Who Is Without Sin?

Once you've honestly answered the above question,
compare your projected behavior
to that of Jesus Christ in a similar
situation. John 8 records
how Christ was accosted by a group
of super-righteous scribes and Pharisees
in the Temple. They brought
before Him a woman who had been
"caught in adultery." Now you wonder
how these fellows happened to
catch her, but that's beside the
point. Trying to trap Christ into
contradicting the Mosaic law, they
inquired: "Teacher, this woman, has
been caught in the act of adultery.
Now in the law Moses commanded
us to stone such. What do you say
about her?" And Jesus, in His wisdom.
at first ignored them, but finally
replied: "Let him who is
without sin among you be the first
to throw a stone at her." And when
they heard this, "they went away,
one by one....
Then what did Christ do? Did He
say: "Woman, you've really sinned
- and we're going to put you on the
rack and stretch you from here to
next Sunday! And you're going to
pay! Boy, are you going to pay!
You're going to wish you'd never
done that!" That's not what He said,
IS It? If there was anyone on the face of
this earth who would have been justified
in putting that woman to
death, it would have been God in
the flesh, Jesus Christ. But this illustrates
that punishment was not what
Jesus Christ desired. That wasn't
His purpose. He said rather: "Neither
do I condemn you; go, and do
not sin again."
He didn't spend hours counseling her, but he did give some very
succinct advice that would produce life.
He said to go and live in the way
that produces not only fun and enjoyment
and happiness in this life,
but life forever. He didn't look
down His nose. He didn't stand up
in righteous indignation and pull up
His robes and start running toward
the hills screaming, "Sin! Sin!" He
didn't go to the Pharisees and stand
on the corner in the marketplace
and begin to spread the whole story
all over Jerusalem. He did what was
best for her at that time - He extended
mercy and kindness and forgiveness.


Does God Delight in Punishment?
We as human beings like to see "justice"
done. We like to see people punished,
especially if the fault or sin
has somehow impinged on our freedom,
hurt us, or taken something
away from us. The natural reaction
is, "Boy, I hope they get theirs '"
Here is another illustration: Say
someone you know has been gossiping
about you for years. You can't
make a false move without it being
broadcast all over the county.
Then this individual goes on vacation
one year, and comes back to find
his home has been broken into. Burglars
have walked off with everything
up to and including the kitchen sink.
You hear about it. and you get this
inward feeling of glee. You're bubbling
over with happiness and comfort
and joy in their adversity. God
has finally avenged you.
But is that the Way God works?
He does allow a lot of things to happen
- time and chance happen to
everybody. But God says He doesn't
even take delight in the death of a
wicked person. It doesn't make Him
happy to see misfortune happen to
anyone. He says: "I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked, but
that the wicked turn from his way
and live" (ezek. 33:11).
The basic point is that God's primary
purpose is not punishment for
wrongdoing. He didn't create humanity
with the potential for evil,
just so He could sit on the edge of
His throne with some sort of spiritual
fly swatter waiting to go swoof !
"gotcha!" everytime somebody gets
a little out of line. But sometimes we
human beings reason this way.
We don't think of punishment
like God does. God uses punishment
as a tool - as mercy. He
allows punishment to take' place
to get an individual to look at
his or her actions and evaluate
them.
When people find themselves in a
tight situation, they don't like it.
Their next logical step is to sit down
and try to figure out what went
wrong -_. what they did to produce
the situation they are in. Maybe the
situation isn't their fault - but then
again maybe they can say, "I did
this, and I did that, and now I'm in
this great. huge, ugly mess that
won't go away." God wants that
person to stop and think about the
way they are living, and to repent
and start living His way.
That is the main reason for punishment
to cause pain, because
without pain we would all continue
living the way that produces eternal
death. So the pain is there, but it's
there to produce life.

How to Help.

Now, how can we apply
God's thinking to our relationships
with other people? Suppose we see
someone "overtaken in a trespass"
(Gal. 6: I). He's not in that position
because God wants to provide us
with entertainment so we can
watch him squirm. God doesn't get
delight out of that and neither
should we.
God says that jf we are spiritually
minded we are going to go about
trying to restore that individual.
"looking to ourselves lest we too be
tempted." And being spiritually
minded means asking yourself if
what you are about to say or do
with regard to that individual is
something that is going to help produce
eternal life for him or her. If
you see someone with a fault, and
your basic interest is helping, serving
and seeing that person obtain
eternal life, then go ahead and try to
help them. But if it's not- if it's
anger, or superiority, or disgust, or
anything like that - then be careful.
because' perhaps you have no business
interfering. Just get out of the
way, and let someone who is spiritual
(perhaps God or another
human being) step in and try to
help them.
To recap: God is spiritual. If we
are spiritual, we will think the same
way God does, have the same purpose
He has.