FULL LOVE

 

One Sunday morning, a pastor announced to his congregation: ‘Friends, I have here in my hands three sermons: a $100 sermon that lasts five minutes, a $50 sermon that lasts fifteen minutes and a $10 sermon that lasts a full hour.  ‘Now, we’ll take the offering and see which one I’ll deliver.’

A Woman Caught in Adultery

8 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. 4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. 9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Seeking to entrap Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees burst into the women's court and threw a married (or betrothed) woman before Him. They "caught" her in the act of adultery and seized her. Consider the specific test they were putting forth: "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now the Law of Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?"

Who is this woman?  The answer may surprise you.  She's you. And she's us.  We have all been "caught" in our sins. By the same token James said that if you break one commandment, you've broken them all (James 2:10). That places all of us, men and women alike, on the same moral level. We have all sinned. If every Christian would have eyes to see this truth, we would humbly eliminate all self-righteousness from our hearts.

We all have the propensity to sin. With one devastating statement Jesus demonstrated that the Law wasn't wrong, but if everyone saw the Law for what it was, we would understand that we are all guilty. Including the self-anointed, puritanical, moral guardians known as the scribes and Pharisees ... and those who follow in their footsteps.

It's interesting that John 8 opens with a group of men wanting to stone a woman, and it ends with a group of men wanting to stone Jesus. When people's hypocrisy is exposed, the typical instinct is to kill the person who did the exposing. And that's exactly what Jesus did in this scene. Self-righteous men exposed an adulterous woman. A merciful prophet exposed the hypocrisy of religious leaders.   According to Jesus, only the guiltless could rightfully carry out such a righteous sentence of justice.

Unfortunately, this same judgmental attitude lives in the hearts of many self-righteous Christians today. These are those who clearly see the evil in others while being blind to the evil residing in their own hearts. In the mind of God, righteousness and justice are grounded in grace. Whenever grace is removed, we are left with the heartless hypocrisy of Pharisaism. In this story, Jesus Christ didn't overturn the Law. Instead, He re-established righteousness on the basis of grace

Don't misunderstand. Sin is heinous. Whether it takes the form of adultery, or slander, or abusive words in a fit of rage, or jealousy, or gossip, or lying (pick your sin), God doesn't ignore it because sin harms the people He created.  

Grace ushers in forgiveness, but it also empowers us to walk in a new way. Holiness, then, is built on the experience of grace, He's in the business of rescuing and releasing us, while at the same time calling our sin for what it is: self-centeredness.

So what can we learn here 

1. WE ALL SIN.   Rom 3:23

2. Our sin will be uncovered. But Scripture promises our sins will find us out (Num. 32:23). As Moses said in Psalm 90:8, speaking to God, “You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence” (NIV).

3. WE CAN’T TRICK GOD.  He sees—and wants—our hearts, open, honest, and laid bare before Him..

4. JESUS CAME TO SAVE, NOT CONDEMN.

Directly following perhaps the most oft quoted verse in Scripture, Jesus said, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).  In this, we see our Father’s heart in sending His Son to earth and Jesus’ heart in taking our punishment upon Himself.  From the beginning of time, God consistently and persistently communicates a driving desire—to reconcile us, a bunch of stubborn and rebellious humans, to Himself., we see it in Jesus’ response to the adulterous woman in John chapter 8. Confronted with a choice to condemn or redeem, Jesus said to the woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin” (NIV).  He essentially said to the woman, "Don't sin like this again." Not because she might be stoned. But because grace had rescued her—and she now possessed a new identity as a beautifully loved child of God. Jesus is the Christ who is greater than Moses. While the Law demanded execution, Jesus re-established righteousness on the basis of grace.

5.  JESUS OFFERS NEW LIFE.   If you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are set blessedly free from condemnation. Not only can you not be condemned, you can't even be indicted. Why? Because you are in Christ, and He's unindictable.

6. GOD’S GRACE DEMANDS LIFE CHANGE.

Not only does Christ enable us to live transformed, His grace demands this. Whereas previously self-love, characterized by rebellion, drove us, once under grace, His love motivates us to live in a way that pleases Him.  Because God has placed you in Christ, making you holy and blameless in His sight, Jesus has called you to a brand-new life. A life no longer marred by sin, but baptized by grace—just like the woman caught in the act of adultery. Thus He says to you ... and to us ... Go and sin no more. I have written a new identity and a new future for you

7. WHEN JESUS SPEAKS, OUR ACCUSERS FLEE.

Imagine having your worst sin paraded in front of a packed congregation. Imagine standing, condemned, by the supreme religious authority of your day. The morning when the scribes and Pharisees thrust the adulterous woman in front of Jesus and what one can reasonably presume was a sizeable crowd, she experienced both.  But one even greater than the scribes and Pharisees stood in her midst—Jesus. Nothing the religious leaders said could override His authority, and when He spoke, her accusers fled. When He speaks mercy over us, by His blood, our accuser, Satan, flees as well.