Man's Sinfulness - God's Forgiveness

In chapters 8 & 9 of John we see the revelation of Jesus as the light of life. Tonight we will see that light revealed in the first 11 verses of John 8. Here’s a general overview of these 11 verses.

Jesus reveals Himself as the Light of Life. Tonight we will see man being gripped by sin in two ways—first, by the woman taken in adultery and secondly by the hypocritical religionists. Man is pictured as being critical, condemning, self-righteous, and adulterous. Every single person is sinful.

In the woman, man is seen as adulterous and guilty—living a life of darkness, without purpose and meaning and significance. In the religionists, man is seen as deceitful, critical, condemning, selfish, self-righteous, and loaded with guilt.

Not a single religionist is seen to be free from the darkness of sin. Jesus reveals Himself to be the Light of the World, the One who brings liberty, forgiveness, purpose, meaning, and significance to the life of man.

Tonight we will see a picture of Jesus. We’ll see man’s dark guilt, man’s dark nature. But in the end we will see the great revelation that Jesus alone has the right to condemn and forgive.

READ 1-2. Here is a glimpse of Jesus’ life. We see a contrast of Jesus’ quiet and worshipful life with the turbulent and judgmental lives of the religionist. Things were quite turbulent from Jesus standing and crying out during the FEAST. Now Jesus is drawn within the turbulence to calm it all down. We, too, can contrast a Christian life that should be quiet and worshipful as contrasted with a turbulent world. As a Christian, can you say you live a quiet and worshipful life, separated from the turbulent world?

You might note the secret to Jesus’ calm and peace—He got alone with God. He often went off into the mount of Olives to be alone with God. It was a favorite spot of His, a place where He could be alone with God and His disciples, a place of quietness where God could meet with Him face to face, strengthening and encouraging Him.

Note also that Jesus began His teaching early in the morning. The Greek for the words “gathered” and “teaching” are continuous action. The people kept coming to Jesus and He kept teaching them. His mission in life was that of worshipping God and teaching and ministering to people. Jesus is showing us how we should all walk through life; worshipping God, teaching and ministering to people. When you think about it, everyone needs to be taught and everyone needs the ministry of others during the trials of life.

READ 3-6. Man’s guilt and sin are pictured in all the parties involved.

1. There was the guilt of the woman and some unknown man. They were both guilty of the serious sin of adultery, a sin that affects so many lives. Under Jewish law it was considered so serious that the parties were to be stoned to death. My question is, “What happened to the man who was with the woman?” The sin speaks to the sin of every person.

- The sin was a work of darkness. Most all sin is done under the cover of darkness. An attempt is made to hide it from wife, husband, mother, father, employer, classmate, or colleague.

- This man and woman thought what we all often think—that their sin would never be discovered—that no one would ever find out. But they overlooked two things that we all ignore; in most cases, sin has been discovered, and sin is always seen by God.

- The sin took place at the time of the feast, where the atmosphere was party-like and where men and women were brought together by drinking and dancing and the indulgence of the crowd. That type of atmosphere will even corrupt those with the best intentions and the highest morals.

2. We also see in this passage the guilt of some witnesses, some people who were offended by the woman in particular. Jewish law required two witnesses to convict a person. It is very unlikely that the woman and her male companion were seen by the religionists. They wouldn’t have been in such a defiled atmosphere. The Pharisees and Scribes were too strict in their rules.

Some believe that the religionists had some scoundrels set a trap for the woman in order to drag her before Jesus to trap Him. However, this is unlikely because plotting a sin of the flesh doesn’t fit in with the nature of the Pharisees and Scribes. We have to give them SOME credit. Their sins were more of the spirit, much deeper, but less visible and less condemning to the public.

The point is this: the witnesses who caught the woman in the act of adultery were great sinners as well.