John 8 | Transformed

December 8th, John 8.

“Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

-John 8:11

This morning when I read through John 8, this line caught my attention. It comes at the end of a very powerful scene where a women who is caught in adultery is brought before Jesus. The text says those who brought her here wanted to test Jesus to see how he would respond, hoping he would slip up and they would have reason to imprison or kill him.

Notice how these religious elites are treating the woman. She’s nothing more than a pawn in their political game. Not only this, but they want her stoned. They shame her. They point to her sin and scream “condemn her!” Contrast this with how Jesus treats her. He is gentle. He doesn’t shrink back from calling her to holy living. But oh how kind He is and loving. He is fulfilling in John 3:17 where he said he didn’t “come into the world to condemn the world”.

Then what happens? He says “if anyone is without sin, let them throw the first stone.” And they all leave.

The point? Jesus doesn’t condemn people who are sinful or broken. The Pharisees were blind to their own sin. You and I either play the pharisees or play the woman. We are either blind to our own sin and need to be reminded if we got what we deserved, we’d have no relationship with God. Or we either play the woman, and are acutely aware of our sin and think what we will get is a spiritual stoning.

What does Jesus do? He offers grace and compassion. “Neither do I condemn you.” How beautiful. God, looking into the core of your heart and seeing your sin, and he says “I will not cast you away because of that”. Some modern theologians would stop here. But Jesus, where we should derive our theology from, continues: “and sin no more”.

Is He asking her to be perfect? No, for we know there are plenty of scriptures that show us this is impossible. (1st john 1:8). What Jesus is saying is He doesn’t condemn her for her sin, but she does need to leave it behind. She does need to go down the process of repenting, killing, fleeing, putting up barriers to her sin. She needs to un-love her sin.

Jesus’ love and grace meets us in the darkness of our sin, we do not have to clean ourselves up to come to Him. But, His love also transforms us and leads us into greater holiness.

Reflection question:

What do you need to hear God’s forgiveness for in your life? And what sin do you need to begin “un-loving”?

Killing my sin with you,

Josh.