Leave your life of sin – Come Follow Me

As we come to God through Jesus, our first step is to come to him in humility, and most importantly, in repentance. To repent means that I am sorry for what I have done, but it also means that I leave that old sinful life, and instead follow Christ and live in the way that he calls me to live.

Last night, in our community, we read the story of the woman caught in adultery. Click on the video above to watch the story.

Read the story – John 8:1-11

Then they all went home, 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 on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin 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.”

In this story, we see that the Pharisees bring a woman who was caught in adultery to see if Jesus would do what is commanded in the law. Would he condemn the woman as the law says? Or would Jesus excuse the woman’s sin? The hope of the Pharisees was that Jesus would excuse the woman so that they would have something with which they could accuse him. They wanted to be able to say that he was not a true teacher because he was not following the requirements of the law.

But Jesus doesn’t do that. Through his words, he permits stoning the woman, but he says that it should be someone that is without sin who should start. This person should be the one that throws the first stone.

Of course, no one is without sin, so they all leave their stones behind and the crowd begins to disperse.

Jesus has saved the woman. He has given her a new life. He has forgiven her.

But it doesn’t stop there. He tells the woman that she must leave her life of sin.

Get in touch with us

Send WhatsApp Message

Do not let sin reign

As followers of Christ, we must not continue to allow ourselves to be subject to it. We must not allow ourselves to be slaves to sin. Instead, we must live dead to sin and alive to Christ. Jesus purchased us at the most costly price imaginable and so we must not make a mockery of the price that he paid.

In Romans 6, Paul explains this to us clearly:

Read the scripture – Romans 6:11-14

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Paul says that we must not continue to offer ourselves to sin, but offer ourselves to God as an instrument of righteousness. As we repent, we leave our life of sin behind and we pursue righteousness instead.

Application

As we put our faith in Christ, we cannot take for granted the forgiveness that we are given. Instead, we must honor that gift of forgiveness and live in a righteous way. Sin should no longer reign within us, but instead it should be cast out and we must give ourselves to God to be used by Him in the way that He chooses!