Have You Ever Committed Adultery?

Grace, mercy, and forgiveness are Yeshua’s constant response, even for those who cried out for His death and those, like us, caught in sin. This is life-changing news for us now as it was for those then.

What more can you hope for when you’re caught in adultery? What do you want done to you when the rule of law is whoever committs adultery is stoned to death? What do you think is the appropriate punishment? What do you think you deserve? A solicitor, a barrister, a fair trial? Like the woman caught in adultery, how often have we gone to places we shouldn’t have gone to or done things we shouldn’t have done?

I used to minimize and justify my sins. I’d call them errors, mistakes, a slip or lapse in judgment. Even though I didn’t bed a man I thought a little flirting was okay, as long as I didn’t engage in the sexual act. As long as things didn’t get physical I could indulge in my fantasies; they were safely tucked away in a corner of my mind and no one had to know about them. It wasn’t like I was married and had to be careful of how I behaved around men. It wasn’t like I had a husband that I should be concerned about being faithful to him. Like those Jews who brought the adulterous woman to Yeshua, I pointed out the sins of others while hiding my own.

But what attitude, behaviour or lifestyle does Yeshua call adulterous? When you look at someone, whom you have no right to look at that way, with lust in your heart. To me, as a single woman, that means every men whether single, engaged, divorced or married. God forbids me to lust or yearn after them. God forbids me to covet, or hunger for or after anyone or anything because that’s the path to spiritual adultery, and separates me from Him. And being separated from God is a fate worse than being stoned to death.

Yeshua makes it clear to the woman caught in adultery that He doesn’t condemn her. He instead extends mercy and gives her a new commandment: Go, and sin no more. Leave your life of sin. Live a life free from sin. Live a life of purity.

What Yeshua told that woman, and is telling me and you right now is, to go to Him because it’s only through Him that we can live a sin-free life. Only through Yeshua can we live in purity, in holiness because Yeshua Hamashiach is the only way to God. And when we come to Him in repentance He readily extends His grace, mercy and forgiveness.

Pray with me

Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your love, mercy and grace. Thank You for being faithful and true. Please guide us to live in purity. In Yeshua, we pray. Amen.