“Go and Sin No More”
Pastor Manny Ojeda
Sensing that his life was coming to an end, a father decided to get closer to his grown up children. He began to dedicate his time to them and to make the remaining years as meaningful as possible. To the father’s surprise, his attempts at closeness were received with coldness and indifference. The father did not waiver, he tried again and again to establish a close bond with his kids, he took their children to the park, used more endearing terms, and was in constant contact with them, but they would not have it. As a matter of fact they could not bring themselves to get close to their aging; dying father. Finally out of frustration the father asked his children for the reason that they would not accept his love. They responded with what seemed to be a callous response. Father they responded, how can you come to us now and show us so much attention and endearment when all throughout our childhood you were cold and distant, punishing and harsh. How can we come close to you now when you were never close to us then?
The nature of man is like that of a child, you attract children with love rather than condemnation and judgment. Parents do not treat their children with love so that they can love them back, God does not shower us with affection and favors in order to gain a response from us. Remember 1st John 4:16, which tells us that “God is love” Not only is God love, but “he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.” These are mighty words. The father in our story did not have the homage of his children because he lacked the kind of love spoken of in 1st John 4:16. Turn your Bible to our text in John 8:10,11. Here we read the famous story of the woman caught in adultery. For me this is one of the most powerful stories in the New Testament because here we come face to face with God’s love. So we ask ourselves the question, based on this story, what is the nature of God’s love? Let’s examine that as we compare the three characters in the story of the woman caught in adultery.
The first character that I would like to draw your attention to is the accusers. As we know in this story, the accusers are the scribes and the Pharisees. They are the religious leaders and intellectuals that lacked nothing when having to do with knowledge and religious rite. These men were the cream of the spiritual crop, the top of the ecclesiastical food chain for the Jews. Their opinions were weightier than even Caesar himself in the eyes of the Jews. Most important of all though, these spiritual leaders were in charge of defending the faith and converting others into it. John 8 tells us that these leaders brought a woman, caught in adultery, which was a crime punishable by death and threw her at the feet of Jesus. If we dig deep into this story, we see that she was there alone; begging to ask where is the man who she was caught with. This is simply a trap, not for the woman but for Jesus. The woman is just a pawn in the religious game that these men are playing. And the trap was laid so that Jesus would contradict Himself with what Moses had written down in the laws that the Jews has so masterfully misapplied.
The nature of the accusers is to do just that, accuse. Some may not see anything wrong with this, but let’s examine the spirit in which this accusation was brought. Let’s turn our Bibles to 2nd Timothy 3:1-5. There we read that, “But know this, that in the last days perilous time will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying it’s power. And from such people turn away.” This is the character of the religious masters in Jesus’ time. This is the character of the accusers in John 8. The accusers seem readily to claim that they are spiritually in tune with God, yet they lack His love. Remember 1st John 4:16! The accusers here are tearing down the character of God through their self-proclaimed Godliness. But they proclaim godliness while denying its power. By power what I mean is not the kind of power that divided the red sea and the power that provided the manna in the desert. By power I am not talking about the power exercised at creation, no, by power I mean the love to approach a sinner and redeem them. This is simply the power to resurrect someone from spiritual death, to spiritual life. The nature of an accuser is to tear down and kill not rebuild. The nature of an accuser is a selfish one because to redeem means to be like Christ and give up self.
Lets turn our attention now to the second player in our story; the redeemer. While the accuser tears down and comes hiding his own nature while attacking the same nature in others, the redeemer comes simply to rescue. In John 8, Jesus while teaching about the plan of salvation, was brought a harlot, a prostitute who could not keep her hands to herself. Imagine the scene, this filthy woman, half dressed, lying on the ground where they threw here, in the presence of the Son of God; the spotless Lamb of God. What next? This was a direct test from the religious leaders to Jesus. They tested Him against the Mosaic Law. The first thing that Jesus did is what he did not do. Jesus did not leave the presence of the woman. What made Jesus into the redeemer is that as the sinner was brought to Him, he showered her with His presence. This instance is the physical manifestation of Romans 5:8 which tell us, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Friend, the nature of the redeemer is to be with the sinner. Jesus’ initial action that day was to show that He came to this world, found us in our sin, and through His presence redeemed us. That is the nature of the redeemer. While the accusers’ presence brings condemnation, the redeemer’s presence bring forgiveness and life.
Jesus did not come to accuse, we already know that we are condemned and sentenced to die. But Jesus does not come to leave us in the state in which He found us. Remember that God rescued the Israelites out of
The third character in our story is the accused; or the woman caught in adultery. Her shoes you could not pay me enough to fill. Her situation is truly a pathetic one. This poor woman has found herself in the nightmare to end all nightmares. The nightmare of having ones innermost intimate sin brought out into the public eye. In reality this woman has nothing to her credit, as a matter of fact her credit account per-se is in deficit and interest is accruing against her. That is the true nature of sin. This woman truly deserved the decree from Leviticus 20:10 of stoning an adulterer. We learn a very important lesson from the character of the accused here in John 8.
First of all, the presence of God overshadows the sinner and their sin. Matthew 18:11 tells us that “The Son of Man came to save that which was lost.” Jesus came so that we may have life in him. This life is a nature that we cannot begin as of ourselves.
The next lesson that we learn from the experience of the accused is that as Jesus enters our life; and that of course means that we invite Him to take over, we fulfill what Galatians 2:20 decrees, that “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I live now in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” The accuser’s only hope is death, but not death through stoning, or death through judging, or death through gossip and criticism. The only death that truly redeems a sinner is the death of Christ. The Bible in this instance takes it a step further, and that step is that we must die with and in Christ.
The Pharisees or the accusers lost site of the most important part of Christianity. That most important part is not that the sinner should be punished and condemned because of what he has done, but that Christ has come and died so that the sinner would not die because of his sin. How does Jesus do that? Jesus simply came and lived among us so that we in contact with Him may have eternal life.
My friend, we have learned three very important lessons today. First of all, Christianity is not about the cold feeling of judgmentalism, but it is about the warm embrace of the Son of God who is with us. Second of all, the presence of God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is what has redeemed mankind; we are saved because Jesus died for us and that death brings life everyday as we dwell in Christ. The third lesson is that we are all accused and empty of any honors and privilege, but when Christ comes to pick us up from our filth, He takes us in His arms and we die to Him and are born new children.
Some of us may be filling the role of the accusers, who profess godliness yet are void of God’s power. Some of us may be the accused who are wallowing in our sin and wasting away. Some of us may have the heart of the redeemer and simply bring the presence of Christ to others. Whoever you are my friend, I pray that you may embrace the call of Jesus on your life, for He is not here to condemn and destroy us, but to bring us back to a living relationship with Him, a relationship that redeems us to eternal life.
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