SATAN'S CRY FOR JUSTICE
"In the Law Moses has laid down that such women are to be stoned. What do you say about it?" They put the question as a test, hoping to frame a charge against him. John 8:5, 6, N.E.B.
Politicians seeking election have a special knack of playing up one particular issue in society: criminals who are not brought to justice. These vote-seekers tell vivid stories of common thieves and muggers who are let off the hook by liberal courts and maneuvering lawyers, not getting the punishment they justly deserve. A vote for them, we are told, is a vote for certain punishment of all deserving offenders.
It is, of course, an appeal to that part in each of us that says the only thing one can do with a sinner is to punish him, and that to do less than punish is to support lawlessness. It is very similar to the pitch the Pharisees used against Jesus that day they brought a caught-in-the-act sinner before Jesus to see if indeed He would support their "law and order" agenda.
It's a good thing Jesus wasn't running for election, because He was intent on doing more than upholding justice. His goal was to transform that bruised, confused, frightened woman into one who could again walk among her friends without embarrassment.
Strange, isn't it, how the enemy of Christ--whom we usually think of as steeped in lawlessnesses and injustice--can appear to turn and cry out for justice! Interestingly, this showdown in John 8 is a foretaste of the very conflict that will explode in the final judgment. For as God stands up on behalf of His people (Zech. 3:1, 2), the "accuser of our brethren" (Rev. 12:10) will accuse God of being unjust in not doing to sinners what "justice" requires--destroying them.
But God does not break the law when He acts in a redemptive, loving way, for the ultimate imperative of the law is that of love. The law defends love; it does not make it captive. And so when Jesus poured out a message of healing forgiveness to this guilty woman, He was acting entirely in harmony with the law of love. Yet that aspect of law is the one Satan and his followers are incapable of understanding.
Man's plan for criminal justice frightens people into external compliance. It should never be confused with God's plan for healing sinners. Jesus did not ignore that woman's sin. First He healed her. Then He died for her.
"In the Law Moses has laid down that such women are to be stoned. What do you say about it?" They put the question as a test, hoping to frame a charge against him. John 8:5, 6, N.E.B.
Politicians seeking election have a special knack of playing up one particular issue in society: criminals who are not brought to justice. These vote-seekers tell vivid stories of common thieves and muggers who are let off the hook by liberal courts and maneuvering lawyers, not getting the punishment they justly deserve. A vote for them, we are told, is a vote for certain punishment of all deserving offenders.
It is, of course, an appeal to that part in each of us that says the only thing one can do with a sinner is to punish him, and that to do less than punish is to support lawlessness. It is very similar to the pitch the Pharisees used against Jesus that day they brought a caught-in-the-act sinner before Jesus to see if indeed He would support their "law and order" agenda.
It's a good thing Jesus wasn't running for election, because He was intent on doing more than upholding justice. His goal was to transform that bruised, confused, frightened woman into one who could again walk among her friends without embarrassment.
Strange, isn't it, how the enemy of Christ--whom we usually think of as steeped in lawlessnesses and injustice--can appear to turn and cry out for justice! Interestingly, this showdown in John 8 is a foretaste of the very conflict that will explode in the final judgment. For as God stands up on behalf of His people (Zech. 3:1, 2), the "accuser of our brethren" (Rev. 12:10) will accuse God of being unjust in not doing to sinners what "justice" requires--destroying them.
But God does not break the law when He acts in a redemptive, loving way, for the ultimate imperative of the law is that of love. The law defends love; it does not make it captive. And so when Jesus poured out a message of healing forgiveness to this guilty woman, He was acting entirely in harmony with the law of love. Yet that aspect of law is the one Satan and his followers are incapable of understanding.
Man's plan for criminal justice frightens people into external compliance. It should never be confused with God's plan for healing sinners. Jesus did not ignore that woman's sin. First He healed her. Then He died for her.
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