I suppose most believers are familiar with the story of the woman taken in adultery by the scribes and Pharisees, how she was brought before Jesus as He was teaching in the temple precincts. Just a short time before she had been caught in the very act of adultery. She had not come to Jesus on her own volition repentant and asking for forgiveness. She was hustled before the Lord still flush with sin and maintaining a self-willed attitude. When Jesus said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” one-by-one her accusers all departed the temple, leaving Jesus alone with the adulteress woman standing in the midst of those whom Jesus had just been teaching a short time before. Jesus then asked this sinner, “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned you?” She replied, “No man, Lord!” Jesus then said,”Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.” (See John 8:1-11). Notice, Jesus did not say, “I hereby forgive you of all the sins you have committed in your life.” Referring to her adulteress act, He said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.”
The love of God! How grand and wonderful! God would rather light a candle than curse the darkness. It is His will to save and not to destroy. The prophet Jeremiah understood the mind of God quite well when he said, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walks to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). Pontius Pilate echoed this thought when He said to Jesus, “What is truth?” (See John 18:33-38). What are we humans to believe to be the way to God? Does the Presbyterian have it right or is the truth with the Pentecostals? Do the Baptists have a far greater understanding of God’s ways than do the Amish? “It is not in man that walks to direct his steps.” We all need an infallible Guide to show us the way. Yet one man can read God’s guide book, the Bible, and draw entirely different conclusions than some other man who reads the same book, the very same translation, both reading every word from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21! “O Lord, what is truth?”
Don’t sell God short regarding His ability to get the truth into the mind of man – every man. None – no, not one – will ever stand before the judgment bar of God and be able to rightly say, “I never had a real opportunity of having my sins forgiven and have eternal life imparted to me!” Not a single Inca Indian. Not a lone Babylonian warrior. Not a solitary Hindu priest. None – no not one – will be able to shake their fist in the face of God and accuse Him of being unfair or uncaring.
And how few in this present generation really grasp the plan of God in presenting the offer of eternal life to all born human! When that trembling Aztec maiden was sacrificed to appease the anger of the sun god did she die without excuse for failing to worship and obey the only true God? Was her eternal fate then sealed? Is she now burning in hell, or will she yet be cast into eternal never-ending fire? God help you to understand, brethren. God help you to understand.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley