A Fresh Start

A Fresh Start

The Woman Caught In Adultery

Read: John 8:1-11

In a million years, she would never have dreamed that she would find herself in this predicament. After all, she was a loving wife, devoted mother, and committed follower of Christ. How could she have let her relationship with a coworker lead to an affair? For a while she’d ignored her nagging conscience and convinced herself that the relationship filled some deep need within her. Now, the pressure of living a double life had become more than she could stand. She had to come clean with her husband.

Haven’t we all felt the burden of having a shameful secret to hide? The woman in John 8 had her guilt exposed in a cruel way when the religious leaders dragged her before Jesus and asked if she should be stoned, as the law of Moses stated. They planned that Jesus would either lose favor with the people or get in trouble with the Romans. All the woman knew was that she had been set up.

She stood alone, helpless and humiliated before the leering crowd. Her fate seemed to rest with the Man who stooped to write in the dust. The woman’s shame and fear dissolved as Jesus spoke and her accusers slipped away, one by one. Fully aware of her guilt, the terrified woman was amazed to find mercy and forgiveness.

All of us have been adulterous in some way. The Bible teaches that adultery happens in thought as well as physically. It also teaches that loving something or someone more than God is adultery. Sooner or later, God will bring us face-to-face with our sin. There may be permanent consequences for our actions, but if we confess and turn away from our wrongdoing, we will find what the woman brought before Jesus and what the woman in the first paragraph found—a fresh start. That’s something we all need every day.

There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1