‘NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU’ – John 7:53-8:11

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 12, 2012 under PM Bible Study |

PM Home Bible Study Group; December 12, 2012

John 7:53-8:11

Theme: Jesus contrasts His grace to sinners against the rigidness of the law.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

This evening, we will look at a passage from John’s Gospel that has been a source of encouragement and hope for many saints throughout the centuries. But you should know that the authenticity of this passage is questioned by several reliable New Testament scholars. Many of our Bibles have a footnote that John 7:53-8:11 is not in the original text of over 900 manuscripts of John’s Gospel

But if a subjective, inner sense of the reading of this text accounts for anything, it has the feel of authenticity to it. No less an authority than Dr. Bruce Metzger—unquestionably the greatest New Testament textual scholar of our time—wrote that “the account has all the earmarks of historical veracity” (A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd. ed., p. 220). It feels like the story is authentic; and even some the most careful of critical scholars have chosen to include it in the text as belonging there—though with caution. In this study, we will treat it as if it is—indeed—authentic; and as if the Holy Spirit meant for us to have it in our Bibles.

Note . . .

I.  THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE EVENT (7:53-8:2).

A. This story picks up where the last one left off. Jesus had just given testimony of Himself during the Feast of Tabernacles (see chapter 7). The Pharisees had attempted to arrest Him; but they were unsuccessful. Those that they sent to arrest Him began to listen—and forgot what it was that they were supposed to do!. When the controversy was over, we’re told “And everyone went to his own house” (7:53). And as for the Lord Himself, we’re told that He didn’t return to Galilee. “But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives” (8:1). Perhaps, among other things, He wished to make Himself available to the taunts of the Pharisees—and particularly to the need of this woman—so that He could demonstrate something very important about His character as a gracious Savior of sinners.

B. We’re told, “Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them” (v. 2). This is an important part of the context of this story. The Pharisees and the Scribes—who had been seeking to arrest Him and could not—wanted to at least discredit Him in the eyes of the people. The fact that He was teaching publicly in the temple gave them the opportunity that they wanted.

II.  THE CHALLENGE FROM THE PHARISEES AND SCRIBES (8:3-6a).

A. John tells us, “Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery” (v. 3a). Now; without getting to specific about things, you can’t help but notice that someone is missing from this scenario. If she was caught in adultery—”in the very act”, as it tells us in verse 4—it’s plain that she couldn’t have been committing adultery by herself. Where is the man with whom she was committing this sin? Why was he not also brought? The reason is obvious. It’s because this was a set-up. It was meant to trap the Lord Jesus; although it may be that it involved a set-up with respect to this poor woman so that she could be used to entangle the Lord in a controversy. Wicked opposition to our Lord knows no limits in its cruelty.

B. We’re told, “And when they had set her in the midst” (v. 3b)—and you can just imagine the humiliation and fear that this poor woman must have been suffering!—”they said to Him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?’” (v. 4-5). They called Him Teacher—which would have ordinarily been a term of respect; but you can be sure that it was a mere formality to them. They didn’t respect His teaching. They were seeking to discredit His teaching in front of the people. If they couldn’t arrest Him before the people, at least they could try to turn the people away from Him.

C. They were, of course, correct that the law taught that the woman should be stone (and also the man; but he was ‘strangely absent’). In Leviticus 20:10, the law says, “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.” The demands of the law in this case were, of course, not a question. But when they asked, “What do You say?” they were trying to put Jesus into a difficult situation before the people. The next verse makes this clear: “This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him” (v. 6a). What was it that they were hoping to have to accuse? If He had said, “Yes—the law has spoken; stone her”; He would have appeared merciless to sinners. But if He had said, “No—don’t stone her”; He would have put Himself in contradiction to the law. Either way, they would have something with which to accuse Him before the people.

