2 Early in the morning He came again to the temple. All the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test Him, that they might have some charge to bring against Him. Jesus bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask Him, He stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more He bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Twice in John 7 we see the failure of the religious leaders to arrest Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles, so as we move into chapter 8, they devise a clever and sinister trap to discredit Him. It was certainly an evil plan, but it was also quite ingenious.
This plan was not a case of them wanting to bring justice against a sinful woman. That was the last thing on their minds. If she was to be embarrassed, shamed or even executed was not their concern. All they wanted was to get rid of Jesus through a conspiracy and a setup. In those days, Jewish legal procedures were extremely detailed, and this was particularly true in the case of any crime punishable by execution, of which adultery was one.
Deuteronomy 22:22 was very clear. “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.” Notice that this is in the present tense. I hope I don’t have to go into great detail, but when it says “if a man is found lying with the wife of another man,” it means exactly what it says. Because the punishment was so severe, they had to be caught, literally in the act of adultery, which begs the question, where was the man when they brought the woman to Jesus, but more on that in a moment. Verse 4 in the NKJV says, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.” Those who caught her were there to witness the adultery with their own eyes.
Adultery is one of those sins committed behind closed doors, so to speak, which meant that under normal circumstances, it was really difficult to bring credible witnesses forward, so in this particular case the witnesses would have been put in place beforehand, which confirms this was a setup.
And of course, they only brought the woman. They witnessed the act of adultery but did not bring the man. They either let him get away, leaving her to face the music alone, or even worse, he may have been part of the plot. He might have seduced her for this very purpose. Knowing how wicked and how desperate the Pharisees were, there is more than a little credibility to this theory.
And it gets worse when we see how they twisted the Word of God to suit their own purposes. They treated the law as nothing more than a weapon for trapping Jesus. “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” (John 8:4–5).
They didn’t need to ask this question, because the law was very clear. This was an open and shut case, so their question to Jesus had only one purpose as John records in verse 6. “This they said to test Him, that they might have some charge to bring against Him.”
Not only that, but as the custodians of the law, if they were in a position to witness the act of adultery, why didn’t they prevent it in the first place? The Pharisees were the super-spiritual moral watchdogs of society, so if they were as serious about upholding the law as they claimed to be, they would have prevented the sin rather than waiting to exploit it.
Nevertheless, it was a very well devised plan. Their only purpose was to discredit Jesus, and they felt sure that He was trapped between a rock and a hard place, because had He told them to forgive her and let her go, it would have been in keeping with His preaching of grace, but He would be guilty of contravening the law, which was very clear. She was guilty, and she was supposed to die for her sin.
So had Jesus said she should be allowed to leave, this would discredit Jesus’ ministry and undermine His credibility. God is holy, and He will not just ignore sin. It must be punished, so anyone who just dismissed the law of Moses could not claim to be a representative of the one, true God.
On the other hand, Jesus had the option of agreeing that she should be put to death, but that would compromise His teaching of grace. Again, what credibility would He have if He had said, “You’re right. This woman is guilty. Let’s stone her to death.” How would that compare with what He’d said just the day before: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me?”
It was against this backdrop that Jesus revealed his mastery over every circumstance, and His response to this dilemma was both unexpected and remarkable. “Jesus bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask Him, He stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once more He bent down and wrote on the ground.” (John 8:6–8)
There has been so much conjecture over the years as to what it was that Jesus wrote on the ground, but had it been important for us to know, God would have told us. John MacArthur suggests that Jesus’ writing on the ground was simply a delaying tactic, giving them time to think about what He’d said.
John Calvin wrote, “Christ intended, by doing nothing, to show how unworthy they were of being heard; just as if any person, while another was speaking to him, were to draw lines on the wall, or to turn his back, or to show, by any other sign, that he was not attending to what was said. Thus in the present day, when Satan attempts, by various methods, to draw us aside from the right way of teaching, we ought disdainfully to pass by the many things which he holds out to us.”
The key to this whole thing was His challenge to them in verse 7. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” We tend to think that grace and law are opposites, but here Jesus brings them both together perfectly, as He shows perfect justice and perfect grace.
He did not disagree with the Pharisees here. At no point did Jesus contradict the law, while at the same time He protected the woman by showing her divine grace. The eternal God of creation stood there. He saw right through the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and when confronted with it, they had nothing to say. Jesus was not opposing the law, but rather these men who were trying to pervert it.
When confronted with the holiness of the Son of God, they lacked the courage to continue with their plan and no one dared throw the first stone. Just as the prison guards had been unable to arrest Jesus in the previous chapter, and just as the soldiers would later fall to their faces when they came to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, so these men had nothing to say. “When they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him.” (John 8:9)
James Montgomery Boice wrote, “Obviously, there was something in the gaze of the Lord Jesus Christ, or in the tone of His voice, or simply in the power of His presence that got through to these men, unrepentant as they were, and left them powerless. Think of the efforts they had gone through! Think of the plotting! Yet they were destroyed in a moment when they were confronted by the God who masters circumstances.”
It’s important to note here that Jesus’ response in this particular case does not mean that there can never be justice on the human level. This does not mean that no court should ever condemn a criminal because the judges are not sinless. The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13:1-4, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”
John Calvin wrote, “Christ is not forbidding sinners to do their duty in correcting the sins of others; but by this word He only reproves hypocrites, who mildly flatter themselves and their vices, but are excessively severe, and even act the part of felons, in censuring others.”
The lesson Jesus teaches in John 8 is that we as forgiven sinners must show grace and love to others who have sinned, even if it is right for them to be punished.
There is a huge difference between the way in which Jesus treated this woman and the way the Pharisees treated her. Their great sin in this case was that they abused the truth of God not to proclaim grace for salvation, but to destroy this woman’s life in pursuit of their own agenda.
