Luke 15:7 (DBY)

Passage

I say unto you, that thus there shall be joy in heaven for one repenting sinner, [more] than for ninety and nine righteous who have no need of repentance.

Nearby Context

Luke 15:5 and having found it, he lays it upon his own shoulders, rejoicing;

Luke 15:6 and being come to the house, calls together the friends and the neighbours, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.

Luke 15:7 I say unto you, that thus there shall be joy in heaven for one repenting sinner, [more] than for ninety and nine righteous who have no need of repentance.

Luke 15:8 Or, what woman having ten drachmas, if she lose one drachma, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek carefully till she find it?

Luke 15:9 and having found it she calls together the friends and neighbours, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thus", "shall", "heaven", "repenting", "sinner", "than", and "ninety". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thus" and "shall", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 6's "and being come to the house calls..." into verse 8's "Or what woman having ten drachmas if...", so "thus" and "shall" belong inside that flow. In Luke context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "thus" and "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.