John 8:3-11 And the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the middle,… A sinner and the Saviour in the temple of God, face to face and alone. How solemn the interview! How suggestive the incident! Note — I. THAT SINNERS NEED NOT DREAD A PERSONAL INTERVIEW WITH JESUS NOW. Her accusers had placed the woman "in the midst," and now they had departed, and she might have gone, there she still stood. Solitary woman, guilty sinner, ashamed and awed by her situation, she is strangely bound to the spot. Not an effort made to escape His judgment. Condemned already by the law of Moses, what has she to fear from Him? If the worst should happen, she could but die; but perhaps her misery may find mercy. How instructive to sinners this conduct! 1. From the hour of the first transgression sinners have feared a personal interview with God. Jacob thought Bethel a dreadful place; Moses did exceedingly fear and quake; Monoah thought he would die because he had seen God. And now sinners try to do what Adam and Eve failed to do — "hide themselves from the presence of the Lord." 2. But to exorcise this demon of guilty dread God was manifest in the flesh. The Son of Man came to seek and to save, and to be the Friend of sinners. None has cause to shun Jesus. He does not repel, He invites. Known to Him is my sinful history; and whither shall I flee from His presence? There is no need, for He is a just God and a Saviour. II. THAT "JESUS ALONE" IS THE SINNER'S COURT OF APPEAL FROM ALL ACCUSERS. These men never dreamed of the gospel truth they were signally illustrating. The woman was under legal penalty of death. The representatives of the law arraigned her, quoting the Mosaic statute, and by asking Jesus to adjudicate, perhaps in irony of His Messianic claims, they appealed from Moses to Christ. And when the accusers, themselves condemned, had left, she allowed her case to remain where they had lodged it, in the supreme court of appeal, and from His lips only would she receive her doom. Our case is parallel 1. Our sinfulness is indisputable. The penal sentence in the law has been promulgated: "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Moses indicts us, and demands judgment. 2. But our appeal is lodged in the gospel court. We are "come to Jesus and the blood of sprinkling." He satisfies the demands of the law and silences the accusers of all whom He shields with His mercy. III. THAT WHEN A SINNER TRUSTFULLY LEAVES HIS CASE WITH JESUS ALONE THE ISSUE CANNOT BE DOUBTFUL. By tarrying she signified a wish that Christ should adjudicate, and thus gave evidence of her trust in His mercy. The verdict was not delayed: "Neither do I condemn thee," etc. Primarily the words refer to the civil penalty of death, which Jesus had been asked to confirm, and which, not being a magistrate, He declined to do. But this carried with it religious reprobation, and therefore Christ could not pronounce the words of judicial doom, "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn," etc. If there be no man to cast the stone, the merciful Redeemer will not do so; He will save. There is no questionable leniency here. A more decisive censure could not have been uttered. Yet while there was in the admonition "sin no more" an emphatic reproof of her former sin, the words "Neither do I condemn thee: go," must have brought Divine absolution. "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity." Let sinners be encouraged to come to Jesus. This woman, who was brought to Him as a Judge, found Him a Saviour; the bar of judgment became the throne of grace. We are invited to come. The coming is a confession of need, an indication of penitence, a confession of trust. (A. A. Ramsay.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,WEB: The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the midst, |
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