Yesterday, I was reading the tale of the woman caught in the very act of adultery. And I read and answered some questions regarding the text, it hit me ... you know, like the Word of God does at times ... when you know the "story" back and forth, forth and back ... and then some new revelation hits you!?
Well, that's what occurred yesterday. I don't know why, actually there was no special setting ... and really, I should have been distracted because I didn't have my ear-buds and I was at O'Henry's Coffee Shop in Homewood. I recommend this shop to all!
Anyway, As I was reading and considering the tale of this woman (old, young, I don't know) ... but what I do know, is that she got around. That's not to condemn her, this is just the reality. She was an adulteress (aren't you and I too?).
And as I read, and Jesus spoke, 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.” ... And do you know what happened as soon as he said those words ... he condemned Himself to bare her sin upon him ... He spoke forgiveness and mercy through grace over this whore (as the Pharisees would have condemned her) and as he did, He invited the wrath of the Father upon Him, freely and willingly at His own expense and humiliation and separation from the Father .... He took her sin upon his very shoulders at the moment He spoke, "Neither do I condemn you..."!!!
This is amazing! This is grace upon grace, this is the silent Lamb of God walking straight into the slaughter without speaking a word, as a sheep seeing its shearer! I wonder if at the moment Jesus spoke those words, if Isaiah 53 crossed his mind? I wonder if the pang of death upon a cross, if the torment of knowing God would not be able to look at Him as He took on sin sent a dagger through the very heart of the God-Man? Through the very heart of God?
And I guess what I see now, is at every last single moment when Christ forgave, when He healed based on a persons' faith, when He spoke life and salvation ... that He accepted for Himself the wrath of God Almighty, for which my soul in Hell for eternity could never pay ... but certainly Jesus knew He would satiate in three hours on that most treacherous of crosses!!!
I now see a new facet, a new degree of love for Jesus and from Jesus. I have always heard that He pushed onward to Jerusalem even in light of what He knew was to come ... but even when He wasn't literally marching to the cross, He had to have known what was coming, and that at every moment He forgave, He also died a little more ... that is LOVE. That is GRACE. He is my SALVATION!!
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