Nestled in the middle of a thrilling and theologically packed dialogue in the Jerusalem temple between Jesus and the Israelites is this quaint, crucial little story about a single sinful woman. As your Bible probably tells you, this story probably wasn’t originally part of John’s gospel. None of the earliest manuscripts include it, and in fact it sounds more like Luke’s style than John’s. And yet it’s still a true story, it’s still God’s Word, and it still beautifully displays the all-wise, thought-provoking character of Jesus Christ.
Is this story about forgiving sin or condemning it? Miraculously, almost paradoxically, it’s both! Though the woman fully deserves the consequences of God’s law (probably), Jesus graciously saves her from condemnation—but then also charges her to now live in life-transforming repentance. God is a God of both perfect justice and perfect mercy; the gospel message is one of both forgiveness and repentance. It has to be both, and yet so often we tend to favor one and forget the other. How many of our social, political, or denominational divides really boil down to one side underselling grace and the other underselling righteousness? Is it possible for us to fully love both?
As it turns out, the main antagonist is not the adulterous woman but the Pharisees who accuse her. In their self-righteousness, they were trying to use the law to glorify themselves. But with a short, scathing word, Jesus reminds them that the law condemns self-righteousness, which robs glory from God, no less than it does adultery. This is why the instruction not to judge one another should be taken seriously. If we ourselves deserve punishment, what place do we have to dish it on others?
All of us, at some point in our lives, have been both the Pharisee and the adulteress. Yet the gospel of forgiveness and repentance is a shock to both. Don’t forget that even the vilest sinner isn’t any worse off than the self-righteous Christian who accuses them! But either way, whichever of the two you are, Jesus calls us all out of sin. In Christ, the kingdom is at hand, and forgiveness is available; so repent and believe the gospel.
