Day 9

“If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”   — JOHN 8:7

Most of us are familiar with the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery and brought by the Pharisees and Scribes before Jesus for His opinion on what should be done with her. Jesus stooped down and wrote something on the ground while they continued to question Him.   

It took place right after the ‘Feast of Tabernacles’, an eight-day celebration, where people pitched tents in the streets, and ate and drank – a ripe seduction for sexual immorality. Very often, that thirst of the heart surfaces on occasions like this. It drinks from fountains of laughter, fun, celebration, but the thirst is quenched from broken cisterns, which inevitably drains the soul. This is the picture Jesus sees. At the end of the festival, He reaches out to the people, stands up and says in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37). 

In the Old Testament, Jeremiah also talked about living water. “Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.” (Jeremiah 17:13). Is this perhaps a fulfillment of that statement? Had Jesus written names of this woman’s accusers in the dust?  When He began to write a second time, one by one, they left until it was only Jesus and the woman standing there. “Woman, where are they?” He asked. “Has no one condemned you?”  “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:10-11).

The truth is that Jesus comes over to the side of the sinner. The deepest need of this woman’s heart was not to go back to the man she’d been with, but to be forgiven. She knew her sin and didn’t try to rationalize it, nor even defend it.  She simply stands guilty before Jesus. 

Christ not only forgave her, but equipped her for life by dealing with both her past, “Neither do I condemn you”, and her future, “Go now and leave your life of sin”.  Jesus never deals with our past without dealing with our future, and neither does He forgive carte blanche. The answer to guilt is forgiveness, but first, we must acknowledge and confess our sin. It’s what cleanses the conscience and equips us to go back into the world.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I come humbly before You and confess my sin. Thank You for your forgiveness. I ask that You equip and empower me to go back into this world with attitudes and behaviours that are more and more like You. In your precious name, I pray. Amen

TO REFLECT UPON: Is there any sin I have not confessed? If so, make a point of doing that and tell the Lord why I know it was sin.