John 8:10-11 NIV
Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
I would like for you to imagine the worst thing you have ever done in your life. Maybe nobody knows about it but you. You feel ashamed and worthless. You feel unforgiven or rejected by your own conscience. Or maybe people know, and they are always ready to shame, reject, ridicule you or write you off as hopeless and remind you no redemption is available to set you free. Perhaps, this might not apply to you but there is someone you know who is drowning under Satan’s bondage because of their past mistakes or decisions. Maybe like the sinful woman, your community wants to stone you to death. Maybe not physically but by their words and actions toward you. You feel alone and seek different ways to fill the void that is swallowing your existence. The more you try to fix it, the more disconnected, helpless, confused and angry you feel. You might get up every day after drowning in tears through the night or during your private moment.
Despite the internal war and agony, you wake up every day with a smile on your face pushing through the hours, minutes, and seconds of the day, yet inside you are burning. Or possibly, desperately seeking another chance to show those in your community and society your mistakes and past negative choices are not the last stroke of your story. Like one of my mentors once told me, “Your past does not have to determine your future.” Yet the odds are against you because you messed up and everyone is acting as if they have the right to throw the first stone at you (John 8:7). The scripture says they did not throw the stone, instead the passage recorded that they left Jesus and the sinful women one by one (John 8:8-9). No matter where you are or what you have done in your life, even if your world seems dark and you feel defeated or hopeless, Jesus is waiting to set you free from Satan and his demonic deceptions. You must understand the mistakes or bad decisions that you have made, as much as the world tells you, you are guilty and deserve to be punished or there is no hope of return, Satan and his demons are the orchestra of every disobedience against God to use you as an instrument of pain and disgrace toward God. God, through Jesus Christ, has wiped away all your charges so that you will not drown in your mistakes or bad choices. Jesus took all your sins on his body at the cross (John 3:16). All you must do is to enter the gate that have access to the living water, Jesus Christ! (John 10:9-18) Jesus is the only gate that can and will wipe all your charges clear and give you the identity that God has always intended for you. That is why even though Jesus was the only one who could have thrown the first stone and condemned the woman, he became her saving grace, mercy, and deliverance. All Jesus commanded her was “Go now and leave your life of sin.” This is the key to your deliverance. Are you willing to demolish your sins so that you can receive reconciliation, redemption and be set free from a life bondage! (Colossians 2: 13-15). I hope your answer is yes!
