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
Related Reading

If Sin Has Its Own Consequences, Are We Really Forgiven? (podcast)
Greg talks about sin and forgiveness. Episode 539 http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0539.mp3

What Went Wrong in the Garden of Eden?
When Adam and Eve ate from the tree, they imposed their will into the center of Paradise, and this was the act that destroyed Paradise. They invaded the proper domain of God. Instead of recognizing that they were supposed to derive life from the center, they placed themselves in the center. They tried to become…

Podcast: Are Our Personal Afflictions the Result of Our Personal Sins?
Greg considers the cause of our afflictions, the healing at Bethesda, and Monty Python. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0086.mp3

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…

Sermon Clip: Love: It’s All About the Cross
In this sermon clip, Greg Boyd talks about how Colossians 3:14 and the definition of love. God designed creation so that we would live in community with God and express God’s love towards each other and creation. However, sin disconnected us from God. In this sermon, Greg shows how we were created in the image…

Podcast: What is Original Sin?
Greg considers the Augustinian view of original sin in contrast with the Anabaptist view, then offers some of his own specific nuances. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0079.mp3