God Longs to Save

“Neither do I condemn you . . .
Go now and leave your life of sin.”
—John 8:11

When I was a much younger man, an older friend tried to dissuade me
from an activity he considered sinful. “What would Jesus say if He
returned and found you there?” he asked.

It’s a good question—one worth asking from time to time. What if Jesus
caught you smoking pot? What if He returned and found you at an X-rated
movie? What if He found you in bed with another’s wife? What would He
say? Actually, we know what He would say if He caught us in sin. It happened
once.

It was one of those days! Jesus was going about His business, trying to
teach, when He was interrupted by shouts and sounds of scuffling. A group
of clergymen barged in on His class and unceremoniously dumped a woman,
disheveled and defiant, at His feet. They said dramatically, “Teacher, this
woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us
to stone such women. Now what do you say” (John 8:4–5)?

Catapulting the woman into the crowd, the clergy shouted her sin for all
to hear. Clearly they had no compassion for her; she was trash. Disdain for
her flowed out of them like the tide. And just as certainly no passion for
justice existed. Their motive was malice; they wanted to entrap Jesus. The
woman was only bait.

They had a closed case. The Law was clear; adultery then was a capital
offense (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22). Their innuendo was plain.
“Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” If Jesus
took issue with Moses’ Law, His critics could legitimately assail Him as a
lawbreaker and discredit Him as a teacher. On the other hand, if He upheld
the Law’s judgment, He would no longer be the sinners’ friend. They had
Him either way! In chess you’d call their move a “fork.”

Ignoring them, Jesus stooped over and started to write with His finger in
the dirt. He must have been outraged at the way they unhallowed the woman.
When they persisted in their questioning, 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” (John 8:7). Stooping down again, He wrote on the ground.

Her accusers slowly drifted away. The older ones first—they had the longest
track record of sin—the others later, their silence and withdrawal a tacit
admission of guilt. And Jesus was left alone with the woman. Looking up He
said, “Dear lady, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied
calmly, respectfully, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Then neither do I condemn
you. Go now and leave your life of sin” (see John 8:10–11).

Jesus didn’t overlook her sin; He called her adultery sin. He knew the
harm and heartbreak of it, and He upheld the Law. An adulterous lifestyle is
what Jesus would call a “life of sin,” and on another occasion He condemned
even lustful thoughts. But God has no heart for throwing stones; judgment
is His “alien” work (Isaiah 28:21). He longs rather to save, and Jesus is the
incarnation of that longing.

The only sinless One, who could throw stones with impunity, did not do
so because “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but to save [it]” (John 3:17). He paid the price for sin so justice could be satisfied
and judgment averted. As Paul later wrote, “There is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

This woman must have realized from the beginning that Jesus’ sympathies
were with her and against her accusers. Other men came to use her.
This Man had come to save. And save her He did! Not merely from guilt but
from sin’s power! “Go now,” He said, “and leave your life of sin.” Her chains
fell off; her heart was free.

This story of the fallen woman is what J. R. R. Tolkien would call a
“eucatastrophe,” where things come right after seeming to go irrevocably wrong. Villains are foiled, people in jeopardy are freed, justice is done, and the ending is happy.

Taken from Seeing God, © 2006 by David Roper. Used by permission of Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566, Grand Rapids MI 4950l. All rights reserved.