When a woman is dragged before Jesus to be condemned, He turns the tables on her accusers with one piercing sentence: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” In this sermon, Pastor Thomas shows how Jesus exposes hypocrisy, warns us about judging others, and points us to the cross-where justice and mercy meet, and sinners stand forgiven, not condemned.
Transcript
Good morning, family. If you have your Bibles, would you please turn with me to the Gospel of John? We’re going to end the very last verse in chapter 7 and then move our way into the first 11 verses of chapter 8. If you don’t have a Bible, there should be some Bibles in front of you in the seat basket. You’re welcome to use that. If you don’t own a Bible, you’re welcome to take that as our gift to you. John chapter 7, beginning at verse 53.
They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning, he came again to the temple, and the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery
— John 7:53-8
(ESV)
now, in the law of Moses. In the law of Moses commanded us to stone such woman. So what do you say? 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. 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. So 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. Jesus stood up and said to her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, sin no more
— John 8
(ESV)
.
The Snare
This is the word of the Lord. We pray to you, God. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we do thank you for your word. We pray, oh God, that you would give us eyes to see the truth contained in your word this morning. We ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to not only illuminate the text, but to take the truth contained in your word and to plant it deep into our hearts. We pray, God, that you would make us responsive, that you would help us to see the beauty of our compassionate and merciful Jesus, and that you would help us to see the righteous and just Jesus in our text this morning. We pray these things in the name of our risen King Jesus. Amen. Well, we live in a culture that is quick to condemn and quick to cancel. One wrong word, one late night reckless tweet or post, one bad decision, one moment caught
on camera, and suddenly your whole life is reduced to your worst moment. And the cultural consequence of that moment can be so severe that the person caught is often no longer known as a whole person, you know, someone with a story or a family or a history. They’re simply reduced to that one mistake. And in our culture, the court of public opinion doesn’t simply want to call you out for your mistake. They want to broadcast the outrage of your failure to the widest possible audience to make sure that you never have the opportunity to make that one mistake again. And so that the world never forgets that one mistake you did. What this means functionally is that the condemnation and cancellation is less about the person and their mistake and more about using the person and their mistake as an example. The cultural shame is meant to serve as a warning to others.
Don’t you dare do what that person did? Because if you did, you will end up just like that person. It’s kind of a social crowd control where their sin is put on display, not for their restoration, but to reinforce the social boundaries or the expectations of the culture. Sadly, in this way, the person becomes a utility. Their very public humiliation serves as a tool for preserving the social order and family. This is the world that we live in and you know this to be the case. We see it all around us every single day when the next person gets canceled for the very thing that they’ve done. Though it seems like this is a new phenomenon with the rise of social media, this has always been our world. In fact, this is the world Jesus steps into in our text this morning. A world so quick to condemn and cancel as a means of preserving a kind of social order.
And before we dive into this narrative this morning to see how Jesus deals with this particular condemning and cancel culture, I want you to try and place yourself in the scene for a second, not in the crowd, not among the accusers, but in the very center where this woman is standing. And imagine for a second that your worst moment of sin, the one you’ve worked so hard to fight against, to bury, to hide and forget, was suddenly dragged into the open, not to a close friend, not to a concerned church member, but to a watching world. What if in that moment the pointing fingers weren’t simply about calling you to repentance, but instead were calling for your judgment? Then imagine how you might feel after realizing that this whole scene that showcased your sin before the world wasn’t even primarily about you and your sin.
Your shame wasn’t an accident or an unchecked consequence of your sin, but instead was weaponized, used by wicked men to set a trap for someone else. That your humiliation was part of someone else’s plan to leverage and exploit your shame and your pain to protect their status and reputation or to preserve their version of social or religious order. Family, there is pain that comes from our sin. There is pain in being caught in your sin. There’s a deeper pain in being condemned and canceled for your sin, but there is a bottomless kind of pain when your humiliation because of your sin is weaponized. When your humanity is stripped away and you become nothing more than a prop in someone else’s evil agenda. It takes an already horrifying reality of having your sin made public, but then adds the ante of being used in the most catastrophic kind of way.
