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| What Is Love series |
His Love Saves Us
In the story of the adulterous woman that we discussed last week, it’s inspiring to see the way that Jesus showed His love for her when He defends her and refuses to condemn her. We stopped just short of the end of this story though. At the end, He says one more thing, “Go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:11) Jesus was being so kind and loving, telling her she was not condemned. But then, in the very next breath, it almost sounds like He was condemning her or at least condemning her lifestyle. It’s easy to feel like His command, “sin no more”, was an example where His love took a back seat to righteousness. But, we know from our first post of this series that everything He does is loving. So, where was the love in what feels like a harsh command?
This command is to “sin no more”, so let’s start by taking a closer look at some of the effects of sin:
- Sin takes our freedom: In our post Set Free, we saw how sin becomes habitual to the point that our sinful desires overcome us and enslave us (2 Peter 2:19).
- Sin inhibits our prayers: In our series The Power of Prayer, we discussed how sin separates us from God. It causes us to hide from Him and prevents our prayers from being heard (Isaiah 59:2).
- Sin keeps satisfaction just out of reach: Sin promises pleasure, but that pleasure comes with covetousness. Because sinful desire is born out of covetousness, when we indulge it we nurture that covetousness (James 1:15). Covetousness is being dissatisfied with what we have and looking to what we don’t have for satisfaction. Even if we get what we want from sin, covetousness comes to steal any satisfaction in what we now have. Eventually, the momentary pleasure we feel fails to compensate us for the weight of emptiness we feel afterward.
- Sin brings death: In all these ways sin produces death in our lives presently by separating us from God. Furthermore, sin produces death eternally. “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgement” (Hebrews 10:26-27).
We know that Jesus didn’t give this command to condemn her; He said as much. If not condemnation, what was Jesus’ purpose? John 3:17 answers this question for us when it says: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him”. Like we discussed in our post Resting in Our Salvation, His commands are given to save us from the harm of sin. God’s love is not satisfied to simply hold back condemnation and leave us to our own devices. His love pursues us further to save us from the damage that sin does to our soul.
The Love in Discipline
We can see the love in how Jesus defended her and forgave her. We can see now how even the command He gave her was out of love. But, she still experienced such humiliation. Her sin was exposed to the whole town. Why did she go through this? The obvious answer is that the Pharisees did this to her. What’s worse, they didn’t do it for a good reason but because they wanted to undermine Jesus’ ministry. You see, while the law was that she would be stoned, Jewish culture of the day often was more lenient, permitting her husband to divorce her and fining the adulterer. But, because Jesus was in town, the Pharisees wanted to force the issue so that “they might have some charge to bring against him.” (John 8:6) Simply put, they used her.
The harder question though is: Why did God allow this? Wouldn’t love have prevented her from being used and humiliated in this way? Verse 3 tells us that she was caught in the very act of adultery. Of all the days to be caught committing adultery, why did God allow it to be on the one day that the Pharisees would make such a spectacle of her? Perhaps it’s precisely because Jesus was there. As we’ve already seen, Jesus’ desire was not to condemn her but to save her. If she had never been caught she would have continued in adultery to her harm. If she had been caught when Jesus wasn’t there, she would have never had this life-changing encounter with Jesus. What the Pharisees meant for her harm, God turned for her good.
Hebrews tells us that “the Lord disciplines the one He loves” (Hebrews 12:6). Discipline doesn’t feel all that loving, but Hebrews explains it this way: “We have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. … they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good … For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:9-11) As any parent would tell you, commands without consequences do not produce fruit. When He disciplines us, He does so to cause His commands to take root in us and produce the good that they are intended to.
As we discussed last week, His love for us is selfless; He does not give us commands or discipline us for His own benefit, “as though he needed anything”. (Acts 17:25) No, His commands and discipline are for our benefit. Whether He simply allows us to face the consequences of our actions or disciplines us more directly (e.g. James 4:6), He does so as a good Father. Out of love for us, He longs to save us from the damages of sin. When we suffer this discipline, let’s rejoice that He cares to protect us from sin, and let’s submit to it so that we can enjoy “all His benefits” (Psalms 103:2).
I love the way this brings God’s grace and His law together and His Love is what puts His grace and His law together! It. Is really such a wonderful plan He planned and this focus and way of seeing it gives such confidence To completely count on Him thru His Spirit for Overcoming Life! Very life-giving post!
This is such a life-giving truth, that the Lord has our times in His hands. The way Jesus intervened for this woman’s whole future is very thoughtfully laid out in your post. You have helped unfold how the Lord works for our good on multiple levels at once; how His loving care for us is so very thorough. Thanks for laying out this truth so simply and completely.