JOHN'S Gospel (Chapters 5 and 8) records the sudden freeing of two individuals from strikingly different bondage. These liberated individuals—the man by the Bethesda pool, who had been crippled for thirty-eight years, and the woman taken in adultery—must have showed to Christ Jesus a willingness to leave their ways, for with characteristic helpfulness the Master blessed each of them with the solemn words, "Sin no more."
Christ Jesus neither ignored sin nor considered it beyond the scope of men to overcome. He enjoined all men to vanquish it wherever it occurs and particularly in themselves. He considered sin, with all its apparent effects, not only an obstacle to individual progress but also an unreality, for he would not attempt to banish something which his omniscient Father had designed, nor would he expect others to eliminate a reality.
In defining "sin," a dictionary states: "Sin includes not only actions, but neglect of known duty, all evil thoughts, words, purposes, and all that is contrary to the law of God." When we acknowledge God as the sole lawgiver, the one cause, the only Principle of being, we shall realize the negative, even fictitious, nature of sin, which is by definition that which presumes to contravene the omnipotent law of omnipresent divine Principle.
