© 24 Colin Melbourne
Q: I’m wondering why adultery deserves the death sentence in the Old Testament, it seems so severe, why not forgiveness for adulterers?
A: Here’s the word of The LORD under the Mosaic Law, Holy Bible KJV, Exodus 20:14, Leviticus 20:10;
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
You’ve Committed Adultery
This is a subject close to each of us, because we’re all born adulterers in heart from birth.
If you’ve not yet recognized the depravity of your fallen nature, inherited from Adam & Eve, you’re probably still in your sins, walking after the flesh, content in your soul, rationalising your wrongdoings: As we all were before we became Born of God.
Carnal Minds: Carnal Sins
Oh how deceptive our souls are until renewed according to the written word of God and His Holy Spirit.
British sixpence coins contained half their weight as silver until 1947
Following your mind, emotions, and feelings will lead you to Hell as-sure-as-a-silver-sixpence, until you get them lined-up with Father’s will, and emotions.
That’s a lifelong process after you’re Born of God.
Instant Righteousness
Being born of God is instant, Father puts a brand new Spirit in your heart, His Holy Spirit, but repenting of wrong thinking, behaviour, and attitudes is continuous until your final breath.
Please Answer My Question!
The reason adultery deserves death is because Almighty God say’s so.
That’s warrant enough for the believer.
Adultery is wholehearted treachery and rejection of God’s Word, Love, and Faith.
The adulterous heart cares little for God, and allows lust to rule instead of The LORD.
We All Need a Heart-transplant
An adulterer’s heart cannot be rehabilitated because God writes that our natural hearts are wicked to the core, Jeremiah 17:9 KJV;
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
He’s right… always.
That’s why we each need to be born again, by receiving a new heart, God’s Holy Spirit in the core of our being, to lead us in righteousness.
Truth Only Comes by Revelation: Not by Reasoning
Nicodemus, Israel’s teacher, was clueless about this basic Gospel fact, John 3:3-8 KJV;
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Sinner or Saint?
Have you had a spiritual heart-transplant from God, or are you still the same old sinner?
Unless you’ve been born of God you remain condemned and Hell-bound.
Picking Up Stones
James Tissot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons [Larger]
Here’s how Adam Clarke’s commentary describes stoning to death as mentioned in Leviticus 24:23 KJV.
And stone him with stones:
We are not to suppose that the culprit was exposed to the unbridled fury of the thousands of Israel; this would be brutality, not justice, for the very worst of tempers and passions might be produced and fostered by such a procedure.The Jews themselves tell us that their manner of stoning was this: they brought the condemned person without the camp, because his crime had rendered him unclean, and whatever was unclean must be put without the camp.
When they came within four cubits of the place of execution, they stripped the criminal, if a man, leaving him nothing but a cloth about the waist. The place on which he was to be executed was elevated, and the witnesses went up with him to it, and laid their hands upon him, for the purposes mentioned Leviticus 24:14.
Then one of the witnesses struck him with a stone upon the loins; if he was not killed with that blow, then the witnesses took up a great stone, as much as two men could lift, and threw it upon his breast. This was the coup de grace, and finished the tragedy.
When a man was stoned by the mob, then brutal rage armed every man, justice was set aside, and the will and fury of the people were law, judge, jury, and executioner. Such disgraceful stonings as these were, no doubt, frequent among the Jews.
The absence of forgiveness of adultery under God’s Law shows how spiritually devastating unfaithfulness is.
There was no second chance, no possibility of pardon, Ezekiel 18:20 KJV;
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
God warned the Jews repeatedly that sin results in spiritual, and often physical, death.
(Exodus 21:14,29, Ex. 22:20, Ex. 35:2, Leviticus 20:10, 24:23, Deuteronomy 13:9, 17:12, 21:21 KJV)
Physical adultery is the antitheses of Faith and Love
It’s outright rejection of the spouse.
Our Creator is Love, a core facet of the Divine Nature.
Physical and spiritual adultery are open rebellion against His Love.
They are forms of idolatry.
That certainly deserves death.
Love does not consent or approve of adultery.
It didn’t under the Mosaic Law, and it doesn’t under the New Covenant of Faith expressed through Love.
Christ On The Spot
When God came to redeem mankind, and introduce a New Way to approach Him, the Jews challenged Him over God’s death-sentence for adultery.
Would The unschooled Carpenter from Nazareth uphold the Commandments of Moses, and confirm the stoning of the woman caught in the act of adultery, or would He compromise God’s words?
Hear His perfect response. Jn. 8:1-11 KJV;
Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.
And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
She said, No man, Lord.
And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Mercy Rejoiceth against Judgment
Christ upheld Moses’ Law, skilfully invoking the unspoken rider that only The Sinless One has the right to execute Divine Judgment.
This is such a profound spiritual fact that I’ve witnessed Muslim men weep, as they came under conviction and understood that Jesus is God’s Word manifested in The Flesh.
Jesus bore the sin and guilt of that adulterous woman and man at Calvary.
He was punished with the Judgment they deserved.
He did that so He could send her away on probation, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
That was very good news for the terrified adulteress.
After He’d paid for the sin of the world, including my adultery, and yours, He arose immortal, and taught those who’d believed in Him for forty days. Acts 1:1-3 KJV;
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
Kingdom is Where The King Reigns
For forty days God in The Flesh taught on the Kingdom of God: It must be important, don’t you think?
Has Father taught you why?
Seek Him, and He will.
Kingdom is allowing Almighty God to reign in your heart here on Earth.
Permitting Him to continue what Christ began.
God wants to function through you just as He did through Jesus of Galilee.
That’s what it is to have Almighty God reigning in your heart here on Earth.
You can continue His ministry reconcilling sinners to God.
And you will… if you love Him.
Has God Given You a New Heart?
Adultery takes many forms, beyond sex outside marriage.
Greed, and selfishness are spiritual adultery just as deadly as the Idolatry of the Catholic Mass.
Christians pledge themselves to Follow The LORD Jesus Christ in love.
To disobey His words is to be adulterous, unfaithful to your betrothed divine Partner.
Can you see why the Holy Ghost, through James, sharply rebukes carnal, lust-led believers, James 4:1-4 KJV;
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Time for Your Divine Heart Transplant
We are born enemies of God, with adultery fixed in our nature, but Christ gave His sinless life to release us from captivity to sin, sickness, and all Satan’s power.
The deal is; Repent of unbelief in Christ, believe that He is God manifested in the Flesh, and call on Him for mercy, receiving Him as your LORD henceforth.
When Father sees that you believe with all your heart, He accepts Christ’s Blood Sacrifice on your behalf, and sets you free, puts a new heart with eternal life inside you.
It is God’s Life, God’s Spirit.
As you follow the leading of your new heart, you’ll be following Christ, and will develop new desires, holy habits, and have God’s Peace, Joy, Life, and happiness evermore.
You’re not reading this by chance, the Holy Ghost led you here to become God’s child.
© 24 Colin Melbourne
Perhaps you’d like to also see;
The Born Again Baptism into Christ
How to Be Sure You Are Born of God