We have received grace and forgiveness, so as Christians we are to extend grace and forgiveness to others. Christians are not perfect - we are just forgiven. And because of the extent of God’s forgiveness to us, we should be the least judgmental people in the world. This does not mean we are to condone sin, because we must remember that we too are guilty before a holy God.
You often hear that God hates sin but loves the sinner. It might surprise you to hear that there is no verse in the Bible that says this. In fact, Psalm 5:4-5 says, “You are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.”
This is why the cross was necessary, because it is only through the cross that we can be forgiven. It is us who are to hate sin and love the sinner, because at the end of the day, without Christ, we’re all in the same boat. So instead of feeling self righteous as Jesus puts the Pharisees firmly in their place by inviting those without sin to throw the first stone, we need to consider that those same words apply to us.
We are guilty of breaking God’s holy law, and we deserve to die for our sins, but in the opening verses of John 8 we are given a wonderful picture of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He cared about this woman. And He cares for each of us. He knows our sin. He knows every dark secret we try to hide deep within us, yet instead of condemning us, He deals with us in grace and truth. He knew every single detail of that woman’s life, but that didn’t prevent Him from treating her with grace. Psalm 103:14 says, “He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”
Jesus showed compassion for her in her desperate condition. Most Biblical scholars agree that in order to deepen her shame she was dragged out of bed and frog-marched naked into the temple. That would certainly have been consistent with the heartless and callous attitudes of the Pharisees towards the very people they were meant to be caring for, but Jesus is different. He always looks with compassion on the lost. Matthew 9:36 says, “When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Jesus forgave this sinful woman. When everyone else had slipped away with their tails firmly between their legs, He says, “‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you’”. (John 8:10–11). This is such a message of hope for us. We need to stop trying to hide our sin from God, and instead come to Jesus, confessing our sin and seeking the forgiveness that He so freely gives and that we so desperately need.
Getting back to the question of Jesus stooping down to write on the ground - again we don’t know what He wrote, but we can know something of why Jesus did this. Some have suggested that He stooped to the ground to avoid looking not at the accusers, but at the accused. He loved the perfect law of God. He wrote it, remember, but because of His compassion for this woman, He didn’t talk to her until the law, with its witnesses, had left. It was only when the demands of the law, represented by the Pharisees, were gone that He turned and said, “Woman, where are your accusers?”
This is the very heart of the Gospel. Jesus came not to condemn but to save. As He said to the woman, He says to each of us - to every sinner who comes for mercy, “Neither do I condemn you.”
We’re very quick to latch onto His words in verse 7. “Let Him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” But the Gospel is in His words in verse 11. “Neither do I condemn you.” This woman was not to know it at the time, but the condemnation for her sin, and the condemnation for your sin and for mine would be poured out on Him, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God at Calvary. Her sin did condemn her. Our sin does condemn us, but Jesus took that condemnation on Himself.
She was guilty. We are all guilty, and as Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, so how could Jesus possibly say, “Neither do I condemn you?”
The answer is the cross, on which He would die for the sins of people like her, like you and like me. Jesus came into the world to take the condemnation of our sin on Himself, and this is why He can say, “Neither do I condemn you.”
Jesus forgives us not because we are not guilty, and certainly not because God looks the other way and ignores our sin. He forgives us because it is the cross that solves the dilemma between justice and mercy.
This is the great hope we find in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through faith in Him our sins have been taken away and forgiven and the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed to us through faith. As Paul writes in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
So how are we to respond to all of this? Jesus has not only offered us undeserved grace, but He has taken our punishment in our place. The answer is in the second half of verse 11. “Go, and from now on sin no more.”
We are forgiven in order that we might become holy, as we live our new lives for God instead of for ourselves. Another important point is to see exactly what Jesus says, and how He says it. “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” He does not say, “Leave your life of sin, and then I will not condemn you.”
God forgives us on the basis of Jesus’ saving work on the cross, which we receive by faith. Paul writes in Titus 3:5, “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy.” And in Romans 8:34, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”
However, there is something we also need to understand here. Not everyone we meet in the opening verses in John 8 went away forgiven, just as not everyone today stands without condemnation before God. The religious leaders, who so sure of their moral purity because of their outward religion and works, walked away still under condemnation because they rejected Jesus as the Son of God and the only Saviour of the world.
Don’t make the same mistake. You cannot rely on your works to be saved. If you are relying on yourself to impress a holy God, the words, “Neither do I condemn you,” do not apply to you. If you have yet to turn to Christ in repentance and faith, His words to Nicodemus in John 3:36 describe your desperate situation. “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
The good news of the Gospel is that there is hope to be found in the one who died so that you can be forgiven. Turn to Christ and receive His gift of grace and forgiveness. He died for you, and He says to all who receive Him in faith, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Martin Luther said, “If you have tasted the Law and sin, and if you know the ache of sin, then look here, and see how sweet, in comparison, the grace of God is, the grace which is offered to us in the Gospel.”
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 8:2-11
Why do you think the Church often struggles to get the balance right between grace and law?
In which ways do you think the Church sometimes deserves being labelled as “holier-than-thou?”
The woman in this story was merely a pawn in the political game the Pharisees were playing, but she was treated very differently by the Pharisees and Jesus.
The Pharisees were only interested in condemnation and judgment, while Jesus treated her with grace and love.
(It is important though to note that at no stage did He condone her sin.)
What lessons can we learn here when dealing with people who are living their lives far removed from God?
What steps can we take to ensure that we don’t drag people to the feet of Jesus in order to accuse them?
How do we gently bring them into the presence of God to find and experience forgiveness instead?
John 1:14 tells us that Jesus is full of grace and truth.
Close by praying that the Lord would (a) teach us how to show grace to others, and (b) teach us how to speak the truth in love.