There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2

Can you imagine the public shame and embarrassment of having your sinful act exposed before the crowds? Men were not dragged into the streets on account of lying or gossipping or lusting. But this woman was brought out for all to see and judge. All eyes on her, stones ready, voices accusing. The woman and her sin seen as one. What would Jesus’ response be? The religious leaders wanted this to be the end of her life, a deserving punishment for a shameful sin. But Jesus wanted it to be the beginning. Jesus does indeed acknowledge the women’s sin; he doesn’t turn a blind eye to it or suggest she’s good to continue in it. But he moves beyond that to extending lavish grace and the invitation to live in his better way.

Their voices were a chorus of accusation and condemnation. His voice was calm, laced with compassion and forgiveness. They sought to kill. He sought to restore. Though you weren’t there that day to hear their voices, pause to pay attention to the voices in your own head. Do your thoughts carry condemnation or restoration? Are they bringing destruction on you or leading you to new life? Maybe this weekend you determine to jot down thoughts that come to your head and then question those thoughts – see if they are in alignment with the Spirit of truth and peace or if they are destructive voices of accusation. Take your thoughts captive to him today and listen to where he might be calling you to live in the full reality of the forgiveness of your sin.

By Ellen Rosenberger

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.  At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.  When they kept questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.  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.” John 8:1-11

Young children need boundaries and rules to guide their behavior. When a young child decides to obey or disobey these rules, it usually does not involve deep thought, analyzation of a concept, or even the consideration of how his or her actions will impact another. As we grow and mature, hopefully our behavior, decisions and actions are influenced by our motivations, by how it might impact ourselves and others. Hopefully as adults we don’t just follow the rules, but as followers of Christ, we are influenced by his example and God’s word.

The Pharisees and scribes wanted to trap Jesus by posing a question they believed had only two answers. Jesus exposed their immature and childlike thinking by posing a stipulation that made everyone who heard him examine his or her own heart. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees wanted to condemn this woman to death because she broke the rules. Jesus spoke to everyone in the crowd, asking them to consider if each of them had ever broken the rules. Starting with the older people in the crowd, wisdom prevailed, all recognized that each of them had sinned, each of them had broken the rules, each of them had done things to hurt others.

Jesus presents another solution: grace. “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve,” Jeremiah 17:10. Jesus tells the woman he does not condemn her, but to sin no more. God examines our heart and our mind; he is interested in our thoughts and our motivations. Jesus invites us to examine ourselves and to bring our thoughts and actions into alignment with his word. This requires mature thinking. This demands I confess to God when I have hurt others or myself with my words or actions. It is a lifelong lifestyle of learning God’s word, praying, confessing, and giving grace to ourselves and to others. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them,” II Corinthians 5:18-19a. Is God calling you back to himself? Is there someone else God is calling you to extend grace to today?

By Grace Hunter

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst  they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So, what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”  John 8:3-11

The Pharisees used this woman’s act as a test for Jesus. He upheld the law of Moses by asking those without sin to throw the first stone. As her accusers walked away one by one, Jesus, the sinless son of God, was left. He didn’t throw a stone either. Instead, he offered her much more: forgiveness, restoration and a new life. “Go and sin no more.” And I believe she did. The holy confrontation with Jesus changed her.

Lysa Terkeurst writes from the testimony of her own broken life and shattered heart, “God has the power to not only put pieces back together, but a pile of dust.” Jesus makes all things new, even a pile of dirt. Isn’t it interesting that the creator, Jesus, goes back to the ground, not once but twice to communicate? In this gospel story he is not condemning the woman or condoning. He values her and shows her worth. Jesus is loving her and lifting her out of her old circumstances. He is giving her a new heart and bringing her new life.

