"God's Greater Pleasure Is Forgiving Us" 2 Corinthians 3:5-11 Message #18

She was married, but not to the man in whose arms she had been found.

Suddenly the door had burst open. Instantly she was in the grasp of angry men who dragged her — and her forbidden secret — out into the street—into the open for all to see.

“Adulteress, Whore, Slut!” The names pierced her like an arrow. Scandalized, loathing looks bored into her.  Her life was undone in a moment, mostly by her own doing. And it was about to be crushed. They were talking about stoning her!  She wanted to beg God for mercy—But God’s verdict on her case was clear: “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.” (Deuteronomy 22:22).  She was going to die!

There was no time to think. She was being half pushed, half pulled and dragged through Jerusalem toward the Temple. She felt despised and rejected and noticed people would not even look at her. Suddenly she was thrust in front of Him.

A man behind her yelled, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. . . Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. What do you say?”

The Teacher said nothing.  He looked at her, then at her accusers. Then he bent down and began to write in the dirt while she—completely exposed, guilty, condemned, and without any hope—stood silent, whimpering, and quietly begging God for mercy under her breath.  

Why was he writing in the dirt?  Men on either side of her were clenching brutal stones.  Impatient prosecutors were waiting for His ruling. The Teacher stood back up. She held her breath, all eyes were on Him now.  “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her,” he said.

The crowd’s jeers and cries for death hushed to whispers. Confused, she risked a quick glance at Him. He was writing in the dirt again. She heard murmurs and disgusted grunts around her. Then shuffling.  She heard the stones drop harmlessly onto the ground and then they all left—leaving her alone with Him.

He looked at her with compassion and respectfully addressed her as “Woman” instead of the shameful titles the others had called her. Then He asked her, “Where are they?  Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go and from now on sin no more.”

But why would the very God Who ordained this Law and its penalty of death overturn it like this?

This woman’s crime was real, her guilt was real.  She was caught in the very act of having sex with a man who was not her husband. And God, through Moses, commanded that anyone who did this was to be executed. But God the Son simply said, “Neither do I condemn you.” 

Now, if God violates his own commandment and lets the guilty go unpunished—it makes Him an unjust judge. But God cannot be unjust.  So how could he possibly let this woman caught in adultery go unpunished without condemning her?  

Well, the fact is, God fully intended for this sin of adultery to be punished to the full extent of his law.  God was not letting her sin slip by.  He was going to exact punishment.  There would be an execution and it would be brutal. But she would not be the one executed.  She would not bear the punishment for her sin. She would go free.  Jesus would be punished in her place. 

So, could it possibly be that the words he wrote in the sand were from Isaiah 53:5-6?

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”.

You know, every one of us is this woman.  Oh, it may not be adultery but it is something. Our horrible sins, our shameful lusts, our destructive tongues, our murderous hatred, our corrupting greed, our covetous pride — all stand exposed before God as starkly as this woman's sin did in that Temple courtyard.  Our condemnation is just as deserved as hers.  And yet, if you are trusting Christ to save you from God’s just wrath for your sins, Jesus speaks these same stunning words to you: “Neither do I condemn you.” 

But, why and how?

Because He was condemned in your place.  All your guilt has been removed. No stone of God’s righteous wrath will crush you because Jesus was crushed for your sins on the cross by God the Father.

Jesus was the only one in the crowd that day who could, in perfect righteousness, require the woman’s death. And he was the only One who could, in perfect righteousness, pardon her. Mercy triumphed over judgment for her at great price to Jesus. And the same is true for us who are trusting in Jesus.

And this story taken from John 8:1-11 illustrates the powerful truth of 2 Corinthians 3:5-18 that there is something that honors, exalts, magnifies, pleases, and glorifies God more than punishing sinners who rebel against His pure, impeccable, perfect, and righteous Holy Law.  And that which brings God greater pleasure, honor, joy, happiness, praise, and glory than condemning sinners for their sins is forgiving sinners who will embrace Christ as their only means of salvation. That is what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 3:5-11 when he contrasts the lesser glory of the Law of the Old Covenant with the greater glory of the Grace of the New Covenant.

Turn there with me.

Verses 5-11 focuses our attention on the fact that the Old Covenant which essentially was contained in the Law of God as recorded in the Old Testament was a covenant of condemnation. It was a covenant of condemnation because no one was able to perfectly keep God’s Law and therefore no one was acceptable to God. But even though no one was able to keep God’s Law and thus no one was acceptable to God or pleasing to God—this covenant still reflected the glory of God. It was glorious in that it presented the perfect holiness and righteous character of God. But, it was a fading glory because it was unable to adequately reveal the fullness of God’s glory and the fullness of God’s Person and character.

Back when I was in Boot Camp I remember the day when I saw my Drill Instructor walking with his wife and small children. He was smiling, laughing, and holding his children’s hands as they walked through a parking lot past our barracks. I was simply amazed. Actually, I was dumbfounded and really a bit flabbergasted.  I simply could not imagine that this man who had become the epitome of anger, rage, and brutality to me over several weeks of Boot Camp had another side to him that I had never seen nor experienced. I really never imagined that this man was capable of love. You see, I thought I knew him but I really didn’t know all that there was to know about him. There was a side to him that stunned me even more than the side I had come to know.

Well, that is what verses 5-11 are saying about God and His two covenants.

The first covenant—the covenant of Law is stunning because it reveals the perfect righteousness and holiness of God. And it demonstrates God’s ferocious hatred and anger toward anything or anyone who would dare to transgress His Law.

