Article of Faith: Holding captivity captive (3), By Femi Aribisala

Grace and truth came through Jesus.

At the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus inferred that He was God, the Fountain of living waters. Now He inferred that He was the One who wrote the Ten Commandments with the finger of God.

What could He have been writing on the ground with His finger?

John, who is very particular in giving details, does not reveal what He wrote. But a scripture by a prophet of God gives us an inkling. Jeremiah says, and God responds:

“O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed. “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.” (Jeremiah 17:13).

Certainly, this scripture was known to these scribes and Pharisees, who are learned in the Scriptures, so it should send a powerful message of indictment to them.

Then, according to the word of Jeremiah, Jesus shamed them. When they continued asking Him if the adulterous woman should be stoned:

“He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.” (John 8:7-8).

Holding Captivity Captive

They got the message and were ashamed.

They came with one agenda: to trap Jesus. But they ended up being trapped themselves in the trap they set. Thereby, David’s messianic psalms were fulfilled:

They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down; they have dug a pit before me; into the midst of it they themselves have fallen.” (Psalm 57:6).

“He made a pit and dug it out, and has fallen into the ditch which he made.” (Psalm 7:15).

The accusers of the adulterous woman were hypocrites. All of them must have been sinners in one way or another. There might even have been adulterers among them.

Jesus knew everything about all of them. He knows that:

“There is none righteous, no, not one.”(Romans 3:10).

When they came to ask Him to do for them a miracle from heaven, Jesus derided these same scribes and Pharisees as belonging to an adulterous generation. He said:

“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” (Matthew 12:39).

So, irony of ironies. Adulterers were accusing others of committing adultery. The pot was calling the kettle black.

Paul says to self-righteous Israel, and to us:

“You who say, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ do you commit adultery?” (Romans 2:22).

So Jesus challenged them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at this woman.”

The accusers quickly realised that they were not qualified to cast a stone at her. They were all sinners.

If anyone among them claimed to be without sin, he would have got into trouble. Jesus might have told him the sins he committed the day before.

Do you remember the case of the Samaritan woman that Jesus met at Jacob’s well? Jesus told her she had had five husbands, and the man she lived with was not even her husband. Surprised, the woman told her neighbours:

“Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4:29).

Yes, indeed! Jesus knew everything about this woman’s accusers, and their cases were probably worse than that of this adulterous woman. Therefore, He warned His disciples:

“Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” (Luke 12:1).

“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20).

Reverse Gear

The woman’s accusers were stumped. Their conscience convicted them. They all left defeated, with their tails between their legs.

I wonder what they said among themselves after leaving:

“So Clarus, what were your own sins?”
“Shut up, Gringory, who does not know in Israel that you have been sleeping with the women who come to you for counselling?”
“Abi, you think we don’t know?”

Only one person was qualified to throw a stone at this woman. That person was Jesus, the only person who “committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth.” (1 Peter 2:22).

Nevertheless, Jesus Christ, the righteous, did not say she should be stoned. But neither did He condone her adultery. Instead, He turned to her and asked:

“Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11).

This is because:

“God did not send His Son (Jesus) into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17).

Paul equally affirms this:

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2).

Accordingly, Jesus warns the redeemed:

“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37).

The Gospel of Salvation

This incident with the adulterous woman is one of the most powerful episodes of salvation in Scripture. This woman’s sin was not abstract. She was caught in adultery, in the very act. She could not, and did not, deny the accusation. She did not even plead for forgiveness. Nevertheless, Jesus chastised her accusers and did not condemn her. Instead, He wrote on the ground with the finger of God.

The first time with Moses, Jesus wrote the Ten Commandments on stone tablets with the finger of God. His writing was engraved in stone. But this time, Jesus wrote with the finger of God in the dust on the ground.

His indictment of the woman’s accusers, and even the woman’s guilt, was written in the dust on the ground and could be easily erased by hand. Or the wind could blow, and it would be erased.

“For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, and to those who remember His commandments to do them.” (Psalm 103:11-17).

Thereby, we can see why John says:

The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17).

The abundant grace of God was extended to this adulterous woman. Jesus told her, “Go, and sin no more.” That grace of God was equally available for her wicked accusers.

Paul was a Pharisee. He came from the same school as the woman’s accusers. He was a stone thrower. Many people were stoned to death under his watch. Nevertheless, Paul obtained God’s mercy and became the greatest apostle of all. So, he testifies:

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.” (1 Tim 1:12-16). CONCLUDED.