Patty,
I was wondering about something, as well as your take on it.
You had written about what Jesus told the woman in John 8:11
As
to the other parts of your letter, I want to say that we should listen
to the words of Jesus Christ. He got a crowd to refrain
from stoning an adulterous woman. When He looked up and saw that they
left without stoning her after He spoke to them….Jesus told her to “GO,
AND
SIN NO MORE”.
He didn’t tell her that she could keep on sinning…He told her to STOP it.
Is it possible that she, in and of herself, had not more ability to keep the commandment, at this point, than she had before?
Also, I don’t think that Jesus is frightening her into keeping the commandment from now on, as too many preachers do.
Also,
I don’t think Jesus is brow beating her, or guilt tripping her, into
keeping the commandment from now on, as too many preachers
do.
Romans 10:17
So then faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The
moment she heard the word of God (Jesus is God), she was supernaturally
empowered by faith, in order to keep the commandment.
As a freewill creature, she could choose to not exercise that faith.
However, the power of those words, “Go and sin no more”, from the mouth of the LORD, is similar to, “Lazarus, come forth”.
Too
many churches today (at least Baptist churches), are basically telling
people to, “Try a little harder, to do a little better”.
Our flesh is no different today, than it was before we were saved.
Our flesh is corrupt and only bent on sin.
The new man is the opposite.
So how do we go and sin no more?
Not in the flesh, for sure.
And it is not that “two dogs” syndrome, where, “the one I feed the most is the strongest”.
No, for one, that would make the old man & new man equals, which they are not.
Secondly, who chooses to feed one or the other, does the old man choose, or does the new man choose - see, how that’s a catch
22?
No, we are supernaturally empowered by the word of God and the indwelling Holy Ghost.
Unfortunately, our “chooser” is “us”, which is simultaneously both the old man and the new man.
We are not sometimes the old man, and then sometimes the new man.
No, that would be schizophrenic, like Jekyll or Hyde.
We are always both.
However, we can mortify our members which are upon the earth, i.e. the deeds of the body.
Colossians 3:5
Mortify
therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness,
which is idolatry:
Romans 8:13
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
As to the new man, we can walk in the Spirit, which is not a work of the flesh, and therefore cannot by our will, but only his,
otherwise it would still be a work of the flesh.
If we submit our will to the LORD’s, will, as Jesus submitted his will to the Father’s will in the garden, then it will be his
will and not ours.
As long as it is our will, then we are not walking in the Spirit.
So, I don’t think that the woman in John 8 went out and “tried” a little harder to do a little better, or “tried” to keep the
commandment.
She already proved that she is a commandment breaker (like the rest of us).
However, the law was her schoolmaster to bring her to Christ.
He didn’t put her back under the schoolmaster.
He forgave her and then empowered her to do what she was unable to do.
It was no longer a work of her flesh or her will, in order to keep the commandment, but rather the work of the LORD.
Jesus, who gave the commandments (he is God), kept all the commandments and never sinned,
.
came to die, and by his blood, to wash us from our sins, to deliver us
from the power of the penalty of the law,
.
then to empower us by his word and his Spirit, to be able to
supernaturally keep the commandments, that no one, naturally
can do.
She went out with his power, because of his word, and by faith in his word, she was thus able to go and sin no more.
Gino