Get it right!

John 8:11
She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

“You’ve got to get right with God!” We’ve all heard it before, right? Probably some of us have even uttered these very words to someone throughout our lives. But are they accurate? Do you really have to “get right with God” in order to be saved?

I guess to answer that question we have to first have an understanding of what it would look like “getting right” with God. In order to “get right” we, the people, would have to fully obey the Ten Commandments. That means, just as Jesus stated, no looking at someone in a lustful way. No thinking, even for a moment, that perhaps this month the tithe check would be better spent on a new oven. No leaving out parts of the story, even though they had no real bearing on the outcome. Can you do that? Can anyone? I’m assuming you’re answer is “NO”, but if it isn’t, you’re a liar and can’t get right with God anyway. Ha!

So is it right for any Christian to ever say, “You’ve got to get right with God!”? I say, no. Because I say no, I would like to draw your attention to the story of Jesus and the woman caught in the act of adultery. (If you don’t like this story, pick any other time in the Bible that Jesus heals someone, or forgives sins.) I’m using this story to illustrate my point, which is simply this: you don’t have to get right with God before you are forgiven, loved, and embraced by Him.

This woman never asked Jesus for forgiveness. She was brought before Him, GUILTY, caught in the act of adultery, and thrown at His feet by her accusers. The Law was spoken by the Pharisees and condemned her according to her actions. Jesus, Himself, declared that the Law was right in condemning her to death, and He pronounced a death sentence, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” Jesus declared, through His response, that her actions were deserving of death according to the law, but He limited the executioners to those who were without sin.

When everyone was gone, and it was only Christ and the woman, He looked at her and told her He wasn’t condemning her. He sent her off, free, to sin no more. So I ask, when during this account did she “get right with God”? She never asked for forgiveness; she never offered an explanation for her actions. She simply got up and walked away free to sin no more.

Friends, this is what we need to be telling our friends and family, neighbors and enemies: not that they need to “get right with God”, but that God has gotten everything right with them! Through the blood of Christ, God reconciled the sins of the world to Himself, and preemptively forgave mankind. (2 Corinthians 5:19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”) We didn’t have to ask for forgiveness; He gave it to us. That is what makes Grace so beautiful. It’s not about “getting right with God”; it’s about realizing you’ve already been made right with God through the once and for all sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.