Jesus says, “A certain moneylender had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which one of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”
– Luke 7:41–43
Now, Luke 7:41–43 whole conversation between Jesus and Simon takes place in the middle of a woman who had taken an alabaster flask of ointment and poured it on Jesus’ feet, and wet his feet with her tears, wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, anointed them with ointment. And this is a woman who had a reputation for being a sinner. And Jesus looks at Simon and tells him this story to illustrate this reality, that when we have been forgiven much, we will love much, and worship much, and show much gratitude, and thanksgiving, and awe.
We pray that the lives we lead will show our realization of how we have been given grace upon grace. May Your forgiveness of our sins compel us to extravagant worship of You.
And so I ask you the question, just wherever you are right now: How much have you been forgiven? Even as I ask that question, I am overwhelmed in my heart, in my life. I shudder to think of where I would be apart from God’s forgiveness of me. Of sin in my heart and my mind, in my life, in my actions, in my words, over years, over decades. There’s no question that I should not be, at this moment, leading a short podcast. I should be in hell right now and so should you.
This Verse Praises God For His Forgiveness
And so it’s good, it’s really good for us to pause, in light of this story in Luke chapter seven and to pray, and just to say, “God, we praise you for your forgiveness of us, for your forgiveness of all our sins. Jesus, we praise you for the cross. We praise you for taking the payment of all our sins upon yourself. Jesus, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We bow at your feet now in worship, in awe, in gratitude. We glorify your name. The savior of our souls, the forgiver of our sins, the Lord of our lives, the giver of life to us that we don’t deserve, the giver of love to us that we could never earn. All glory be to your name.
Luke 7:41–43 Prays That God Uses Our Lives For Glory
So God, may it be evident in our lives, in the way we love you, in the way we proclaim Jesus, in the way we proclaim the gospel, in the way we love others. May it be evident that we realize we have been forgiven so much and we have been given so much grace. All glory be to your name for the grace you have given us. May this grace, this forgiveness in our lives overflow into extravagant worship, into extravagant surrender to you of all that we are and all that we have.
Use us. In fact spend our lives, we pray, for your glory. That others might know this grace, that others might know this love, that others might know your forgiveness, that others might experience the awe and gratitude we experience at your feet. All glory be to your name, Jesus. We love you. All glory be to your name, Jesus. We love you so much because you have forgiven us of so much. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
