How Far to Go

“1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
“John 8:3And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst…”
Words would fail to express how this woman must have felt. To be snatched from the arms of someone whom she had considered a lover, tossed into the midst of a group of angry men, and then dragged in front of the Son of God.
There are many things we don’t know about this happening. We don’t know if the man involved was privy to the scheme of the Scribes and Pharisees or merely a pawn as the woman was.
We do know that the scribes and Pharisees had set this scene up and planned at least the woman’s part in the ‘taken in the very act of adultery.’ So that there was no doubt about the charge and what had happened and what they believed should be the verdict.
They believed they had an inexcusable charge and that Jesus was backed into a conundrum that he couldn’t escape. This wasn’t the first setup Jesus had been ‘backed into’ and wasn’t the last one.
Many guilty sinners use this scenario to tell others that ‘you can’t judge me.’ But what is the story and what does it tell us? The real story is that under the law of Moses both parties to the adultery are brought before the judges and both parties are stoned to death if the charges are true.
Since the man wasn’t brought it was apparent that it had been a planned setup. I marvel at the wisdom of Jesus in not just this case but many others. He doesn’t give a railing accusation to the men involved, just a quiet time of introspection.
The ‘you can’t judge me because Jesus didn’t judge her’ people pass right over the facts here. The phrase ‘go, and sin no more,’ doesn’t seem to register with them. Jesus doesn’t tell her she’s all right, go and continue as she was.
In one sense that’s a judgment for all of us. How many times do I find myself at the end of that barrel? As John says “1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
Humility. As Christians, we truly know that what we deserve is judgment. The guilty you can’t judge me person is like the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They think they have Christians backed in a corner.
What they have is a tool of the devil. Convince people they’re fine and don’t need salvation and Satan has them. The sad thing is at what time does sin cost us nothing?
These words are from a song by the Cathedrals using the quote from Ravi Zacharias:
As a child I foolishly turned God away
Not knowing the heartache a sinner must face
But God in His goodness has let me return
To share with His children this lesson I’ve learned
Sin will take you farther than you wanna go
Slowly but wholly taking control
Sin will leave you longer than you wanna stay
Sin will cost you far more than you wanna pay
“Matthew 12:
42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.”