“Forgiven” (John 8)

Scripture reading – John 8

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* Please note that words and phrases in brackets are the author’s amplification.

Background to John 8

Jesus taught in the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7). Knowing His enemies sought to kill Him (John 7:1), He came secretly to Jerusalem (John 7:10). As He made His way to the Temple, He began teaching the people (John 7:14-31), and many came to believe He was the Christ (John 7:31). Some believed He was a prophet (John 7:40), while others declared He was the Christ (John 7:41). Still others rejected Him, asking, “Shall Christ come out of Galilee?” (John 7:41).

The chief priests and Pharisees sent soldiers to arrest Jesus (John 7:32). Yet those officers were so amazed by His teaching that they returned to their superiors and said, “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46). Nicodemus, a Pharisee who secretly followed Jesus (John 3), defended Him (John 7:50-51), only to be assailed by his fellow Sanhedrin members, who asked, “Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet” (John 7:52). 

John 8 

The Adulterer and Her Accusers (John 8:1-3)

When the Feast of Tabernacles ended, Jesus departed and “went unto the mount of Olives” (John 8:1). The next day, He returned to the Temple, and the people gathered again to hear Him teach (John 8:2). His teaching was interrupted when “the scribes and Pharisees brought unto Him a woman taken in adultery” and said, “Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act” (John 8:3-4).

The accusers were scribes, sometimes called lawyers, who were experts in interpreting Jewish Law. Along with the Pharisees, whom Matthew’s Gospel describes as proud, ambitious men, they are generally portrayed in the New Testament as men who “bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne…on men’s shoulders…but all their works they do for to be seen of men” (Matthew 23:4-5).

The Accusation (John 8:4-6)

The scribes and Pharisees brought before Jesus a woman they claimed was guilty of adultery, caught “in the very act” (John 8:3-4). For me, an obvious question arises: Where was the man who was the other guilty party in the sin?

The Law stated that both parties guilty of adultery were to be tried (Leviticus 20:10). We read in Deuteronomy, “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” (Deuteronomy 22:22). If the accusation was true, the scribes and Pharisees allowed the man to go free; however, they brought the woman to the Temple to bear her shame and judgment alone.

The leaders asked Jesus, “What sayest thou?” (John 8:5). John later observed, “This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him” (John 8:6a). Jesus, knowing the hearts of all men, “stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not” (John 8:6b).

What did Jesus write in the dust on the Temple’s paved stones? He could have written many reproofs in the dust, but He may have written Deuteronomy 22:22, allowing the Word to be the judge. We do not know what was written in the dust, but Jesus knew the woman had not been brought by men seeking justice. Jesus’ silence provoked her accusers, who continued to demand a verdict.

The Answer (John 8:7-9)

Finally, Jesus “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” (John 8:7-8). His response was both simple and insightful. He neither condemned nor defended her.

Capital punishment was not taken lightly, and the Law required that no one be put to death without the testimony of two or three witnesses against one who was “worthy of death” (Deuteronomy 17:6). According to the Law, the witnesses were to be the first to lay hands on the accused to put them to death (Deuteronomy 17:7).

Jesus began writing in the dust a second time, and as He did so, the woman’s accusers departed one by one (John 8:8-9). The eldest of her accusers was the first to walk away, until “Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst” (John 8:9).

The Accused (John 8:9)

After her accusers left, the woman stood alone with Jesus in the Temple (John 8:9). Who was she? What was her name? She is unnamed in the Scriptures, but we can be sure she was someone’s daughter—perhaps a sister or even the wife of another. We know she was like all who come to Jesus in faith—an object of grace.

The Absolution (John 8:10-11)

Jesus asked the woman, “Where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?” (John 8:10). When she answered, “No man, Lord,” Jesus then “said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11).

Under Christ’s terms, no one dared to cast the first stone because no one is sinless (John 8:7). Given that adultery is a mortal sin, how could Jesus let her go free from the Law’s condemnation?

The Law required two or three witnesses against the accused (Deuteronomy 17:6). With no witnesses to condemn her under the Law, Jesus told her, “Go [i.e., you are forgiven], and sin no more” (John 8:11). Put your sin aside and put on godliness and virtue.

Closing thoughts –

What was the underlying lesson of this event? Was it the gravity of adultery? We could argue several points, but I suggest that Jesus conveyed a more profound truth than the obvious one. The central lesson was Christ’s love, compassion, and forgiveness. He told the woman, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). Then, turning to others, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).

By forgiving the adulterous woman, Jesus invited her to step out of sin’s darkness and into the light of His holiness.

Forgiven! What a wonderful gift of God’s grace!