Letter 3 to Friend in Rehab

Today for me is Good Friday. I have the day off, so I’m taking some time now to write you what will probably be my final letter. I’ll be visiting in three weeks for your graduation, and I’m looking forward to it. I said at the beginning that my third letter would be on the person of Christ. I can’t think of a better day than Good Friday to write on such a person! When I was in second grade, I asked my teacher why Good Friday was called “good” when Jesus died on that day – I told her that I thought it should be called “Bad Friday.” Unfortunately, she didn’t have a good answer for me, and I went several years without truly understanding the necessity of Christ’s death and how it was good for me. What I understood even later in life was that it wasn’t just that Christ died for my sins that made it Good Friday, but it was so much more. A wise man once said that one should judge a religion not on the people who follow it but on the person who founded it. I implore you and everyone else who may look at Christianity to take eyes off of the hypocrites and the fakes and even the common everyday sinners like myself when judging the religion, but instead, take a look at Christ! That’s what I’m going to do today in this letter.

John 8:1-11 – “But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. “Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."”

What we see here is Christianity at its finest. The religious people at the time, the Pharisees, find a woman caught in adultery. She may have even been a prostitute, but the bottom line is that this behavior was deemed extreme at this time, and the punishment by law was to be stoned to death. They tried to trap Jesus by asking him what to do. What Jesus does is remarkable – in just a few words, he gets the Pharisees and all who read this story to look at themselves for a moment and the sin that plagues everyone. Then he basically says that anyone who has lived a sinless life has the right to condemn the woman, but those of us who have sinned have no right whatsoever to bring down condemnation on even a more wretched sinner such as this woman. Then Jesus, who did lead a sinless life and did in fact have full authority to judge and bring down condemnation on this woman, did not. He instead chose to love her, forgive her, save her, and give her the power to lead a holy life.

This is in large part is what is missing in a lot of so called Christianity today. Suddenly, mainstream Christianity has become a religion that condemns abortion doctors and homosexuals and murderers but doesn’t stop and think that we’re all sinners in need of God’s mercy. Three of God’s best instruments in history (Moses, David, and Paul) were all murderers. Jesus said on his sermon on the mount that hatred in the heart towards a person is the same as murder. There is no escaping the way of sin except through Christ. This is what he wants us to see. It doesn’t matter what a person has done because Christ’s death is sufficient for even the vilest of sinners. And no person here on earth has a right to condemn anyone because no person here on earth can claim to have lived a sinless life. Jesus is the true and living judge, and he offers eternal life to those who trust in him and turn from their former ways of sin.

One more thing before I close – look at what Jesus last said to the woman. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” This is crucial to understanding Christianity. Before a person trusts in Christ, it isn’t possible to leave a life of sin. The Bible says repeatedly that we are slaves to sin, dead in our transgressions, and unable to save ourselves or do anything about our wretched condition. But when Jesus meets a person where he or she is at, stares their sin in the face, and says, “Then neither do I condemn you,” then a person has received more grace and mercy that one can imagine and now has the power to leave a life of sin and enter a life of the pursuit of holiness. If the woman here in the story was to leave her meeting with Jesus unchanged and then continued on the same path of sin without a struggle, then there was no conversion in this story. But when Jesus truly changes someone, he changes them from the inside out, and while it is always a struggle and a daily war to fight off sin, a person who is truly a Christian will leave a life of sin and pursue a life pleasing to God.

I don’t know where you are at spiritually today. Perhaps this time in rehab has given you time to think over things and given you time to hear God calling for your soul. I’m not sure. I can only pray that my letters make sense and convey a clear understanding of Christianity and that you won’t live another day without knowing the love that God has for you. If Jesus can rise from the dead and claim victory over sin and death, then you can rise from your former life and live a new life – one of joy and purpose. Why is Good Friday called “good?” Because of Easter. Christ’s raising from the dead is good news to all that he has the power to conquer sin and death – and so shall we if we only trust him and leave our life of sin. I pray that God does a mighty work in your life because someone as intelligent and gifted as you would be valuable to the kingdom and could have a great testimony. See you in a few weeks.