There is in all persons certain knowledge of good and evil: such and such things they say are good, and such and such things are evil. But perhaps no two persons fix exactly the same standard either of good or evil. What people do is to fix such a standard of good as they can come up to themselves, and such a standard of evil as shall just exclude them and include others.
For instance, the drunkard thinks there is no great harm in drinking, but he would consider it a great sin to steal. The covetous man, who is every day perhaps practicing some cheating or deception “in the way of trade,” satisfies himself by thinking, It is necessary and customary to do so in business; at all events I do not get drunk or curse and swear as others do. The profligate person prides himself upon being generous and kindhearted to others, or, as he says, “he does nobody any harm but himself.” Each congratulates himself upon his not having done some evil and compares himself with someone else who has committed the sin which he thinks he has managed to avoid.
Now all this proves that men do not judge themselves by one regular, fixed standard of right and wrong but just take that which suits them and condemns others. But there is a standard with which all will be compared—a standard of righteousness, all who fall short of which will be eternally condemned, and that is no less than the righteousness of God. When a person begins to find that it is not by comparing himself with others that he is to judge, but by comparing himself with God, then he finds himself guilty and ruined. He will not then attempt to justify himself by trying to find someone that is worse than himself, but he will be anxious to know whether God can pardon or forgive him.
Now the scribes and Pharisees, mentioned in the eighth chapter of John, were very moral and religious people, and they were greatly shocked when they found a wretched woman taken in open sin. Justice and the law of Moses, thought they, demand that she should be made an example of—it is not fit that such a sinner should live! “Such should be stoned,” say they, “but what sayest Thou [Jesus]?”
Man may easily condemn, but who has the right to execute? Jesus answered: “He that is without sin among you, let him cast first a stone at her.”
Who could say “without sin”? And if not one of them could say, “I am without sin,” every one of them was under the same sentence as the woman, that is, death, for “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)).
Have you thought of that—that you and the entire world are guilty before God? Can you say that you are “without sin” before God? If not, death is your sentence. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” And in this sad condition what have you done? Perhaps the same as the scribes and Pharisees did when they were convicted by their own conscience—they left the presence of the only One who can pronounce the forgiveness.
Adam, in the garden, had done the same before; he went and hid himself from God when he knew himself guilty; he turned away from his only Friend just when he most needed His help. And so it is still. Man is afraid of the only One who is ready to pardon.
“And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” She was standing before One who could say “without sin” and who therefore could cast the stone. What would be His sentence? The law has already condemned her; would He execute it? Man had not dared to cast the stone; now what would God do? Jesus said: “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:1111She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. (John 8:11)).
The Lord gave her no conditional pardon. He did not say, “Neither will I condemn you, if you will not sin anymore.” If you desire to have power, through the Spirit, over your sins, you must first know them all pardoned by God through Christ. But if you try to master your evil before you know the forgiveness of God, you will obtain neither the one nor the other.
May you know the peace and joy of having all your sins forgiven through faith in the blood of Jesus and the consequent victory, by the Spirit, over the power of those very sins by which you have been led captive.