John 8:11 Neither Do I Condemn Thee 7/4/2004 ßà
#1. The Woman Taken in Adultery (John 8:4-5, Matt 11:19, 5:17, Gen 3:15, Lev 20:10, Deut22:22)
#2. He That Is Without Sin (John 8:7-9, 2Thess 1:7-10)
#3. Go, and Sin No More (John 8:10-11, 1John 1:8-9)
Please open your Bibles to the Gospel according to John 8:1
(2X). As you perhaps know, the first eleven verses of John chapter 8 have been
contested whether they really belong in the Bible as the inspired Word of God.
I am convinced that they are because of the context. If you leave out
these first 11 verses in chapter 8 the flow of the narrative from chapter 7 to
chapter 8 is interrupted, as if you skipped something. It is impossible to make
sense out of the beginning of chapter 8 when you leave out the first 11 verses.
Moreover, when we look at chapters 1-13 we see that each chapter begins
with a little story, and then the remainder of the chapter magnifies a certain
aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ, or of the Gospel, based on this little story.
This is the design of these segments, which later have been called
chapters when the Bible was partitioned into chapters and verses. In chapter
5 the Lord Jesus healed the impotent man at the pool of
Joh 7:53 And every
man went unto his own house.
Joh 8:1-2 ¶ Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. 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.
Joh 8:3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
Joh 8:4 They say
unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
Joh 8:5 Now Moses in
the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
Joh 8:6 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.
Joh 8:7 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.
Joh 8:8-9 And again
he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 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.
Joh 8:10-11 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? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto
her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
“Every man went unto his own
house”, but the Lord Jesus did not have a house. “He who was rich for
our sakes became poor” (2Cor 8:9). He went to the
#1. The Woman Taken in Adultery (John 8:4-5, Matt 11:19, 5:17, Lev 20:10, Deut 22:22)
Joh 8:4 They say
unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
Joh 8:5 Now Moses in
the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
“This woman was taken in adultery, in the very act”. Here was the woman, but where is the man? Can we see that this was a deliberate setup? The scribes and Pharisees had concocted this plan so that they could trap the Lord Jesus on the horns of a dilemma. Can we see here “the wiles of the Devil”? And look here at the cruel plan of the scribes and Pharisees. They did not accidentally find this woman and the man in the very act, because they let the man go free. This was a setup. They had agreed with the man to seduce this woman, and then they would use her to trap the Lord Jesus in a dilemma in which He would be condemned no matter which way He chose. They had figured this out as the perfect dilemma for which Jesus would have no solution. How pitiful to see men’s brains trying to compete with the mind of God. How cruel to exploit this woman’s emotions for their own evil designs. How cold-blooded they acted to tempt this woman into sin to accomplish their evil intentions against Christ. How evil their motive, of those who were supposed to teach the people the Word of God. How anxious they were to discredit the Lord Jesus before all the people. They could not wait until they could talk to Him in private. Instead they interrupted Him as He was teaching the people and they rudely challenged Him to solve this unsolvable dilemma. Why was this an unsolvable dilemma? On the one hand, if Jesus would agree to have the woman stoned to death in obedience to the Law of Moses, then they could accuse Him before the Romans, because only the Roman governor could make decisions concerning life or death. Most likely Jesus would have been locked up in jail. Moreover, Jesus would no more be the “friend of publicans and sinners” (Matt 11:19). On the other hand, if Jesus would oppose to have the woman stoned to death, then before all the people they could accuse Jesus of compromising with sin, and of not obeying the Law of Moses, and of disrespect for the holiness of God and the righteousness of His Law. Then they could accuse Jesus of being an enemy of the Law of God, and of His own words, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matt 5:17). Then in front of all the people they could accuse Jesus of being a hypocrite. Listen to what the scribes and Pharisees said, “Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned”. Print this principle in your memory: Wicked men can also quote the Scriptures. Even Satan can quote the Scriptures. But what do they care for the Law? Nothing! Let us then not be deceived by men quoting the Scriptures. They can be haters of God. Can we see here “the enmity of the Serpent against the Seed of the woman”? (Gen 3:15) How would Jesus solve this dilemma? Most certainly the woman deserved to be stoned to death. We read:
Le 20:10 ¶ And the man that committeth adultery with another
man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife,
the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
It is clear that both of them must be put to death. We also read in Deut 22:22,
De 22:22 If a man be
found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them
die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou
put away evil from Israel.
