"He that is without sin among you..."

“He that is without sin among you”

This painting comes from the story in the Bible found in John Chapter 8: 1-11

1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

2 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.

3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery ; and when they had set her in the midst,

4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

6 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.

7 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.

8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

9 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.

10 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?

11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

As I was working on my painting, I was thinking a lot about that story and how Christ was so ready to forgive. He did not let the accusers phase his judgment of this woman because he knows her perfectly and loves her perfectly where these Pharisees know her not. Also the Pharisees and Scribes aren’t without sins of their own so they have no right to be the ones at the judgment of this woman. The other thing that I think is incredible about that story is that he waited for everyone to leave before he talked to her and let her know that her sins are forgiven. That just shows how intimate the atonement of our Savior is, and how personal our relationship with the Him is. I think that that is such a beautiful thing that he forgives us on such a persona level. That he doesn't let other people in on our repentance and forgiveness process.

Please bear with me as I try to explain some other insight I received about this story while painting it and studying it. When Christ writes in the sand/dust of the earth I realized that WE are likened unto the dust of the earth. So I wanted to know what that could mean. Christ pressed his finger into the dust of the earth and wrote something in it during this woman’s process of repentance. After reading a few talks and scripture about this story I realized that as we repent Christ is constantly impressing things and lessons upon our hearts. Because we are the dust of the earth we are not perfect and we let these things can be blown away, we forget, they don’t always stay permanently. That’s why we sometimes have to learn the same lesson over and over again. Yes, we are pretty pathetic… BUT we can rejoice because the savior is always there to impress things upon our hearts and he is right there ready to forgive us. Through Him one day we will be like the earth during the second coming. We will be burned in the Refiner’s Fire and be turned from dust to glass or silver or gold (3Nephi 24: 2-4) where we will let things be impressed on us forever and perfectly. (D&C 101: 25-28) We will be perfectly obedient to the Father. WE CAN AND WILL BE PERFECT! But for now we are still the dust of the earth but let us rejoice that Christ is always there to be perfectly forgiving of us, and let us rejoice that He will never stop impressing his finger on our hearts.