The doctrine of original sin is one that has confounded many throughout the centuries, but especially in recent decades. A talking snake talked Adam and Eve into sinning and that brought condemnation for all of humanity?
That is the teaching of the Bible and the event is picked up again and referenced in the New Testament as the event which brought sin into the world (cf. Romans 5:18-19; 1 Corinthians 15:20-21).
People question this event. Why would God care so much about people eating fruit of a specific tree? I’d ask why man felt so compelled to disobey? And even now, we continue to question the command!
In Genesis 3, we see a paradigm that so often plays itself out in the human heart in regards to our sin. Doubting God’s Word, Distorting God’s Word, rejecting God’s Word, doubting God’s goodness and choosing to disobey.
Doubting God’s Word
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
-Genesis 3:1
This is how the serpent begins the discussion with Eve. At the beginning, he introduces doubt when he questions God’s word and asks Did God actually say ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
He is introducing the idea that God’s Word is subject to human judgment and opinion.
Distorting God’s Word
In response, Eve goes to far and ends up misquoting what God had said. Genesis 3:2-3 says:
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
The problem is that in Genesis 2:16-17, the specific command is:
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
So the Lord commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve changes God’s Word by suggesting that they cannot eat or touch the fruit of this tree. There are other distortions in what Eve says, but for this post, we’ll mainly focus on her adding to what God has commanded.
Rejecting God’s Word
Genesis 3:4:
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
The serpent flatly contradicts God’s Word and denies the weight of the consequences for disobedience. Again, we see how these issues with the scripture work their way into our own decisions. We doubt God’s Word, we twist it to make it say what we want it to say, we disregard it when it’s not what we like. The results this leads to are disastrous.
Doubting God’s goodness
The serpent continues to speak in verse 5:
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
I love how Ken Mathews sums this up in his commentary of Genesis. In the serpent’s rejection of God’s word, he is implying “God is not good and gracious; he is selfish and deceptive, preventing the man and woman from achieving the same position as “Elohim””
False promises
After contradicting God, the serpent explains why the rejection of God’s command will actually be better than obedience. The rest of verse 5 records the serpent saying: your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Once again, this plays into the heart of human sin. We doubt God’s goodness. When we sin against God’s commands, we are acting as though God is holding back something good from us or that we know better than God.
This way of thinking treats God as our adversary.
From temptation to sin
We see the response of Eve in Genesis 3:6:
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
With her eyes, she sees the fruit of the tree is good. In eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Eve is seeking out wisdom independent
The serpent had distorted God’s Word but not everything he said was an outright lie. He deceived and tempted eve with half-truths. Indeed the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened. But they were open to recognize their nakedness. Eve thought that eating of the fruit of this tree would make her like god. John Sailhamer observed that instead, Adam and Eve realized they weren’t even like each other as shame and hiding were introduced.
In the process of this first sin, we see other issues of the human heart. We see the pride of thinking that she knows better than God. There is also covetousness of thinking that true fulfillment will come from something that Eve lacks. These elements in our decisions to sin and our commissions of sin have played themselves out time and again throughout history.
The end of verse 6 mentions that Eve gave some of the fruit to Adam. We’re not sure if he heard the exchange between eve and the serpent, and there’s no indication as to what his thought process was which led to the eating of the fruit of the tree.
Sin is introduced into the world.
Genesis 3:7 says:
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
The serpent told half-truths. He had given the empty promise that Eve’s eyes would be opened upon eating the fruit. That part was true. For both Adam and Eve, their eyes were opened, and what they saw was their nakedness. The serpent told her she would be like God. This appealed to our desire for glorification. The serpent told Eve that she would have the knowledge of good and evil. That was true too, but what that knowledge brought was the knowledge that Adam and Eve were now evil.
Genesis 3 records nothing good coming of eating this fruit. It’s not depicted as some magical moment of bliss. Their eyes are opened. They have sinned. In their nakedness, they sew together fig leaves to cover themselves. It’s an attempt to hide from their sin. But they cannot hide from an all knowing God.
Sources:
K. A. Mathews,Genesis 1-11:26, vol. 1A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 236.
John H. Sailhamer, “Genesis,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), 52.
We have a sinfully low view of sin. We cannot overestimate the weight of sin when we see the cost of sin on the cross.
