Go and Sin No More...

This is a hard pill to swallow for me, this quote from Jesus. "Go and sin no more." How is that even possible? The more I think about it, the more I realize how much sinning is built into my nature, not by God, but by what happened at the time of original sin, which is a whole pandora's box of a topic to uncover later.

I mean, think about it, how often do we gossip, lose our tempers, have an impure thought, say an unkind word or something profane? More than I think any of us would care to admit. But there's so much more to what Jesus said than just that one simple phrase.

Let's take a look. In John 8, Jesus went to the temple courts near the mount of Olives, for what purpose John didn't say. The Pharisees, looking to trap Jesus in His words, as was their preferred method of trying to get Him to trip up, brought a young woman into the temple, a woman accused of adultery. They taunted Jesus by saying, "Hey, the law of Moses says that we should stone this woman, what say you?" Jesus, never being one to allow himself pulled into such legalistic arguments said, "Let you who is without sin cast the first stone."

Okay, let's stop here. Imagine a time in your life when you or someone you know tried to trap someone with words, and the other person shoots back calmly with a reply you simply cannot deny the logic of. How belittled did you feel? Now, imagine Jesus, a man in His thirties, shooting this back at the Pharisees, some of whom John leads us to believe are not quite so young. They were thunderstruck. I can imagine that in that moment, you could have heard a pin drop a mile away. What could they have said? The Bible says that one by one, starting with the oldest, the Pharisees dropped their stones and fled the scene. Stunning, really.

What happened next, though is what really amazes me about Jesus. Jesus, standing from where he had been writing in the sand (I always wondered what it was that he wrote), looks at the woman and asks, "Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she replies.

"Then, go and sin no more." What do you say to that? It was without doubt a command, but one with promise. Jesus knew she would sin one day. But it was what He knew at that moment that she didn't that is so great. We don't necessarily know at what point Jesus became aware of the fact that He would act as a sacrifice for our sins, but I have to believe He already knew it at this point. Jesus hinted at the possibility of purity. The reality of forgiveness. When I began to realize this, it was simply earth shattering to me. Jesus has always paved the way for right standing with God in our lives. He made it possible for one on one communion with God. Up until Jesus, only one priest had that right, for the whole nation of Israel. Now, Jesus, has made it possible for us to approach God blameless. He made it possible for us to sin... no... more.

I don't think I'll ever completely understand what Jesus did. But that's what makes study fun. There's always another stone to turn over.