Today’s Bible reading from the Five Day Bible Reading Plan: Deuteronomy 6-9; Luke 7

How much do you need God’s forgiveness? If you believe you are basically a good person who just needs a little improvement, then you won’t believe God needs to do a lot of work on you.

But if you see yourself in light of Scripture, then you know you need God’s full forgiveness in order to be right with him.

In Luke 7:36-50, a woman of ill-repute comes in to a house where Jesus is speaking with the religious leaders. She begins to anoint his feet, while the leaders wonder why Jesus doesn’t run her off. The story he tells is an indicator that this woman recognizes who she is and that she needs as much of God’s forgiveness as she can get

The religious leaders, however, do not think they need much. They believe they already do so much for God and are so holy–what is there to forgive? They were blind.

Ephesians 2:1-5 reminds us:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

May this humble us to the point that we come to God saying, “Have mercy on me, a sinner!” Then watch that grace and mercy flow.