Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death.
Exodus 21,12
These words concerning the death penalty that we meat so often while reading the pages of the Old Testament are generating a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding in the minds of today’s faithful. Apart from the increasing libertinism promulgated in the world around us – which unfortunately greatly influences our way of seeing things and our relationship with Elohim –
these ruthless laws seem to contradict the words of our Lord, the words of the Savior.
However, this tension and frustration is like a cry of divine alarm that is resounding in the ears of all those who really seek to know Yahuwah and who are moving on the path of submission. Some might call it “good conscience,” but for my part, I would limit myself to the expression of Holy Spirit.
When we read in John 8: 1-11 the story of the adulterous woman,
Yahushua’s words do not replace or overwrite the sentence
according to which this woman would have deserved is the capital sentence by stoning. The only thing our Lord says here is: He who never sinned, throw the first stone at her.
It is through this Word that Yahushua declares the supreme and unique authority, the absolute power of the Sovereign Messiah. Through this Word,
Yahushua HaMashiach decreed and brought into force the jurisdiction of the unique and absolute power of the High Priest
which is Yahushua himself, henceforth the only one authorized to make judgments. By declaring this, Yahushua took up this legitimacy from the hands of men.
Before the Messianic era and according to the Commandments promulgated by the Father, he charged the wise men of the community to judge and assert the truth among men. However, and already in those times, it was in no way an arbitrary judgment according to the thoughts and desires of the judges, but it was a very serious ministry made in full knowledge of the Commandments of Yahuwah, in perfect impartiality. The title of judge was granted by Yahuwah and implied putting aside all our convictions, all our personal and human opinions to be able, if necessary to apply and execute the deserved sentence according to the Will of the Eternal.
Just like at the time of the first two Sanctuaries, the legislative order did not change under the third. But since
the Third Temple, the Body of the Messiah functions as a spiritual sanctuary,
in which the only High Priest, the only Cohen, is Yahushua HaMashiach himself, he is now the only one having the right to judge and condemn anyone according to the Commandments of Yahuwah.
Even Yahushua declares in this verse that He Himself does not condemn the sinner, since as Yahushua (Savior) he has not yet returned to his position of judge when having received all powers on heaven and earth, the Messiah will return as the Anointed King to judge the world. Even Yahushua does not condemn her, since the time of Mercy has not yet passed. But the day he comes back, it will be to judge the world according to the laws that Yahuwah gave through the Torah.
Let the one who never sinned throw the first stone at her
With this statement, Yahushua sent away the angry crowd from the scene and saved the woman’s physical life. But what really happened here? Was there really no one there who never sinned? None of the people standing there were truly innocent, since no man is sinless. But there was also standing Yahushua himself, who we know was sinless. With this statement, he referred to himself and as the Son who obeys the Father perfectly, with this statement he obliged himself to observe this law and execute the sentence.
It was Yahushua who threw the first stone at the adulteress
As we have just mentioned, not in a physical sense, but in spirit. As a result of the encounter with the Savior, the woman’s heart was inflamed to repentance, which allowed the Messiah Yahushua to stone her, that is, to kill the old (wo)man in her.
This woman still had to experience the crucifixion of Yahushua so that the substitutionary sacrifice could really take effect through His Blood. Chronologically, the crucifiction happened afterwards when Yahushua our Savior died for our own sins in our place, taking our old man with Him so that we can be born into a New Creation in Him.
But what really happened here was the true and perfect execution of the death penalty as given in the Torah of Moses. This time once and for all, executed in the spiritual, thus at the most perfect level and by the High Priest Yahushua himself.
What do we have to think and do with the concept of death penalty?
Sin exists and has a huge impact on us. Only
the Law is able to reveal and judge sin by the action of the Holy Spirit – the Ruach HaKodesh.
Receiving Grace is also only possible after having received the verdict.
Yes, the one who is in sin is the son/daughter of death. It is through the knowledge of the commandments that the spirit of death can be perceived inside the individuals. At the same time, this spirit is the proof of their state of death. This spirit does unfortunately have the right of life and death over the one it holds captive. We must know that if we are sinners, the Law is not only valid for us, but without judgment and without our execution, we cannot receive Grace.
If I do not die as an old man, I can never be resurrected as a new creation
that only the Messiah is able to bring back to life in me. Of course, this does not imply my physical and bodily death, but the old spirits that ruled over me must really die so that I can be born again as a new creature, a member of the Body of the Messiah. (However, perseverance and conscious stagnation in sins may sooner or later lead to physical death as well).
We must know according to what specific command we deserve death or some other punishment, so that knowingly, we are able to prostrate ourselves before the High Priest and plead for His Forgiveness.
Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12: 24
This is what Yahushua did. He suffered physical death for us. He was the seed who rose from the death as the firstfruit. And whoever believes in Him and is baptized in His name becomes a New Creation with Him, and the old ones have passed away.
How to teach the Commandments and convey judgement without judging others?
I must know with whom I can be in spiritual community according to the sensitivity and the vision received from Yahuwah. The person carrying the spirit of death or any other sin is likely to contaminate me if I am too tolerant and humanist, saying that it is not my business, that I have nothing to do with it, that “it does not matter my dear brother”.
I can and must acknowledge sin by the knowledge of the law of Yahuwah,
which the Holy Spirit engraved in my heart of flesh through the fulfilled prophecy of Shavuot/Pentecost. This is how we are able to protect ourselves and those who have been entrusted to us from these unhealthy and murderous spirits. Nevertheless, the ministry towards others and the love of my neighbor, forbid me to judge, to condemn and damn anyone, but for my part I have the obligation of proclaiming the Law by always adding the possibility to get Grace.
My door must always keep a certain openness for ministry, however I must be careful how far I allow the given person to get into my spiritual and vital space. I have to wash his feet before I let him getting in my tent, my brotherly community, but I must avoid washing his head and body, because it is the exclusive right of the High Priest to perform this ministry. (Jn 13: 4-10)
Christian Pharisaism knows the Commandments (partly) with which it attacks and judges others in the place of the Father and the Messiah. At the other end we find the worshipers of the “sweet Jesus” who forgives everything and who tramples the law of the Father who for their part are incapable of exhorting people to true repentance and therefore to the true rebirth.
Commandments must be known as a whole
in order to know where can I serve, what Word to use so that person gets touched in order to be saved. That is how judgment takes effect in spirit so that the Grace of the Messiah and the possibility of salvation is immediately offered to them as a life buoy.
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