The purpose of this law is: “so shalt thou
put away evil from
God’s Law states the penalty for sin. God says in Rom 6:23, “The
wages of sin is death”, and the death that God has in view is shown in Rev
20 to be the 2nd death, which is an eternity in the
Joh 8:6 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.
Jesus wrote on the ground with His finger. It is not recorded what
He wrote. God did not want us to be distracted by what He wrote. We are only
told that He “with His finger wrote on the ground”. This was not the
first time that the Lord had written with His finger. Perhaps you remember that
God wrote the 10 Commandments with His finger. God says in Ex 31:18, “And he
gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount
Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God”.
God wrote these on two tables of stone. This was not because Moses lived in the
stone age, but man’s heart by nature resembles a heart of stone. God says in Ezek
36:26, “I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will
give you an heart of flesh”. The second time the Lord wrote with His
finger was when Belshazzar, grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the
Chaldeans, saw God’s writing on the wall of his palace. We read in Dan 5:5,
“In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over
against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and
the king saw the part of the hand that wrote”. This hand and this writing
was to his own condemnation, because that same night was Belshazzar, king of
the Chaldeans, slain. The third time the Lord wrote with His finger was
here in John 8:6. This time the Lord Jesus
wrote on the ground, for man was taken out of the ground. Symbolically
it was as if Jesus wrote a duplicate of God’s righteous Law on man’s heart, and
therefore man’s conscience is able to discern the Lord’s commandments. But just
like Belshazzar, the scribes and Pharisees were so blind that they could not
interpret the writing of His hand, to their own condemnation. Before we
continue with Jesus’ writing on the ground of man’s heart, let us focus our
gaze on the woman. Have you ever considered this:
Put a sticker here in John chapter 8, and please turn in your Bibles to the Epistle to the Romans 7:1 (2X). This woman does not have a name, because God intended for us to see ourselves in her. This adulterous woman represents all those whom God has elected unto glory. This woman represents all who are becoming saved by the mercy and grace of God. Look at her. No one cared for her, except the Lord Jesus. He is her only hope. And then we remember that God wrote about us as if we were represented by “a woman who was married to the Law”. We read in Rom 7:1,
Ro 7:1 ¶ Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that
know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
Ro 7:2 For the woman
which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he
liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her
husband.
Before we were saved, we were bound to the Law of God as tightly as a woman who has been bound to her husband. And whenever we sin our husband “the Law” would accuse us of committing adultery with someone else, and our Husband “the Law” would ask that we be stoned to death. How can we escape such a tyrannical husband? The only way is through the death of one of the parties. God provided such an escape. We read in Rom 7:3,
Ro 7:3 So then if,
while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be
called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so
that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Ro 7:4 Wherefore, my
brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye
should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
How is it that we “become dead to the Law by the body of Christ”? The Bible teaches that we were in Christ from before the foundation of the world. Therefore we were crucified with Christ, we died with Christ, we were buried with Christ, we rose with Christ from the grave, we ascended with Christ into heaven and we are seated with Christ in heaven. Therefore God cannot send us to Hell for our sins, because we were in Christ when He endured the equivalent of an eternity in Hell on our behalf, for the guilt of our sins. We have already gone through Hell with Christ and in Christ. But since we died with Christ we have “become dead to the Law through the body of Christ”, because Christ suffered death in His body. We died with Christ and so we have become free from our husband the Law. What a glorious deliverance. Is this the God whom we know? O, He is full of mercy, if we only dare to believe. We see ourselves in this adulterous woman of Rom 7:1-4, and we see ourselves in this adulterous woman of John 8:1-11. But through Christ and in Christ we have become the recipients of God’s mercy and grace. The Law has not been set aside. Jesus said in Matt 5:17,
Mt 5:17-18 ¶ Think not that I am come to destroy the law,
or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till
all be fulfilled.
