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Go And Sin No More
Go And Sin No More
“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” (John 8:7).
Jesus famously answers the attack of the Pharisees in John 8 by focusing on the Pharisees’ hypocrisy instead of the sin of the woman caught in adultery. The confusing scene of the Pharisees and the woman caught in adultery shows us what Jesus considered to be the real issue and the need for everyone to go and sin no more.
The Real Issue
The Pharisees bring a woman who has been caught “in the very act” (John 8:4) of adultery to test and accuse Jesus by asking if she should be stoned according to the law of Moses. Instead of taking the bait of their question, Jesus acts “as though He did not hear” (John 8:6) by stooping down and using his finger to write in the ground. Jesus points out the hypocrisy of the accusers by permitting anyone who is without sin to throw a stone at her. Jesus draws in the ground with His finger again while waiting for anyone to throw a stone. Instead of stoning her, the accusers are convicted by their consciences and leave one by one until Jesus is left alone with the woman. The way the story is told, it seems that whatever Jesus wrote in the ground is what convicted the accusers. What did He write? Perhaps He wrote the individual sins of the accusers. It would certainly be convicting to any conscience to see your own sins written down as you were focusing on someone else’s sins instead of your own. No matter what He wrote, the point is that all of her accusers had committed sin worthy of death. Did the woman deserve death? Yes, but so does everyone (Romans 6:23). Anyone who is willing to accept this fact may find mercy in Christ for themselves just like this woman did.
It is easy to focus on the sins of others to feel better about our own shortcomings. Despite the blatant sin of the woman, Jesus focuses on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees by making them look at their own sins that are deserving of death instead of the sin of the woman.
What Now?
Jesus came to establish the New Testament and “suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). The blood that was required in the Old Testament could never truly take away sin (Hebrews 10:4), so Jesus became the sacrifice that could take away sin once for all. What does this mean for the woman? Despite the ulterior and evil motives of the Pharisees, she had still committed egregious sin. After the crowd of accusers leave, Jesus instructs the woman to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11). This is similar to what we read from Paul, “be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:11). The culmination of God’s grace is made full by Jesus dying in our place so that the penalty of our sin no longer requires our own life. He gave His life that we might live. What is required of us is to die to sin and live for Him.
As the mob of hypocritical accusers come to make this woman an example of sin, Jesus makes her an example of the repentance that is possible for anyone who is in Christ. No matter how great our sin, Jesus says to us what He says to this woman, “Go and sin no more.”
– William Speer
