God Writes on Hearts

Last night some people from Calvary Chapel Sydney and myself enjoyed a Bible study of the passage in John 8 when a woman was brought to Jesus as He was teaching in the temple.  The woman, caught in the act of adultery, was hauled before Jesus and those He taught by the scribes and Pharisees in an attempt to undermine His popularity and expose Him as the fraud they believed Him to be.  Ignoring the protocols and due process of the Law of Moses, they demanded Jesus weigh in:  "Moses said she ought to be stoned:  what do you say?"  Jesus stooped and wrote on the ground as if He did not hear them.

Jesus remained calm and poised despite their hypocritical demands.  John 8:7-9 reads, "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."  The Law already condemned adultery as sin so Jesus did not need to make a judgment in the matter.  He turned the tables on the accusers of the woman because their sins were as great as hers and they added to their hypocrisy in their unjust treatment of her.  One by one the accusers, having heard the words of Jesus and being convicted by their conscience, went out from the assembly.

As we discussed last night, there has been much speculation about what Jesus wrote.  If it had been critical to our understanding of the passage, I believe it would have been included for us.  What came to mind is the God who wrote with His finger on tablets of stone stooped before them and wrote in the dust, and in doing so alluded to His divinity.  Man was created by God from the dust of the ground and breathed into Him a living soul, and this same God has given each person a conscience.  He is the One who writes His laws on our hearts and brings about conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment by the Holy Spirit.  Each man was convicted by his own conscience, and by walking away acknowledged their own sin before God.

God had already written what was sinful according to the Law and the woman and her accusers walked contrary to it:  was it necessary for Him to write again what He had already written twice?  After Moses received the 10 Commandments on tablets of stone he threw them down because the people immediately broke them, and he later ascended the mount to receive new ones written by the finger of God.  Jesus came to fulfill the Law and went beyond it, revealing sin the letter of the Law could not address within the hearts and minds of people:  the Law dealt with behaviour and God looks at the heart.  Jesus promised to give the Living Water of the Holy Spirit to those who believe on Him as God made flesh, and Hebrews 10:15-17 reveals, "But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ¹⁶ "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," ¹⁷ then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

Praise God for His mercy and grace towards us, who has given us a conscience that helps us to acknowledge our sin so we can be delivered from the accusations of the devil and the condemnation of Law.  Those who are born again by faith in Jesus Christ have a sure foundation for our feet and are guided to walk in truth and righteousness.  All glory to God who gives us new hearts!