But we died to the Law, and that is why we are free from the Law. This is the reason why "we are not under the Law, but under grace”. The Law has not died. The Law is in full force for all those who remain unsaved. They will experience the Law on Judgment Day when the Law shall accuse them.
But for us, our salvation is so great that God shows it to all the angels
in heaven. We read in Eph 3:10, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and
powers in heavenly places might be known through the church the manifold
wisdom of God”. This is how justice and mercy are harmonized. God rejoices
in the execution of His plan. God rejoices in being merciful. Let us return
now to John 8:7 (2X). And here Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees,
#2. He That Is Without Sin (John 8:7-9, 2Thess 1:7-10)
Let him cast the first stone at her.
Joh 8:7 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.
Joh 8:8-9 And again
he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 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.
Can you see the mercy of God for this woman? God’s Law is holy and
righteous. Here we find the Lawgiver Himself turning the light of the Law upon
these men, who really had so little respect for it. His enemies, His accusers,
were not fit to demand the enforcement of the Law’s sentence. Only a holy hand
from a perfect person is fit to administer the perfect Law. God stated here a
fundamental principle: Only God is the Avenger. God gave the nation of
2Th 1:7-8 And to you
who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
heaven with his mighty angels, In
flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
2Th 1:9-10 Who shall
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and
from the glory of his power; When
he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that
believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
Did you hear me? I read in 2Thess 1:8, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God”. These people may never have stolen anything, or never committed adultery, or never killed, or never even told a lie. But God says that He “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God”. Knowing Him is all that matters. And then we read in John 8:9, “They being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one”. That they recognized they were sinners was a miracle in itself. Pharisees do not like to confess their sins. But under the influence of God the Holy Spirit even the hardest heart will do what God commands. Grace had not defied the Law, but grace had upheld the Law. One sentence from the lips of God the Son incarnate, and they were all silenced and they all left. Christ had not uttered a word against the Law and He had not condoned the woman’s sin. But His enemies were not able to find any ground for accusation against Him. But can you see that it takes the power of God to draw sinners to Christ? Here was a group of intellectual men who knew the Word of God almost by heart, they knew what the consequences of their sins would be, they knew that Jesus was more intelligent than all of them combined, they knew that Jesus could do mighty wonders such as God only could do, and they even were convicted by their own conscience. And yet instead of all this causing them to cast themselves at the feet of Jesus, it resulted in them leaving Jesus. Such is the heart of the natural man. Only if the Holy Spirit will make a soul alive will it ever come in a saving contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. God is sovereign, and who can deny it? Do we know this God? Do we serve this God whom the Bible describes as the only One God?
#3. Go, and Sin No More (John 8:10-11, 1John 1:8-9)
Joh 8:10-11 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? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Jesus lifted up Himself. Where were all the accusers? The Law
required two witnesses before any sentence could be carried out. But here not a
single witness remained. There was no one to accuse her before Judge Jesus. The
coast was clear for Jesus to act in mercy, because our God delights in mercy.
You remember what the definition is of mercy. Mercy is God withholding what we
do deserve. This woman deserved to be stoned to death, and after that she
deserved to go to Hell. But then, after the last of her accusers left the
scene, the Lord Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn thee”. Bang! This
woman became saved on the spot. What were the consequences for Jesus by not
condemning her? Jesus has been appointed to be the Judge of all the earth. If
Jesus would not condemn her, it meant that He would be her substitute
before the judgment throne of God. It meant that Jesus would take upon
Himself every single sin that this adulterous woman has ever committed, and it
meant that He would pay for those sins the penalty that she would have to
pay if she would have remained unsaved. It meant that Jesus would have
to suffer the equivalent of an eternity in Hell for this adulterous woman.