III. THE LORD’S RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGERS (8:6b-8).

A. Our Lord is never trapped. Do you remember how His opponents once tried to trap Him with regard to marriage in Matthew 19:1-10? He answered wisely then. And there was an occasion when the traps came one after another with fierce repetition—such challenges as whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not (Matthew 22:15-22); or how many brothers can a woman be married to (vv. 23-33); or which law was the greatest (vv. 34-40). But just as our Lord answered all those challenges wisely, so did He in this case. And look at the remarkable way He did so. We’re told, “But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger . . .”; with the addition in some texts, “as though He did not hear” (v. 6b).

B. What a remarkable way for Him to respond to them! It was as if He was ignoring them. Of course, He wasn’t. But it prompted them to keep asking Him. “So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first’” (v. 7). What an answer! He didn’t say that the law should be set aside. But neither did He order her to be stoned. He challenged those who were challenging Him to be the first ones to cast a stone—if they themselves were innocent of breaking that law. “And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground” (v. 8). Clearly, His answer was two-fold. One part of the answer came from His affirmation of the law; and the other came from whatever it was that He was writing on the ground.

IV. THE RESPONSE OF THE PHARISEES TO THE LORD (8:9).

A. Wouldn’t you like to know what it was that He was writing? Apparently, though, it wasn’t the will of the Holy Spirit to let us know. But we can certainly speculate what it was; because we’re told, “Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last” (v. 9a). Some have suggested that He was writing down the very words of the law on the ground—perhaps from Leviticus 20:10—which would have spoken to the fact that they had not brought the man who was also guilty of adultery. Others have suggested that He was writing down His own accusation against the Pharisees and Scribes—as if He were writing the words “HYPOCRITES” boldly on the ground. But I don’t believe either of those are the case. Note how it was that the accusers left. We’re told that it was not as a group, but “one by one”—individually, as it were. And note also that they left in a specific order—the oldest ones first and leading down to the youngest. Whatever it was that Jesus wrote was compelling the accusers to leave as a very specific, very personal response. I think it’s obvious. Jesus was writing down the names of their girlfriends; and perhaps even the dates of meetings that they would have preferred not to have made public. He started with the oldest—bringing back memories of sins perhaps long covered-up; and then, as they saw what was happening, they suddenly remembered that they had an important meeting to attend to elsewhere. Perhaps it took a little longer for the younger ones to catch on; but they left too. “And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst” (v. 9b). We already know that the Lord Jesus didn’t “need that anyone should testify of man, for He know what was in man” (John 2:25). Perhaps the Pharisees were finding out for themselves just how much this was so! He was making it clear by writing a whole “scandal sheet” right there on public ground in the temple for all to see—  until all the woman’s accusers were gone.

V. THE GRACE OF THE LORD TO THE WOMAN (8:10-11).

A. What’s wonderful about this is that the Lord didn’t appear to write anything on the ground of the temple about the woman. He didn’t need to. Her sin wasn’t hidden. It was already out in the open. And truth be told; it would have been Jesus alone who would have been rightfully able to pick up a stone and cast it at her. He alone was without sin. But John tells us that He didn’t do so. “When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, ‘Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?’” (v. 10).

B. It’s not hard to imagine the emotion that must have overtaken this poor woman. What an ordeal! What shame! What humiliation! What fear! But now—with all her accusers gone, and only herself and Jesus standing alone, she—I suspect—was weeping when, as we read, “She said, ‘No one, Lord’” (v. 11a). No other accusers—just the one who Himself is God in human flesh, and who is the giver of that law. “And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more’” (v. 11b).

* * * * * * * * * *

It’s instructive that Jesus didn’t simply stop at saying, “Neither do I condemn you.” He didn’t want her to keep living the way she had been living; and so, He told her, “go and sin no more.” And whatever her previous life-style may have been, is there any doubt that she truly did go out and sin no more? There could have been no doubt in her mind who this was that forgave her—and how thankful she must have been for it.

In another story in which our Lord forgave a sinful woman, He said, “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little” (Luke 7:47). As Paul wrote in Titus 2:11-14;

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works (Titus 2:11-14).

Grace has the power to change lives in a way that the law never could. May be learn from our Lord Jesus to be His ambassadors of life-changing grace!