JOHN 7:53-8:11 THE ULTIMATE HOPE FOR SINNERS

53 Then each went to his own home.
1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Forgiveness of sin is only one side of the coin given us by God through Jesus Christ. We are also offered what the Church has termed the “amendment of life.” Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit we are given access to the power to break our bondage to sin and death. God’s redemption is experienced not just in the past and present, but also the future. We are given a new way to live a new life. As St. Paul wrote in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new is come!” (5:17). The good news is that we have been reborn from above. Like a birth, the forgiveness of our sins is the beginning of a new life, not the goal of our living.

In Jesus’ description of his mission recorded in John chapter 3, he said: “For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (v.17). But he also described the responsibility of those who believe: “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (v.21).

Like the woman caught in adultery, we are acknowledged sinners at the mercy of God. God in his mercy has sent his Son so that we might not be eternally condemned. The miserable meets the merciful and is given the opportunity for new life. But that opportunity is grasped by obedience to the command of the source of mercy who says, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (7:11c). God makes it possible, but we make it a reality for us. In the Baptism liturgy of the Episcopal Church the celebrant asks: “Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?” and the people answer: “I will, with God’s help.” It is God who frees us and empowers us to live as new creations. Note the urgency. It is not tomorrow, next week or before you die. The time is NOW.

As you, Lord Jesus, have forgiven me, pour out your Spirit upon me so that I can live as your disciple and resist even the near occasion of sin. Help me to leave this life of sin by recognizing my sin and continuing to repent and seek your cleansing Spirit. Amen.