John 8:1-11
The Woman Taken in Adultery
Introduction
In one of our favorite passages in the Bible, John 3, Jesus made a statement that you’re all familiar with. He said,
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Those are wonderful words of love and hope as God expressed how He felt toward mankind. While we know that verse and find great inspiration in it, it is the lesser known verse that follows that I want to draw your attention to. John 3:17 says,
“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
I think perhaps that the truth of that verse isn’t seen as clearly anywhere in the Bible as it is seen in this morning’s encounter with Christ. In John 8:1-11, we are introduced to a woman who experienced the depths of God’s love in such a way that she was instantly changed. Her life hung in the balance, condemnation and the death penalty hanging over her head in a dramatic way, but Jesus offered the woman her only ray of hope. Let’s read the passage and see what happens.
“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. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 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. 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. 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. 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.”
As with all the encounters we’ve studied, I want you to allow your imagination to travel back so that you are standing there with her and Jesus; put yourselves in her shoes, and watch as the story unfolds. Jesus has come into the temple early one morning, and as you can see in verse 2 there was a great crowd gathered around him. I can picture Jesus sitting on a stone or set of steps, with the people sitting around His feet, circled out around Him so they can get a better view. As He was teaching, the scribes and Pharisees came up to Him with this woman. The scribes were a group or society of men who spent their days making copies of the Old Testament, copying and recopying, learning and memorizing it and eventually becoming teachers of it. They knew the Old Testament front and back, like the Pharisees who have come with them, and of course we have met the Pharisees before, this group of religious leaders who was out to destroy Jesus.
Now we don’t know much about this woman other than that she had been caught in the very act of adultery, and I don’t have to explain that to you this morning. I can picture her with a disheveled look about her, tired, and yet anxious. She had probably been drug from bed, hair in a mess, wrapped in a sheet or blanket. We don’t know how they might have emotionally tormented her in the hours leading up to this moment, but we can imagine the shame and embarrassment she must have felt as these men paraded her around, speaking openly about her adultery and now dragging her out into the temple in front of this crowd of people who are sitting in front of Jesus. Put yourself in her shoes today. Suppose you’ve had a long struggle with some sin, let’s say pornography, which no one knew about. If you need help imagining what she was going through, imagine how you would feel if you were brought up in front of our church family this morning and everyone was told about how you had been looking at that wicked stuff. Imagine the shame and guilt you would feel in front of your peers.
As she stands there listening and waiting, all these eyes in the crowd are watching her, and the scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus what ought to be done to her. Verse 6 tells us that they were trying to trap Jesus. You see, the penalty under the Law for this crime was to be stoned to death. Adultery is so common in our day we may have a hard time understanding this, but adultery isn’t just some chosen way of life. It isn’t an affair, though that’s what we call it; in the Bible adultery is sin and it was a crime both against man and God – it was a capital offense, so God said to stone to death anyone guilty of it. “Should we stone her?” they asked Jesus. Now they had been wondering all night what He would do. If Jesus says yes, then He loses the support of the people and it gives them a legal accusation to make against Him in their courts. If Jesus says no, then He openly denies the authority of God’s law, which again is cause for accusation against Him. Jesus is God – so He cannot deny His own Law – what will He do?
I can just sense the smug looks on the faces of these men as they thought they had Jesus trapped, but then He does something odd – He gets down on the dirt and ignores the men, writing or drawing something in the dirt. The kept pressing Him for an answer, “Yes or no Jesus – do we stone her according to the Law of Moses or not?” Jesus finally gets up and says to them, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Then He got down and wrote in the dirt again. When He finally did get up again, all the men were gone. We assume that the crowd had left by now too, and it is just Jesus and the woman.
“Where are your accusers? Didn’t any of them condemn you?” He said. She looked at Jesus, I imagine with tears running down her face, and she says, “No man, Lord.” “Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more.”
What an awesome encounter! Here is a woman whose life is on the line, she encounters Christ, and walks away free! Now certainly there are questions that are raised during the passage: where is the man who was with her? Were these men waiting in the room? What was Jesus writing in the dirt? Those are all good questions, but they’re irrelevant this morning – what matters is that you recognize yourself in the story, in this woman’s life, and learn the lessons God has for you.
