Luke 7:42

And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? AND WHEN THEY HAD NOTHING TO PAY, HE FRANKLY FORGAVE THEM BOTH. TELL ME THEREFORE, WHICH OF THEM WILL LOVE HIM MOST?...

36-50 None can truly perceive how precious Christ is, and the glory of the gospel, except the broken-hearted. But while they feel they cannot enough express self-abhorrence on account of sin, and admiration of his mercy, the self-sufficient will be disgusted, because the gospel encourages such repenting sinners. The Pharisee, instead of rejoicing in the tokens of the woman's repentance, confined his thoughts to her former bad character. But without free forgiveness none of us can escape the wrath to come; this our gracious Saviour has purchased with his blood, that he may freely bestow it on every one that believes in him. Christ, by a parable, forced Simon to acknowledge that the greater sinner this woman had been, the greater love she ought to show to Him when her sins were pardoned. Learn here, that sin is a debt; and all are sinners, are debtors to Almighty God. Some sinners are gre...

Verse 42. _WHICH OF THEM WILL LOVE HIM MOST?_] Which is under the greater _obligation_ and _should_ love him most?...

FRANKLY FORGAVE - Freely forgave, or forgave entirely without any compensation. This is not designed to express anything about the way in which God forgives sinners. He forgives - forgives freely, but it is in connection with the “atonement” made by the Lord Jesus. If it was a mere “debt” which we owed to God, he might forgive, as this creditor did, without an equivalent. But it is “crime” which he forgives. He pardons as a moral governor. A parent might forgive a “debt” without any equivalent; but he cannot pardon an offending child without regarding his own “character” as a parent, the “truth” of his threatenings, the good order of his house, and the maintenance of his authority. So our sins against God, though they are called “debts,” are called so “figuratively.” It is not an affair of “money,” and God cannot forgive us without maintaining his word, the honor of his government, and l...

EXPOSITION LUKE 7:1 The _servant _(_or slave_)_ of the centurion of Capernaum is healed._ LUKE 7:1 NOW WHEN HE HAD ENDED ALL HIS SAYINGS. This clearly refers to the sermon on the mount. That great discourse evidently occupied a position of its own in the public ministry of the Lord. Its great length, its definite announcement of the kind of reign he was inaugurating over the hearts of men, its stern rebuke of the dominant religious teaching of the day, its grave prophetic onlooks,—all marked it out as the great manifesto of the new Master, and as such it seems to have been generally received. HE ENTERED INTO CAPERNAUM. The residence of Jesus, as we have before pointed out, during the greater part of hi

AND WHEN THEY HAD NOTHING TO PAY,.... Neither the lesser nor greater debtor; for though not alike in debt, yet both insolvent: man has run out his whole stock, which the God of nature gave him, in his original creation and primitive state; and is become a bankrupt and a beggar, is poor, wretched, and miserable; he has no money, he has nothing to offer for a composition, much less for payment; he has no righteousness, and if he had, it would be nothing to pay with; since that itself, even in perfection, is due to God, and cannot discharge a former debt: sin being committed against an infinite being, is in some sense an infinite debt, and requires an infinite satisfaction, which a finite creature can never give; and he is therefore liable to a prison, and that for ever: but behold the wonderful grace of God, the creditor! HE FRANKLY FORGAVE THEM BOTH: their whole debts, without regard to...

Luke 7:18. _And the disciples of John shewed him of all these things._ John was in prison, and, possibly, troubled in spirit. Luke 7:19. _And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus saying, art thou he that should come? or look we for another?_ Did John doubt, then? Perhaps not. It may be that he saw that his disciples doubted, and that he wished their fears to be removed. It is possible, however, that he did himself have doubts. It is no unusual thing for the bravest hearts to be subject to fits of doubt. Elijah, you remember sat under a juniper tree in the wilderness, «and he requested for himself that he might die,» though he was the man who never was to die. And John, the Elijah of the Christian dispensation, though a man of iron, was but a man, so he se

CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The Centurion's Servant Healed. (Luke 7:1 .)_ 2. The Widow's Son Raised from the Dead. (Luke 7:11) 3. John's Questions and the Answer. (Luke 7:18) 4. The Testimony Concerning John. (Luke 7:24) 5. The Unreasonableness of Unbelief. (Luke 7:30 .) 6. The Woman With the Alabaster Box. (Luke 7:36) 7. The Parable of the Two Debtors. (Luke 7:41 .)...

THE ANOINTING OF JESUS. Lk. only; perhaps based on the incident (though not to be identified with it) recorded in Mark 14:3 *, Matthew 26:6 *, and introduced here in illustration of Jesus-' friend ship with sinners (Luke 7:34). Simon the leper is here Simon the Pharisee; the abandoned woman enters uninvited and no one is astonished. Her tears forestall her intention, she even makes the sacrifice of letting down her hair in public. Note _mg._ in Luke 7:37. There is affection here, dignified reverence in Mark 14; toucheth (Luke 7:39) is really clingeth to (_cf._...

A SOLDIER'S FAITH (Luke 7:1-10)...