One of the difficulties that many experience with living a
grace filled life, is that we are naturally predisposed to believing that the
Gospels are about other
people’s problems and sins (or the entirety of the Scriptures for some). We cheer
when Jesus tells a crowd of men who want to stone an adulterous woman, “Let he
who is without sin cast the first stone,” as if we are not constantly trying to
throw stones ourselves. When we read
scripture, we always think of someone else who needs to hear these things. But the gift given in God’s revealed presence
through the word was meant to be a letter to us… not just the “corporate” us,
but the individual who is a part of the body.
Beyond that, it is meant to be a help. The passages contained within the Bible are a help to
become transformed from the broken, inglorious people we are into the magnificent
beings that God sees us to be… the beings that we were created to be. We, who have the Imago Dei woven into our
very DNA, are challenged by that presence to rise above our baseness, and to
help others to do the same. But that is
all too often forgotten as we try to use verses to prove our “rightness”. To live with grace is to realize that we need
to experience the love and forgiveness of Christ daily… that we can hear the
voice of God speak into our own lives daily… and to know that when that voice
corrects it is not condemnation, but love, that seeks to move us to be, think,
achieve, do, and love, better and more fully.
As Jesus was left alone with this woman whom they both knew was guilty,
He gives forgiveness and this directive, “Go and sin no more.”
I have to confess that I have too often read this particular passage and thought,
“Well I know I’m not like the men in the crowd.” But I’ve never admitted that I might be like
this adulterous woman either. It was about
“other people” and not me. But I fail to
be faithful to my commitment to Jesus daily in so many ways. I cheat on Him with each “holier than thou”
thought I have about others. I
prostitute myself every time I crave the acceptance of people around me, or
worse, my own comfort and gain, more than I crave His loving admonition and
guidance. I am adulterous when I try to
convince myself that I am without sin, because in that thought I’m having a
love affair with myself. I am an
adulterous wife... no two ways about it. And yet what He says to me through His word, and His sacrifice is "You're forgiven. Go and sin no more." Moreover, it is not a message just for me, but for all who hear the Gospel news of Jesus.
This realization is the beginning of living a grace filled
life… for I can only live what I have learned through experience. I cannot share love unless I have known
it. I cannot give forgiveness, unless I
have received it. In short, I cannot do
any of these things unless I have truly experienced them through the gifting of
God. You can’t be graceful unless you’ve
been shown how to be. That begins with
the realization that in order to “go and sin no more”, we have to admit that we
sinned in the first place and repent.
Difficult? Definitely. Impossible? Not with Jesus’ help.
Your servant in Christ,
Chris
