Heeding Jesus’ Commandments

“Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your descendants also would have been like the sand, and the offspring of your body like the grains of sand . . . .” Isa. 48:18-19.

In John 8:7-11 we read about the woman who was caught in adultery. After Jesus had freed her from her accusers—the scribes and the Pharisees—He spoke words of forgiveness and salvation to her. However, He didn’t let her go with just that. At the same time she also received a thorough and good understanding concerning the fact that it wasn’t just a matter of having your sins forgiven. Jesus gave her the strong commandment, “Go and sin no more.” Who will misunderstand the spirit and the truth in these words: that Jesus’ work of salvation in its entirety is to save us from committing sin? After having been saved, this is the blessed and life-giving commandment that most people will neither accept nor believe. They say that we are not under the law after we have come to faith.

Of course we are not under Moses’ law or under the law of the old covenant. But the Scriptures say, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” Heb. 10:16.

Therefore it was the law of the new covenant that Jesus gave to the woman. He gave her guidance for the way on which she was to go.

The law of the new covenant, and obedience to it, cannot be separated from Jesus’ finished work, for this law leads into the person of Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Is it then possible for such a woman who had fallen so deeply to fulfill Jesus’ commandment: “Sin no more”? Most certainly! Jesus never asks us to do anything that we cannot do. He gives strength and courage to do everything when we believe. Mark 10:27, 9:23. Thanks to God, it is possible to overcome all things.

Andreas Nilsen