Jesus amazes us with his wisdom. Yet again he shows a new way. He respects the law but brings a new covenant. He’s showing us the why behind the law not the what. Each person in the story is impacted by Jesus’ love and forgiveness. Isn’t that the way God wants us to be? Impacted and then impacting others, extending the love extended to us. We can have a holy impact and influence when our hearts of stone are made into a new heart of flesh by Jesus; forgiveness. Let him help you drop the stones in your hand and fill your open hands with love to extend to others.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:17

By Donna Burns

They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. John 7:53-8:6a

Tolerance is a word heard frequently in our culture. More and more, it seems our society has the mindset that, if they’re not hurting anyone, they can do whatever they want. And, these seeming innocuous choices should be acceptable to everyone. Their desire is freedom to choose and acceptance by all. Acceptance has become the new tolerance. Perhaps this thinking is driven by the feeling things are just easier this way. It’s easier to only have to deal with the “what”; no one has to answer any hard questions (the “why”).

Having spent most of my life working in Information Technology (even before it had that name), I’ve found stopping change is similar to stopping a boulder rolling downhill with your body. Learning to tolerate change, and those involved, has essentially kept me sane. A key part of this experience was really understanding why changing was necessary. Dialogue with one another, as Jesus did, may not always convince change is appropriate, but it can really help us accept change, and each other.

It’s important we learn to tolerate each other. But (re)learning tolerance in disagreement is key. Rare is the case where we fully accept the choices (or change) our friends and family make. The trick is to learn how to disagree and yet still be in viable community with each other. I can remember ‘arguing’ a point, not to to batter someone with my decision, but to explain in a coherent and level-headed way the reasons for my choices and beliefs, and doing so without compromising a relationship. Somehow our culture has really gone off the rails with our inability to do this.

In the end, moving those around us towards a better way of tolerance is to begin with ourselves. We know that our God is love. We know that the way of Jesus involves copious amounts of love. The key ingredient is love. Today, think about how you’ve handled hot-topic discussions with others. Perhaps roll back to the last several times you’ve argued a belief or decision with someone, and honestly assess how it went. If having Jesus visibly there would change your conversation, methods of discussion may need to change. If this is true, you have God, the Savior, and the Holy Spirit who’d love to ‘hear’ from you and help form your heart in love!

By Rich Obrecht

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With my voice I cry out to the Lord;

   with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord.

I pour out my complaint before him;

  I tell my trouble before him. Psalm 142:1-2

Lament, bringing emotions of sadness, anger, and fear, out into the open and expressing them to God, is a foreign practice in our culture. Instead of confronting or showing emotions like anger, confusion, fear, or grief we more often try to distract ourselves from the fact they exist. Some of us may even have picked up the idea that lamenting somehow betrays a lack of trust in God and therefore we should only rejoice or respond to tragedy with “positive” emotions and the “right answers.” But lament is a deeply biblical and faithful way of responding to personal misfortune and the evil we see in the world. Hannah lamented over her infertility (1 Sam 1:9-11). David lamented his suffering at the hands of his enemies in the psalms. Jeremiah wept for the destruction of Jerusalem in Lamentations. Jesus himself wept over Jerusalem (Matt 23:37-39).

Today’s devotional is designed to give you space to lament. Let yourself experience the fullness of your emotions and bring them to God. This may feel uncomfortable and unpleasant, but resist the temptation to rush through the “negative” emotions in order to profess your confidence in God. Even though followers of Jesus live as people of hope, and we do have hope, we do not live untouched by the everyday losses and sorrows of this world. Even though Christ is victorious over sin and death we see the effects of sin and death in our world. It’s as if we live in the dawn but there are still tinges of darkness. And we are allowed to grieve and lament that darkness. We are allowed to tell God that the darkness doesn’t always make sense and we wish he would take it away. Lament is an appropriate response to the evil of the world. Lament is an appropriate response to injustice and the mistreatment of people made in God’s image and loved by him. God can hold our anger, confusion, fear, grief, and fury and he will walk with us through them.

Today, pray through Psalm 142. Pause where indicated to voice your own lament to God.

