We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Sinful Accusers and Capital Punishment

The Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman they had caught in the act of adultery (Jn 8:3-4; where was the guilty man?). They wanted to see how this increasingly popular, would-be Messiah, might respond. Their motive, of course, was to entrap Jesus (vs. 6). The law explicitly commanded that adulterers had be stoned to death (Lev 20:20; Deut 22:22). If Jesus agreed with this and had the lady stoned, it would likely get him in trouble with Roman authorities, for they alone had the right to try and carry out capital punishment. If Jesus disagreed with this, however, it would set him in explicit opposition with the Torah and justify the Jewish court trying him as a false teacher.

Displaying his signature genius, Jesus found a way to affirm the Torah in principle while undermining it in practice. “Let anyone who is without sin cast the first stone,” he said (vs. 7). In agreement with the Torah, Jesus affirmed that sinners like this woman deserve to be executed. Yet, he added, only a sinless person would be justified in carrying out this sentence. Since none of the woman’s accusers were sinless, they ended up dropping their stones and walking away.

Since all people are sinners, it seems to me that Jesus’ teaching in this episode applies not just to this particular accused sinner and to this group of sinful accusers, but to all accused sinners and to all sinful accusers. And if you think it through consistently, this entails that none of the Old Testament’s commands to carry out capital punishment should ever be acted on! Indeed, for followers of Jesus, it entails that no command to carry out capital punishment should ever be obeyed, regardless of where it is found or who it comes from.

The command itself may be just, but unless you are without sin, you’re not  justified putting it into practice.

Think about it, and have a blessed day!

gb

Greg

Category:
Tags: ,

Related Reading

Sermon Clip: The Cross and the Tree

In this short sermon clip, Greg Boyd discusses how Christians should react to the world with love. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were tempted to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They did this because they didn’t understand that God was protecting them. In this sermon, Greg…

Is the Judgment of God Ever Punitive or Retributive?

Greg talks about the nature of God’s judgment. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0050.mp3

Forgiveness in the Christus Victor View of the Atonement

Did Jesus need to die on the cross to satisfy God’s wrath in order for us to be forgiven? Greg discusses the role of forgiveness in the Christus Victor view of the Atonement.

Podcast: What Do You Mean When You Say Jesus Entered Into Solidarity with Our Sin?

Greg talks about God’s passion for, unity with, and pursuit of his beloved bride.   http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0330.mp3

Tags: ,

What is “Original Sin”?

I get asked about “original sin” quite a bit. Are people born guilty? Many times questions like this originate from folks who are worried about whether babies who die without being baptized go to hell. This is what I was taught as a young Catholic boy, and I have to confess I now find the…

Topics:

Challenging the Habit of Judgment

Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matt 7:2). In our world where we encounter a nearly constant stream of judgments on social media or the news,…

Tags: , ,