Luke 6:35-36 (NASB)
 "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. ³⁶  "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

Mercy is characteristic and action that comes from the very nature of God. On the human level it is best described as one’s consideration of the condition and needs of his fellowman.

Mercy as given by God is the foundation of forgiveness. It is His faithfulness and steadfast love. God is not seen as displaying an emotion called mercy but as taking merciful action. This action was taken as Israel was in need: provisions such as manna in the wilderness (Exod. 13:31-35), protection such as the Shepherd who keeps Israel and does not sleep (Ps. 121), and deliverance (Ps. 56:12-23; 107) as Yahweh who delivered His people from Egypt (1 Sam. 10:18). Mercy has never been the benefit of God’s people because of their merit but is always the gift of God (Exodus 34:6-7).

The many ways that Jesus expressed His mercy are woven throughout the Gospels. He is seen stopping in a crowded procession to invite Himself to be the social guest at the house of a despised little tax collector (Luke 19:1-10). He cleansed lepers (Mark 1:41), taught the ignorant multitudes, was moved with compassion and healed the sick, and relieved their hunger with a boy’s small lunch (Matt. 14:14-21). Jesus gave sight to the blind (Matt. 20:34), made the lame to walk (John 5:2-9), and raised the dead (Luke 7:2-15).

In both OT and NT mercy is always extended by the larger to the smaller, the rich to the poor, the strong to the weak, and the Righteous One to the sinner. God’s chief disposition towards sinful man is mercy, spawned by His love, which exerts His power to bring sinful man back to Himself. Mercy from God is never deserved and is always generated by His character and not man’s.

Mercy is not only a central focus of the ministry of Jesus and the Father; it is also to be the practice of all believers. Jesus made it an essential ingredient of the life and manner of the believer when He spoke the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount; “Blessed are the merciful, because they will be shown mercy” (Matt 5:7 HCSB).

If mercy is action of the stronger based on response to plight or need of the weaker, it could be asked if mercy can be expressed in the opposite situation. The NT shows that it can be. The ethic that Jesus calls for is “turning the other cheek,” “walking the second mile,” and “blessing those who curse you.” Jesus Himself embodied this very teaching. Mercy can be expressed by the person on the bottom towards the person on top. This is the very genius of the Christian faith. See for example the words of Jesus uttered in dying agony from the cross, 

Luke 23:34 (NASB)
But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."

Thus, mercy is a feeling calling for action even by the oppressed towards the oppressor, the weak towards the strong, the victim towards the victor. 

Luke 6:27-28 (NASB)
"But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 

Thus we can see that Christ's example of showing kind and merciful love provides another wonderful standard for imitators of God to follow.

Imitators of God, conforming to the image of Christ, are merciful as God is merciful.  

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John 8:3-11 (NASB)
The scribes and the Pharisees *brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, ⁴ they *said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. ⁵  "Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?" ⁶ They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. ⁷ But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." ⁸ Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. ¹⁰ Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" ¹¹ She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more." 

How does God forgive sinners without violating His holy law? The answer is through the Lord Jesus Christ. His sacrificial death fully satisfied the demands of God's justice; as Paul wrote to the Romans: "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3). Those who put their faith in Him are "justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith" (Rom. 3:24-25), because "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed" (1 Peter 2:24; cf. 1 Peter 3:18; Isa. 53:4-6, 10; Matt. 20:28; John 10:11; Rom. 4:25; 2 Cor. 5:14-15, Gal. 1:4; 2:20; 3:13; Eph. 5:2; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; Titus 2:14; Heb. 9:28; 10:11-12; 1 John 2:2; 3:16; Rev. 1:5; 5:9).

Compare:

• Romans 5:8-10 (NASB)
• But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 

• 1 Corinthians 15:3 (NASB)
• For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. 

• 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) 
• He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

• Ephesians 1:7 (NASB)
• In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. 

• 1 John 4:9-10 (NASB)
•  By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

In Jesus Christ divine justice and mercy harmonize. Because His sacrificial death paid the penalty for the sins of all who believe in Him, God can "be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26); in Him "lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Ps. 85:10). God poured out His wrath against sin on Jesus so He can pour out His grace and mercy on those who believe. And Jesus was the lamb "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8), not only in the prophetic sense, but also in the sense of application. All through redemptive history, all who were forgiven and given eternal life had the future sacrifice of the Son of God applied to their sins.

The dramatic scene in the temple courtyard had reached its climax. The woman, her sin publicly exposed, was humiliated, terrified, and about to be stoned. The scribes and Pharisees were jubilant, thinking they had caught Jesus in an impossible dilemma. The crowd was hushed, watching intently to see how Jesus would react. But He, for the moment, surprisingly did nothing.

