Go Now And Sin No More

"Jesus was left alone with the woman the woman standing before him." So we come to the conclusion of the story John told.

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." - Jhn 8:10-11 ESV

Some say this story was never in John's Gospel. Some say it always was in one form or another. In any event it teaches us something very strange and wondrous about Jesus.

How could he not condemn her? Had she not trampled upon the very plan of God established when Adam was introduced to Eve? Is not the union of a man and woman for life? Is there ever any reason why adultery could be condoned? Had not Jesus himself taught that adultery begins in the very act of gazing upon a woman with lustful desire (Matt. 5:28)? The answers are obvious.

And yet Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you." Did he mean to say she had not committed adultery? Oh no. She had been caught red handed, in the very act—or at least so went the story (John 8:4). What then did he say? That he, like the other men, was not without sin and so not fit to pass judgment? Surely not, for Jesus was without sin, holy, blameless and pure (Heb. 7:26-27). What gave him the right to say to this woman that her sins were forgiven, that God no longer held her guilty?

Here is John's answer, the answer to which all sinners must cling:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. - 1Jo 2:1-2 ESV

This strange word propitiation (hilasmos in Greek) has a deep and profound meaning. It hearkens back to the great Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The root for the word Kippur is kafar, a Hebrew word that comes from a word meaning "ranson." To ransom means to atone by offering a substitute. In the Old Covenant the blood of the sacrificial animals was required in exchange for the blood or lives of the worshippers who had broken covenant with the LORD by their sins and so deserved death. This was clarified particularly on the Day of Atonement when the High Priest, on behalf of all Israel, laid both of his hands upon the scapegoat and confessed all their transgressions, all their sins and all their iniquities before the LORD (Lev. 16:15-22). The same was true for the sacrifice of all the many animals killed during the days of the Old Covenant (Lev. 1:4-5).

Christ came as the final sinless sacrifice, the Lamb of God (John 1:29,36), to be sacrificed for the sins of all mankind from Adam to the end of this age. All the sacrifices before that were but parables or symbols pointing forward to the coming of this Lamb (Heb. 9:9). He himself was the High Priest who offered this sacrifice. Thus he became the mediator of a new covenant, because his death, his blood, is the Kippur, the all-atoning sacrifice, the propitiation, offered as the one, final substitute for all men.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. - Heb 9:11-15 ESV

Because Jesus was the Lamb of God, because he was to make atonement for this woman's sins upon the altar of Calvary, because he was the High Priest who was to offer the all-atoning sacrifice, he could say to her, "Neither do I condemn you!"

Cleansed and purified, he then gave her the power to change her life. With his Word and his mercy planted firmly in her heart, he could also say, "Go and from now on sin no more." In this Good News all sinners now find refuge and the power to change their lives.