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What did He Say?



            When listening to music with my kids, I will often say, “What was that line?” Sometimes, one word, or one line, understood correctly, changes my whole understanding of the song. 

            That can happen with scripture too.  In fact, it happened to me this past weekend.   A guy named Steve Bell was about to sing a song taken from a story in John chapter eight.   Just before he started, he pointed out one thing that changed the whole story for me.  Before I give you the insight that he shared, let me share the details of the story.

            Jesus was in the temple in Jerusalem when a group of religious leaders brought a woman to him and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”  They did this as a way to trap him.  If Jesus said, “Let her go!” they could accuse him of not being faithful to the old teaching.  If he said, “Stone her”, of course, that would not go over well.  Either way, he was going to lose favour in the sight of his followers.

            Jesus bent down and wrote in the sand.  Now, we do not know what he wrote, but we do know what he said when he stood up: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” then he bent over and wrote in the sand again.  Soon, everyone left, with the oldest ones leading the way. 

            When Jesus got up he said to the woman, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” and she replied, “No one, sir.”

            “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

            It was this line that Steve Bell commented on.  He said, “Notice the order of the words.  They are important!  Jesus did not say, ‘Go and leave your life of sin and I will condemn you no more’, he said, ‘I do not condemn you.  Go and live differently!’”

            The order is important.  God does not say, “Live a really good life and, maybe, I will forgive your sins at the end of time”.  Instead God says, “I love you so much that I sent my Son to pay for your sins.  Now, accept that forgiveness and live the new life I have given you both now and in forever (See John 3:16; Acts 2; Romans 6:1-4). 

            Her new life was not a way to earn forgiveness.  Rather, it was to be a response to the gift of forgiveness that she had already been given.

            Sometimes, hearing things properly makes all the difference.

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