Monday, April 16th

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Psalm 56, 120, 140-142

Today's scripture focus is John 8:1-11

⁵³ Then each went to his own home.

 ¹ But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ² At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. ³ The 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. ⁵ In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” ⁶ They 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. ⁷ When 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.” ⁸ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

 ⁹ At 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. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Not all manuscripts include this passage (and it's footnoted as such in your Bible), but this passage does not contradict any other Scripture, in fact it corroborates other Scripture, and the account is perfectly like Jesus Christ, so it is still worth considering.

And the question posed by this account is, how to justice and mercy harmonize?

And the answer, of course, is in Jesus.  God's holiness demands punishment for sin in order for justice to be done.  Jesus' took our punishment and died as our substitute, so that God could offer us mercy.  The cross is where justice and mercy harmonize.

But, of course, that hadn't happened yet.

And so Jesus answers - “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
He didn't minimize her sin.  He didn't debate or contradict the Mosaic law.  But they brought a condemned woman to Him in order to trap Him, and they were condemned instead.  They weren't in any position to be her judge and executioner, only God is. And His powerful words convicted them, and they left.

And Jesus forgave the woman, and told her to go and sin no more.  Grace is not a license to sin.

John Piper says....
I am reestablishing righteousness in your life—and the for Pharisees, if they will have it—on the basis of an experience of grace. Don't commit adultery any more. Not mainly because you fear stoning. But because you have met God, and have been rescued by his grace—saved by grace! ......

The story may not belong to John's Gospel. In fact, the story may never have happened. But this point of the story is unshakably true. This is the pervasive message of the New Testament. Jesus exalted himself above the Law. He wrote it! Jesus altered some of its sanctions. He pointed to its main goal of Christ-exalting love. And he reestablished righteousness on the basis of an experience of grace.

The story points us to the message of the whole New Testament: We are called to be holy as God is holy. God hates sin. But pursuing holiness without a profound experience of grace in our own lives produces hypocrisy and doctrinaire cruelty. Jesus came into the world to provide that grace through his cross, and to establish holiness, righteousness, and justice on the foundation of our experience of his grace. So come to him for grace, and set your face to sin no more.


Tomorrow's scripture focus: John 8:12-20

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 1 Samuel 25-27