"When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, 'Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?' She said, 'No one, Lord.' And Jesus said to her, 'Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.'" (John 8:10, 11)
The Gospel Message here is quite clear, though through the centuries, right up to the present day, it has been "tweaked." Much of the "gospel" today is, "Neither do I condemn you........................" It packs church services, but endangers the adherents by not proclaiming the glorious, "power of the Gospel," viz., "Go and sin no more," which Romans 6 later affirms to us, "Sin shall no longer have the dominion over you"!
It does a person no good to hear, "There is now no condemnation..," if they do not hear and walk in the empowering, "....knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be rendered inoperative, that we should no longer be slaves of sin....For sin shall not have dominion over you." I am not deprecating forgiveness, grace, mercy. I am, however, "exalting" the deliverance power in the Blood of Jesus which enables me to, "Go and sin no more." No, neither I nor you are sinless people. But the command of Jesus in our text is something like, "Don't let this happen again." Our Lord Jesus Christ would not say such to people if He cannot empower us to so walk therein.
Our text is akin to Ephesians 2:8-10. The Four Spiritual Laws do not include verse 10, but they should have, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." What good does it do a person if that person walks out of a church meeting feeling all gushy, bouncy, and happy, if it was only a placebo?!?
We can only imagine what the woman in our text must have experienced in that moment Our Lord Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you"------ but also in the sobering, albeit seemingly impossible, "Go and sin no more." This is unalloyed Gospel.
Father, in Jesus' Name, I will never be able to thank You enough for driving me into all of Your Words. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
