Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Nov/70

Contributor - Harmen Heeg

Title - When Christ Enters The Courtroom

Topic - Meditation

"LET HIM WHO IS WITHOUT SIN AMONG YOU BE THE FIRST TO THROW A STONE AT HER." JOHN 8: 7

The passage concerning the woman taken in adultery (John 7 :53 - 8 :12) was considered as a dangerous passage in the early church. Of the numerous ancient manuscripts that have been found we notice that some scribes have left a blank space where this passage was to have been and that others leave it out entirely. St. Augustine tells us that a passage such as this one could very easily be misinterpreted to lead Christians to take a very light view of sin. After all, believers were only a handful in a sea of paganism with temptations on every side.

This passage takes anything but a light view of sin, neither of the adultery of the nameless woman who was dragged through the sand to the feet of Jesus, nor of the sin of the pharisees who acted as self-appointed judges and accusers. "Moses commanded us to stone such!" they said. "What do you say about her?" This guilty woman symbolizes all who are lost in sin and are crushed by judgment. Her sin has struck her lame on the inside and it dragged her down like lead. She was guilty and she knew it. No wonder she hated herself. But now the Pharisees, who are they? They symbolize all of us who love to judge and condemn. Some sin and are broken by it. Terrible! Others love to point the accusing finger to make themselves look more holy. That's the way life has always been.

Yet when Christ comes He wonderfully wipes out the guilt of the woman. He does not condemn her but saves her by His grace which cost Him the Cross. The greatest miracle of all happened to this despised and inferior woman. To Peter Marshall this miracle of saving grace is "more wonderful than all the miracles of creation, more mysterious than the stars and more wonderful than life itself."

Why were the Pharisees not able to receive this glorious gift? What stood in the way? It was not so much their own sin that kept them from receiving the grace of God as their smugness, their arrogance and self-righteousness, their condemnation of another's guilt while refusing to face their own. In his book Guilt and Grace psychiatrist Paul Tournier shows how people blame others in the attempt to free themselves, from their own guilt. Adam blamed Eve. Eve shoved her guilt off on the serpent. And that has been the pattern in every husband-wife quarrel since.

Why do people gossip? Ali, if you paint someone else black, doesn't that make you feel a little less bad about your own repressed guilt which you have never confessed to God? God prefers the humble, the poor, the weak, the repentant sinner over the self-righteous. This woman is the prodigal daughter of the Bible. She came home. The elder son never made it into the Father's House.

So, if you don't want to be crucified in Christ, you will never be free. You will be blind to your own faults. Your conscience will become dead and you will be led into the greater bondage of fear and guilt as Cain.

But if you come to Christ in humility, repentance and faith, He will set you free, fill you with His love and give you power to love! He will give you the beautiful miracle so well described by Thomas Chisholm:

"Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for to-day and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!"

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