Anthem: Grace in Your StorySample

Grace in our mess

Grace is for everyone. Whether you follow all of the rules, or your mistakes have put you in prison. Whether you’re addicted to shopping, or addicted to drugs. Whether your family loves you, or everyone in your life has abandoned you.

Whether you think you deserve it, or you think you’ve messed up too many times—grace is for YOU.

Grace isn’t for the perfect, put together, cleaned up you. Grace is for the I failed again, no one could ever love me, I’m too far gone, you.

John 8 tells the story of a woman caught in the act of adultery. The religious leaders of the time found a woman who was sleeping with a man who wasn’t her husband. The law required that punishment for adultery was death.

Jesus was teaching in the temple courts when the leaders brought this woman before Him. We can imagine the shame, embarrassment, and fear this woman felt as she was thrown down before Jesus. Accusations ringing in her ears. Condemnation surrounding her. She knew what she had done. She knew she messed up.

As the crowd held stones in their hands, the words that came out of Jesus’ mouth shocked them: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (8:7). And one by one everyone dropped their stones until only Jesus and the woman were left.

He didn’t yell at her, mock her, or judge her. Instead, Jesus stepped into her mess, into her brokenness, and told her that He didn’t condemn her, and invited her to live a different life (8:10-11).

Jesus offered this woman the very thing she needed most, but least expected—grace. He wasn’t afraid to step into her mess. He didn’t make her go and clean herself up before He talked to her. He came to her just as she was and offered her grace that not only saved her life, but changed it.

Grace isn’t afraid of the mess. Jesus invites us to come to Him whatever our sins because His grace cleans us up and leads us home.