Context

The Matrix is one of the films I most enjoy watching. It's got a good plot, great action scenes, and the stoic Neo is probably the character Keanu Reeves was born to play. Unfortunately, the makers of the movie couldn't leave well enough alone (is that right? "good enough" sounds like it would be better grammatically. oh well.) and made not just one, but two, underwhelming sequels.

While some of us might just choose to conveniently ignore those two movies (something many of us experienced after watching the most recent Indiana Jones film), they still figure into the mythology and story of The Matrix. We may not like it, but stories, no matter how poorly done, do not function based on what the viewers or readers prefer. We can't just stop in the middle and take the parts we like.

Sometimes I feel like that we as Christians do the same thing. Here's John 8:3-11a

³The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" ⁶They 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. ⁷When 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." ⁸Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹At 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. ¹⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

¹¹"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared.

What a wonderful story don't you think? Why should we condemn others? We are just as guilty of sin and in need of God's love and salvation. Who are we to judge what other people say and do? That may be all well and good, but I feel like it's all too easy to forget the last words that Jesus says to that woman. The entirety of verse 11 reads thusly:

¹¹"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

It can be easy to ignore these words. We may like to rest knowing that we have a loving and forgiving Savior as we forget to live out this simple command to us. Because we are saved by grace, does this give us a free pass to sin? Should we continue to do whatever we want just because we know God's grace is unfailing?

Conveniently, someone much smarter and wiser than myself answered this question. Paul writes in Romans 6:

¹What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

This is just something that I've been thinking about recently. It's nice to talk the talk, but the important (and difficult) part is walking the walk.