To Encourage You

John 8:10-11 “Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’”

Do you know the feeling of being condemned?  Perhaps you said something at some time or other that hurt someone.  You wished you could take it back, but you can’t – and you’re condemning yourself as a result.  Or perhaps your mind is tempted to go back to some grievous sin you committed in the past, and you have a tendency to beat yourself up over it.  Maybe the condemnation has come from elsewhere – other people in your life have condemned your words or actions in some way.  We have a world that is full of such people.  So does the Bible speak to this issue?  What does God have to say about it? 

One place to look for the answer is in the verses above. This excerpt is taken from a situation in which a woman had been caught in adultery.  A group of Pharisees brought her to Jesus. They had already condemned her, and they were seeking to have Jesus agree with them.  They were doing this, “to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.”  So, what did Jesus do?  He simply said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” The response?  “But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.”  It was then that Jesus made the statements above to the woman.  In His matchless wisdom Jesus shows us that every condemnation that is spoken by men is flawed in that those who are doing the condemning are sinners themselves.  Everyone who is quick to cast stones and to look for a speck in someone else’s eye more likely than not has a beam in their own eye.  That’s even true when we condemn ourselves, for it’s a condemnation that is coming from a sinner, after all!  And what about the greatest accuser, i.e., Satan? Obviously, he’s the greatest sinner of all.

But then we have Jesus, the perfect, spotless, innocent Lamb of God. He, alone, has every right to accuse and condemn us, for every sin, at its heart, is a sin against Him.  But what does He do?  Listen to these words from John 3:17: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” 

Isn’t this an awesome thing?  And it is in Jesus’ gracious words to the adulteress in the verses above that we see this wonderfully played out in the words, “Neither do I condemn you.”  To think that the only One in the universe Who could justly condemn each and every one of us should offer forgiveness instead, is the incredible message of the gospel.  It’s an offer made to all who will believe Him, and in that belief receive the free gift of eternal life that is only “in Him.” To them there is the matchless truth that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). 

You see, the whole world is living in a state of condemnation.  It can come from every corner: the crowd, the devil, and even our own mind.  Yet Jesus did not come into this world to condemn it but to save it.  How can we not embrace this offer with gratitude, a gratitude that demonstrates itself by turning to Christ and away from a life of sin?