Go and Sin no More

The text today presents us with one of the most dramatic scenes in the Gospels except for the accounts of the death and resurrection of our Savior. It has peril, and passion. It has a victim and the victimizers. It even has a surprise ending! Regretfully, it is also often misunderstood and misapplied. Each time the scribes and Pharisees attempt to trap the Savior, and thereby neutralize His ministry, He maintains the Law, further reveals His calling as the Savior, and refutes the perversions of God's Word by removing the veil that the scribes and Pharisees habitually placed over the meaning. The Lord was, and is, lord even over the lies and accusations of His enemies. But perhaps most dramatically, the Lord shows Himself merciful to one who was desperately in need of it; the woman caught in adultery. In His first coming, the Lord came "…into the world [not] to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." (John 3:17) This truth is vibrantly revealed when He refuses to condemn the woman and rather to "go and sin no more." – Pastor Schlegel