JOHN 8:1-20
Reflection:
If we have acknowledged our guilt, and heard God’s words of forgiveness, he is saying to us, “Go, and do not sin again.” He could never say that to this woman unless something had happened within her; the power of sin had been broken. We do not sin because we are temporarily overwhelmed by a strong passion of the moment. We sin because we have a nature of sin, of self-centeredness; we hunger after things that are wrong and we easily yield to sin. We cannot help ourselves at times. “Man is born unto sin,” the Scriptures say (Job 5:7). We all are born to share that fallen nature. Unless that power of sin is broken within us, unless God does something to free us and to give us the possibility of a new life, he never will say to us, “Go, and sin no more.”
But when Jesus says these words to this woman it is clear that she has the possibility of fulfilling it. He never tells anyone to do something that he does not also enable him or her to do. “Faithful is He who calls you, and He will also bring it to pass.” (1 Thes. 5:24) Thus, he does not forgive us in order that we might go back and continue in our sins. The Apostle Paul wrote these wonderful words to his son in the faith, Titus, “He gave himself for us, to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds,” (Titus 2:14).
This beautiful story brings us to that place in which we understand that when our sins are forgiven it is to free us that we might begin to live a different lifestyle by the power of his indwelling Spirit; never to go back to the things that we have left behind. Sometimes we are weak, and need again the forgiving grace of God. But forgiveness is always designed to set us free. That is why it is given. When our Lord forgave this woman that is what he did: He set her free to be a different kind of person than she ever was before.
Reference: raystedsman.org
