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—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

One answer is: receipt of forgiveness.  We need to be humble, ask God for forgiveness, receive in, forgiveness, to be turned grateful, be restored of the capacity, by God, to love.


The key is in v47: Jesus said the woman’s great love pointed to her having received forgiveness. In order for Jesus to say it, like that, it means receipt of forgiveness is needed before one could be loving.