For which cause I say to thee, Her many sins are forgiven; for she loved much; but he to whom little is forgiven loves little.
Simon the Pharisee watched a woman with a bad reputation weep over Jesus' feet. He decided that a real prophet would have pushed her away. His answer turns on one small word: "for". Does love earn forgiveness, or flow from it?
The verse is often misread as a wage paid for affection. One commentator separates the two senses of "for":
To His host the Lord turned and said, "Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much." The word "for" sometimes gives a reason. Sometimes it gives evidence. In this case it is the evidential "for," not the causative. It was not because she loved much that the Lord forgave her. It was His grace that caused her love.
If her love did not buy the pardon, something had to produce the love. One writer traces it to what she saw in Jesus:
But it was what she had seen in Jesus Himself which, by grace, melted her heart, and produced the love she had for Him — seeing what He was for sinners like herself. She thinks only of Him; He has taken possession of her heart, so as to shut out other influences. ... She saw what He was for a sinner, and that the most wretched and disgraced found a resource in Him... Her love did not earn this. God was revealing a glorious fact: the sins of a person whose heart has turned to God are fully pardoned, however many and however vile.
The Lord does not soften her record. He calls her sins many — and one writer presses what He did not say:
He does not say: "Many of her sins are forgiven." Suppose 90% of them were forgiven. In the numbers of the parable, that would be 450 out of the 500. But if that were the case she would be no better off than Simon, who was still a bankrupt sinner with his 50. The expression "her sins, which are many" means all her sins. The creditor did not forgive part of the debt, but the whole of it.
Could she be sure of forgiveness before Jesus said a word to her?
When the Lord declared her forgiven on this evidence that she loved much, He had not yet spoken to her. She had seen His acts and ways of love with others, and she had laid hold of the grace in it for her own need. His lips only confirm it to her.
Her actions were the fruit of her love. But her love was not what saved her:
She believed before she came. Her faith had brought her, but she did not know that her faith saved her. She loved before she came, and all that she did was the fruit of her love; yet not her love, but her faith saved her.
The second half of the verse targets the host. One writer warns against reading the two debtors as a real measure of guilt:
Simon did not owe just fifty pence while the woman owed five hundred. Before God, as the apostle teaches, there is no difference; "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23.) ... But what of Simon? He had shown no affection to the Lord. He had not even given Him the ordinary courtesies of a host toward his guest. So he proved that he "loved little" — he was not a man who owed only fifty pence, but a man to whom little was forgiven.
The danger is not having a small debt. It is thinking you have one:
Did Simon realize that there was anything in his life that needed forgiveness? Did he dismiss it as "little"? ... Some think of their sins as being of little consequence, and so think they have no need of forgiveness. Others, whose sins are no worse, know their sins are a serious offense against God, and feel the weight of them. Their hearts cry out for forgiveness. When they realize they are forgiven, they love much.
Once you know you are forgiven, a fuller view of your own sin stops being frightening:
Suppose a merchant has debts he knows he cannot meet; he would be afraid to look honestly through his books. But suppose some friend paid it all, and left him sure of a great fortune once everything was settled. Then he would no longer be afraid to look at them. Discovering how large his debt had been would only deepen his sense of his friend's love... Grace has put it all away; so the whole effect of discovering sin, when we know forgiveness, is to deepen the love and heighten the joy.
- Grace first. Her love did not cause the pardon; His grace caused her love.
- Sight second. What melted her was what she saw Jesus to be for sinners like herself — He had taken possession of her heart.
- All, not most. "Many" means the whole debt cancelled; a partial pardon would have left her as bankrupt as Simon.
- Love as evidence. The tears were the receipt, not the payment — her faith saved her, and her love proved it.
- Little loved. Simon's coldness showed a man who thought he needed little. How much we love shows how much we think we have been forgiven.
And he said to her, Thy sins are forgiven.
A woman known around town as a sinner has been weeping at the feet of Jesus while His host looks on with contempt. Having defended her to Simon, the Lord now turns and speaks to the woman herself.
Up to now He had spoken about her, and to a man who despised her. One commentator notes how much would have been lost if He had stopped there.
There is more. "And He said to her, Your sins are forgiven." Without this declared to herself, how much would have been lost! It was a great thing to hear Him tell those who judged her — and misjudged Him, which was far worse — "I say to you, Simon, her sins, which are many, are forgiven." How much more when He turned even to her and said, "Your sins are forgiven!"
Notice also what He leaves out when He turns to her. Simon had heard her sins counted; she does not.
Then the Lord addressed the woman, but did not refer to her sins as being many. He simply assured her they were forgiven. She had His word for it, so no doubt remained that all were fully forgiven. Wonderful certainty, for the Lord had said it!
The word means removal, not a softening of her record. And one man at that table never heard it.
The woman who drew near to Jesus with tears of repentance and faith had her sins actually forgiven. "Your sins are forgiven" — that is, sent away, dismissed. That was never said to Simon the Pharisee.
Verse 47 says her sins are forgiven "for she loved much." That can sound as though her love bought the pardon. Everything turns on the little word "for."
