The one who is forgiven much will love much

Believer, Christ's one sacrifice has made us perfect forever in God's sight. See Hebrews 10: 

"12 Christ, however, offered one sacrifice for sins, an offering that is effective forever, and then He sat down at the right side of God. 13 There He now waits until God puts His enemies as a footstool under His feet. 14 With one sacrifice, then, He has made perfect forever those who are purified from sin."

15 And the Holy Spirit also gives us His witness. First He says,

16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them

in the days to come, says the Lord:

I will put my laws in their hearts

and write them on their minds.”

17 And then He says, “I will not remember their sins and evil deeds any longer.” 18 So when these have been forgiven, an offering to take away sins is no longer needed."

Believer, Jesus is not going to come and die for us again with each new sin. His one sacrifice for sins is "effective forever." God can only "not remember" sins and evil deeds that are committed. If we have no sins now or can live sinlessly in the future, then what is the point of verse 17 above? God is not limited by time and space. All of our sins were "future sins" when Christ "offered one sacrifice for sins, an offering that is effective forever." In Him, our sins- past, present and future- have been forgiven.

God took care of our sin problem when He gave His own Son to take our place on the cross in the greatest expression of love: 1 John 4:10-

"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [that is, the atoning sacrifice, and the satisfying offering] for our sins [fulfilling God’s requirement for justice against sin and placating His wrath]."

In Christ, every single one of our sins is forgiven. Not just our sins of yesterday, but also of today and forever. Hebrews 10:12 says- "Christ, however, offered one sacrifice for sins, an offering that is effective forever,..."

This is God's word. He is no longer holding the sins of all who believe against them because Christ overpaid our sin debt. Many wrongly think that preaching this truth will make believers want to rush out to commit sin and so try to add terms and conditions to God's complete and unqualified forgiveness of our lifetime of sins through Christ, as if God does not know what He is doing. Not so. 1 Corinthians 1:18 tells us:

"18 For the message of the cross is foolishness [absurd and illogical] to those who are perishing and spiritually dead [because they reject it], but to us who are being saved [by God’s grace] it is [the manifestation of] the power of God."

Luke 7 tells us of a sinner woman who came Christ and "began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil." According to verse 37, the woman was "an immoral woman of the streets, known to all to be a prostitute." All of this took place in the house of a Jewish religious leader, Simon. Everyone knew that this woman was a sinner. Verse 39 tells us:

"39 When Simon saw what was happening, he thought, “This man can’t be a true prophet. If He were really a prophet, He would know what kind of sinful woman is touching Him.”

And this happened next (TPT version:)

"40 Jesus said, “Simon, I have a word for you.”

“Go ahead, Teacher. I want to hear it,” he answered.

41 “It’s a story about two men who were deeply in debt. One owed the bank one hundred thousand dollars, and the other only owed ten thousand dollars. 42 When it was obvious that neither of them would be able to repay their debts, the kind banker graciously wrote off the debts and forgave them all that they owed. Tell me, Simon, which of the two debtors would be the most thankful? Which one would love the banker most?”

43 Simon answered, “I suppose it would be the one with the greatest debt forgiven.”

“You’re right,” Jesus agreed. 44 Then he spoke to Simon about the woman still weeping at his feet.

“Don’t you see this woman kneeling here? She is doing for Me what you didn’t bother to do. When I entered your home as your guest, you didn’t think about offering Me water to wash the dust off My feet. Yet she came into your home and washed My feet with her many tears and then dried My feet with her hair. 45 You didn’t even welcome Me into your home with the customary kiss of greeting, but from the moment I came in she has not stopped kissing My feet. 46 You didn’t take the time to anoint My head with fragrant oil, but she anointed My head and feet with the finest perfume. 47 She has been forgiven of all her many sins. This is why she has shown Me such extravagant love. But those who assume they have very little to be forgiven will love me very little.”

48 Then Jesus said to the woman at his feet, “All your sins are forgiven.”

49 All the dinner guests said among themselves, “Who is the one who can even forgive sins?”

50 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith in Me has given you life. Now you may leave and walk in the ways of peace.”

Notice verse 47: "She has been forgiven of all her many sins. This is why she has shown Me such extravagant love. But those who assume they have very little to be forgiven will love me very little.”

The NKJV says: "Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

When you love someone, you don't want to do things to hurt them. That sinner woman KNEW that she had been forgiven of ALL of her many sins. Christ said of her:

"She has been forgiven of all her many sins. This is why she has shown Me such extravagant love. But those who assume they have very little to be forgiven will love me very little.”

Only when we realise how much we are forgiven in Christ - to the uttermost without a tiny sin left unaccounted for, past, present and future sins fully punished in His body - only then can we love much.

But many of us don't see that we have been forgiven much, forgiven of ALL of our sins, as seen in the beliefs held by many that God will punish the believer for the same sins that He gave His own Son to save us from. Anyone with this belief does not know the extent to which he has been forgiven and so cannot love.

Believer, by grace, see how much you have been forgiven in Christ- to the uttermost. At the cross, God's righteous justice and His mercy met in the greatest expression of love for the sinner. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says:

"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Believer, Christ had/has no sins of His own. It was the punishment for ALL of our sins that He bore in His body. Likewise, we whose best works of righteousness are like "a menstrual rag" in God's sight (Isaiah 64:6) were made to become righteous in God's sight through His sacrifice. No amount of obeying the law and doing good things can ever achieve this, "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands..."

Yet some might say: "But at least a person should try his best to obey the law to maintain godliness..." According to Isaiah 64:6, this is what our best looks like in God's sight:

"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."

Those who think that they can "at least try" to not sin have no idea that the reason why we are not committing particular sins is because we have not been tempted beyond what we can bear in those areas. Just ask Peter who ended up denying Christ three times after his boasting. No sin is beneath anybody. The potential to commit heinous crimes is in everybody. God sees this potential and how favourable circumstances can make some people think that some sins are beneath them and that they can obey the law.

Worse, trying to be godly by obeying the law has this effect on the believer- "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace."

Only God's gift of righteousness that Christ died that we might have (no additives of our own "trying") will suffice for Him, and He gives freely to all who believe.

See Christ's love for us in His suffering and death for us that we might have complete forgiveness of sins, God's gift of righteousness and that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

1 John 4:19 says- "We love because He first loved us."

Our love for Christ and for our fellow human beings is a response to the love that God first demonstrated to us: not sparing His own Son so that we might be forgiven of our entire lifetime of sins, not perish and have eternal life.

In Christ, God sees us as righteous through and through and not because we obeyed the law or did anything to deserve it. This is Grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. Only when we receive God's abundance of Grace and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ do we get to live in triumph over sin and death (including all symptoms of death such as lack, sickness, depression, oppression, etc):

""For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Grace cannot make the sinner who believes go berserk with sins. Grace is the Way out of sin. Believer, by grace, have a personal revelation of Jesus Christ, Grace-personified, and see our Abba Father's love for you, so much that He sacrificed His own Son for us to free us from paying the wages of sin and give us the gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus.

When we realise that in Christ, we have been forgiven much (of ALL of our entire lifetime of sins) we get to love much.

Right believing always produces right living.