“Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” Luke 7:47

When you have been forgiven much, you love much.  We don’t realize how lost we were until we are born again.  As we grow in the Lord, as Jesus Christ authors our faith, we don’t realize exactly how saved we are.  Step by step, precept upon precept our faith is built upon Jesus and what He did for us on Calvary’s Cross.  As each test is pressed through with our faith placed solely and exclusively in Jesus’ atoning work, we look back and see He was there all along.

The modern church is the breach that redirects faith to the harlot of false doctrine for deliverance, causing repeated failure and complete destruction of faith.  The modern church will console and condone the very sin our Lord paid for on Calvary’s Cross.  The Believer in turn doesn’t understand of what they have been forgiven.  They never know the depth of their condemnation before accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour…they are never able to love much because they don’t know of how much they have been forgiven.

Sadly, many believe they are saved because they said that prayer and turned in their membership card.  They don’t believe with their heart that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour but give a mental acquiesce of Jesus.  In other words, what they consider their Salvation is more of an implied acceptance therefore not having to actively oppose the Gospel of Jesus.  I know this from experience.  If you asked me 10 years ago if I was saved and believed in Jesus Christ, I would have adamantly declared yes…all along living like the devil.  “Thou believe that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” James 2:19.

Sinners are called to believe in Jesus and what He did on the Cross. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.  Saints are called to follow Jesus Christ. “Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it.” Matthew 16:24-25.

Step by step, line upon line…we find life and life more abundantly.  It is true, we are just as saved the first day we are born again as we are the day we cross over into glory as long as our faith remains in Jesus Christ.  There are no “levels” of Salvation.  It is our Sanctification that is progressive.  Day by day, fighting the fight of faith in Jesus Christ and HIS finished work…not ours.  Realizing it is Him, Jesus Christ, that blesses us, protects us, guides and directs us and that is what He does, that is WHO He is – that is how He authors and finishes our faith.  Precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little, we begin to know just how saved we truly are; we begin to understand of just how much we have been forgiven and we begin to love Him more everyday of our life.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s Hand.” John 10:27-29.

The only person that can take one out of the Hand of God is one’s self.  The power of God to keep us comes through our faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work…not 40 days, shemitahs, harbingers, festivals and feasts but faith in Jesus which allows the Holy Spirit to isolate our sin nature and quicken our spirits to glorify God.  When our faith is not it Jesus, the Holy Spirit is not commissioned to free us from sin and death.  “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2.

If you have been forgiven much, you completely understand what I’m trying to say.  If you feel you haven’t done too much to be forgiven of, in other words you are/were a relatively “good person”, unfortunately you don’t understand the wickedness of your sin and need to repent.   Have you been forgiven much?  Do you now condone that which you have been forgiven because you use to do it?  That’s the devil’s workshop.  There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.  Without Jesus as our Lord and Saviour we are condemned.  With Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we are now spiritually alive unto God (Romans 6:11) and no longer dead in our sin and trespasses.  Being born again is being born of the Spirit of God (John 3:5) through faith in Jesus…it is not until we are spiritually alive that we realize we were spiritually dead.  It is not until we are born again that we realize of how much we have been forgiven.

-Donna Clark Warren