Isaiah calls the people away from inordinate dependence on the past, a dependence that prevented them from seeing the astonishing new thing that God was accomplishing before their very eyes. The new thing is a new creation, a new reality so overwhelming that the people could never have imagined it by themselves. Surely the God who was victorious in the primordial battle, and who created the magnificently ordered universe out of its wreckage, can create some
thing new from a people who had recently been released from the control of their conquerors. This is the promise of salvation proclaimed by the prophet. Paul contrasts his relationship with Christ with the life he led and the values he championed before his conversion. Now he wants to be made righteous through union with Christ, and to share in Christ’s sufferings in order to attain resurrection from the dead. He knows that profession of faith in Christ does not automatically transport one into a higher realm of being, which is what the Christians known as Gnostics seem to have claimed. It is only by taking on the day-to-day struggle with life in a way that conforms to the example set by Christ that this identification is possible.
The narrative of the woman caught in the act of adultery is really a story of conflict between Jesus and some of the religious authorities of his time. If Jesus said she should be stoned as the law required, he would be appropriating to himself the right to pass a death sentence, a right that belonged to the Romans alone. He would also be acting against his own teachings on mercy and compassion, and he would probably alienate those in the community who already opposed this particular death sentence. If he forgave the guilty woman, he would be disregarding the legitimate sentence under Israel’s law, and he would probably alienate those who interpreted the law more literally. Ultimately, Jesus exhorts the woman to sin no more. Compassion and mercy have won out.