Which Came First?

As Easter Approaches we must begin pondering the age old question, "Which came first...

...Grace or Repentance?"

In John chapter 8, a woman caught in the act of adultery (talk about getting caught with your pants down) is brought before Jesus. According to Mosaic Law this woman was to be stoned.

Now I must first point out that many of us today would balk at such a harsh punishment. We come across difficult passages, like Exodus 21:17 or Numbers 15:35, and dismiss them as, “an old, less enlightened way of life." We underestimate the magnitude of our offenses and have come to believe that God's Grace somehow voids the old rulebook. On the contrary, these rules in scripture are divine law and Jesus came to fulfill them, not to abolish them (Matthew 5:17).

Therefore, His appeal to “He that is without sin…” is not a pardoning of a sinful lifestyle by a previously suppressed love that supersedes justice, rather He was reminding them who the rightful judge was... "He that is without sin" (Jesus) should throw the first stone.

Like Judah, we are quick to demand judgment on fellow villains, forgetting that we were accessories to the crime (Genesis 28:4). We tend to overlook our own transgressions, and here Christ reminds us that when a guilty man appeals to justice, he himself is condemned (Romans 2:1).

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged."

-Matthew 7:1

Oops.

Jesus then rises and asks the woman, "Did no one condemn you?"

She answers, "No one, Lord."

Christ is the only one who can truly accuse this woman. In addition, He is also the only one who can truly forgive (Mark 2:7), for only God can atone for her sins.

And my sins.

And your sins.

I find it interesting that this woman did not ask for mercy, nor did she show the slightest signs of repentance. Perhaps it is irrelevant at this stage, for God will show mercy on whom He shows mercy, and compassion on whom He shows compassion (Exodus 33:19). And when He extends this compassion ("Then neither do I condemn you”) she is set free (“Go now and leave your life of sin"). Is not this the true power of God's infinite love?

"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, " declares the LORD.
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
"No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD.

-Jeremiah 31:31-34a

God’s new covenant declares that His people will obey, will love, will recognize His voice and come to Him (John 10:27). This is not because He forces them to, but because He extends to them His grace. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more," (v.34b, emphasis mine). Only through His forgiveness, His grace, can we have even the knowledge of salvation (Luke 1:77).

My conclusion is that even though repentance is required for true conversion, it is God’s grace on our lives that morally enables our depraved wills to even take that first step towards Him. It is required that we repent, but once we do, we must realize that the very desire to do so came from God. Looking back, we can only say, “But by the grace of God, I am what I am,” (1 Corinthians 15:10).