A woman is thrown down at the feet of Jesus. A group of men accuse her of having been caught in the very act of adultery. They say that, according to the law, she should be sentenced to death. And they want to know what Judge Jesus has to say.
Jesus stoops down and begins to write in the dust.
We have no idea what he might have been writing.
Perhaps he wrote down words like lust, judgmental, greed, hypocrisy. Maybe he wrote a question: Where’s the man who must have been caught in the act of adultery with this woman? Perhaps he just doodled to give himself time to think or calm down.
What the men wanted, what they demanded, based on the law, was punitive justice. They wanted her crime punished. They wanted her stoned to death.
But Jesus was about to deliver a body blow to their collective spiritual gut.
Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.
One by one the accusers dropped the stones on the ground and walked away.
Now alone with the woman—who was, remember, guilty as charged; whose sin, remember, was punishable by death—Jesus asked her:
Is anyone left to condemn you?
No one sir.
Again, she’s guilty. The law says she should be punished (punitive justice). And she has neither confessed anything nor has she repented.
And Jesus says:
Neither do I condemn you.
Incredibly, he lets her off the hook! No repentance! No confession! No promise from her to do better next time!
Only grace!
Now go, and sin no more!
Rather than dishing out punitive justice, rather than punishing her, Judge Jesus holds out a radically different form of justice:
Restorative justice.
He doesn’t condemn. He doesn’t punish. Instead, through the power of forgiveness, he puts her back together and gives her a brand-new start.
He reconciles her to himself.
He puts to right what she put to wrong.
And all of it an act of unrequested, unearned, undeserved, unexpected grace!
Hell demands a God of punitive justice.
Grace declares a God of restorative justice.
Judge Jesus stands on the side of grace.
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. (2 Corinthians 5:19)
For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. (Colossians 1:19-20)
According to what righteousness will Christ judge when he comes and is manifested as the Son of man-judge of the world? Surely this righteousness will be no different from the righteousness he himself proclaimed in his gospel and practiced in fellowship with sinners and the sick! Otherwise no one would be able to recognize him. The coming Judge is the one who was put to death on the cross. The one who will come as Judge of the world is the one ‘who bears the sins of the world’ and who has himself suffered the suffering of victims. Jurgen Moltmann
Punitive Vs Restorative Justice Comparison
Punitive Justice Restorative Justice
God is angry God is gracious
God is fair God is gracious
Problem: Sin as behavior Sin as broken relationship
Solution: Punish behavior Restore the relationship
Justice: Punitive Restorative
Way out: I accept Jesus Jesus reconciles me to God
God’s answer to sin is not punishment, but reconciliation.
Judge Jesus does not dispense punitive justice but uses restorative justice to welcome us home.
Here comes the Judge! And that is good news.
You can reach me at Tim@TimWrightMinistries.org