This is a cocktail of an unrecoverable disaster mixed with equal parts, guilt, shame and exploitation. And that is where this woman is standing and there’s no bottom beneath the ground. But in that moment, when the crowd is aggressive and full of accusation, where the law is clear, where the exploitation is palpable and the stones are all ready to be thrown, Jesus steps into this woman’s chaos and he doesn’t just defend her. He doesn’t just dismantle this trap that’s being set before him in his compassion and in his love, he protects and he dignifies her. In a world that only knew how to condemn, Jesus becomes her advocate. In a crowd that only saw her sin, Jesus sees her as an image bearer. This is the shocking counter-cultural truth of the gospel. This is the heart of the merciful God that we serve. In a culture that cancels, Jesus restores.
The Silence
In a world that condemns, Jesus saves. And that’s exactly what we see in our passage this morning. The counter-cancel culture, heart of Jesus Christ. And we’ll watch this drama unfold in three scenes. The snare, the silence and the salvation. And so let’s begin at the last part of chapter 7 with the snare. They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning, he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst. They said to him, 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? Now if you remember last week, we left Jesus in the temple during the Feast of Booths.
And the tensions were high as Jesus was teaching the crowd. And as he taught, his words began to divide the crowd. Some were convinced that he was, in fact, the Christ. Others were convinced that Jesus was a fraud. The religious leaders, in their hostility, had begun their plot to arrest Jesus and so they sent temple guards to seize him. But the guards returned empty-handed, saying to the religious leaders, we never heard anyone speak like this man before. And so the religious leaders were obviously humiliated. As a result, they mocked the guards as naive. They dismissed the crowd as ignorant. And when Nicodemus dared to suggest giving Jesus a fair trial, they shut him down in pride and arrogance. That’s where we ended. With Jesus’ words dividing the crowd and with a growing hostility. A leadership desperate to silence him and a confrontation just waiting to happen.
And now, as the next morning dawns, they have constructed a new plan. They’re done waiting. They don’t want to try to catch him in a theological debate. They’re not preoccupied with tripping him up with a subtle legal question. They know that Jesus is too smart for that. This time, they will set up a trap so public, so controversial, so explosive, that no matter how Jesus answers, no matter what he does, they will be able to take him down. So the scene begins quietly. It’s early in the morning in the temple courts and Jesus is teaching. What’s interesting to note is that Jesus sat down as he taught, which tells us that the various people who were around him, listening to Jesus, considered Jesus at least to be a trustworthy and wise rabbi. Because that’s what would happen when a rabbi would teach. The rabbi would sit down as he taught and the people would gather around, sit and listen.
And it seems that the more Jesus speaks, the more it causes division among the people. Which is why in the midst of his teaching moment, he’s abruptly interrupted. The sound of hurried footsteps and charged voices enter into the quiet temple courts and suddenly this woman is thrown into the center. Probably breathing heavy, clothes disheveled, her face red from the sun and from the shame. And she is shoved directly into the center of this crowd of aggressive men. John tells us that she’s been caught in the act of adultery. And just to be clear, what this means is that this is not a rumor. This isn’t a speculation or a suspicion that she was involved in an affair or adultery. This is to be caught in the act, found out by witnesses in the very moment of the sin happening. And here’s what makes this whole situation so cruel.
The accusers don’t come in quietly to handle the matter discreetly as you would have expected. They don’t take her to a private hearing. Instead they drag her straight from that private place of sin and into the most public square. And in this case, the most sacred square in Jerusalem. The temple courts. And this happens right in the middle of Jesus using his words to teach. Now the fact that she was dragged into the center of the temple courts where and while Jesus was teaching tells us everything we need to know about the situation. But this woman and her sin is not the point. Jesus is the point. This sin has become the perfect opportunity for these religious leaders to set a snare for Jesus. Verse 6 makes their intentions very plain. They said this to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him.
So they’re setting a trap. And this woman and her sin is the bait. Now in order to fully understand what’s happening here, technically and legally, you have to see both the Jewish and Roman context playing out at the same time. Under the law of Moses, not every sin carried with it the penalty of death. But a few did. So take for example, idolatry, worshiping another god or making idols. We see this in Deuteronomy 13 and Deuteronomy 17. You have blasphemy, misusing God’s name. You see this in Leviticus 24. You have murder, obviously, taking a life intentionally. We see this in Exodus 21 and Numbers 35. And then you have adultery, sexual unfaithfulness to one’s spouse. This is made clear in Leviticus 20.10 and Deuteronomy 22 verses 22 through 24. Of all these Jewish laws, adultery was one of the clearest and most consistently enforced capital crimes.