With my voice I cry out to the Lord;
with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord.
I pour out my complaint before him;
I tell my trouble before him.

Cry out to God and tell him your list of things that cause you to lament, either in your own life or in the world around you.

When my spirit faints within me,
you know my way!
In the path where I walk
they have hidden a trap for me.
Look to the right and see:
there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for my soul.

Bring to God the burdens you feel you carry alone.

I cry to you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”

Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!
Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.

Bring to God what brings you low. Finally, after you have brought everything to God, close with thanksgiving that God hears your cries.

By Jessica Rust

…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Acts 10:38

Evil visits us frequently these days. It’s become so commonplace, it seems those reporting news can pick and choose what they televise. While they most likely aren’t actually rating these events on some sort of ‘fear scale,’ it seems what they report can drive our fear to the redline almost immediately. The words ‘active shooter’ catalyze our feelings around fear. If we consider our history, we find these words used more frequently than ever before. Many times, it drives us to ask the question where does this evil come from?

Since creation’s beginning, humanity has been faced with a real enemy. Its presence really isn’t seen, but it can make itself known. The evil one seeks to distort all the good that God has created, including humanity, by any means available. In Genesis 3, evil, in the form of a snake, convinces Adam and Eve that knowing what good and evil are wouldn’t cause their death but would elevate them to God’s level. Believing (incorrectly) that God might be holding them back from this knowledge perhaps was the tipping point for Eve to taste the fruit, and share it with Adam. By choosing to taste, the relationship between God, self, each other, and the Earth were interrupted by evil. Evil became a part of creation’s landscape.

Evil isn’t from God. It wasn’t created by God. It wasn’t instituted by God. Everything God gifts to us is good (James 1:17). God’s plans for us are good and are not meant to harm (Jeremiah 29:11). His compassion is meant for us all (Psalm 145:9). God is love (1 John 4:8) and is void of fear (1 John 4:18). These evil events are driven by an unseen war between Satan and God (Ephesians 6:12). Fear is a primary tool used by the evil one to take our eyes off Jesus. Fear of the wind and waves caused Peter to sink during his water-borne journey to Christ (Matthew 14:28-33), and it’s what can cause us to sink into despair.

If we can recognize where evil comes from, and realize that God is already victorious over the powers of evil (Colossians 2:13-15), the fear that evil causes won’t hold us back. It is then that we can fully demonstrate to others the love that is God. Peter, who sank in the water and denied his relationship with Christ out of fear shows the flip side in Acts 2-4. His condemnation of those who crucified Jesus, followed by his bold declaration Christ regardless of the consequences provides an example of God-imbued courage when evil comes to visit. Remember, God’s already won the victory over evil, so this experience can be ours when we realize evil holds no sway over us.

There are so many ways God’s love can be demonstrated to others, listing them all would take more room than is available. Perhaps a great way to start is to react in love. Or, if there is something you’ve a desire to do to displace evil with good, pursue it!

By Rich Obrecht

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Genesis 2:15-17

Adam and Eve had it made in the Garden! They had freedom… real freedom.

Some people have a hard time with that statement. They say “no they didn’t – their freedom was limited because they couldn’t eat from every tree.” But take another look at what God said about their menu options. They could “surely eat of every tree of the garden” (Ge 2:16). That’s not limited. They were free to eat the produce from any and every tree including the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The catch was if they ate from that one tree, they’d die. That’s not limiting their freedom, that’s warning them to watch out how they exercise their freedom. That’s love in the midst of freedom.

God gave Adam and Eve the freedom to choose – to either choose to trust God and His word to them or choose to trust their own inclinations and desires. They chose the latter and we’ve been living in that wrestling ever since.

