Don't Waste Your Joy

Remember the story of the woman caught in adultery and thrown at the feet of Jesus (John 8)? The Pharisees catch her in the act (most likely bribing someone to have intercourse with her) and question Jesus if she should be stoned like the law of Moses states. I absolutely love Jesus' response to them: He just writes in the sand. Everyone has an opinion about what he writes and mine is he's writing their accusations against the women; to Jesus their accusations are just words in the sand. That is an amazing picture of grace.

Jesus then says that whoever has no sin i.e. the one righteous enough to be enraged at sin should throw the first stone at her. And the woman, at the feet of Jesus, hears stones hit the sand and the shuffling of feet walking away. Then the following exchange between Jesus and the woman happens:

John 8:10-11

Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."

Pure grace. The person who had every right to be offended and stone this women was Jesus - God in the flesh. But he showered her in grace. What I also love about this passage is that it's open-ended; the reader is left to imagine what 'From now on sin no more' means.

Let's follow the line. Imagine you're the woman. You live a life of adultery; something you probably know is wrong even though you do it. You are betrayed in the most intimate of acts (especially since you don't want anybody to know about it) and thrown into the middle of the streets by men who want to kill you. You land at the feet of a man you proably heard of, Jesus, and are now ashamed to be at the feet of a righteous men in such a shameful state. And he says to you, 'You are not condemned, go and do not sin any more.'

Now you are in your house wondering how you do not sin anymore since you have been saved from a death you fully deserve. You probably reflect on your life. "What have I been doing?" And it comes to your mind that you have rebelled against the law and that you searched for your own pleasure even if it meant a man betrayed his wife. Now you are called not to sin anymore: Do the opposite of what you've been doing. Obey the law and get outside of yourself. Why would you want to do this though? Grace. You have a second chance. Now you have a choice given to you by Jesus. Are you going to waste it?

If the woman does come to this conclusion, what conclusion did she arrive at? She discovered she needs to love God with all her heart, mind, and soul and to love her neighbor as herself in response to the grace / second-chance given to her by Jesus. And that, brothers, is worship when you say, "I'm free, saved from death. Let me now live for God and my neighbor; let me live outside myself."

Imagine the joy that woman experienced living in worship of Christ's grace. Even if Jesus didn't spell it out for the woman what it means to sin no more, Paul did in Ephesians 1 - 2.

Ephesians 1 and 2 are so startling because Paul pairs two things together: God's grace and good works.

Ephesians 1:4-6

... In love [God] predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to his purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Why did God call you to repentance by trusting Jesus' work on the cross? To praise his glorious grace (your redemption is all about God). But how do you do that? Do you just go to church and sing worship songs and that's it? That doesn't seem right, does it? I got a girlfriend to respect. I have friends to hang out with. I have temptations before my eyes. Just showing up Sunday can't be it.

What does an adopted child of God do? What did God's son do? He did what the Father does (John 5:17). Adopted children of God act like the Father and the Father is all about liberating the oppressed and giving sight to the blind physically and spiritually (Psalm 146). Paul sets up chapter 2 wonderfully this way then when he says

Ephesians 2:10

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Christians worship their adoptive Father by praising his grace for adopting them by acting like him. We've all heard "Imitation is the highest form of flattery." How true must it be then for Christians? How much joy must God receive when his children say, "I want to act like you because you freed me from my sins?"

I fear that so many Christians, especially teenagers, rob themselves of joy by thinking Christ's grace is just meant to wipe the slate clean. Imagine if the women only realized she needed to obey the law and not love her neighbor. What would she be? A Pharisee. Oh, how often I've been a Pharisee when I saw Christ's grace as a start over card and not an opportunity to worship and get out of myself by serving others. How about you?

If we truly praise God for his grace this will instantly lead to joyfully doing the good works God has prepared beforehand for us.

Paul Trip in his book War Of Words writes, "Christ says you can boil all of the teaching of Scripture down to two areas: love for God and love for people, and he says something else important. There is an order of importance here: love for God is foundational to everything else. If you do not love God above all else, you will not love your neighbor as yourself. Any lack of love for neighbor, in word or deed, reflects some deficiency in your love for God (see 1 John 4:7-21)" (pg. 62).

For freedom Christ saved us (Galtians 5). And part of that means Christ saved us from enduring the holy, righteous, unquestionable wrath of the Father. We now have the ability to choose between serving our flesh or serving our neighbor. Let's be honest, we fail... a lot. We choose our flesh more than neighbor at an alarming rate. But the beauty is that you are free because there is now no condemnation for you (Romans 8:1). Grace! So if you've messed up, ask God to extend his grace one more time because he will (and always will). Out of love for God, choose to serve your neighbor in good works. Otherwise your joy in your freedom will be incomplete; it will be wasted.

So, what good works are we to do?

Visit http://drytears.org/home.html. This is the group formed by teenagers no older than 17 who collectively raised $20,000 so children in Africa will have clean water simply by selling custom bracelets and t-shirts. Their efforts saved 20,000 people because of their willingness to do the good works God placed on their hearts in praise of His grace. Imagine the joy they must have. Compare that to the numb joy of saying, 'Hey, I sinned and I'm covered... back to life as usual.'

God gave you grace to do good works as his child. Pray that God will reveal to you what those good works are.