So when the Pharisees dragged this woman into the temple courts, they’re not just publicly shaming her, they’re invoking one of the few laws that demand her death. Now, just a side note, you might be asking, why would adultery be in the same category as idolatry or even murder? Well, that’s because in God’s eyes, marriage is exceedingly sacred. To tear apart what God has joined together in the Old Testament was worthy of death. Breaking that covenant was a direct assault on something God himself had instituted and blessed. And furthermore, it wasn’t just a private sin. It was covenant breaking and community destroying. The Pharisees knew all of this, and they knew that the law of Moses was clear on what to do in a case like this. But here’s the twist. By the time of Jesus, Israel was under Roman occupation. And Roman law did not allow Jews to carry out executions for religious capital crimes.
That authority was reserved to Rome. This is why when the Jewish leaders wanted to crucify Jesus later on in the Gospel of John, they had to take him to Pilate to get the job done because they didn’t have that kind of authority to do it on their own. And you see, this is the snare. If Jesus says, yes, according to the law, execute her, well, then he would be violating Roman law, putting himself at odds with the Roman Empire, and you can only imagine those kinds of consequences. If he says no, let her go, well, they could accuse him of rejecting the law of Moses and being an unrighteous rabbi who is soft on sin and justice. So from their perspective, it’s a checkmate. Either way, they think they’ve got him. But before we even get to Jesus’s response, there is something deeply wrong here.
And it’s in what we don’t see. If this woman was caught in the act of adultery, then surely there was someone else with her participating in the act. Where is he? According to Jewish law, both parties were to be brought forward. But the man is conveniently absent in this whole trial, which just speaks to the culture during this time. Now the text doesn’t tell us why, but if they are attempting to use the letter of the law against Jesus, they have once again sidestepped due process, something that Nicodemus has already called them out for doing. So there’s a pattern with these Pharisees circumventing due process. And this again exposes their hypocrisy. They’re not after justice. They’re just after Jesus. And they’re willing to bend the law to get what they want. And this is what happens in a culture of condemnation and cancellation. People stop being people.
They become tools, leverage, objects to be used and discarded at the discretion of those who hold political, legal, or religious power. And listen, the religious leaders of all people, the ones who would have been most acquainted with the law should have been the first to protect her dignity and provide due process. But instead they strip away her dignity and they destroy any hope for due process by not bringing the man with them to this trial. But watch what Jesus does here. When facing the pressure of the snare, he doesn’t join the mob. He doesn’t meet their volume with more volume. He doesn’t match their humiliation of her by humiliating them. Instead he simply bends down and begins to write in the dust with his finger. And this brings us to the second scene, the silence. Let’s look at the second half of verse six. 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. So this bloodthirsty mob of religious leaders, which actually sounds like an oxymoron, has come ready to see blood, either from Rome or from this woman. Their voices were loud. They were ready for the verdict and they already had stones in their hand. But now the scene moves from loud, aggressive certainty to a quiet and calculated correction. And it starts by Jesus doing something completely unexpected. He bends down and he begins to write in the dust with his finger. Now we don’t know what he wrote that day. We could speculate all day long. I’ve heard a few times in my life, pastors preach this text and they’ve said all kinds
of crazy things. But the truth is no one knows. John doesn’t tell us. And maybe it’s because the point isn’t what he wrote, but who was doing the writing. Let me explain what I mean by that. This isn’t the first time that the Bible speaks of God writing with his finger. In Exodus 31, 18, when Moses came down from Sinai, the two tablets of the law were written with the finger of God. Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 9, 10 that the Lord gave him the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God. Now that phrase isn’t simply a, you know, form of poetry or dramatic effect. It speaks of God’s divine authority and authorship. Meaning the law wasn’t man’s idea. It came from the author himself, carved in stone with permanence and with power. At Sinai, the finger of God was meant to show God’s people something about God.
It revealed his holiness, his righteousness, his standard and his justice. And now, centuries later, that same divine hand moves again, only this time, not across stone but through the dust of Jerusalem temple courts. And just think about the irony here for a second. The Pharisees are standing in the court of law, trying to trap Jesus using the law. But the very one who wrote the law is kneeling down before them. The very God who inscribed on the tablets of stone, you shall not commit adultery, is now tracing lines in the dirt as if he’s silently saying, oh, you want to use my law to trap me? I wrote it. And I will interpret it because I am the one who gave it. So from stone to sand, there is this subtle but powerful contrast here. The Ten Commandments written by the hand of God were etched in stone.