None of us lives up even to our own moral standards. Do you ever get mad and you regret it? Ever yell at someone and wish you hadn’t? Ever look at something and feel shame for it? Ever tell a lie or bend the truth and wish you could have it back? Ever manipulate people to get your own way? Ever do something where you know deep down it’s not what you should have done? Of course you have. We don’t live up to our own standards. And if we can’t do that, how on earth do we live up to the standards of a holy God? We don’t and we can’t.
We have nothing to go to God with on our own and say “you have to accept me. You have to love me. You have to let me into heaven.” On what grounds?
We sin. And it’s not just “well nobody is perfect.” But that we sin. We rebel against God. In our thoughts, in our hearts, in our actions, in our inactions. Our view of sin is so low that we think we can master it on our own. Our view of sin is so low that we think we can do enough good to outweigh our sin.
Then why the cross at all? Why did Jesus die? The world likes to judge God. Likes to say what he should do if he really were loving. That he’d just wipe the slate clean. That that would be love. We like to tell God what love is. Because we have a sinfully low view of sin. Because the reality is that God SHOWS US what love is. On the cross. That’s what love is. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friend (John 15:13).
Jesus shows us what love is when he lays down his life for you. When he endures the penalty of your sin for you. When he bears the wrath of God for you. And again that’s a message that many find offensive. That many hate. But that again shows our sinfulness when we try to judge God. We try to tell the God who made us what really would be just or holy or good. We can’t earn God but he freely gives himself. On the cross.
We might debate sin. Just how big of a deal it really is. Just how much it really matters. But Jesus shows us how big of a deal sin is on the cross. He shows us how imperfect we are on the cross, how sinful we are on the cross. Because he bears the weight of our sins.
We have a sinfully low view of sin. We cannot overestimate the weight of sin when we look at the price Jesus paid for sin. Jesus didn’t die for you because your sins weren’t that bad. He did it because of the holiness of God and our inability to live up to that. But rather than to just have us languish with no hope, he gave us hope. On the cross.
Jesus is God. And because he’s God, he was a worthy sacrifice for our sins. For all of eternity, Jesus is God. God came into the world. The word became flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14). Born of a virgin at his incarnation, Jesus is fully man. And because he’s fully man, he is like us in our human nature. He lived the holy life we could not. The sinless life we could not. And he died for you.
Jesus goes to the cross and in going to the cross, he doesn’t simply die for us. He’s tortured for us. It’s not like our day and age where methods of execution are designed to be relatively painless. Crucifixion was designed to humiliate and maximize the torture and pain. It was designed to prolong suffering. After being flogged to within an inch of your life, a person would have to carry the top part of the cross beam, which weighed upwards of 125 pounds to the place of his or her death. Nails would have been driven through the wrists and feet. Just imagine the agony of that. And the cross beam would be hoisted up with the condemned person attached. Struggling to breathe, their body sagging down on the weight of their legs. Then pushing up somewhat to get more oxygen. And repeating this horrid cycle until a person died from asphyxiation or exposure to the elements.
But there we have God on earth. Dying in the most agonizing way. The most humiliating way. In a public way. But it was for the sins of the world. It was so we could be forgiven. Because as he was nailed to the cross, so was our sin. We have a sinfully low view of sin. That that was the price to be paid for it. God on earth dying for it. But he did it willingly. Not because he had to. But because of his love for you. That’s what love is.
Jesus never leaves us, he never forsakes us. His disciples let him down. Three times they fell asleep in the garden. Three times Peter denies Jesus. Judas leads the party who arrests Jesus. Judas walked with the Lord for three years. And betrayed him. Jesus is brought before the Jewish ruling council. They’re not out for the truth, they’re trying to find any charges that will stick. They take his words out of context and bring him before Pilate, saying he should be crucified. Pilate is an earthly authority, the governor. Pilate knows he can find no fault in Jesus. He sees the innocence of Jesus. Pilate symbolically tries to cleanse himself: he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.”
