A Great Sinner and a Great Saviour

"And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meal in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment." (Luke 7:37-38)

Millions of persons are, at this moment, and in this long-called Christian country, expecting to receive absolution from a sinner, as vile and polluted as themselves, a human official priest. I have not language sufficiently strong to express my loathing of the ignorance that can bend beneath such superstitions, and my deep indignation at the diabolical villainy of those who fill their coffers by contrivances of lies. Talk of absolution from a creature! Surely, none but the devil himself could ever equal it. Nay, I do not think that He ever did; for in all his temptations of Christ, He did not once presume to offer absolution. He certainly did presume to tell Him one barefaced lie; namely, that he would give Him all the kingdoms of the world, which he could not do, because they were not his to give. "All the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." That was base enough; but it is not half so base as the wretches who tell us that they have power to grant absolution to a fellow worm. It really appears to me, that none of the brute creation are sunk so much beneath their position in the creation of God, as those men are who yield to such horrible delusions, I denounce this, because of the fact that millions of persons are this very day, and even in the British empire, duped and plundered by that horrible doctrine of absolution at the hands of men. Observe, however, that this doctrine, viewed scripturally, is a very precious one; and we do not mean that the devil should rob us of the doctrine, though it is his constant practice to turn to the vilest of uses the best of things. The doctrine of absolution is plainly set forth in Scripture, but then Jehovah assumes it as His own prerogative. "I, even I," says He, "am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." (Isaiah 43:25) The Jews asked the question very pertinently, at the close of the chapter from which I have taken my text, when Jesus said unto the woman, "Thy sins are forgiven thee," "Who is this that forgiveth sins?" A very reasonable question; and I wish every poor wretch who visits the confessional would put that question to the priest. The rational answer would be, "Why a fallen creature, who needs forgiveness himself, or he will go to hell." But when the question is put concerning Christ, "Who is this that forgiveth sins?" the answer is, "He who is able; He who has engaged to blot them out in His own blood; He who, from everlasting, has taken them upon Himself, in covenant engagements, that He might put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself; He who is truly properly God."

- excerpt from a sermon preached by Joseph Irons at Grove Chapel in Camberwell, January 1849