Sin No More
/“”^HEIST did not excuse her sin. He did not defend or palliate it when he refused to decide that she should be stoned to death on the spot; especially by such a gang of guilty sharpers as the scribes and Pharisees who had dragged her into his presence. He set before the already convicted adulteress the one clear, practical duty, — reformation. This displayed the highest wisdom and the highest love. The woman had wandered away from the right; now let her come back to it. She had sinned against the purity of her womanhood; now let her stop her evil courses, and sin no more.
My object in this chapter is to press upon every unconverted person this one precise duty, — reformation. These are times of revival in many of our congregations, and many are inquiring, “What shall I do to be saved” Come to Jesus, is, of course, the first answer to this vital question. But can an awakened sinner come to Jesus with any hope of being forgiven and renewed while he is wickedly clinging to his besetting sins 1 No! Repentance is as essential as faith in order to salvation. Repentance is not merely sorrow for past sins: it is abandonment of present sins. It is the abandonment of our own specific sins.
This wretched woman of the story had been guilty of a distinct transgression. She had trodden one dark and damnable path until it brought her up against the holy sin-hating Son of God. He does not crush her with curses. He just points out to her the other path, — the better path, the brighter path of reformation. “Go, and sin no more.” Quit this life of sin. Our Lord did not teach any visionary doctrine of “perfectionism.” He did not command her to become a faultless angel; but he did command her to become a better woman. As she had stained her soul and her life by abominable practices, the all-wise Jesus exhorts her to abandon them. This was to be the proof of her repentance; this her guide to a better life.
Before my unconverted reader I hold up these inspiring, hope-kindling words, — faith in Jesus and reformation. Your conscience condemns you. The Spirit of God is striving with you. You often say to yourself, “Would that I were a better man, or a better woman! 1 am not fit to die. I am not fit to live. I am guilty before God.” Your past is irreparable. You cannot live that over again. It is gone, with all its guilty record, into the “books of remembrance.” But you can save your future; you can save the present. There is a door of hope set before you by the loving Jesus. It is the door of repentance and reformation.
Stop and change! Don’t excuse yourself by saying that a change of heart requires God’s aid. It does; but he offers and promises his aid, and he offers it to you as a free agent. You are an intelligent, accountable being, with, the power of choice. “Stop sinning!” said Christ to the adulteress. Stop sinning! “What sin ]” you inquire, perhaps. We answer: Your sin, — the sin you committed yesterday, and the sin you are committing to-day.
You may be owing an old debt, or indulging an old and wicked enmity. Go at once and pay the one, and settle the other by asking forgiveness. The refusal to pay a just debt which you can pay, or to love one whom you maliciously hate, are sins against God; and while you harbor them, your repentance cannot be genuine. You never will be saved “by works;” but let me tell you most plainly that you never will be saved without works. You must “keep the commandments,” or the love of Christ cannot be within you. Christ’s command to you is to forsake your sins.
Perhaps you are profane. Then stop swearing. You have been “damning” long enough. God may take you at your word, and damn you for ever. Wash your soiled lips with prayer, and swear no more.
More than one whom I know is kept from Christ by too much familiarity with the decanter. He loves his glass. The moment a man begins to love the stimulating cup, and to hanker for it, he is in danger. I can name scores of my acquaintances whose chief hindrance is their slavery to the bottle. Is that your hindrance’? Then you must give up your bottle, or give up your soul. Implore God’s help, and sin no more. The Saviour is testing you, just as he tested the young ruler whom he commanded to sell his possessions and “come and follow me.” If you are unwilling to deny yourself in the indulgence of a favorite vice, you cannot be Christ’s disciple.
The atoning Saviour has opened a door of salvation to the guilty. There is room for every sincere seeker. But thei’e is no room for the sinner’s sins. There is no room for self-righteousness. Those “filthy rags” must be flung away if you would enter. There is no room for covetousness. If you love gold more than Jesus, you cannot enter. Every sinful practice is contraband at the gate.
You cannot smuggle in a besetting sin. Here probably is the core of your difficulty. Many an awakened sinner has failed to be converted simply because he clung to some one or more favorite sins which God commanded him to give up.
One of my neighbors went home lately convicted of the sin of ingratitude to God. He had led a prayerless, thankless life. He went down on his knees and asked forgiveness. He began to pray with his family. He confessed his sins at his household altar. He not only made his Christian wife happy, but has become a happy man himself. God has given him a new heart; but the man asked for it.
Friend, if you are still living a prayerless, godless life, you are in fearful peril. You are presuming on God’s forbearance. Your Maker has “let you alone” for a long time, though a barren fig-tree. You are sinning against wondrous love. You are sinning against a noonday light of truth. You are sinning against the Redeemer’s compassion.
You are trampling his cross under foot. This sin of hardened impenitence will cost you your soul. Go straightway to the forgiving Jesus, whose “blood cleanseth from all sin,” and determine that with his help you will sin no more.