Oh, the joy of forgiveness

This morning I was worshipping God with other believers and a phrase in a song stuck out to me, it was, "oh the joy of forgiveness". As I was enjoying this phrase a story from the Bible came to my memory and I thought I would relate it here. 
Some of the rulers of the Jews came to test Jesus about the law to find a reason to accuse him of wrong; so they brought to him a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They said that they had caught her in the "very act", which makes me wonder where the guy was. After all the law said that both, the man and the woman, were to be stoned. 

They said to Jesus, "We have caught this woman in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women, but what do you say?" 
Jesus stoops down and begins to write in the dirt, so they keep asking and pressing him to answer. 
He stands up and says, "He among you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 
Then he stooped back down and began writing on the ground. 

When they heard that they began to leave one at a time beginning with the older ones, and he was left alone with the woman, where she was. 

In the eyes of the woman this could have been an even more frightening prospect. At this point Jesus was very well known for healing the sick, casting out demons, and there had even been some reports that he had raised people from the dead. He had been friendly to sinners, had fed thousands of people with a one person lunch, but had recently been confronting the leaders of the nation and been calling himself the son of God; making himself equal with God. He had even said that his Father (God) didn't judge anyone, because he had given all judgement over to the son. So that the right to judge mankind had been given to Jesus. Let's just suppose that this woman had heard that message, or that she had some friends that had heard; now she would have the added pressure of these words to her mind as she stood there before Jesus while the last of the younger men were leaving. 
What would he do? 
She watched as the last of the young men left and Jesus stood up. 
Then he spoke to her and said, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
She answered, "No one, Lord."
Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on do not sin."
What a wonderful Lord. 
The one who didn't have any sin and had the right to pass judgement on this woman refused to condemn her, forgave her sin, and told her to go with freedom from her sin. Soon Jesus would take the judgement and punishment for both her sin and that of mankind so that everyone could be free from condemnation and sin and forgiven to live life abundant with Jesus.
Later when Paul is writing to the Christians in Colosse, he says that Jesus "is the image of the invisible God" and that "In him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." In other words, Jesus is God. 
If the question arises, "What would God have done in this situation with the woman caught in adultery?" 
Now you know. 
It's what Jesus did.


"Oh, the joy of forgiveness."