Anything Considered

Then Jesus stood up again and said to her, "Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?"

"No, Lord," she said.

And Jesus said, "Neither do I. Go and sin no more."

JOHN 8:10-11 (NLT)

It is a strange, strange feeling to know that no-one has the right to condemn me except God. And stranger still it is to know that he doesn't condemn me either. And perhaps that's the reason why I'm feeling so much oppression.

Right now I feel like a sinner of the worst degree. I don't deserve anything but punishment. Sure I may have my good points. Sure I do care and love people. But all that feels so half-hearted and hollow as of late.

And I struggle and struggle and I flip through pages and it jumps right out at me. "Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?"

"Then neither do I. Go and sin no more."

That simple? That's it? It's so hard to believe and accept. Like the woman, it is death I deserve. And Jesus just says he won't condemn me with an almost casual disregard, as if the sin didn't matter in the least.

How can it be? How can it be that I should gain an interest in my Saviour's blood? He died, he suffered, my gain? This struggle that I feel, it is like stumbling through the darkness. And almost impossibly, this is the verse that follows the description of the account with the woman:

Jesus said to the people, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life."

JOHN 8:12 (NLT)

God can read my mind. I don't know. I don't get it. Just take me along.