In the face of intense pressure, Pilate can’t bring himself to do the right thing. He offers up an option. Pilate has a custom of annually releasing one prisoner. There is Barabbas who is a killer and an instigator of insurrection. Or they can have Jesus who is totally innocent. And they select Barabbas. The Roman guards later mock Jesus. They make a crown of thorns, they hand him a reed as a makeshift scepter, they put a robe on him. They bow down and say “Hail, king of the Jews.” But again they play into the irony. Because Jesus IS the king. He’s the king of kings. While he’s on the cross, the mocking continues. Jesus is crucified with two men who are guilty. And they too join in the mocking. The guilty mocking an innocent man. Dying people mocking the Lord. Crucified men who can’t even show humility for another man who is dying the same gruesome death.
The priests, scribes, and elders continue mocking Jesus, beginning in 27:42, “he saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.”
It’s because Jesus didn’t come down from the cross that we CAN believe in him. Because Jesus died on that cross that day. The mocking continues in 27:43 “he trusts in God, let God deliver him now, if he desires him.” Again they miss the point. God did not spare his son so that he could spare you. The followers of Jesus, the betrayer of Jesus, the ruling Jewish authorities, the ruling Roman authorities. All contributing in various ways to Jesus’ death.
This isn’t the isolated failing of one person. It’s not a lone wolf assassin who takes out Jesus. If that had been the case, maybe we could chalk it up to one bad egg. But in the passion narrative, it’s everyone. Everyone’s failures and sins lead to the cross. But even in spite of that, God is working it for his own glory. In spite of that, God had planned throughout all eternity to actually use that evil and wickedness for our salvation. Because even though it was sin and evil that brought Jesus to the cross, it’s because Jesus went to the cross that he was able to die to sin for all who believe in him.
We see the sinfulness of humanity in Christ’s passion. We can’t downplay the sinfulness of humanity when Jesus came into our world and we killed him. The righteous and holy God who made the world came into the world and we crucified him. We can’t downplay the severity of our sinfulness with that one. The most atrocious way that humanity has ever conceived of to end a person’s life, crucifixion is what is used against the righteous savior of the world. But in spite of all of that, we again see the grace of the Lord on the cross. Because Jesus bore infinite wrath for sin.
There is infinite grace when we turn to him. There is no sin he is unable to forgive. It’s not that he died and can forgive every sin, but he can’t forgive that one, or this one, or what you did, or what you’re struggling with. Infinite wrath because of our sin. But infinite mercy on the cross because of his grace.
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53 They went each to his own house, 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? 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.”
Prayer
Our heavenly Father,
We continue to pray for our nation in these tumultuous times.
Lord, may we look to you as our rock and salvation.
Lord, may we not be burdened by this election cycle, but may we be focused on you.
Lord, regardless of what happens, may we continue to pray for revival around the world, in our nation, and in our community.
May we reach people with the love of Christ and with your gospel.
May that be a burden on our hearts.
May we be dawn to you and greater holiness. May we be sanctified by you and have greater love for you and for your people.
Lord, I also pray for our community as we’ve seen increases in Covid cases recent weeks.
Lord, by your grace, we have never had significant issues with Covid in this church. We praise you for that. Lord, we continue to ask for your protection. Lord, may we exercise wisdom in our decisions.
For people who are infected with this virus, we pray for them and their recovery.
Lord, we also pray for our medical care providers who have spent months on the front lines battling Covid. We pray for them and for their safety.
Lord, we ask that you bless our time in your word this morning. May our hearts and minds be focused on you, your Word, and on worshipping you, our great God.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Introduction
Your Bible probably has brackets around this section with a note that says something to the effect that this passage was not part of the earliest manuscripts.
There’s a lot that could be said about this subject but I wanted to begin this morning by giving a few notes on how we got our Bibles and why we can trust our Bibles.
The printing press was invented in the year 1440.
So you have a gap of more than 1,400 years between the time of Christ and the invention of the printing press where there is one – and only one – way to copy a text. You had to write it out by hand.
Now in the couple of generations after Jesus died, you had the books of the New Testament written.
And they were copied. And the copies were copied.
Thousands of fragments and copies of the New Testament from ancient times. The earliest pieces we have are verses from books, not entire books.
Now for the scribes who did the copying, we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. They had an incredibly tedious job.
But the scribes were just men and they were not perfect. And so sometimes mistakes were made.
The encouraging fact is that the vast majority of scribal variations – or variants – is that they’re over minor issues. Maybe there’s a switch where they say Jesus Christ when it should have been Christ Jesus. Greek uses the word “the” a lot, maybe they accidentally added or omitted a usage of that. Maybe they forgot a word. Maybe they spelled a word differently.
