“For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people.”
Titus 2:11 NLT
How many of us have ever done something we felt so ashamed of, and promised God we would never do it again? But somehow, we still did. Some of us might have even attached certain punishments to our promises, but all that was not enough to keep us from repeating the same mistakes.
The truth is, on our own, we cannot fight against sin—it is our natural state (Romans 7:21-23). The knowledge of sin and its consequences is not powerful enough to keep anyone from sinning. In Hebrews 8: 7-8, we see that the old covenant was not sufficient to help people live above sin. What then is the solution? How can we live above sin? Let us examine what happened in John 8:1 -11.
The Pharisees and scribes brought an adulterous woman before Jesus. They wanted to stone her for her sin, as was the punishment according to the law, but Jesus gave an interesting response. He asked whoever was sinless among them to cast the first stones. The Bible records that the self-righteous accusers were all “convicted by their conscience,” and left one by one until only Jesus and the woman remained.
The first thing to note about this story is that none of the custodians of the law could honestly claim to be sinless, even though they had accurate knowledge of the law and all the various punishments for breaking it. This proves the inadequacy of the mere knowledge of the law to prevent sin.
Another important thing to note is that Jesus told the woman that He wasn’t condemning her, but He didn’t end there. He then told her to “go and sin no more.” Jesus could have simply told the woman to go home, but He extended mercy, forgiveness, and grace to her.
Grace is powerful! Just like the adulterous woman, we all were guilty and deserving of punishment, but God—through Christ Jesus—showed us mercy and grace. (Romans 3:24) He was the only one who could forgive our sins, and He did! The Bible says that God doesn’t even remember or count our sins any more! (Psalms 103:12, 2 Corinthians 5:19)
This is your reality, brethren. God has forgiven all your sins, and through His Spirit, given you the power to live above sin. You are a new creation, that life of sin died when Christ died, and you were resurrected with Him into righteousness. This is your new nature. (Romans 6:4-11, 1 Peter 2:24).
Your consciousness of sin must never be so great that it overshadows the truth that you have been forgiven. You are dead to sin, so align your thoughts with the Word.
Bible Reading Plan: Deuteronomy 1-2