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God Revealed

Different situations might prompt us to want to know how God feels about us. Let's say you caved in to some temptation. You've sinned. Your impression is that God hates you for what you've done and you are just waiting for lightening to strike. You are ashamed and embarrassed and you don't know what to do. How does God really feel about you? Are your assumptions correct? How would you know? Well, let's look at how Jesus dealt with this kind of a situation.

This account is from the eighth chapter of John's gospel. We read: "At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered round 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, "If any one of you is without sin, let him 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." (John 8:2-11 NIV)

Two important things come through in this encounter? One is that God does not delight in condemning and punishing people. In fact, just shortly before this account in John's Gospel, we read: "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:17-18) When confronted with a sinner, Jesus did not rub His hands with glee and commence legal proceedings against her. He came to live and die as a man expressly to take care of the judicial consequences of the sin we commit.

The other thing we learn is that God does not condone sin. Jesus very pointedly added a command to the woman after his statement about not condemning her. Did you catch it. He said "Go now and leave your life of sin." God intends for his standards to be upheld. He expects us to live up to those standards. He wants us to reject sin as He does. The woman knew that sex outside of a lifelong heterosexual monogamous committed relationship was not God's plan. Jesus knew that she knew that, but He used the opportunity to remind her.

What does all this mean to you, when you are caught in sin? It means that God will forgive you. He does so because Jesus paid the price of your sin, whatever it was, when He died. It also means that God does not accept the excuse that you can't stop sinning. He would say to you as Jesus said to the woman "Go now and leave your life of sin!"

When you are troubled, look at how Jesus responded to those in trouble. When you are fearful, look at how Jesus encouraged those who were afraid. When you are desperate, look at how Jesus interacted with the desperate. Oh, yes, and when you a quite sure you are doing just fine and don't need anything from anybody except a little appreciation, look at how Jesus dealt with the Pharisees.

Jesus shows us God’s heart of holiness, His compassion, His mercy, His forgiveness, His way of reconciliation, restoration, and relationship. There is nothing we need to know about God that we can't learn from looking at Jesus.

Regardless of where you are spiritually, I can confidently recommend that you consider Jesus the One who shows us what God is like and the One who opened the way for us to relate to Him. We'll close with some words from the Bible itself. In John 14, we read: "Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."

Ron Hughes
© May 2008