You might remember the lessons from last week’s encounter with the man lying at the pool of Bethesda. They certainly apply here. We talked about…
Hopelessness and Helplessness
The man by the pool was in a helpless and hopeless situation. He couldn’t heal himself and he couldn’t get into the pool. Was not this woman? She was in a helpless and hopeless situation as the men had condemned her. There wasn’t any question about her guilt; she was caught in the act. Now, maybe the way they went about the whole thing was wrong, but the fact that she was guilty was clear. The Law called for her death, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. Listen to Leviticus 20:10,
“And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adultress shall surely be put to death.”
If that’s not clear enough, Deuteronomy 22:22 says,
“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.”
This woman deserved to die because of her adultery, her crime, her sin against God and man. Are we any different? What does the Bible say? “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” There’s no question about your guilt – you were born in sin and you commit sin on a frequent basis. Paul said that “the whole world is guilty before God.” It amazes me that people can think that they don’t sin or that they haven’t ever sinned. All you’ve got to do is go through the Ten Commandments and you’ll see that you’re guilty! In 1 John 1:8 & 10, the apostle John said,
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us…If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
Now there aren’t any scribes and Pharisees in your life today, but you have an adversary, the devil, Satan, and he spends his days looking at your life, lying in wait just like those men did, and every time he catches you in the act of sin, whether it is adultery or “just a little white lie” he brings you into the presence of Jesus and exposes your guilt. If you’ve never accepted Christ as your personal Savior, you need to recognize that you stand guilty before God and there’s nothing you can say to your defense. You’re a sinner! Romans 6:23 says,
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
You see, you stand there guilty, just like that woman. Remember what those men said? “She deserves to die – she broke the law. What do you say Jesus?” Let me tell you something – you too deserve to die, and you will. You’re going to die a physical death and that body of yours is going to go the way of the grave, but that’s not the kind of death Paul was talking about. He was talking about spiritual death, eternal separation from God in the lake of fire we call Hell. That’s where you deserve to go because you are guilty before God as a sinner.
Hopeless and helpless – that’s your condition today. So what if you’re saved? Do you consider yourself to be safe just because you’re saved? The fact is that you are, but what I want to know is this: What is your attitude about it and why do you think you are safe? That leads us to the second lesson we considered last week…
Encounters of Grace
Remember that the man had done nothing to merit God’s favor or love. Jesus just walked up and healed the man. Every time someone encounters the Lord Jesus Christ it is an encounter of grace. The woman deserved death, but she got life. She deserved to be condemned, but she was set free. She hadn’t done anything to deserve what she got, that’s why we call it grace!
What is grace? Grace is getting something you don’t deserve. She had sinned and deserved to die – but she got life. She was guilty and deserved to be condemned, but she was set free! Folk – if you’re without Christ in this world, you’ve never given your life to Him in salvation, you’ve never trusted Him, you’ve never made a decision for Him, you stand before Him guilty and condemned.
“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
“The wages of sin is death.” What hope does a man have in that condition? I said you are helpless and hopeless – so what can you do? Now, in our story in John 8, Jesus pardoned the woman and she walked away forgiven and free, what about you? Remember what I said? “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Grace is a funny thing. Grace is you getting something that you don’t deserve, but God doesn’t force it on you. You have to accept it; it’s a gift. It’s like this: You’re standing before the Lord in court, guilty and condemned. Your sentence is harsh: first you’re going to die, then you’re going to go to Hell, then you’re going to spend eternity suffering in torment. Jesus walks up and says to you, “I have already paid your sentence for you. I want you to accept my love and forgiveness for your sin. It offended me and my Father, but I paid your sentence for you anyway. You can either accept my payment or you can go ahead and serve your sentence. Which will it be?”
