I am starting a new series on “Who I am in Christ.” I am leading a discussion with our youth group on our identity in Christ, and these posts will be my thoughts on what we discuss each week. I will put a few discussion questions that I asked our teenagers at the end of each post for you to join the discussion. I want to lay a foundation for my youth group kids to know who they truly are in Christ, and maybe you or someone in your life needs to know that too. The first week, we studied “I am Forgiven.” Check out the category “Who I am in Christ” to see all the posts.
More often than we would like to admit, we get stuck in our sin. I have felt this way and maybe you have too. Sin is when we displease God. Sin is doing what we know is not right. When we are stuck in sin, we feel like it doesn’t matter what we do we will never be able to shake our identity of sin. We may stray from our sin for a time, but eventually, we keep returning to our sin because it is comfortable. Our minds are utter turmoil because we want to be free, but we keep doing what we know is wrong, and we feel like there is nothing we can do to rid ourselves of the identity sin has given us.
There is a woman in the Bible who felt this way too. So much so, that she was fed up with the feelings of depression, heartache, insecurity, and inner-turmoil that she decided she had to do something about it. This may have been a last-ditch effort to soothe her aching heart. She had heard so much about Jesus, she felt like if He was the answer to her heartache it would be worth trying. Maybe she had tried everything else, and nothing had worked to rid her of her hopelessness.
When Jesus was eating at the house of Simon, who was a Pharisee, the woman walked in weeping and began to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears, wipe them with her hair, kiss them with her lips, and anoint them with ointment she carried in an alabaster box (Luke 7:37-38). What humility. What sorrow. What hurt.
That’s what sin brings with it. It brings hurt. It brings sorrow.
When Simon saw what the woman was doing, he was appalled. He was could not believe that Jesus would want to have anything to do with her. But Jesus did not respond that way. To Simon he said, “Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head” (KJV Luke 7:44). Jesus responded with grace to the woman. He responded with teaching to Simon.
Rather than condemning the woman for her sins, Jesus said to her,
“Wherefore I say unto thee, ‘Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much’” (KJV Luke 7:47).
Jesus gave grace to the woman. Jesus gave forgiveness to the woman.
All of her sins were forgiven. She had many sins, but each one, Jesus forgave.
“And he said to the woman, ‘Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace’” (KJV Luke 7:50).
She may have come to Jesus with tears in her eyes and an alabaster box of very expensive ointment, but she left with so much more than what she came with. She left with forgiveness. She left with salvation. She left with peace.
Two times in Luke 7 this woman is identified as a “sinner” (Luke 7:37 and Luke 7:39). Two times Luke makes it a point to identify her by her sin. Without Christ, she was a sinner, but with Christ, she was forgiven.
A friend of mine would beat herself up mentally and emotionally when she made a mistake or did something she knew was wrong. She would say, “Well, I’m a sinner. I can’t do anything right.” She lived a season hopeless and depressed as a result of this. However, just like the woman in Luke 7, without Christ, she was a sinner, but with Christ, she is forgiven. The same goes for you and me. When we know Christ, we are not identified by our sin. We are identified by Christ’s forgiveness. We are people who sin, but that is not who we are anymore. God does not see our sin. He sees what Jesus did when He shed his blood on the cross.
Christ died on the cross to pay the punishment for our sins. Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (KJV). While we were sinners, Christ shed his blood on the cross so that we could be forgiven: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (KJV Ephesians 1:7). By His grace, we have forgiveness.
Forgiven is who we are in Christ.
Discussion Questions
Answer the following questions in the comments below to reflect more on this post.
- Describe the women in Luke 7:36-39?
- What can we learn about Jesus from Luke 7:36-50?
- How do you think the woman felt when she left in Luke 7:50?
