John 8:1-11

Jesus is grace…I like to believe with His finger He was writing LOVE. His love covered a multitude of our sin. He is faithful to forgive us our sin when we come to Him in repentance.

Loving God,
I sense that all is your creation
and everything, and all of us,
are being drawn back toward your loving heart.
Help me to be a person of peace,
To speak about it in an uneasy world,
And to live it among the people
you have put into my life every day.
Light in me a desire to prepare for your coming
to stand in the darkness, waiting, eager and filled with joy.
(Thank you Creighton.edu) SabbathMoments 

Proliferating throughout Scripture is an enticing and inviting preposition – the preposition “in.” Jesus lives in his children. From Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” God in us

Have we sounded the depth of this promise? He will do what you cannot do. With God in you, you have a million resources you didn’t have before. Can’t stop worrying? Christ can, and he lives within you. Can’t forget the past, forgive the jerk, or forsake your bad habits? Christ can! And he lives in you.

Oh to be so full of him that we could say with the apostle Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 3:20). Max Lucado

John 8:1-11

8 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 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. 3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” 6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. 7 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.” 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 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?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” The New King James Version

Because the Feast of Tabernacles had concluded the day before, many visitors were still in Jerusalem. Attracted by the appearance of a noted rabbi, a crowd rapidly gathered. Teachers in ancient Israel sat when they taught. Jesus assumed the position of an authoritative teacher. 

Abruptly bringing the adulterous woman into the midst of the proceedings was a rude disruption. The Pharisees were bent on confounding Jesus. Stoning was specified in certain cases of adultery, though not all. (It is not clear why the authorities intended to punish the woman but not the man.) 

In the Greek text, the pronoun You is emphatic. The religious leaders were trying to trap Jesus into saying something that was contrary to the Law. If Jesus had said not to stone her, He would have contradicted Jewish law. If He had said to stone her, He would have run counter to Roman law, which did not permit Jews to carry out their own executions. 

What Jesus wrote on the ground is a matter of conjecture. Sin no more implies that Jesus forgave her. He did not condemn her, but neither did He condone her sin. The NKJV Study Bible

The biblical law prescribed death for both partners involved in an adulterous relationship (Leviticus 20:10). The religious authorities’ condemnation is unjustly selective since her partner has apparently been let off. 

What Jesus writes is unknown. It appears to prompt the leaders’ later conviction of conscience perhaps by reminding them of their own sinfulness or of the law’s higher considerations (mercy and compassion). 

The legal problems intended to entrap Jesus always result in embarrassment for the accusers or questioners, as Jesus’ response is always unexpected and cuts directly to the heart of the problem. Jesus makes the case that no one is without sin other than God, and thus no one is permitted to pass judgment by any authority other than what God has given them. Only God has a pure motive. Faithlife Study Bible

In this matter Christ attended to the great work about which he came into the world, that was, to bring sinners to repentance; not to destroy, but to save. He aimed to bring, not only the accused to repentance, by showing her his mercy, but the prosecutors also, by showing them their sins; they thought to insnare him, he sought to convince and convert them. 

Those are truly happy, whom Christ does not condemn. Christ’s favour to us in the forgiveness of past sins should prevail with us, Go then, and sin no more. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary