WHY JESUS DID NOT CONDEMN THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY- John 8:3-11

Most people do not get why it was that God gave Israel the law. Most people even believe that the law is still in force and applicable to everyone. And most churches today teach that this is why even though “we are not under law we still must keep it.” Well…. Jesus skillfully proves otherwise in this story and many others during the accounts of His life as a Jew under the law.

The woman caught in adultery is not so much a story about Jesus facing the not so subtle attempts to find Him guilty of breaking the law. As it is about the reason for which He came. And how He went about expressing this in all of His dealings with the people of Israel He had covenant with.

We will learn of His love and compassion for these people. And His desire for them to know who He really is. And how when He was faced with circumstances like this one who He really is came through loud and clear.

In this story we see Jesus being asked whether they should stone the woman for her adultery. These Jews were testing Jesus to see whether He would keep or violate the law. It was a set up to give them an excuse to have Him killed for doing so.

So when He answered these Jews saying that he who is without sin cast the first stone. It threw them into confusion as to how to deal with her. Because apparently they all knew their own sins. Which is why instead of casting stones upon her as the law demanded, they all left.

The issue I want to look at in this message is how could Jesus keep the law while at the same time not carrying out the sentence of death the law required? I mean the law did demand the woman be put to death for adultery. So as one who was tempted in every point just as we are yet without sin as Heb.4:15 says of Jesus, how could this be true when Jesus did not do what the law demanded?

For the answer to this question we need to consider what the purpose was for which the law was to serve in the first place. And in recognizing the time Israel was in now that their messiah hade come.

But, first let’s remind ourselves what Jesus said after all her accusers went away. He asked the woman where her accusers were. And does no man accuse you? She answered saying “no man, Lord.” To which Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

The key phrase in all of this has nothing to do with whether or not these men who accused her were also sinners. Or that the law required her being stoned for her adultery. Or what it was that Jesus wrote in the dirt as He waited to see what these men would do. Or even the fact that she was an adulteress. The most important thing said here was when Jesus expressed His purpose for coming into the world. And that purpose was expressed in His verdict concerning her adultery when He said, “neither do I condemn thee.”

Remember, the purpose of the law was not to make men righteous. We know this from a careful reading of the Old Testament scriptures. And from Paul’s teaching in Gal.3:21 where he tells them that there was never a law given that could give life. Because if there were then surely righteousness would come by the law.

So no. God’s intent for the law was not to make men righteous. It was to preserve Israel as a people to be a bloodline the messiah would come through. And as Gal.3:19 also says the law’s expiration date was to be when messiah came.

This means that when Jesus came the law’s purpose for Israel for whom it had been given was done. So that there was no more need for the condemnation and death it’s being under brought to those Israelites for whom it was given. A condemnation and death that Paul says in 2Cor.3 defined the covenant written in stone given through Moses.

This is where the reality of John3:17 comes in which says Jesus came not to condemn the world. But, that the world might be saved through Him. And in this story of the woman caught in the act of adultery, and those who would have stoned her for it, is so beautifully illustrated.

Israel didn’t know it but Jesus’ coming brought an end to the condemnation of the law for Israel. Because He was the end of the law for all who believe in Him. As His sacrifice was the final once for all sacrifice for sins under the law.

So when the Israelite believed in Jesus they were no longer under the condemnation of the law. But, were now set free from it.

While His death was the final once for all sacrifice for sins under the law. His death was not what brought an end to its condemnation. Rather, it was His life that accomplished this.

So we must not confuse what was accomplished in His death with what was accomplished by His life. His death gave power to the New Covenant. While His life brought an end to the need for the law for Israel.

His death marked the fulfillment of all that the law required of Him, as well as giving power to a New Covenant. This is why Jesus could say on the cross just before giving up the ghost “It is finished.” John19

This is why it was His coming to live among them that brought an end Israel’s condemnation under the law. Because it was His coming that fulfilled it. His life brought it’s end. By fulfilling the purpose of the law. Which as I said before Gal.3:19 shows its purpose was to preserve Israel as a purely human bloodline through which messiah would come. And since He had come it no longer served any purpose for Israel at all.