What will you do? Will you accept what Jesus did for you? Don’t you see it? You’ve been hearing all your life these Bible stories about how Jesus was born in a manger and lived a sinless life. You’ve heard what He taught and what He did, and how He was beaten and bruised, how He was tormented and mocked, how God poured out His wrath on Jesus as He hung on the cross and shed His blood for you. You’ve heard all that before – but have you ever come to the place in your life where you realize that He did that for you? He did that because you were guilty and condemned and He did it so you wouldn’t have to serve out your sentence! Why not admit that you need a Savior today and call on Him to save you!
Some of you today are saved, you don’t feel so helpless and hopeless, but I want to remind you that every time you sin against the Lord you give your adversary room to drag you back before the Lord, back out into the open where he can accuse you of your guilt. Do you think that just because you are saved God overlooks your sin? Do you think that being saved gives you cause to deal lightly with it? The writer of Hebrews told us that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for you. Do you realize what that means? It means that even in your state of being saved from Hell – the only hope and help you have is your attorney Jesus Christ who stands before the throne of God pleading on your behalf! When you sin and you are guilty, the only reason you are safe is because Jesus’ blood was shed for your sin – so don’t get smug on God or man. Don’t grow comfortable in your pitiful condition – you remember not only what Jesus has done for you before, but what He does for you every day of your life, not keeping you saved, but pleading your case before the Lord. Where would you be today were it not for the grace of God?
The last lesson we dealt with last week concerned…
Not Going Back
Do you remember that Jesus told the man to take his bedroll with him? The man was to walk away from that place and stay gone – burn his bridges! Jesus told this woman to do the same! Look at verse 11.
“She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
What’s He saying? “Don’t go back! I forgive you! You’ve got a new lease on life!” Listen to me people, when Jesus Christ died for your sin, He was baptized, or He was immersed in the wrath of Almighty God, a baptism that belonged to you, wrath that belonged to you. When you accepted Jesus as your Savior, that immersion was counted toward you. In other words, when God looked upon Jesus’ suffering, when God looked upon Jesus as He was hanging on the cross, He was seeing you. Turn to Romans 6 and let me show you this. Romans 6:3 says,
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?”
Do you see that ? When were you baptized into Jesus Christ? Not when you got in the water – but when you accepted Him as your Savior. When you accepted Him as your Savior you were baptized into His death – that’s why the Bible says that His death was reckoned unto you – or accounted unto you. Keep reading with me…
“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”
This is so beautiful! Back in August of 1990, I was drug into the presence of Jesus Christ and my sin was exposed. Things in my life that I thought were secret were not so secret, and I discovered that I was guilty before God. I heard how I deserved to die, that my sin was a capital offense before a holy and just God. I want to tell you that until that moment I didn’t think there was anything wrong with my life, or me, but I found out different. I felt just like that woman, naked and exposed, and I stood there a mess before the Lord. He didn’t write in the dirt that day, but I saw where He had written in His word that He loved me and that He had died for me and that I didn’t have to die if I would just admit to myself and Him that I couldn’t do anything to help myself. All I could do was throw myself at the feet of Jesus and plead for mercy! On that day I repented of my sin and trusted Jesus Christ to save me. On that day God reckoned the sacrifice that Jesus made to my life and this is what His word said to me: on this day you have been buried with Jesus Christ into death – now I want you to get up and walk a new life.
Oh, it has taken some time for me to learn that just like I have stated it to you just now, but that’s what the Bible teaches! “Take up your bedroll and walk!” “Go, and sin no more!” “Walk in newness of life!”
Where are you this morning? Still messing around in sin? Still denying what you’ve done? Are you standing there before Christ this morning? What’s keeping you from giving your life to Him? What’s keeping you from living the new life that Jesus offers? Come today and admit your helplessness and hopelessness. Come today and encounter the Christ who did not come into the world to condemn you, but came to set you free!
If you’ve been set free today – are you walking in that freedom? Are you walking in the newness of life? Are you surrendering your life daily to the Spirit of God and allowing the presence of Christ to be lived through you? Perhaps today your greatest need is simply to come to the altar and offer up a prayer of thanks and praise for the Christ who set you free.
