March 4: Jesus Forgives Our Sins

The account of the woman taken in the act of adultery presents opportunities for several observations. First, many translations of the Bible note that 7:53-8:11 does not appear in the earliest manuscripts of the Bible. Liberal scholars say the passage does not fit where it is and probably should be omitted from the Bible or at least relegated to a footnote at the end of John's Gospel. As we shall see, it fits where it is, magnificently introducing what follows.

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

•The text begins by presenting Jesus in His role as an Esteemed Rabbi (v. 2). It strikes us as odd that a crowd gathered around Him at dawn, but anyone being reared in the days before homes had electricity would understand. People under those conditions went to bed soon after dust and awakened when the crowing of a rooster announced that morning chores must begin. Further, Jesus had become an acknowledged teacher as well as miracle worker. People crowded around Him wherever He went.

•We see Jesus also as a Wise Healer (vv. 3-6a). Even at that early hour, the Scribes and Pharisees were setting a trap for Him. They had caught a woman in the very act of adultery and wished to know what He thought. Should they follow the law as given by Moses and stone Her? The fact that they brought only the woman and not the man pointed to their real intentions. They wanted some grounds to accuse Jesus, knowing that Roman law forbade them from carrying out the death penalty.

•The way Jesus handled their inquiry showed Him to be the Divine Law Giver (vv. 6b-11). We come now to the central meaning. Remember that John 4-5 dealt with the Water of Life and 6-7 with the Bread of Life. Note the change in 8:12 where Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," thereby introducing His third of the "I am" groups. As the Light He is the Divine Law Giver. In John's account, Jesus stooped and wrote on the ground "with His finger," an action He repeated a second time (v. 8). What He wrote is secondary to the fact THAT He wrote. Twice God is reported to have written the Ten Commandments "with His finger" (Exod. 31:18; Dt. 9:10). Jesus, God in the flesh, probably wrote the "New Commandment," recorded in 13:34, "Love one another." He wrote it originally in sand, soon to be erased, because it is permanently inscribed in the fleshy tables of the heart (2 Cor. 3:3). If He did inscribe "Love one another" in the sand, the pharisees would realize they had turned love into legalism and the adulterous woman, into lust. Jesus pronounced her forgiven and admonished her to change her way of living.

•We conclude this section with John presenting Jesus as the Fearless Emancipator (vv. 30-36). It took great courage for Jesus to look the Pharisees in the eye and tell them their entire system was flawed. Although they bragged about being Abraham's descendants and had never been in bondage to anyone, they overlooked the 70 years of captivity in Babylon, and even worse their then present subjection to Rome. However, that still misses the point. Jesus accused them of being in slavery to sin. One almost has to visit in Israel on their Sabbath to understand how pervasively their laws govern their lives in an attempt to find righteousness. Righteousness walked among them and they failed to recognize it.