“Neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:11
When one single mother had to find work to take care of her family in the 1950s, she took on typing jobs. The only issue was that she wasn’t a very good typist and kept making mistakes. She looked for ways to cover up her errors and eventually created what’s known as Liquid Paper, a white correction fluid used to cover up typing errors. Once it dries, you can type over the cover-up as if there were no errors.
Jesus offers us an infinitely more powerful and important way to deal with our sin—no cover-up but complete forgiveness. A good example of this shows up in the beginning of John 8 in the story of a woman who was caught in adultery (vv. 3–4). The teachers of the law wanted Jesus to do something about the woman and her sins. The law said she should be stoned, but Christ didn’t bother to entertain what the law did or didn’t say. He simply offered a reminder that all have sinned (see Romans 3:23) and told anyone who hadn’t sinned to “throw a stone at” the woman (John 8:7). Not one rock was tossed.
Jesus offered her a fresh start. He said He didn’t condemn her and instructed that she “leave [her] life of sin” (v. 11). Christ gave her the solution to forgive her sin and “type” a new way of living over her past. That same offer is available to us by His grace.
How has Jesus and the forgiveness of sin He provides written a new story in your life? How will this change how you treat others who’ve also sinned?
Jesus, thank You for cleansing me of my sins. Help me to live a renewed life in You.
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INSIGHT
In John 7, we learn that Jesus was teaching and healing in Galilee and staying out of Judea “because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him” (v. 1). Whether out of fear, jealousy, or something else, they wanted Him gone. Yet when the Feast of Tabernacles approached, Christ traveled to Jerusalem in Judea to observe the weeklong festival. During the festival, the Jewish leaders attempted to have Jesus seized (vv. 30, 43–44). Instead of heading home after the festival, He stayed in Judea (7:53–8:1). He went to the temple to preach, and there the teachers of the law and Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery (8:3-8). However, their attempt to entrap Jesus failed (v. 9).