God’s outrageous grace; What are the limits?

The story of God’s grace regarding this cul-de-sac of the universe, is a story that will be retold throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. Are there limits to His grace? Judas, Hitler or some of the contemporary heinous crimes against humanity? There are some gross things even recorded in the Old Testament. We need to understand that the Old Testament is a recorded history of what sin has done to our rebellious planet.

One thing is clear, grace has no limits to those who acknowledge their guilt. The doorway of grace is repentance and baptism.

Capture for a moment the scene as is recorded in John chapter 8. A woman is caught in the act of adultery. She was probably set up by those who were seeking to trap Jesus, because they burst in and dragged her out. In her shame she was caste at the feet of Jesus. Jesus knew the back story. She was guilty and she knew it. However, the religious professionals, her “righteous” accusers were guilty too, but they didn’t know it! So, Jesus exposed their sin as he knelt and wrote their offences in the dust.  This is the only place in the New Testament where Jesus is recorded as having written. There is only one other place in the Bible where God wrote with His finger, this time on tables of stone. (Exodus 31:18). Both the handwritten Ten Commandments and this women were placed under the “mercy seat.”

In one brilliant stroke Jesus replaces the two categories of the righteous and the guilty with two new categories; sinners who admit and sinners who deny they guilt. The woman helplessly acknowledged her guilt, the pharisees denied and repressed their guilt – until Jesus recorded their sin in the dust. To receive grace our hands must be empty, their hands were full. I am reminded of the great hymn, “Rock of Ages,” where one line says, “nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling.”

John 8:1-12 is a miniature Bible. It is the problem that the whole Bible is about, how can God love us yet punish sin. How can He be just and yet the justifier (Romans 3:26). In this story Jesus upholds the law; “Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone.” However, He had already revealed their sin by writing them in the dust. One by one you could hear the rocks thump the ground as the accusers slowly dissipated. Men hate the sinner while they love the sin, but Christ hates the sin but loves the sinner.

The plan of salvation is this; we have broken the law and God must be just in dealing with sin, or the whole universe would be caste into disharmony. If God winked at our sin, the whole universe would be in rebellion.

The problem I have with the scene in John 8 is that by nature I identify more with the accusers than the accused. I deny more than I confess. My sin is cloaked with a robe of respectability. Yet if we understand the story correctly the sinful woman was the one that was nearest the kingdom. Indeed, we can only advance into the kingdom if we become like that women; trembling, humbled, without excuse and her palms open to receive God’s grace.