Read Luke 7 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
Luke 7:1-50 Chiastic Structure:
And He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Luk 7:48
Jesus draws a Natural Picture of a monetary debt which one does not have the resources to meet, illustrating the debt of sin which we have incurred to our account before God. It doesn’t matter if someone owes a little or a lot; sin is a debt which humans do not have the resources to meet.
So, our heavenly Creditor freely forgave the debt, whether we owe a little or a lot. Isn’t that wonderful?!!
To forgive is in Greek, Strong’s G863, ἀφίημι aphiēmi; its Hebrew counterpart, according to the Septuagint, is Strong’s H5545, סלח salach. The ancient pictographs are sin + lamed + chet.
sin ס = thorn, thus grab, hate, protect
lamed ל = shepherd’s staff, thus teach, yoke, to, bind
chet ח = wall, thus outside, divide, half
The cognate words all have to do with raising up in one way or another, as a basket is raised up on the head to carry it; a bank is a raised mound of earth; and a ladder is something which raises to a higher elevation. The parable being told by the Hedrew Root Word, then is of taking ahold of (sin) the yoke (lamed) which limits (chet, in the sense of a fence which defines the limit of a space) so as to raise it up or off. According to the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon, salach lifts one out of a debt.
If there are questions, this is a good resource:
God has forgiven me – Christine Miller
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