Go and Sin No More

GO AND SIN NO MORE - (The power of Grace over sin)
Today we will be talking about sin, and how Jesus told a person to ‘go and sin no more’. How and why can you say that to someone?  
The answer goes back to how and when humanity lost its innocence when sin first began and how humanity can regain its innocence through the forgiveness and mercy of God through Jesus. I will discuss the fuller meaning of innocence in a few moments.
John 8:1-11 Early in the morning Jesus 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?” they said this 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.”
The scribes and Pharisees were trying to catch Jesus out. If he had said ‘yes, stone her’ they would say ‘why have you stopped preaching forgiveness and mercy?’ And if he said ‘don’t stone her’ they would say that he was preaching against the Law of Moses.
Jesus knew they had corrupt motives for their questions, so he began writing with his finger in the dirt, but they kept demanding an answer - determined to catch him out in some incorrect ruling of the Sacred Law.
The Bible does not say what Jesus was writing - some say he was writing out the Ten Commandments, but I am inclined to think he was perhaps trying to catch them out with the deeper aspect of personal sin, which is what the conscience deals with, not with the aspect of general sin which is what the Law and Commandments deal with. As they pressed him further, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” In saying this he was saying that they could stone her if they wished, so he was not compromising the Law, but he put a condition upon the stoning, and that was that whoever had a clear conscience about their own sinfulness was qualified to judge her sin. He was challenging them to judge themselves, but they had been avoiding this all their lives and preferred to stay in the shadows of their shame and guilt by judging others instead.
And when he bent down again and continued to write in the dirt they began to leave, from the oldest to the youngest. It is conceivable that he wrote their names in the dirt, and next to each one’s name the personal sin that was hidden in the darkness of their heart. The older ones left first with their heavily laden burdens of guilt and shame and the younger ones then decided to get going before the going got too tough.

Why do people cover their sin under darkness?
In Johns gospel in chapter one John talks about Jesus being ‘the light’ and that ‘men loved the darkness more than the light’. That is because darkness hides them from that intolerable light that uncovers sin and shame and guilt which are all too painful to bear. There are devious ways that darkness covers shame. One way is to cover the shame with virtuous performance. Another tactic is to falsely claim the role of victim and then shame others as perpetrators. Another way is to uncover someone else’s sin and heap shame and guilt onto them, which is what these accusers were doing, and Jesus caught them at it.
Jesus came to do more than just forgive us our sin. He came to help us turn from sin and turn towards the light and the love of God (repentance) and to live above sin by living in a loving family relationship with God, and for God, where we are not only forgiven from sin but mercifully covered from shame so that we can ‘go and sin no more’. Mercy allows light to operate.
The first sin that was ever committed caused Adam and Eve to run and hide from their shame and guilt. Their sin was their violation of trust in the divine family relationship between them and God the Father. That violation of trust in God set the pattern for all sin that we commit as human beings. That is the overriding sin of not trusting God. Sin is the activation of separation from God. 
That is the sin of unbelief – The sin whereby humanity misses the mark. This sin drives humanity into isolation from God, other people, and their innermost selves. They are ‘lost’.

Innocence
Adam and Eve were completely innocent human beings, but their innocence was untested until Satan tempted them into not trusting God. As created human beings they could be tempted, and they could choose to sin because they were of a lower order of being than God who was uncreated Being and the Bible is clear that God cannot be tempted. (James 1:13). They failed the test and they sinned and that violation of relationship with God corrupted their human spirit, and they lost their innocence. Sin causes us to lose our innocence. The word for innocent is ‘innocere’ a Latin word that means ‘to not harm’ and it also means ‘not being harmed’. They had now been harmed and they could now cause harm to themselves and others, which they did.
  
The human seed
Adam and Eve were created beings and not born from human seed, no human parents, so the human spiritual seed did not actively operate until it was passed on by Adam and Eve – DNA began doing its thing. When God rebuked Satan after he had tempted Adam and Eve into sinning, he told him that there would be enmity and conflict between the seed of his darkness and the spiritual seed of all of humanity (Genesis 3:14)
This spiritual conflict between darkness and the flawed seed of humanity would lead to ongoing temptation and sin and shame and guilt and the fragmentation of the human soul for the rest of time upon the earth. Now their damaged human seed began to live on in their offspring and spiritually reproduce and it continues to do so.
Jesus was the only other completely innocent Being to live upon the earth, and he was born from a seed, but that seed was perfect and incorrupt. Jesus was born from above by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. The human spirit of Jesus remained incorrupt and when he spoke to his disciples about the work of darkness he said, ‘Satan has no part in me’ (John 14:30). He was tempted as are all human beings, but he never sinned. He never lost his innocence. He was never separated from the loving family bond with his Father whom he lived to please before himself.

Trees and seeds
There were many trees in the Garden of Eden and the two that are mentioned were the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the Tree of Life. Those two trees produced different fruit that bore different seeds. Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil and the effect of eating from that Tree gave the human soul a distorted perception of good and evil. The soul now perceived good as being what fulfilled humanity’s desires of self-interest rather than the desire to please a loving God, and that seed has passed on to all generations.
The Bible speaks about ‘Those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness to light, and light into darkness’ (Isaiah 5:20)

The other tree is the Tree of Life, and that Tree bears the fruit of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. Jesus is the incorruptible seed of the Word of God – the Logos, and the Bible says that we are born again from that seed.
1Peter 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God (Logos) which lives and abides forever, That seed contains our eternal life.
That is why we are able to also live out of the fruit of the Spirit – the fruit of the Tree of Life that Jesus lived, and now lives through us by the Holy Spirit. We can express that fruit in our lives though our souls - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
We can regain that place of innocence before God as his children that we were destined for through the activity of his grace upon our souls. The loss of innocence from the first sin meant we were ‘able to be harmed and able to do harm’ but regaining our innocence means we are now able to ‘be spiritually blessed and to be a spiritual blessing’.
Ephesians 1:4 He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless (innocent) before Him in love.
We can be part of the reversal of Adam and Eve’s original sin – The sin of their violation of trust in the divine family relationship between themselves and God and between one another. They began the blame game that we all know so well. Adam said to God ‘The woman you gave me made me do it, and Eve said, ‘the devil made me do it’. That violation of trust in God set the pattern for all sin that we commit as human beings, where our first parents lost their innocence and where we lose ours, but through the faith of Jesus we regain our innocence, and through our faith in Jesus we share in his divine family life without any shame or guilt or distortion of who we are. Jesus can say to us – ‘Go and sin no more’.
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.”

That lady knew in her heart that she was loved and accepted into the family of God through her brother Jesus. As she drew closer to that divine family life through Jesus, she drew more and more distant from her past life – she could now choose to go and sin no more even while living under the Law, because she now saw life from a new perspective, from an experience of the love and forgiveness of God through Jesus. 
And we who are under the grace of God can moreso choose to ‘go and sin no more’ because the Bible tells us that since Jesus rose from the dead and the Holy Spirit was given to us sin does not rule over us.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.  -  And that is the power of Grace.