They were permanent and unchanging. But human accusations are written in the dust. They’re temporary. They can be brushed away. God’s standards are perfect and never change. But our condemnations, our moral grandstanding, our finger pointing, they won’t last. They’re tainted and marred by sin. Jeremiah 17, 13 gives us a haunting echo. It says, all who forsake you shall be put to shame. Those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth. That’s an interesting verse. In other words, those who oppose the Lord end up with their names in the dirt. But those who come to him in repentance find their sins washed away. And when Jesus says, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her, it’s important to see what Jesus is doing here. This is not a clever dodge from Jesus or some kind of debate trick.
This is divine wisdom piercing and exposing the heart of everyone present. You see, the law said that witnesses to the crime were to be the first ones to cast stones. We see this in Deuteronomy 17, 7. It says the hand of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. So Jesus doesn’t dismiss the law here, despite how it might sound, rather he affirms it. But he also sharpens it. Let him who is without sin among you be the first. In other words, yes, the law stands, but so does your own accountability before it. And this is a masterful checkmate from Jesus. The Pharisees had laid this trap thinking that they could force him into one of two losing options, either violate Roman law by approving an execution,
or violate the law of Moses by letting her go. But Jesus takes their binary and turns it inside out. He holds up the law of Moses without breaking the law of Rome. He calls for justice, but he places the standard of justice so high that these would-be religious executioners find themselves trapped. Now, how are they trapped? And why was Jesus’ words so devastating to these religious leaders that they felt trapped? Well, first, his words here forced the law inward, not just outward. You see, the Pharisees were experts in applying the law to other people. It was kind of like their M.O. They would see the sin in other people and be quick to call it out and offer rebuke. But Jesus turns their magnifying glass into a mirror. Jesus’ words forced them to measure themselves by the same standard they are using to condemn others.
And family, this is the same principle we see in Romans 2.1. Therefore, you have no excuse, oh man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. So he turns the law inward. Secondly, Jesus’ words here expose their selective justice, which is sinful. The law required both men and women to be punished for adultery. Again, Leviticus 20.10, Deuteronomy 22.22. This missing man was proof that this wasn’t about holiness or righteousness or the law. It was simply a setup to trap Jesus. Therefore, they are guilty of showing partiality. Third, Jesus’ words confront their guilt in the participation of this trap. When he says, let him who is without sin, he’s not setting up some impossible standard of abstract perfection, as though no one could ever make a moral judgment unless they’re perfect or flawless.
Instead, he’s creating a specific moral qualification for this specific accusation for execution. And let me just try to unpack this for a second. According to Deuteronomy 19.15-21, the law required that witnesses be truthful, reliable, and innocent of the same offense. If a witness was found to be false because they lied or they were actually guilty of the same crime they’re accusing someone else for, or if they were unreliable, they were to receive the very punishment that they were accusing someone else for. Now, one of the ways a person might be found to be a false witness or unreliable is if that person brought an accusation in malice. Now, what does it mean to bring an accusation in malice? Well, essentially, it means to use the legal process not primarily to uphold justice, but to serve as a sinful agenda. You understand that? It means twisting the law for personal gain,
to harm someone else, or to trap another person who’s not directly involved in the accusation. That would make you an unreliable witness, which is exactly what’s happening here. If any man in the crowd had participated in this case with wrong motives, if they used this woman’s sin or shame as bait to trap Jesus, they were already disqualified from picking up the first stone. So, in one sentence, Jesus doesn’t just stop an execution, He flips the entire courtroom upside down. The accusers are now accused. The judges are now on trial. And by their own law, they stand just as worthy of judgment as the woman before them. And finally, Jesus’ words awaken the conscience. Romans 2.15 tells us that God’s law is written on the human heart. Even the self-righteous know, deep down inside, that we’ve all fallen short of God’s perfect and holy standard. These men know, deep down inside,
that this whole scene is tainted by sin, both her sin and their sin. And let’s just suppose for a moment that there were men in the temple courts that had nothing to do with the setup, but were simply there to kind of drop the hammer on Jesus. Well, when Jesus says, let him who is without sin, He creates universal guilt, indicating everyone who ever lived apart from Jesus is guilty. And with that, Jesus bends back down. And with the finger of God, once again, begins to write in the dust. The noise dies down, the tension diminishes, and their trap is masterfully unset. Not with force, not with ducking the situation, but with a sentence so full of wisdom and power that only the mind of God could conceive it. And you see, once again, the finger of God was showing something of God. It was once again revealing His holiness,