I was driving home from the office the other day, wrestling with this idea of freedom. It dawned on me that I had the freedom to be driving. In fact, I had the freedom to drive any way I darn well pleased. I had the freedom to push that accelerator to the floor and speed past everyone. I had the freedom to bounce over the curb and race across people’s lawns if someone got in my way. But the consequences wouldn’t be pleasant – not just for me but for a lot of other people. That’s why there are laws for how we drive. That’s not limiting my freedom to drive. That’s providing wise guidelines for me to safely exercise my ability to drive. What a mess of a traffic jam we’d be in if we all drove how our self-centered desires led us to drive.

Well… sometimes our world seems to be “a mess of a traffic jam”. God’s patience with us is amazing. He still gives us the freedom to choose – His way of love or our way of loving ourselves. “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” 1 Pt 2:16 You have the freedom to choose today.

By Dan Elliott

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good… Genesis 1:31a

I am convinced that many hold a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature and character of God. We wrestle with the doctrine of sovereignty and define it in a way that makes God both the bad guy and the good guy. We think that sovereignty means that God actively controls and determines everything, but this definition doesn’t hold up when scrutinized through a Biblical lens.

The scriptures are clear that God doesn’t always get what he wants. Jesus is marching toward Jerusalem, about to give his life for the redemption of the sin of the world and he says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Mat 23:37). God desired good, protection, and shalom for his people, but they were not willing to follow him into that good. God wanted it for them, but he was unwilling to force it upon them. See, sovereignty does not mean God actively controls and determines everything so that it plays out exactly as he desires, it means God has the ability to do anything he wants, even as he leaves room for human action.

That’s a very important distinction because if God actively controls everything, he is then responsible for things like the Holocaust, the Rwandan Genocide, and every other atrocity that has taken place. He’s responsible for the abuse that you may have suffered or the oppression that has shaped your family for generations. If this version of God is accurate, God is responsible for things that he would never allow to take place in his heaven nor in his new creation. If this view of God is accurate, there also no real damage sin has caused; it’s all by God’s design and his plan. And if that’s the case, God is both the cause of suffering and the healer of suffering. You have to ask yourself, does that makes any sense?

Maybe an analogy would be helpful. Imagine a gifted and high powered doctor who has an anger problem and his wife is often the recipient of his angry outbursts. One night, he’s unable to control his anger and he beats her within an inch of her life. She’s in such bad shape that she has to go to the hospital – the same hospital her husband works at. Her husband is overcome with love for her and wants to be the one who diagnoses her wounds, works on her, and restores her back to health. And in this analogy, he does so with nearly miraculous results. She is restored to health because of the doctor’s wisdom and skill.

Is this doctor a hero?

Is this doctor a loving savior?

Should this doctor be lauded and celebrated?

Should we encourage the doctor’s wife to run into his loving arms?

When many people think of God, they have this type of arrangement in mind. They believe that God is the one who both causes suffering and heals suffering. He’s both the source of our deepest pains and the salve for our wounded souls. I’d argue this is a logical fallacy large enough to drive a MAC truck through. No one throws a party for the doctor who healed his wife, we throw him in jail because he abused his wife. When many Jesus-followers read the Bible, they completely miss the meta-narrative. They get sucked into micro-hermeneutics and miss the larger story. They fail to ask themselves, “does this story make any sense?” If we step back and ask that question about the fictional doctor referenced above, the clear answer is “no!” We don’t even have to think twice about it – the good he did does not erase the atrocity that was done.

And so it is with God. God is not the source of evil and suffering, he’s the salve for evil and suffering. He’s the God who says, “behold, I am making all things new.” He’s the God who enters in and suffers with us. He’s the God who absorbs our evil, suffering, and pain; he buries it in the ground and rises with new life in his hands. He’s good through and through. He is love, he has always been love, and he will always be love. And because God is good and loving, we can know that when we suffer: he suffers with us, he works within suffering for our good, and we can rest assured that ultimately, he will one day heal all suffering.

By Ryan Paulson

Go deep into Scripture with a video-guided exploration of this week’s sermon text. In order to watch this week’s text walkthrough video, click the button below: