“Go, and from now on do not sin anymore” (John 8:11). We’re familiar with the charge. But do you remember the beginning of the story? The way the Pharisees brought the adulterous woman before Jesus, a human pawn in their attempted power play?
She was guilty. There was no question. She had been caught in the act.
Oh, the emotions she must have felt. She was already considered “less than” in her world simply by virtue of being a woman. But now she had been found committing a despicable sin and dragged by the religious leaders themselves to stand before the man who called himself the Son of God.
Guilt. Humiliation. Shame. Staggering fear. She waited for the inevitable. And then she saw his hand. He started writing, right there in the sand, and suddenly everything changed.
“Are you without sin?” He asked those gathered around. “Then go ahead; throw your stones” (8:7).
Nothing. No one dared move. One at a time, they walked away. Her accusers vanished, and she was left standing face to face with Jesus.
“Neither do I condemn you” (8:11). She was absolutely guilty, a sinner with no defense. And yet the sinless Savior looked at her—like he looks at me and you—and said there is grace even for this.
There is grace because our God is both perfectly just and perfectly merciful. He doesn’t merely forgo the punishment due our sin—that wouldn’t be true justice. He takes our punishment on himself. He doesn’t simply pity our situation—that would not be true mercy. He receives us as we are and heals us with his love.
Amanda Bible Williams is a general editor, along with Raechel Myers, of the She Reads Truth Bible. Taken from the She Reads Truth Bible (www.SheReadsTruthBible.com). Scripture quotations within the devotional text are from the Christian Standard Bible translation. Published by Holman Bibles, used by permission.
