John 8: 11Neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared.
Jesus
represented the Father while He was here on earth. He came in His own capacity
as the Son and He is part of the trinity of the Godhead. Being so, His heart is
the same as the Father. Though God hates sin but He is compassionate to forgive
every sinner and to give each one endless opportunity to repent and return back
to Him. God does not shut the door to repentance and salvation; it is the
sinner who shut his door but being stubborn and rebellious.
The grace of
Jesus was seen not only when He said this to the adulteress that He did not
condemn her but even when He was beaten and tortured by the crowd during His
crucifixion. He had suffered tremendous pain at the hands of His attackers but
as He hung on the cross and in His dying breath called out to the Father to
forgive them.
Jesus
interceded for the sinners in Luke 23: 34 “Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” His heart was
broken but yet it was tender and merciful. He still was loving and forgiving. Jesus
said in John 3: 16 ‘For God so loved the
world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believed in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.’
This same
love was in Jesus, the love for sinners never left Him for He knew that it was for
this purpose that He came to die for them. In his letter to Timothy, Paul also
expounded on this grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. Paul acknowledged that he
was a great sinner but because of the love and grace of God, he was given a
second chance and was even called to become an apostle.
In 1 Tim
1:12-14 And I thank Jesus Christ our
Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the
ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I
obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly I unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Throughout
the bible we can read of God’s mercy and grace. Except for the fallen angels
that fell together with Lucifer who were not given a chance to repent, all
other men are given more than ample chances to repent and to return back to
Him. No matter how great a sin man can commit, as long as he repents genuinely,
God will hear in heaven and will forgive their sins.
Such is the
love of our God. Let us hold firm to this privilege.
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