Neither do I condemn you

When they put her in her mother's arms it was just a little taste of heaven here on earth. She was loved. Yet this world has a way of stripping joy from the heart and so it was for her. Somewhere along the way she got confused she got lost and found herself face down in the dirt.

She knew she was guilty. She spoke not a word in her own defense but simply waited for the stones. She heard their accusations they had found her committing adultery and had dragged her to the feet of Jesus. Her shame was great. She had gone with her mother to hear Jesus. She had longed to be his follower but she had failed and now she was being presented to him not as one who followed his teachings but as one who was deserving death. She knew the law.

Leviticus 20:10 "If a man commits adultery...both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." And so she waited almost welcoming an end to her shame. The beating of her heart was deafening and yet she heard his words. "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." One by one she heard the stones drop.Then once more his voice penetrated her pain. "Women, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" For the first time she spoke, "No one, Lord."

She called him Lord. She had wanted to call him Lord from the first time she ever heard him speak when she'd been with her mother but the world and her flesh got in the way. Now she stood before him in her guilt and shame hearing him say,"Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more." But she knew the law she deserved to die but accepted his forgiveness.

There is more to her story it is found in Romans 3:21 "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. for all who believed...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." She didn't know how he could forgive her but she put her faith in him.

The Law was the Law and Jesus paid the price on the cross."In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10 This is the rest of the story. That day when she stood before him guilty and covered in shame he didn't simply say "I don't condemn you." He took her shame upon the cross. He carried her guilt on the his soldiers. He paid the price for her righteousness that's propitiation!

Lord Jesus, I see myself your word says "all have sinned and fall short" Oh Jesus, I see myself. But I see you dying on the cross carrying in the robe of flesh my sin so that I can be draped in the robe of your righteousness. May I never forget the price you paid.