None of those changes make significant differences in the meaning of a text.
And the good news is that there are no major doctrines of the Christian faith which are seriously called into question due to manuscript variations.
That should be an encouragement to the trustworthiness of the Bibles that we read.
We have this long scribal tradition of people who took the work very seriously.
They put tremendous care into the copying of the texts.
In the 19th century, scholars began comparing all of the known Biblical manuscripts.
They considered the age of the manuscripts, and the weight of manuscript evidence in favor of any given verse, among other criteria.
And from that, they produced a New Testament that was a product of all of the existent sources.
The work has been updated over the last century plus, but it is that work and Greek New Testament which is the basis for all major modern translations of the New Testament, with the exception of the King James and New King James Versions.
With that, we come to our passage in John 8.
There are several reasons why most translations are so specific in blocking off this section and making a note about the text.
Let’s consider them briefly.
This passage is absent from all manuscripts of John prior to the fifth century.
When the early church theologians comment on this overarching section of John 7 and 8, this passage is never mentioned.
From the Eastern Orthodox Church Fathers, none of them ever mention this passage prior to the tenth century.
When the story does start to appear, it’s located in several different places in the gospels.
The story doesn’t fit into this section.
-By that I mean that John 7 is at the Feast of Booths. When we left off, Jesus is speaking and it’s the last day of the feast. This story totally interrupts that story and changes the day. But when we get back to verse 12, Jesus is again at the Feast of Booths.
Greek scholars point out that some of the language in this passage is not consistent with the rest of John.
And the conclusion of many of the finest Biblical scholars in the world is that there is overwhelming evidence that this story is not original to John.
All of that being said, many scholars do believe that it’s an event that really did happen during the ministry of Jesus.
But is it original? And if it’s not original, is it scripture?
(pause)
I think it should also be said that there are people on both sides of this issues: was it original, was it not, there are people on both sides who love God, who love the Bible, and who are sincerely trying to be accurate in their approach to God’s Word.
But it leaves us with a question. How do we approach a text like this?
Some pastors won’t even preach this passage.
I like the approach John Piper has taken. Let’s look at the passage and the points that it makes but then support those points from other places in the scripture. Because this passage is teaching truth.
So with that, we’ll jump into this well known event in the ministry of Jesus.
7:53 into chapter 8:
They went each to his own house, 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
The beginning of the passage is setting this scene, but as Jesus is teaching, he’s interrupted.
3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery
And this is the first point we want to focus on this morning. The woman caught in adultery.
The first thing that’s noteworthy is that in the story, they bring a woman who was caught in adultery.
Something’s missing. They didn’t bring the woman whom they had heard committed adultery.
They brought the woman who was caught in adultery…
So she was in caught in the act, but there’s an issue…
Where’s the man?
In Jewish Law, capital adultery charges were not based on rumor or hearsay. You had to be caught in the act.
But the fact that the it’s just the woman and not the man leads to one of two possibilities.
To borrow from D.A. Carson, who I think was half-joking: either the man was a faster runner than the woman.
Or the more common view is that this woman was setup by some of the ruling authorities who had hatched a plot to catch her.
And they do this, not because of a desire for justice or because they’re primarily concerned with holiness, or because they’re really even concerned with this woman.
But it’s because they hate Jesus and want to try to use this situation to make a mockery of Christ.
What do I mean?
Let’s continue reading.
Verses 4-5: they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
Adultery is certainly a very serious sin against God and against one’s spouse.
And it is serious in this passage.
It’s a sin which completely undermines the sacred bond of marriage. It’s destroyed marriages and families. It’s a sin of lust, of weakness, and of selfishness.
I said this a moment ago, but in the Old Testament, adultery was a capital offense.
Or again in Deuteronomy 22:22: “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
And so the people who had caught this woman point to the Law and that the appropriate punishment for this woman is death.
And they come to Jesus asking for his input in the situation.
It’s a trap.
They’re seeking here to undermine Jesus.
They’ve created a theological dilemma for Jesus.
He could pass the buck and have them take the woman before the Jewish court.
If he says he should be forgiven, they’ll accuse him of being soft on the Law. If he says she should be stoned, they’ll say he’s contradicted his own message of grace and forgiveness.
