Go and sin no more

She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

– John 8.11

The story of the adulteress caught in her sin and the accusers does not end with ‘let him who without sin cast the first stone.’

When Jesus stood up after writing in the dirt all of the accusers have disappeared. No one could throw the first stone and no one was willing to hang around to see what could happen next. They were pricked in their own conscience and wandered off one by one, from the oldest to the youngest.

So when Jesus stood He was there alone with the woman. ‘Where are your accusers? Who is there left to convict you?’

‘No one is here Lord. There is on one to condemn me.’

Then Jesus said something that might seem a little surprising. ‘I am not going to condemn you either.’ Wow! That doesn't sound like something we might expect Jesus to say. He was God. He was perfect. He hated sin. Sin was going to send Him to the cross. Surely this man of God would condemn her for her sin that brought her to this point.

But He chose not to condemn her. That does not mean He condoned her sin because the next line in ‘go now and stop your sinning.’

Jesus was God. He could have condemned her for her sin right then and there. He did it to the Pharisees and religious leaders all the time. But He would not condemn her.

He gave her a second chance. He told her to stop sinning.

I love the fact that Jesus gives second chances. Praise God that He loves the common folk. He loves the ones that the world looks down on condemns as hopeless. With a simple ‘go and sin no more this guilty adulteress had another chance. We may never know what she did with that second chance, but praise God that she had it!