Do you know Luke’s purpose in presenting
Do you know Luke's purpose in presenting such a picture of the forgiveness of sins? His pur pose was to portray the Man-Savior with His highest standard of morality. This should be re garded as the underlying principle in the writ ing of the Gospel of Luke. Especially in this case we can see this governing principle. Here we have a portrait of the Savior's highest standard of morality. According to the emphasis in the Gospel of Luke, the highest standard of morality is a matter of the human virtues of the Man- Savior expressing His divine attributes.
FAITH COMING BEFORE FORGIVENESS
In this case we need to pay attention to the three matters of faith, love, and peace. When as a young Christian I read this chapter, I thought that the woman's love for the Savior was the cause of the forgiveness of her sins. I thought that He forgave her because she loved Him. This under standing is not correct.
In verse 50 the Lord said to the woman that her faith, not her love, had saved her. Fur thermore, regarding the two debtors who were forgiven by the moneylender, the Lord asked, "Which of them therefore will love him more?" (v. 42). This indicates clearly that love is the issue