LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Accusation and Forgiveness
"Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; there is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you have your hope ... For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 5:45; 1:17).
The conduct of the scribes and Pharisees was permanently conditioned by the teachings of Moses. These teachings were based on the law, a spiritual law, without blemish, which, however, appealed to the efforts of unregenerate man.
The law, being spiritual, when applied to the natural man generates impotence, and impotence generates, among other things, hypocrisy and anger. And it also generates accusation.
The Lord told the Pharisees that Moses accused them. The adulterous woman was accused before the Lord according to the law of Moses: "In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. What sayest thou then?" (John 8:5). And this accusation brought with it another accusation: "But this they said, tempting him, that they might accuse him" (John 8:6).
The law brings a spiral of accusations. The conscience is seized by the commandment not fulfilled, by the ordinance not obeyed. But that conscience does not rest except by charging the conscience of another, and even by judging and condemning the other.
To condemn the woman would bring the certain possibility of condemning the Lord. However, in this passage of the adulterous woman, the Lord shows us the supereminent power of grace.
Grace works in the conscience, to make us all see ourselves as in need of God's forgiveness; it shows us our sinful condition, but, at the same time it shows us the mercy of God, who forgives us. There was no first stone against it. The Pharisees expected the application of the law, but the Lord showed them how grace operates.