Our passage establishes that in verse 6: This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus responds first without words, but with an action.
Second part of verse 6: Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
What he was writing has been the subject of much speculation.
Some think he was writing the Ten Commandments, others think he was writing sins of the accusers, others think he was writing other Old Testament legal commands.
Ultimately, we don’t know.
I mentioned in the beginning that many scholars don’t believe the story is original to John. But I’ll say again, that many believe it happened. I believe it happened. And this writing in the dirt is part of why I believe it happened.
Tim Keller brings up this point.
But why is that included in the story?
Jesus is writing in the ground, we never find out what. It contributes nothing to the story.
If you were to make up a story, why would you have a detail of the story be absolutely meaningless to the story?
Instead, I believe that it really happened and the writing in the dirt is mentioned because the person who wrote this story saw it happen.
Verse 7: And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
So it appears to be a combination of what Jesus was writing and his words that have totally flipped the script.
Couple of things to consider about this story.
When Jesus says “let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone” is he saying that to judge her sin, you have to be morally perfect?
Again, that’s often the way people interpret the story.
Everyone knows this verse.
Everyone knows the Bible says “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
And the verse everyone knows, almost everyone gets wrong.
And not just this verse. Our society knows lots of Bible verses that mention judgment.
Matthew 7:1: “Judge not, that you be not judged.
Same passage. Matthew 7:4: how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?
We like verses that speak against judgment. Because our society has decided that the absence of judgment is love.
And to judge someone is seen as unloving.
Is it a sin to judge someone?
Consider those passages in Matthew:
how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?
But then the following verse also says: You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
What these verses are saying is that everyone of us is a work in progress and that we need to also work on ourselves and our own holiness as we help challenge and exhort others to holiness.
It is not saying that we can never make a moral judgment at any time.
In the previous chapter, Jesus had said:
24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
The Bible clearly teaches, in multiple ways, that we are to have moral discernment and views on the world, influenced by the Word of God.
There are Bible verses that talk about avoiding sin which imply an awareness of what is and is not sinful so that we can avoid sin.
2 Thessalonians 3:6: Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.
There are Bible passages that serve as warnings of false teachers in the church. To recognize a false teacher, you have to have opinions on the Biblical validity of someone’s message.
Matthew 7:15-17: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
To be able to do that requires us to have a moral understanding which is grounded in the truth of God.
We have Bible verses about exhorting people to live up to Biblical standards.
Hebrews 10:24-25: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
1 Thessalonians 5:11: Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
This requires us to have a sense of what is and is not sin.
Now, there are some guiding principles.
Because, we should never judge someone for its own sake. It should always be in the hope of seeing a person repent. Love should undergird everything we do.
And it can be done in a loving way.
The Biblical worldview is that sin is not arbitrary but sin is sin because it is an affront to God and it is an action against God’s righteousness, holiness, and truth. The best way to live life is in accordance with God’s truth.
When we sin, we are living against his truth and that is therefore not a path that leads us to flourishing.
But we should want that both for ourselves and for others.
Again, it’s a challenge. Grace and law.
Because I think most of us have a tendency to lean more on one side or the other with that.
Some of us are rule followers. Rule enforcers. More on the side of the law. And for that person, the temptation is to be puffed up and self-righteous. We can forget our own sinfulness and need for grace when we do that.
But if we go exclusively on the side of grace, we can forget about God’s call for holiness in our lives and have a worldview that is generally apathetic to sin.
Both extremes are problematic.
Back in our passage. Jesus has been writing. He says “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.
We always think that this is a story about grace.
But is that what’s really happening here?
John and Paul Feinberg have a fascinating analysis of this passage in their book “Ethics for a Brave New World” where they look at this passage in light of Old Testament laws.
This trial is illegal.
For starters, Old Testament standards for capital offenses were very stringent. It wasn’t a matter of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. You had to have total certainty.
Capital punishment for adultery was probably actually very rare in Israel. Because clearly an accusation can be made. But you needed to have multiple witnesses.
Deuteronomy 17:6: On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness
And the witnesses would be cross-examined and their stories had to corroborate with each other.
Also it should be noted that in the Old Testament: perjury about a capital offense was itself a capital offense.
We see both of these ideas. Cross-examination and punishment for perjury in Deuteronomy 19:
16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst
And as a reminder, the Law required that in cases of adultery, both of the guilty parties needed to be executed.
