The F Bomb

It was the worst day of her life when her door flew open and the sunlight revealed what everybody expected; she was in the act of committing adultery. The morality police dragged her away - not even allowing her to clothe herself - and threw her in front of Jesus. She had been caught. She was guilty. She was ashamed and the religious elite wanted her blood. You find the story in John 8:1-11

That’s when it happened. That’s when Jesus dropped the F bomb. He frustrated her accusers and then said, “Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” Jesus dropped the F bomb; forgiveness. Jesus dropped the G bomb; grace.

We like to think of grace and forgiveness as “pretty” words. I think that they are dirty words. You only find grace and forgiveness in the low places, in the messy places, where the dirt and the filth has piled up. Grace goes into the places where sin has abounded, garbage has piled up, things are out of control and devastation is everywhere and brings the power of Jesus Christ to clean it up and sanitize it. Forgiveness shows up when there has been serious betrayal and erases the debt. Those words and these actions always show up in the grimy places of life.

Jesus regularly threw out F bombs. He threw a F bomb into Peter’s famous denial of Jesus the night before his death. He even threw an F bomb from the cross to the ones who put him there.

Jesus strategically placed G bombs too. He gave grace to those who had great faith and those who had little faith. He gave grace to those who were out of their minds. Grace dropped from him like rain in March.

Grace and forgiveness are the unique hallmarks of God’s people. A person may get a little grace and forgiveness from this world but God’s church is unique in the sheer volume of grace and forgiveness that it gives away. Why is grace and forgiveness so important? Because I have needed to be saturated with grace and forgiveness myself! How can I not but give this stuff away to others after taking all that I needed?

As followers of Jesus let’s make it a point to stop dropping so many J bomb’s (judgment) and a try to throw down as many G bombs and F bombs as possible.