The word "for" is sometimes a reason why, and sometimes an evidence why. In this case it is the evidential "for," not the causative. It was not because she loved much that the Lord forgave her. It was His grace that caused her love.
Commentators differ on whether these words created her forgiveness or confirmed it. One says she had already taken hold of grace before He ever spoke to her.
When the Lord pronounced her a forgiven one on this evidence that she loved much, He had not yet spoken to her. What gives her faith such remarkable beauty and simplicity is that she had no word spoken directly to her to go on. She had seen His acts and ways of love with others, and she had laid hold of the grace in it for her own need. His lips only confirm it to her.
Another says the announcement came at the close of the evening, and that His word alone made her sure.
Here the Lord declares her sins forgiven. But notice: this came at the close of the interview, not the occasion of it. There is no ground to suppose that she knew her sins were forgiven before this... He speaks with authority, and guarantees forgiveness. Until Jesus said so, it would have been presumption for anyone then to act on the certainty that his sins were forgiven.
He sends her home pardoned. He asks her for nothing at the temple — and her law had no sacrifice for sins like hers.
We do know that He declared forgiveness to the woman in the Pharisee's house, and without any offering that she had to bring to God's altar to get it. No sacrifice she could have taken to Jerusalem could ever have met her need. Deliberate sin was not provided for by the law; so the favour that was given to her is of such interest to all of us. It was a foretaste of the gospel of the grace of God.
She did not leave with a hope for the future. She left with a fact she could state the next morning.
If we had met this woman the next day and said to her, "Are your sins forgiven? Are you saved?" what would her reply have been? "Yes, I have forgiveness; I am saved." And if we then asked, "Are you quite sure your sins are forgiven?" — would she not have said, "Yes, quite sure. The Saviour told me so, and His word can never fail"?
- Grace draws. She had watched His ways of love with others. She took hold of that grace for her own need before He ever spoke a word to her.
- The word declares. He did not stop at telling Simon. He turned and said it to her face — and left out the word "many."
- Love proves. Her tears were the evidence of pardon, not the price of it. The "for" of verse 47 points to proof, not payment.
- No payment. No offering at the temple could have covered her sins. She goes home forgiven anyway — a foretaste of the gospel.
- The certainty stands. She could have said the next day, and every day, "I am forgiven, because He told me so."
And they that were with [them] at table began to say within themselves, Who is this who forgives also sins?
At a Pharisee's dinner table, Jesus has just told a woman with a bad name in the town that her sins are forgiven. The guests around Him ask the right question about who He is. They ask it among themselves, and they never reach the answer.
The guests never put the question to Jesus. Older translations read that they began to say it "within themselves" — the question stayed in their own hearts. One writer sets Luke's wording beside two other moments in this Gospel where people "began" to do something:
When the Lord Jesus forgave a man in chapter 5, Luke writes that the people present "began to reason" (v. 21). Here they "began to say to themselves." Christ did not answer them as He did in chapter 5, though He knew their thoughts. Here He publicly vindicates the woman, who had justified Him by her acts of love. The people "began to say to themselves" in unbelief, unlike the prodigal in chapter 15 who "began to be merry" in communion with his father (v. 24).
The murmur was also wider than the host. Commenting on the moment the woman heard she was pardoned, one writer points out that Simon was not the only one troubled:
She loved much, because she was forgiven much; and she felt it... and so she must hear how truly she was forgiven. The Lord says to her, "Your sins are forgiven." This drew out the inward question of those around, and not Simon's only.
Their instinct was right: forgiveness belongs to God. What they missed was that God was in the room:
The Lord did not only speak of her forgiveness to the Pharisee. He also spoke to her about it Himself. Those four words must have been balm to her weary spirit: "Your sins are forgiven."... The onlookers might well ask, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?" God was here in the fullness of grace in the humbled Saviour.
That leaves no middle ground about the woman either. Her devotion to Him was either right, or it was the worst kind of wrong:
Only God can forgive sin... Either the Lord Jesus is God or this devotion to His person is open blasphemy and idolatry. Everything here revolves around the person of Christ.
What was new was not forgiveness but the way it came. She brought nothing to the altar for it:
We do know that He declared it to the woman in the Pharisee's house. And He did so without her bringing any offering to God's altar to obtain it. No sacrifice she could have taken to Jerusalem could possibly have met her need. The law made no provision for presumptuous sin. That is why the favour shown to her is of such interest to all of us. It was the first instalment of the gospel of the grace of God, which can now be freely and fully proclaimed to everyone on earth.
One writer weighs how far this pardon reaches, and what it points forward to:
In the case before us the forgiveness has nothing to do with the present life. It is absolute, unconditional, and eternal... It was what ought to be in Christianity — a small foretaste or example of what was to be proclaimed in the Gospel. It is found only in Luke.
He knew what the doubters were thinking. He did not argue with them. He spoke instead to the one person who wanted what He was giving:
The Lord had answered Simon's thoughts. But others at the meal were dense enough to question within themselves how the Lord could forgive sins (v.49). He answered their unbelieving thoughts also, but not by speaking to them directly. Instead, He added even more striking words of encouragement to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace" (v.50). Not only does He forgive: He saves and gives peace.