Leviticus 20:10: “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
The law required a public trial, here it’s a mob bringing the woman to Jesus.
The law also required right motives in a trial. And this was a matter of the heart, but you weren’t supposed to accuse someone out of malice.
Exodus 23:1: You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness.
Also entrapment would have been sinful. The Israelites were supposed to help keep the people in their community from sin, not lie and wait so you can catch someone.
(pause)
So let’s summarize all of this. We like to look at this story as the supreme example of grace in the Bible.
It’s a story about court procedural violations!
The religious leaders want to come to Jesus with a legal case and we see that Jesus follows the law even more radically than the conspirators.
Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law but to fulfill the Law. He says that himself in the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus never says the woman doesn’t deserve death.
But when he says: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her:
Jesus has exposed the sins or sinful motivations of these accusers and they leave.
Did she commit adultery?
Probably. There’s never an indication that that was untrue.
But Jesus has intervened in this mistrial.
He will later be a victim himself of an improper trial. We’ll talk about it more when we get there, but there was illegalities with the trial of Jesus.
But unlike this woman, Jesus would be illegally convicted and he would not have an advocate.
But it’s because Jesus died as an innocent man that the guilty could be forgiven.
That’s the gospel.
Back in our passage. Those who oppose Jesus have thought they had such a brilliant trap for him. And it fails. They leave. They don’t care about the woman.
So they leave and Jesus and the woman remain.
10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? 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.”
Now, we do see grace from Jesus.
Jesus’ purpose for coming into the world was salvation.
John 3:17 says:
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Jesus doesn’t bring the hammer down.
Throughout the gospels, we see people coming to Jesus in their sins, or Jesus showing awareness of their sins.
The main point of the passage is the law and Jesus’ adherence to the Law and his honor for the law.
But that doesn’t mean that grace is absent from the story.
Because Jesus is gracious to sinners.
And we too should be.
It can be so easy to be cynical about the world, about sin, about people. It can be so easy to judge others, to judge their hearts and their motivations, when we don’t know people’s hearts and motivations, and experiences.
We need to ask ourselves when we’re tempted to feel judgmental about someone.
Is it out of pride? Is it to feel better about ourselves and our own sinfulness?
Or is it out a righteous desire to see God honored? Is it out of a righteous love for what is just and right? Is it out of a righteous love for sinful people and desire to see their salvation, repentance, and sanctification?
We should ask ourselves those questions.
Because it can be easy to just be snarky and critical.
Is judgment sinful?
It is when we feel like we’re better than someone or look down on them.
It is when it blinds us to our own sinfulness.
It’s not when we see a person’s life isn’t honoring Christ and bringing them to God.
At the end of the passage, Jesus says to the woman: “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
He doesn’t condemn her, but he calls her to holiness.
From now on, sin no more.
Jesus is gracious. But he never, ever affirms sin.
He never celebrates sin, he never says sin is good or doesn’t matter.
His death shows that it matters. He didn’t die for us because our sins weren’t that big a deal.
He is gracious when we sin, and we should rejoice in that. But Jesus also calls us to holiness, and for that, we should also rejoice. Because a righteous life, a life dedicated to God is the best way to live.
There is forgiveness when we sin because we have a savior.
Our world likes to think the absence of judgment is love.
Jesus shows love. He gives his life to redeem sinners.
Jesus shows us love, because he points us to real life, and in pointing to the life to which he has called us, Jesus desires our holiness.
Danny Holmes, Jr. committee a murder in 2016. A few days later, he was arrested for his crime. Last week, Holmes went on trial and plead guilty to his crime.
In a 20 minute speech before a Tennessee court, Holmes talked of finding faith while behind bars and the conviction that he needed to confess to his crime.
He’ll now serve the rest of his life in prison, a consequence that Holmes says he deserves for his crime. (more…)
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
-Ephesians 2:1-10
Every other year, LifeWay research and Ligonier Ministries conduct a “State of Theology” survey. In last year’s survey, they asked 3,000 professing Christians various questions regarding faith, theology, and values.
Results of the survey were not very encouraging.
Just to give a couple of examples.
52% of respondents agreed with the statement “everyone sins a little but most people are good by nature.” 51% agreed with the statement: “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.”
