John 8:1-11: Go and Sin No More

"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.” John 8:10-11

After we have sinned and been convicted of our sin, how should we respond? Should we sulk in our sadness, weep over our depravity, and cry about our failures? Or should we give up and go right back into the sin which we came out of? Well, I believe there is a middle ground, which we turn to look at this morning.

In John 8:1-11, we see the classic story of the woman caught in adultery. Hopefully you're familiar with this story, but if not, I'll refresh y'all's memory. In John 8, Jesus is teaching at the temple when some scribes and Pharisees bring to him a woman who had been caught in adultery. Seeking to test him, the scribes and Pharisees said to him, "Now in the Law, Moses commanded to stone such women. So what do you say?" This question seemed like an inescapable trap, yet Jesus knew what to say. Rather than directly answering their question, he said this: "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." In other words, Jesus confronts their hypocrisy. Rather than condemning the woman immediately, Jesus turns to the Pharisees and scribes and judges them for acting innocent, though they are not either. Jesus' point here is this: no one is guiltless, and we all deserve punishment. In response, the scribes and Pharisees start walking away, one by one. Jesus then turns to the woman and asks her where they all went and who was there to condemn her. She replies, "No one, Lord." And next, we find Jesus' phenomenal reply: "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."

It is Jesus' response to the woman that I want to observe this morning. Let us not forget here: the woman was fully guilty of sin, and thus worthy of death. Yet, as this story points out for us, so were the Pharisees and scribes. Though the scribes and Pharisees came pointing their finger at the woman, Jesus simply took a mirror out of his pocket and pointed their own fingers back at them. With the hypocritical judges out of the way, Christ could now deal with the woman. Yet rather than condemning her (which would have been completely just!), the Lord gives her this thing called mercy: "Neither do I condemn you."

Yet let us be careful here to see that Jesus did not permit her sin either. He did not merely say, "You're off the hook. You got lucky. See ya later." No! He looked at the woman and said, "Go, and from now on sin no more." Though Christ endlessly forgives our sin, he does not desire that we keep committing it. Here, we find a beautiful pattern in this small command of Christ. First, we find God's mercy: "Neither do I condemn you." Second, we find the correct response to God's mercy: "Go, and from now on sin no more." How beautiful this is for us this morning.

Thus, let us conclude by saying this: the correct response to conviction (that is, the realization of our sin) is not depression nor disobedience. Honestly, I think we as Christians are often prone to one of these two options: we either sulk in our sin, forget the Lord's mercy, and become extremely sad and depressed or we just "throw in the towel" and keep sinning because, hey, if we already messed up, might as well keep going. Now, let us realize that there is a healthy mourning over our sin; I don't want to overlook that. Yet let us realize that the mourning we have over our sin doesn't stay there--our mourning should move us to comfort in view of God's mercy and grace (see Mt. 4, also Neh. 8:9-10). In other words, we ought to be sad over our sins, but in view of the Lord's mercy ("Neither do I condemn you.") we ought to be motivated to joyful obedience all the more ("Go, and from now on sin no more.").

So let me encourage you this morning: do you find yourself deep in the trenches of sin? Do you find yourself feeling convicted of unrighteousness? Maybe you feel as if you just cannot overcome your coveteousness/discontentment, lustful thoughts, idolatry, selfishness, or something else. Let me encourage you: realize the Lord's mercy, and go and sin no more. One of the texts of scripture that has really helped me in this area is Lamentations 3. You should go read the whole chapter for yourself, but in this chapter, we find a promise that the Lord's mercies, for those who are in Christ, are "new every morning." In other words, the Lord's mercy never runs out for those who are in Christ--whatever sins you committed today God has new morning mercies for. Yet why does he give us this mercy? Answer: Because he is faithful, and because he knows we need it. In other words, let me comfort you this morning is this: failure is inevitable. Stop beating yourself up for failing to obtain perfect righteousness. Guess what! God knows that you're going to fail; that's why he sent his Son in your place. Pursue righteousness, but when you realize you've failed, don't sulk in depression. Rather, consider the Lord's mercy, and [joyfully!] go and sin no more!