Seemingly oblivious to what was going on, Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. Because the text does not say what He wrote, some speculate that the Lord was acting out Jeremiah 17:13: "Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters." Others suggest that He wrote the words He would say in verse John 8:7, or part of the Law (such as the prohibition against being a malicious witness in Ex. 23:1). 

Perhaps the most popular view is that He listed the sins of the woman's accusers. What Jesus wrote is obviously not essential to the story, however, since it was not recorded; all of those suggestions are speculation.

The scribes and Pharisees were no doubt puzzled by Jesus' silence. Perhaps they thought He did not know how to reply, so, thinking they finally had impaled Him on the horns of a dilemma, the scribes and Pharisees persisted in asking Him. Always the master of the moment, Jesus remained silent, allowing them to reveal unmistakably their hatred and hypocrisy as they insistently pressed their attack.

At last, He straightened up, no doubt gave His opponents a piercing glance, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." After making that startling and unexpected statement, He calmly stooped down once more and wrote on the ground, and said nothing.

The Lord's reply was simple, yet profound. It upheld the Law, since He did not deny the woman's guilt, and broadened the Law's power by exposing the sins of the accusers. It also avoided the charge of instigating an execution in violation of Roman authority, since the Lord put the responsibility back on the accusers. And it mercifully spared the woman from being stoned for her sin.

Jesus knew that according to the Law, the witnesses to a capital offense were to be the first to throw stones at the guilty person (Deut. 13:9; 17:7). Obviously, they could not have been participants in the crime, or they too would have been executed. Jesus was not making sinless perfection a requirement for carrying out the Law (or else no one could have done so). It may be, then, that the woman's accusers were themselves guilty of adultery (if not the physical act, certainly the lust of the heart [Matt. 5:28]).

Jesus' masterful answer neither minimized the woman's guilt, nor denied the Law's sanctity. But it cut the ground out from under the scribes and Pharisees by revealing that they were unfit to be her judges and executioners. They were guilty of the hypocrisy that the apostle Paul condemned in Romans 2:1: "Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things" (cf. Matt. 7:1-5).

Jesus' Indictment

John 8:9a (NASB)
When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones. 

Having heard the Lord's devastating reply, the stunned scribes and Pharisees began to go out one by one. Some manuscripts add, "being convicted by their conscience," which is certainly implied. That the accusers exited beginning with the older ones provides an interesting insight into human nature. It may be that they were the first to realize that they had suffered a humiliating defeat, and that it was pointless to continue. But they may also have been more keenly aware of their sins and the impossibility of meeting Jesus' challenge. The older ones also had more sin to remember.

Ironically, those who came to put Jesus to shame left ashamed; those who came to condemn the woman went away condemned. Unfortunately, their indictment and sense of guilt did not lead them to repentance and faith in Christ. Like many who hear and feel the convicting truth of the law, they hardened their hearts and turned away from Him, not even open to gospel forgiveness.

Jesus' Forgiveness

John 8:9b-11 (NASB) 

And He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. ¹⁰ Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" ¹¹ She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more." 

After the departure of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained standing where she was, in the center of the court. The text does not say whether the crowd that had been listening to Jesus' teaching (John 8:2) had also left. Whether they were still there or not, the focus of the narrative is on the Lord and the woman.

For the first time, someone addressed the woman. Straightening up from His posture of stooping to write, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" The term woman was a polite, respectful form of address (cf. Matt. 15:28; Luke 13:12; 22:57), one with which Jesus addressed His mother (John 2:4; 19:26), the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:21), and Mary Magdalene (John 20:13, 15). With her accusers gone, there was no one left to condemn her. Exercising His divine prerogative to forgive sin (Matt. 9:6; cf. John 3:17; 12:47), Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more."

Forgiveness does not imply license to sin. Jesus did not condemn her, but He did command her to abandon her sinful lifestyle. One commentator writes,

"Jesus' verdict, "neither do I condemn," however, was not rendered as a simple acquittal or a non-condemnation. The verdict was in fact a strict charge for her to live from this point on (apo tou nun) very differently—to sin no more (mēketi hamartane). The liberating work of Jesus did not mean the excusing of sin. Encountering Jesus always has demanded the transformation of life, the turning away from sin.... Sin was not treated lightly by Jesus, but sinners were offered the opportunity to start life anew."

As Paul wrote, 

• Romans 6:1-2 (NASB)
• What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? ² May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?  

This story paints a marvelous picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose gracious humility, infinite wisdom, convicting speech, and tender forgiveness are its central themes. As imitators of God may we follow the example of our Lord and always forgive as He has forgiven us.

Colossians 3:12-13 (NASB)
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; ¹³ bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 

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