His standard, His perfection, and His justice, but it also revealed His wisdom, His power, and His mercy. John tells us in verse 9, but when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones. That’s an interesting detail. Why does John include this little detail about older ones? Well, I think it’s because it’s often the case that the older you are, the more you are acquainted with your own sin and failures, and the more you can see sinful patterns in your own heart. Age family has a way of sobering you to your sin. This is the case with me. The older I get, and I’m getting old. You can tell from the gray hair. The more aware of my own sin I become. That’s just how it goes. You’ve had a lot more time to think about your own sin. Young people tend to be zealous,
quick to act, often blind to their own sin and faults. Right, kids? It’s the truth. But the older you get, the more you realize you are a sinner indeed, and in great need of mercy every single moment. And so the older ones, in their profound wisdom that comes from age, drop their stones first, and then eventually the younger ones figure it out by watching the older ones until the courtyard is empty of the religious leaders. And this is the power of a conscience awakened to the law that demands justice for all people. And this scene family should serve as a warning for us. Because in the flesh, it’s so easy for us to think of ourselves as better than other people. I don’t do that sin, so, you know, I’m good. If we’re not careful, we can easily find people whose sins are a lot more pronounced,
or maybe a lot more visible, or more scandalous, or more socially offensive than ours, and then we can convince ourselves that we’re not as bad, or we’re not in as much need as those people. But Jesus won’t let us hide behind comparison. All of us before a holy and righteous God stand equally condemned, no matter what the sin. His question, which of you is without sin, is meant to strip us of self-righteousness and lay us bare before the holiness of God. So let this warning to them be a warning for us. Be very careful about judging others without first examining your own heart and seeing your own sin, especially when it comes to brothers and sisters in the church. Jesus is clear, Matthew 7, 3 through 5. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye or your sister’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother or sister, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite. First take the log out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother or your sister’s eye. Notice Jesus doesn’t forbid helping your brothers and sisters by taking the speck out of their eye. He doesn’t forbid that. He’s not saying you don’t call people’s sins out or hold them accountable. He forbids doing it hypocritically. First deal with your own sin. Then you will be able to help your brother or sister with gentleness and humility deal with the sin that they have. Paul reinforces this help in Galatians 6, 1. Brothers, sisters, if anyone is caught in any transgression, sin, you who are spiritual should restore him or her
in a spirit of gentleness, keeping watch on yourself lest you be tempted. That’s the posture of a church family. Not finger-pointing, not gossiping, not publicly condemning, but restoration. That’s the goal. Restoration. And this restoration should be carried out gently, carefully, humbly, without hypocrisy, and only when absolutely necessary should it become public. So we do judge. Don’t get it twisted. Don’t let the culture lie to you. We do judge, but we judge righteously. We judge humbly, and we judge with the ultimate aim for restoration, not to cancel people. That’s how it should work in the church, brothers and sisters. But what about the world? What about those outside the church? Surely we are to judge them. Well, listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, verses 12 through 13. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom are to be judged?
God judges those outside. Did you catch that? Paul makes a clear distinction. Inside the church, yes, there is judgment. Or maybe a better, less loaded word might be accountability. There is discipline. God disciplines the ones He loves. There is loving correction, because we are a covenant family, and we’re called to holiness together. But outside the church, judgment is not our job. We don’t stand as judge over the world. God does. Our task towards the world is not condemnation, but proclamation, to preach the good news of Jesus, who saves sinners. So think about that. The next time you look at this world and all of its craziness in Portland, and begin to condemn them with your own thoughts of judgment, remember they are lost. They are without hope. They’re only doing what they know how to do. Your job is to help them see just how dangerous their sin is,
The Salvation
and how much they need a Savior. So Christian, be warned against judging your brothers and sisters with hypocrisy, and be warned against trying to judge the world as if that was your calling. It’s not. God alone is the judge, and Jesus alone is our Redeemer. Amen, Josh? And that really should govern the way we think about and the way we pray for those outside these church walls, who desperately need Jesus. How often do you drive through Vancouver or Portland and pray for the very people you feel compelled to want to get out of the city? How often do you look with disgust rather than with dignity? We should be praying for these people. I need to pray more for the people in my neighborhood. This should govern the way we confront brothers and sisters in the church. Amen? Gently, humbly, quietly, and without hypocrisy. Scene three, the salvation.
