“Not Guilty.”

I'm studying the first 11 verses of John 8 for Monday's Discovery Group. I wanted to share some of the things the Spirit has shown me. Because of the love of Jesus and the grace He gives, the woman caught in adultery was forgiven.

Jesus continues to pass on a message to us, but it is not written in the sand.
It is written on the cross. It is not written with His hand, but with his blood.

Jesus continues to leave a message for us: “Not Guilty.”

So many of us live with negative labels. Sometimes they are not our own fault.
But so many times they are of our own doing. And as a result, we think that our story is one of failure and shame. But you know, it doesn’t have to be. Because our story can be a story of grace. For it is grace that fixes broken lives. It is grace that heals broken hearts and restores estranged sinners.

For Jesus points us to what we are intended to be.

We don’t have to live in our past.
We don’t have live with the label.
We don’t have to live a life that is powerless in the face of temptation and sin.
We are chosen for something more.

It is grace that does not count our sin against us.
It seems to me that it would be easier for God to say, “Let them get what they deserve.” But that is not the kind of God that He is. He is a God that exhibits grace so that we might experience forgiveness, His grace. So we should never forget.

Grace is free to us, but it is not cheap. And it is a grace that we are called on to imitate. For it is grace that looks beyond what someone has done and sees what they can be. As Christians, this is the kind of grace we not only experience, but we are to exhibit as well, so that we may be as Christ…people of grace.