Neither Do I Condemn Thee

In most of my religion courses, the story of the woman taken in adultery is presented as yet another clever way of Christ turning the Pharisee's trap back on them. But there really is so much more to it than that.

Christ is Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament. He gave Moses the law that commanded that an adulterer should be stoned, so why did he not agree to have the woman stoned? One reason that is often suggested is that the conditions of witnesses as required by the law were not satisfied, but Christ wouldn't have needed any witnesses to have known if the woman was guilty. In my personal opinion I believe the reason to be deeper than that.

The Law of Moses, was a law of Condemnation. Those that committed sins were condemned to pay full price. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. But Christ came to fulfill the law of Moses and to teach the Gospel in it's fullness. This fulfillment of the Law of Moses and introduction of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a representation of the satisfaction of the Law of Justice and implementation of the Law of Mercy done by Christ's Atonement.

I do not believe that Christ decreed that adulterers should be stoned in the Old Testament because he wished for them to die, rather the Law of Moses was a representation of the Law of Justice and was supposed to point the people towards the coming of a Savior that would introduce a new Gospel and the Law of Mercy.

Jesus could avoid condemning the woman and still uphold the Law of Moses because the proper witness conditions were not met, but I believe he chose not to condemn her because as stated in John 3: 17 "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.'