Verse 10, Jesus stood up and said to her, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? First thing I want you to notice is that Jesus calls her woman. Now, to be clear, this is not a derogatory term. It’s a dignified one. This is the same word Jesus used when addressing his own mother in John 2. Sam unpacked this for us a couple months ago. And here you really begin to see the compassion of Jesus towards sinners. This woman was caught in adultery. And Jesus speaks to her with compassion and dignity. In a moment where the religious leaders have treated her as an object, probably something she’s had to wrestle with her whole life, and they sought to condemn her to death because of her sin, Jesus, filled with compassion, speaks to her with dignity, even though she was caught in the act of sin.
Jesus says to her compassionately, woman, where are they? Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you? Her response in verse 11 to the compassion of Jesus is short, but it’s beautiful. Just three words in English, but it’s loaded with substance. No one, Lord. No one, Lord. What’s interesting about these three words is first, it is a statement of reality. It’s a fact. None of her accusers remain to condemn her. Obviously, the crowd has scattered, the stones have fallen, and the courtroom is silent. The reality is that Jesus has not only dignified her, but he has defended her and protected her in such a way that the accusers dipped. What began as a noisy public trial seeking to crush this woman ends in quietness before Jesus. But it’s more than just a statement of fact. It’s a statement of faith. Jesus calls him Lord, Kairos.
By calling him Lord, she acknowledges his authority and lordship. Notice she doesn’t say, no one rabbi, or no one kind man, or no one good teacher. She confesses that he is Lord, the only one with the right, the only sinless one with the right to judge her, and in so doing, she places herself under his verdict. In these three words, though indirect, also seems as a confession of guilt. Notice she doesn’t protest. She doesn’t plead innocence. She simply stands before the only one who could condemn her, appealing, whether she knows it or not, to the mercy of the Lord. This reminds me of the tax collector in Luke 18 who prayed, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. She brings nothing but her sin and casts herself completely on the mercy seat of Jesus. And don’t miss this. When every accuser left her, Jesus was still there.
She stood alone but not abandoned. This again speaks to the dignity of Jesus. She stood guilty but not condemned because she was with him. That’s the gospel reality for every single Christian. We are declared innocent not because we’ve lived an innocent life but because Christ stands with us and in our place. Paul says this plainly in Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This was the beautiful pardon we heard this morning. And again, 2 Corinthians 5.21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, that means standing in his righteousness, we might become the righteousness of God. That day, this woman, though clothed in shame, humanly speaking, was clothed not in guilt but in the grace of God and in the righteousness of God. This is the God that we serve.
That is true for every Christian who has ever trusted in Jesus. Dear brother or sister, think about this when the devil whispers that you are too far beyond the realm of forgiveness. You did it again. You think God’s gonna forgive you for what you did again? Didn’t you just do that last week? Oh, you’re supposed to be a Christian? Christians don’t behave that way. Think about this when the weight of your sin convinces you that you’ll never be clean from your sin. Or when you are drowning because you’re swallowing nothing but shame. When your intrusive thoughts tear at your assurance of salvation and you begin to think that God doesn’t love you anymore because you couldn’t live up to his standard because you’ve done that sin again. Brother or sister, if that is you this morning, hear the voice of Jesus. Where are they? Where are your accusers?
Gone. Jesus took care of it for you. And when he asks, where are your accusers? He’s not asking for information. He knows where your accusers are. He says this for assurance. That though the world, the devil, and even your own mind accuses you over and over again, those accusations don’t have the final word. Jesus does. And then comes the very beautiful heart of this passage. John 8, 11. Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. So you have no more accusers, but neither do I condemn you. And from now on, sin no more. These two sentences are some of the most life-altering sentences in scripture. So it’s not enough that the world and the devil and your own mind can no longer accuse you. What matters is the God of the universe, the just one, the righteous one who has every right to accuse you, says, neither do I condemn you.