Jesus knew this. She did not. But what were the consequences for this
woman when she left the temple? Let us keep in mind that this woman represents
all the Saints. What are the consequences for us once we have become
saved? It means that God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
have come to dwell in our soul. It means that God will now direct our
life. It means that I am not any more my own, but I belong to my
faithful Savior Jesus Christ who purchased me and owns me. It means that
my life has changed and that I am now looking for doing those things that are
pleasing in His sight. This is a drastic change in our life. People will see
this change. If people cannot see this change, then perhaps we have not been
saved. But be careful to read and understand the words that we are reading here
in John 8:11. The Lord Jesus Christ did not say, “Go and sin no more and I
will not condemn thee”. This is no good news. If Jesus would have said
that, then this woman would have been condemned from that moment. But the Good
News was, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more”. Do we know
this God? Do we know what He meant when He said, “Go and sin no more”?
He meant, “Do not commit adultery any more”. Is it possible for us not
to commit any sin any more? Well, let us hear what God says in 1John 1:8,
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us”.
No, it is not possible that we living on this earth remain free from sin. But
what a blessing it is to read also the next verse, 1John 1:9, “If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. Please turn in your Bibles to
the Epistle to the Romans 8:1 (2X).
In John 8:1-11 a sinner was exposed to the Lord Jesus Christ, but she left the scene uncondemned. How did it come to pass? How were mercy and justice harmonized? It is not here presented in a reasoned out statement of doctrine, but in symbolic action. The Lord Jesus showed that this problem was not insoluble for Divine wisdom. Here was a concrete case of a guilty sinner leaving the presence of Jesus uncondemned. The requirements of the Law were dealt with. Her sin was openly condemned. And yet, she herself was not condemned. Mercy flowed out to her, but not at the expense of justice. Jesus became her Advocate. We read in Rom 8:1,
Ro 8:1-2 ¶ There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
What a joy to know that “there is no more condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus”. But how will we know if we belong to that
group of people who are “in Christ Jesus”? We know it by faith, for “the
just shall live by faith” (Rom 1:17). Do we believe that we were as
guilty as this adulterous woman standing before Jesus? Do we believe all that
is in the Bible, even though we have not yet read it all? Do we believe even
those things we do not like? Do we believe that Christ paid for all our sins;
even the most wicked of our sins? But does our life reflect what we believe? Do
we “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”? Is this really the
new life that we live? How can we know if we have become saved? We must have
faith, but the faith must be genuine. It must be a faith that is a gift from
God. And to prove that it is a genuine faith we must examine if our walk of
life is now directed toward spiritual things, rather than things of this world
and things that are pleasing to the flesh. And then verse 2 speaks about “the
Law of sin and death”. What is that? These are the commandments and
ordinances and precepts and statutes and judgments that we read about in the
OT. If we are absolutely required to meet all these, then this becomes “the
Law of sin and death”. We are not able to meet even the 10 Commandments,
how then are we able to meet more than these? But when we have died with Christ
we have been made free from that Law of sin and death. Then what is,
“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”? This is the Law of the Spirit
of life. It is the Law that we are saved by grace. God’s Spirit must
have mercy on us, give us a new heart, and give us faith. This is the Law of
the Spirit of life. It means that we were one of the elect for whom Christ
suffered and died on
Ro 8:3-4 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
God sent His only begotten Son into this world to take the penalty
of the judgment on our sins in our place. This penalty we could not pay. After
spending 1000 years in Hell we would still not be done paying for our sins. It
would require an eternity in Hell, but then we would never get out of Hell
because an eternity does not have an end. And so, we are not able to pay
the penalty for our sins. But Christ is God, and He is able to pay this
penalty in less than 24 hours, from Thursday night when He suffered in the