The "Works" That Mary's Faith Did
If we realize that our worldly hearts are cold, if no tears of gratitude ever well up in our eyes, should we go out and give ourselves to the devil and repeat Mary's plunge so we can learn how to "love much"? No, for we might never find our way back as she did. But there's a better way to learn how to "love much."
(a) Realize, (b) see, (c) behold, (d) grasp, how your true guilt is greater than you have imagined it to be. See—how you sit side by side with Simon owing "five hundred silver coins," not a mere fifty. Think about what you would be if Jesus had not already "saved" you from your true potential.
I remember watching a documentary on Naziism. If I had been a German boy growing up under Hitler, surrounded with that insistent propaganda, taught to obey orders whether or not, faithful in a patriotic way, what could I have become? When I was born, I had no built-in defense that would have made me more righteous!
The New English Bible correctly renders our familiar text that may leave us feeling a little smug and self-satisfied. Romans 3:23 usually tells us that we have sinned, well, some: "All have sinned …" But the true rendering is: "All alike have sinned." No one of us as humans is innately any more righteous than anyone else.
We all have inherited through our genes and chromosomes the same sinful, fallen nature. We were born separated from God and thus alienated from righteousness. We were born on our own; we have all had to learn about a Savior. We have had to hear the gospel—it didn't come as standard equipment in our genes. If we never hear it, no telling where we could end up.
Whatever "goodness" we may imagine we possess has been the imputed and imparted gift of Christ's righteousness. If He were to let go of us, we would be helpless, which means we would be powerless to save ourselves from the evil that our sinful nature would prompt us to do and to be.
The sins of someone else therefore would be our sins aside from that grace of Christ. They are our sins … but for Him! The message of Christ's righteousness makes clear that it is His 100%, not ours by even one percent. But our worldly hearts resent this humbling realization. The Jews in Christ's day resented it; we are as prone today. In honest truth, we are sitting with Simon the Leper.
We owe the full five hundred silver coins.
This "formula" that Jesus expressed to Simon ("forgiven much, love much; forgiven little, love little") if understood becomes a truth that will transform a lukewarm church into one throbbing with the life of heaven.
Jesus realized that it would have been just as difficult for Simon to grasp this as it is for us in Laodicea to grasp it now. That's why He knew that He had to come down hard on Simon with devastating logic, so he could see his true condition. The "formula" ("forgiven much/love much") for want of a better word has been described as "corporate guilt" and "corporate repentance." Corporate guilt is for sins we may not have personally committed, but which we know we would have committed if we had met a temptation of sufficient strength, and if we had not had a Savior holding us by the hand.
Someone has wisely said that "the books of heaven record the sins that would have been committed had there been opportunity."1 You may cry in distress, "There's no end to my guilt! Then there's no hope for me!" But there was hope for Mary—delivered from her seven devils; there was hope for Simon—from his eighth. And let us remember: if the dimensions of our true corporate guilt are as wide as the whole world that crucified the Son of God, there is also the infinite righteousness of Christ that He longs to impute and impart to us. He forgave those who crucified Him—we are the ones who did it. We are forgiven!
There is no biblical hint that Jesus' self-sacrificing labor for Simon's soul was in vain; the Pharisee's heart was touched. Undoubtedly, he became a converted follower of Jesus. Christ's morning prayer that day was answered!
And before Jesus died, in Simon converted He saw a prophecy of Laodicea converted! Hang on by faith; there is hope for her. The church can be healed.
Notes:
- Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, July 31, 1901.