And you have to hear these sentences in the right order to rightly understand the heart of Jesus. First, he says, neither do I condemn you. Then he says, go, and from now on, sin no more. So to be clear, this lack of condemnation is not Jesus excusing sin. He can’t do that. He’s a righteous judge. Remember, that was part of the trap that these religious leaders were seeking to set before Jesus. So he’s not excusing the condemnation for her sin. He’s declaring that he himself will bear the condemnation. He says, I don’t condemn you. And he says that because he’s looking forward to the cross. You see, at the cross is where justice and mercy meet. The very thing that these Pharisees were seeking to separate and pin against Jesus, Jesus holds in perfect tandem. Here at the cross, he will silence every accusation, taking every judgment for sin on himself
so that we who trust him might go free, so that we might be declared innocent of the charges. But family, grace never stops with pardon. The same voice that removes her condemnation also calls for her holiness. And that order matters. Freedom first, transformation second. You reverse that order, and you lose the gospel. That’s a false gospel that says, clean yourself up, then Jesus won’t condemn you. No, Jesus says, I will fix you so that you won’t have to sin anymore. Cheap grace says, neither do I condemn you, but never calls for change. Legalism says, go and sin no more, but never offers you the power to do it or the grace to keep you from failing. Jesus gives both full pardon and a new life through grace. This whole scene unfolding in the temple courts, it literally points us to the cross, where the leaders again will accuse Jesus,
where the crowds will again gather, where Jesus will again stand alone. But this time, he won’t bend down to write in the dust. He will bend beneath the weight of the cross to take on our condemnation so that he can say to us, neither do I condemn you. That’s the difference between condemnation and conviction. Condemnation leaves you crushed in hopeless guilt. Conviction calls you into grace, into the light, into a new life, into freedom. The Pharisees brought shame without hope. Jesus brought mercy with power to change. And here is the beauty of this narrative. Yes, we are guilty according to the law. Our guilt demands death. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, meaning every single sin that we commit in this life is worthy of death. But the very one who wrote the law with his own finger stepped into the world and fulfilled the law perfectly.
And at the cross, justice and mercy collided. And our actual guilt for sin was laid on him and his righteousness was laid upon us. This is the great exchange. What a gracious and merciful God. So that now in Christ, we don’t walk away condemned, but forgiven, not canceled, but covered by his righteousness, not shamed, but set free from the power of sin. Now, I know as I read these passages this morning, that there are some of you here that even after hearing this narrative, still feel like this woman, exposed, exposed, ashamed, certain that God can only say to you, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. But dear brother or sister, if that’s you, if you’ve heard nothing else this morning, hear him say to you this morning, neither do I condemn you. I know that your sins can feel like a lot, but as we sang this morning, his mercy is more.
His mercy is more. Find rest in the promises of Jesus that you have been made clean by his blood, no matter what the sin. If you are in Christ, you are standing in his righteousness, not your own. At the cross, Jesus stood where we should have stood. The stones of judgment were hurled at him. The wrath that we deserve was poured out on him so that he looks at us and says, and says,
That’s what he says for all of his children. And because he doesn’t condemn us or cancel us, he calls us to go confidently to sin no more. My friend, if you’re here this morning and you wouldn’t consider yourself a Christian, consider the preaching this morning as an invitation to you. On your own, without an advocate, you stand right now condemned by your sin. But today you can stand forgiven. If you turn from your sin and turn to Jesus, he will defend you and he will cover your sin. The God who made you came to rescue you and rescue me from all of our sin and our rebellion. This is exactly why he came. Because no matter how hard we would try, we would never do enough good things to remove our guilt. We could never pay off our guilt. We needed a savior who would take our guilt away
An Invitation
that would die in our place. So he died the death that we deserved for all of our sin. And he rose from the grave, proving that he was who he said he was, the son of God, the savior of the world. And he says, if anyone comes to him, he will not cast out. That means he will not condemn. So you can come to him this morning by faith. Trusting that if you embrace him as Lord and savior, he will stand with you and he will stand in your place. Jesus is the advocate for the accused. He is the savior for sinners. The one who stands with all who call him Lord. Come to him today and hear him say to you this morning, neither do I condemn you and go and sin no more. And if you want to know more about what that means
to follow Jesus, to have him stand as your advocate, speak with anyone in this church this morning, ask them if they’re a Christian, if they say yes, they will point you in the right direction. Amen. Family, let’s pray. Our father and our God, we do thank you that though we were sinners and are sinners and were condemned under the weight of the law, you gave us Jesus. And in his great compassion and mercy stood in our place, taking all the accusations upon himself, taking all the penalty of our sin on himself so that we could be made clean and righteous. Without Jesus, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, but you made us alive. And because of that, we stand this morning with full hearts, full of worship and thankfulness. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for rescuing us. We pray, oh God, that you would give us hearts
that are bent towards our merciful savior. We pray these things in his name. Amen.