Jesus Christ the Author

Humans have a tendency to focus on the wrong things.  Sometimes it requires a near-death experience before we realise our priorities in life are skewed.  It takes losing something to appreciate what we had.  In the Bible we see this same shortsightedness demonstrated.  2 Chronicles 16:12 documents the case of king Asa:  "And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians."  God is the one who heals, but Asa looked instead to men God had given wisdom and understanding.  When Peter was called by Christ to step out of the boat and onto the Sea of Galilee, he took his eyes off of Jesus and instead focused on the waves and was filled with fear.  Even the crippled man who lay by the pool in Bethesda didn't recognize the power of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  When Jesus asked him if he wanted to be well, listen to his answer in John 5:7:  "The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me."  The man focused on the obstacles, while Jesus Himself could only provide the healing and restoration he desperately sought.

We can even focus on the wrong things in studying and interpreting scripture.  God gave me some wonderful insight into a passage sometimes taught by preachers adorned with conjecture and theories.  In John 8, the Pharisees and scribes brought a woman before Jesus who had been caught in the very act of adultery.  They were not concerned about righteous judgment, but desired to use this occasion to trap Jesus.  The passage is found in John 8:5-11:  "Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?" ⁶ This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. ⁷ So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." ⁸ And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. ¹⁰ When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" ¹¹ She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

In my opinion, there is an aspect of this passage which receives much undo attention.  It is not the fact that Jesus could have stood in judgment but refused to, even though He is perfect.  It is not the over-emphasis upon Christ's remarkable, timeless exhortation:  "Go and sin no more."  The part of the story which has elicited all sorts of theories and discussions is this - wait for it, though I'm sure you already know - "What did Jesus write on the ground with His finger?"  All sorts of ideas have been concocted.  But because they are merely ideas and not based upon scripture, they are all red-herrings and a waste of time.  This is not to say that Jesus writing on the ground was insignificant.  In fact, it is most significant.  Yet if it was critical for our understanding of the passage that we know what was written, the Bible would have explicitly stated it.  The fact Jesus wrote on the ground is more significant than whatever He wrote.  To understand this, we must go to the beginning.

The Bible teaches us that Jesus is the Word become flesh, Immanuel, God with us.  John 1:3 reads, "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made."  When Jesus wrote on the ground, it was not the first time He made calculated designs in the dust.  Genesis 2:7 tells us, "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."  Jesus reached down to the dust of earth and formed man with His hands.  He breathed into man a living soul.  It was not long before man corrupted Himself with sin and was thus separated from God.  Yet God, in His great mercy, sought to reconcile man to Himself.  He chose Abraham and his descendents as His special people.  He gave the Israelites His laws so they might know Him and His righteous judgments, words written with the finger of God upon tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18).

Jesus created man from the dust of the ground.  He later wrote His laws upon stone tablets with His finger.  So what is the significance of Jesus writing in the dust?  John 8:9 reads, "Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst."  The men left, not because of anything they read, but through what they had heard.  They had been convicted by their conscience.  Jesus was fulfilling the promise that He made in Jeremiah 31:31-33 by the institution of a New Covenant through His blood.  "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- ³² not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."  Jesus created man, wrote His laws, and also gave man a conscience which agrees with His righteous judgments.  Though self-righteous, the Pharisees and scribes knew they could not rightly throw stones because they were sinners.  Each man's conscience affirmed this fact.

Galatians 3:24-26 confirms, "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. ²⁶ For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."  In the John 8 passage, we see a microcosm of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Bibles teaches us that when we are born again by the Holy Spirit through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, we are no longer under condemnation:  the blood of Jesus has cleansed us from all sin.  Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."  It makes perfect sense that Jesus would then say to the woman, "Go and sin no more."

Let us keep the main thing the main thing.  Instead of debating over things which cannot be known because of our limitations or focusing on what really doesn't matter, let us fix our eyes and hearts upon Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith.  In Christ we find that according to His divine power, Jesus has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3).  Jesus came to seek and save the lost.  That is why He wrote on tablets of stone, why He wrote in the dust, and why He has written upon our hearts.  He has engraved His truth upon the conscience of man so all might turn from sin and trust in Him for salvation.