Everyone at that table heard the same words. Only one person there wanted them:
The notorious sinner heard it, and knew it was spoken of her, and to her. The vilest sinner in that house, as men count vileness, was the favoured one of all that company. The gracious announcement raised the question in many hearts: "Who is this, who even forgives sins?" But it seems that none of those who wondered this wanted that blessing for themselves. A person must be brought to feel his need before he is willing to receive forgiveness.
- Right question. Only God forgives sins, so the guests were right to ask who this man was. They never reached the answer: God Himself was there in the humbled Saviour.
- No middle ground. Either Jesus is God, or the woman's devotion to Him was blasphemy and idolatry. Everything in that room turns on who He is.
- New pardon. She brought no offering to the altar, and the law made no provision for her kind of sin. She heard the first instalment of the gospel.
- Full pardon. This forgiveness has nothing to do with the present life. It is absolute, unconditional and eternal.
- Directed pardon. He never argued with the doubters. He turned to the woman instead. She felt her need, and she received forgiveness, salvation and peace.
And he said to the woman, Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace.
At the dinner table, a woman known in the town as a sinner has just heard the Lord say that her sins are forgiven. The other guests are asking who He thinks He is, but His last words go to her — and they raise the question of what saved her: her tears, her love, or her faith.
He does not argue with the doubters. He turns back to the woman while they are still questioning.
Others at the meal were dense enough to ask themselves how the Lord could forgive sins (v.49). He answered their unbelieving thoughts too, but not by speaking to them directly. Instead, He added still more striking words of encouragement to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace" (v.50). Not only does He forgive: He saves and gives peace. He gives this assurance to the woman in front of all these doubters. At least He gave her no reason to doubt, whatever unbelieving doubts others may have.
Earlier the Lord had said she loved much. Here He names what saved her — and the two are not the same.
It was evidently not the woman's first sense of the grace of Christ. She did what she did because in her heart she truly believed in Him. She believed before she came. Her faith had brought her, but she did not know that her faith saved her. She loved before she came, and all that she did was the fruit of her love; yet not her love, but her faith saved her. She loved much, because she was forgiven much; and she felt it.
Reading it the other way round turns the parable He had just told upside down.
To say her sins were forgiven because she did the acts the Lord praises reverses the whole parable. It contradicts verse 50, which says: "Your faith has saved you." Not your love! The parable teaches that both debtors had their debts cancelled for free, before either of them did a thing.
Without this sentence she might have credited her own tears.
Not only did He forgive, He gave the woman the assurance of salvation, and also declared that her faith had been the means of it. Apart from this word, she might have imagined that her sorrow or her tears had won it. But no: it is faith that makes the all-important contact with the Saviour, and that contact brings salvation. She could indeed "Go in peace." She had forgiveness, which covered all her past. She also had salvation, which meant deliverance from the evil that had enslaved her.
Taken with verse 48, His words to her cover the whole of her life at once.
He speaks of the past, "Your sins are forgiven"; He speaks of the future, "Your faith has saved you"; He speaks of the present, "Go in peace." As she got up and went home, do you think she envied even the greatest woman in the land? Now she had what wealth and honours could not buy, what He alone could give.
She was at His feet. He does not tell her to stay.
The last words of Jesus to the woman are very emphatic — "Go in peace." The first is a remarkable word — "Go." Some people never seem to learn its force in their own experience. They may be sincere believers, but they keep hanging about Christ with doubts. They do not know the forgiveness of sins and present peace. They keep asking to be made whole and hoping to be pardoned, when Christ says to them, You are forgiven: "Go." He says, "Your faith has SAVED you; go in peace!" It is as if He said: Have no more doubts, fears, or misgivings. You are made whole, pardoned, reconciled, a child of God, a sinner saved.
"Go in peace" was a common parting phrase in that part of the world. Its use here is weighed differently.
Our Lord uses this form of blessing, "Go in peace," in only one other place in the Gospels. There, as here, it goes with the faith that saved. Because of this link we have good reason to treat these words as weightier than the ordinary farewell greeting of the East. The Lord was far above merely human convention in speech. He had come to "ordain peace" for His people in the best and surest sense. Peace, as it is seen here, is something the soul owns inside. It is the opposite of the fret and anxiety that, at its worst, can rise in a person from the sense of guilt before God or from the fear of death. Only divine assurance can drive that anxiety out. So peace follows faith, and it belongs to the mind and heart.
- Faith saves. Her love and her tears were real, but they were fruit, not cause — "not her love, but her faith saved her."
- Forgiveness first. She loved much because she was forgiven much; reverse the order and the parable of the two debtors collapses.
- Salvation is more. Forgiveness covered her past; salvation meant deliverance from the evil that had held her.
- Peace is present. Past, future and present are all settled, so He tells her to go — with an inward peace that answers guilt and the fear of death.
- Assurance is public. He spoke it over the heads of the doubters, so that whatever they thought, she had no reason left to doubt.