I am a Jesus pusher!!! There is a contrast between those of old and Jesus’ approach. Those of old were worried about the physical activity of adultery. Sexuality in their lives became an animal drive to control and limit. Marriage became glorified prostitution, justifying the satisfaction of selfish desires. Sexual expression, whether on the level of flirting, emotional involvement, or physical expression, must come from intimacy with Jesus. This intimacy is a person’s life merged with Jesus, expressing His nature and demonstrating His image.
Anyone studying the requirements of the law of God in the Old Testament is not surprised by the severity of Jesus’ approach. Concerning adultery, God told Moses, “The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer, and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death” (Leviticus 20:10). “If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die — the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel” (Deuteronomy 22:22). These statements are severe. God is serious about sexual purity, the seventh commandment in the Ten Commandments. Through the progression of time into Jesus’ day, the severity lessened. The scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman caught in adultery. They proclaimed Moses’ instructions to stone anyone found in this woman’s situation (John 8:1-11). The accusers applied this only to the woman, but where was the man? Jesus is focusing on the “man!” I am a Jesus pusher!!!