“To explain the expression, ‘Her sins are forgiven, for she loved much,’ we must distinguish between grace revealed in the person of Jesus, and the pardon He announced to those whom the grace had reached. The Lord is able to make this pardon known. He reveals it to the poor woman. But it was that which she had seen in Jesus Himself, which, by grace, melted her heart, and produced the love she had to Him—the 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. Hearing that He is there, she goes into the house of this proud man, without thinking of anything but the fact that Jesus is there. His presence answered, or prevented, every question. She saw what He was for a sinner, and that the most wretched and disgraced found a resource in Him; she felt her sins in the way that this perfect grace, which opens the heart and wins confidence, causes them to be felt; and she loved much. Grace in Christ had produced its effect. She loved because of His love. This is the reason that the Lord says, ‘Her sins are forgiven, because she loved much.’ It was not her love that was meritorious for this, but that God revealed the glorious fact that the sins—be they ever so numerous and abominable—of one whose heart was turned to God were fully pardoned. There are many whose hearts are turned to God, and who love Jesus, that do not know this. Jesus pronounces on their case with authority—sends them away in peace. It is a revelation—an answer—to the wants and affections produced in the heart made penitent by grace revealed in the person of Christ.”
J. N. D.
The love that was shown in grace to the needy, had won the heart of this child of wisdom, and in the light of His presence, her guilty heart found full assurance of pardon. (Read the whole story in Luke 7:35-50).