John 8:9  When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

What the critics of Jesus heard was their own convicting judgment coming back at them: "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7). None of them had the authority to truly sit in judgment of another for her sin. They drop their stones and walk away.

But now the woman stands alone before Jesus. She cannot hide from her own sin anymore. None of us can. Peter, in the presence of Jesus, fell to his knees confessing, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" (Luke 5:8). Even in our prayers of solitude, we cannot escape the penitential truth of who we are and what we have done or left undone. Nor can we deny this truth.

But when we come to God, we come under the sign of the cross. Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment" (John 9:39). Indeed, that judgment will take him to the cross, and his own death will expose us for who we truly are in all our sin. But he comes to make that judgment his own so that through his death, we may have his final word for our future. He comes to grant us standing before God in grace as God's own redeemed children. We are no longer guilty when we have Jesus by our side.

-- 

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,