Did Jesus break the Law?

A Melbourne blogger this week stated that Jesus broke God's Law in John 8 when He did not stone the adulterous woman. Did Jesus break God's Law?

In 1John 3:4 (KJV), the Bible defines sin as "the transgression of the law." So if Jesus transgressed the Law then He was a sinner and would have been ineligible to be the perfect, sinless redeemer of mankind.

Did Jesus break the Law? Absolutely not!

Jesus did not tell the pharisees etc to not stone the woman. He upheld the Law to its highest standard declaring, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first", John 8:7.

This brilliant answer opened the pathway of grace and mercy as one by one the crowd dispersed leaving Jesus alone with the woman. Under the Law, no-one could be condemned and stoned to death without the presence of 2 or 3 witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:6). Even though Jesus was sinless, He would have been breaking the Law if He was to stone the woman.

The Law was a curse because of Israel's sin and rebellion (Galatians 3:8-19), but Jesus found the wisdom to remove the curse and to inject grace and mercy, the heart of the Gospel, into a deadly trap instigated by the scribes and pharisees.

If Jesus had just agreed with the scribes and pharisees and let them stone the woman, it would have destroyed His message of grace and mercy. If He said, "Don't stone her!" then Jesus would have broken the Law and become a sinner. The scribes and pharisees had Him trapped. To say "yes" was wrong and to say "no" was wrong. That's why He spent time on His knees getting the Father's wisdom and in this way opened up the pathway for mercy and grace.

Today, we face many such traps, and must continue to come to the foot of the Cross, and find His wisdom to open the door to the grace, mercy, forgiveness and salvation that our society so desperately needs.

Have a great day and the Lord bless you abundantly.