julie21 said:
So Turbo...would you be without sin so that you could personally cast that first stone at me?
Was adultery a capital crime in your country when you cheated on your husband?
Julie, the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus.
they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?" This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. John 8:4-6
The Romans were occupying Israel, and they did not allow the Jews to execute criminals (see John 18:31). The Pharisees wanted to provoke a conflict between Christ and the Roman authorities. They had absolutely no interest in justice. (Note that they said she was caught in the act, yet the man she was with wasn't also brought to Jesus.)
The Lord did not repeal the death penalty in John 8 any more than He did in 2 Samuel 12 when He forgave David and allowed him to live. (David, by the way, did not go on to oppose God's criminal justice system just because things happened to work out for him.)
God has delegated to governments the responsibility to execute capital criminals (see Romans 13:1-4). But of course God does not expect these governing authorities to be sinless; otherwise He never would have commanded the death penalty to begin with. In fact it is sinful and rebellious of governments
not to execute those criminals whom God commands should be executed.
