Our Lord fixed the governor’s debt at the huge figure of two million pounds in order to emphasise how great and grievous is the debt of human sin to God. This may seem an exaggeration. It is not.

For once we catch a glimpse of the scorching holiness of God, dwelling in light unapproachable by sinful human beings, and grasp the fact that he created us so that we ourselves might achieve a character of sinless perfection – then it becomes glaringly obvious how far, how desperately far, we fall short of that; how enormous is the discrepancy in our account, and how powerless we are to make it good.