This is why Jesus did not condemn His disciples for picking and eating corn on the sabbath day. And why He taught Israel the story of the Good Samaritan. And why they heard Him say what He did in events of this story about the woman caught in adultery.

Because while it is true that Jesus was a man born under the law. And was keeping the law as a Jew Himself. And was dealing with people whose only experience was as a people who were under the law. These things He did and taught were meant to help them get used to the idea that their time of deliverance from it had arrived.

A deliverance David spoke of when he described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works saying, 7“Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”

Jesus was showing them that for them this blessedness spoken of by David was with them. Again referring to the fact that Jesus did not come to condemn the world. But that the world might be saved through Him. So that Israel who lived under constant condemnation by the law would be delivered from it now through faith in Jesus. Just as Paul also said in Rom.7:6.

No longer being condemned by the law they were now set free to trust in Jesus. To trust in the one by name now, rather than by experience, who had showed Himself in the burning bush. And the cloud by day and fire by night. The one who parted the Red Sea and delivered them from slavery to the Egyptians and so much more. In preparation for the day when the Holy Spirit would fall on them at the day of Pentecost.

All this was made possible by the fact that Jesus brought an end to the condemnation of the law that would at any other time have been brought to bear against the woman caught in adultery.

This is why Paul said in 2Cor.5:19, “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” This speaks of Jesus coming and living among them. Teaching them about God’s love and the love they were to show one another.

Which is why He told them “34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” Adding that “35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

This word of reconciliation Paul speaks of in 2Cor.5 was made possible first to the Jew when Jesus came to confirm the covenant(Gal.3:17) with them. Confirming to them that by His coming the purpose of the law was fulfilled. And therefore its purpose was brought to an end.

This is why He was not breaking the law when Jesus would not condemn the woman caught in adultery as the law demanded. This is why the Good Samaritan was in the right even though letter of the the law said otherwise. And the others whose main concern was with keeping the law were in the wrong.

Because the condemnation the law brought was never meant to be used by Israel to allow or cause harm to the innocent. But, only as a means to make sure Israel did not destroy herself as a people at least till Jesus came. And as we see in the genealogy of Jesus it accomplished that.

And having accomplished this there was no more need for it. Which is why we read Paul in Eph.2 saying that the enmity the law was between Jew and gentile was abolished so that the 2 could now be made one new man. And Jesus saying in Mt.5:17,18 that when He fulfilled the law it would pass away.

This is why not condemning the woman caught in adultery, and healing with forgiveness of sins, fits perfectly with Jesus’ ministry. A transitional period between being under the condemnation of the law and deliverance from it.

Because He did not come to condemn, but to save. He did not come to put Israel under the law, but to bring to them deliverance from its slavery. Paul saying this better than I could in Rom.6:14 where he told the Jews, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” And again in Rom.7:6 saying, “6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

Jesus showed the woman that the forgiveness of sins she had from Him there was just a shadow of what would be available after His death gave power to a New Covenant if she trusted in Him. Because her forgiveness of sins she experienced when Jesus did not condemn her, if she would trust in Him for it in the New Covenant, would conclude with her having eternal life.

She would be made a spiritual being by a spirit God would create in her. Making her His child and heir to His kingdom. No longer a slave to the law. But, free in the liberty that is in Christ Jesus as Paul says in 2Cor.3:17.

And now that Jesus has given power to a New Covenant, the wall of partition that was the law written in stone being abolished, this eternal life is available to anyone who will believe in Jesus for eternal life. By confessing with our mouth the Lord Jesus. And believing in our hearts that He has raised from the dead.

Raised for our justification as Paul said in Rom.4:25. Justification that is the same word in the Greek as righteousness. So that we are righteous when we confess and believe. We are righteous when we trust in Jesus as He trusted the Father. This is what Paul was saying when in Gal.2:16 he told them that we are justified by the faith of Christ.

If you will do this then God will create a spirit in you that you never had before. A spirit that joins you to Him as a child of God. A spirit that gives you eternal life and makes you an heir to His kingdom. A spirit that Jesus said means you are born again.

If you will do this… then I will see you there or in the air!