You all know the word sin, and know perhaps that sin is the cause of all trouble in the world. When the Lord Jesus was on earth He spoke against all sin, for sin is to want our way instead of God’s way. Yet He always said words of pardon to any who confessed their wrong ways.
One day while He was teaching the people in the temple, some men brought a woman to Him, and they said she had so sinned that by the law she should be stoned, but they wanted to know what He would say to do. Those men hated Jesus because He had spoken against their dishonest acts, and they wanted to show He did not judge as God’s law said.
Jesus Responds
Jesus did not answer them right away. He stooped down and wrote on the ground, while they kept on asking Him. At last He said to them, “He that is without sin ... let him first cast a stone at her.”
Then Jesus kept on writing on the ground, which gave time for the men and all who heard Him to think of their own sins and what sin deserved. His words showed He had authority to command what to do, as a judge, and that the woman deserved to be punished as the law said. Her sin was adultery, which meant she had given her body to another, not her husband, disobeying God’s command (Ex. 20:14).
The relation of husband and wife was made by God, that is why it is to be faithfully kept as long as both live (Genesis 2:24). And the law said to punish one known to be untrue to the other. God told Moses to write for the nation of Israel, that the people should live rightly and He could bless them (Lev 20:10; Deut 28:9).
The Lord Jesus had also taught plainly against that sin, as shown in Luke 16:18. But He did not then come to earth to punish for sin. If He acted as the law directed, He must be just and punish not only that sin, but every sin. He knew that the men who brought the woman had sins, and they had spoken against Him, because He had told them God’s ways, which was the most serious sin of all.
After those men heard His words, “He that is without sin ... let him first cast a stone,” each one suddenly felt in his own mind that he had sins. They should all have bowed down before the Lord and confessed they too were sinners, but they did not do that; each one silently walked away, as though He would not know it. The eldest man who should have known God’s ways best, went out first, and the youngest one last.
Forgiveness
When Jesus rose up from writing on the ground, the woman stood alone before Him. She could have gone away from Him also. He told her He did not “condemn” (punish) her, and said for her to go, but to sin no more. The words He wrote on the ground are not told, but, since He always taught God’s ways, the words must have been about God’s holiness or His mercy.
Jesus came to take the “bruising” as though of stones, the punishment for all sins from God Himself. That was why He could forgive the sinner: “He was bruised for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5).
Further Meditation:
1. Why did the men bring this woman to Jesus?
2. What would have happened had the Lord applied the law to everyone present that day? What would happen if each of us faced the law’s demand for holiness today?
3. The question of keeping the law as a rule of life has been raised many times over the centuries. How are we to live as Christians? You might find help on that question in the pamphlet Antinomianism and Legalism: What is the Rule for Christian Conduct? by J. L. Harris.