“And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’” – John 8:7
Sin is very serious and must be dealt with. And it has been. The point Jesus so vividly teaches is that everyone has a sin problem – we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and standard for our lives (Romans 3:23). That’s a very, very serious problem because the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23). On the topic of sin, we must look at ourselves before looking at others. Rather than condemning someone to die for his or her sin, we need to truly realize that we deserve eternal death for our sin, yet Christ was condemned to die for it instead.
Our sin separated us from God, leaving us spiritually dead. On our own, we cannot permanently defeat our sin, much less pay the penalty for it. However, Christ died on the cross to pay our penalty and to defeat the power of sin over us. He never sinned, but died so that in God’s judgment we would be forgiven for our sins. This is the gift of God’s grace that’s given to everyone who truly believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior. As we become more keenly aware of our sin and Who dealt with it for us, it should move us from a heart of condemnation to a heart of restoration toward those still trapped in their sin. We should desire to offer that gift of grace to those who, like us, are sinful. We are not to turn a blind eye toward sin, but rather in recognizing it, we must offer the life-giving cure for sin, rather than the life-robbing condemnation of a fellow sinner.