In this sense, the Old Covenant is glorious.  It is like gazing at an enormous erupting volcano that is spewing forth fire, boiling lava, and black smoke that will destroy anything in its path. It is glorious in that it serves the purpose of revealing the absolute power and majestic dignity and divine splendor of the Sovereign King of the Universe Whose very word is Law and cannot be broken.

But, as great and as glorious as this Old Covenant is and as powerful and as awesome as it makes God appear—it is a fading glory that is immensely exceeded and colossally surpassed by the glory of the New Covenant—Which reveals the fullness of God’s glory in that it demonstrates His great and super-abounding compassion, grace, and mercy in His promise to forgive anyone who has broken any of His Laws any number of times to any degree—if they will only run to Christ for forgiveness and salvation.

Thus, in the Old Covenant, the Law of God, we see a perfectly correct but partial picture of God while in the New Covenant, the Gospel of God—we see a perfectly correct and complete picture of God in terms of how He has chosen to relate to sinners for His glory and their eternal joy. That is what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians 3:5-12.

And the reason Paul makes mention of Moses using a veil to hide the residue of God’s glory that his face reflected after being in God’s presence when he received God’s Law back in the Book of Exodus is because he is using it as an illustration of what man-made religion does—

Man-made religion tries to hide the fact that trying to please God and appease God through our own merits and efforts in trying to keep His Law is an effort in futility.

Man-made religions that appear beautiful, spiritual, and even godly but which teach that people must earn or merit God’s good pleasure through their own good works and attempts to keep God’s Law are veiling the truth.

Christianity is not religion.  Christianity, correctly understood is not a person trying to appease or please God so as to earn acceptance with God.

And Paul uses Moses as an illustration of religion here saying that just as he tried to cover up the truth that the glory his face was reflecting was fading and had in fact disappeared—so does man-made religion!

Religion has no glory because it has no power to do anything about our sin problem.

But the New Covenant does!

Now, if the Old Covenant which is comprised of the Law of God which includes the Ten Commandments is inferior to the New Covenant of God’s grace toward sinners through Christ—why did God create it? Why did God establish His Law and the Old Covenant in the first place? Why did He go to so much trouble and time to inaugurate a covenant which He never intended to last?

This is the same question Paul asks and answers in Galatians 3:19 where he writes:

“Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins . . .” (NLT)

In other words, the purpose of the Law of God or the Old Covenant is to reveal to people that they have violated God’s Laws and thus are sinners and are indeed accountable to God for their violations of His Law.

Just a few verses later in Galatians 3:22, Paul writes that the Law was given to not only show that everyone has sinned but that everyone is being held as a prisoner waiting to be judged for the Laws of God they have broken:

“the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin”.

In Romans 3, Paul goes into even greater detail about why God gave His Law in the Old Covenant. He begins in Romans 3:19 and continues through verse 20 where he writes:

19) “Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.”

20) “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.”

So, that’s why God gave the Old Covenant through the giving of His Law—It was intended to reveal just how bad and how bad off mankind is when it comes to how God sees us. The Law of God was established for one purpose and that purpose was to show us how sinful we are.  It was never established to save us! It was meant to drive us to the cross where we find Christ Who died and paid the penalty for our sins so that we can be forgiven.

Listen to Romans 3:21-28.

21) But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago.

22) We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

23) For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

24) Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

 25) For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,

26) for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

27) Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith.

28) So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

Do you see the difference between the Old and the New Covenants?

The Old Covenant demonstrates God’s righteousness in condemning sinners whereas the New Covenant demonstrates God’s righteousness in forgiving sinners who will trust in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins.

And thus, the New Covenant is more glorious than the Old because it reveals the heart of God in a way the Law cannot. Whereas the Old Covenant reveals God’s love of holiness, righteousness, purity, and perfection—the New Covenant reveals God’s love for sinners.

But, lest we think that God pits the Old Covenant against the New Covenant as enemies—we need to think again. For there cannot be a New Covenant without an Old one. There cannot be good news without bad news. And the fact of the matter is, the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the Gospel we must believe to come to God includes both bad and good news. It includes the bad news of the Old Covenant which shows us that we are condemned sinners so as to drive us to the only answer there is for our lost and condemned state. It drives us to the good news of the New Covenant which is: God will forgive anyone who will come to Him through Jesus.

And this good news reveals God’s heart and intentions to anyone, even the worst of sinners who have committed the most heinous of crimes against Him.

It is God’s pleasure to forgive anyone who will come to Him through His Son the Lord Jesus!

Listen, the Bible is super abundantly clear--No one, absolutely no one will go to heaven because they have been good enough.

Like the fictitious story told about the religious man who died and was standing outside the gates of heaven as the angels were looking over his paperwork. The angel in charge told the man that to enter heaven he had to have accumulated 1000 merits of good behavior while on earth. The man thought to himself—oh—that’s all.  I should get in easily with merits to spare in his own estimation he had lived a good and religious life.

The head angel then began his evaluation. He said, I see that you were a good and faithful husband—that earns you 1 point.  The man gulped hard. Secondly, I see that you were a faithful church member for over 40 years—that earns you another point. The man began to sweat. Third, it looks like you gave regularly and generously of your finances to charities and to the poor—that is worth another point.  And the man became weak in the knees. He had never realized that the standards were so high and that his good works would be taken so lightly. Finally, he blurted out, “At this rate, I’ll only make it into heaven by the grace of God.” To which, the angel put down his paperwork, and said:  “Congratulations, come on in.”

We are not brought into a right relationship with God through our good works nor are we kept in a right relationship with God through or good works. We are saved and we are kept saved by trusting in Christ whose good works, perfect life, death on the cross, and resurrection have been applied to our account.

As Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-9:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”