Radical Grace for Undeserving Sinners

Introduction

John 7:53–8:11 CSB

53 [Then each one went to his house. 1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he went to the temple again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them. 3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. 4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 They asked this to trap him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse him. Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger. 7 When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. 9 When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center. 10 When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”]

Let’s pray:

Father, as we open up your Word today, I pray that you will make us more and more aware of its purposes in our lives. Help us through your Spirit to apply the riches of this text. Guide us into a deeper and fuller and wider understanding of your glorious gospel. In your wisdom, show us our sin, show us your gospel, and help us to repent and walk away today different than who we are now. Only you can do all this. As the preacher, I cannot effect change in the hearers. I am just a messenger preaching as a dying man to dying people. Now, may the Words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

Textual Issue

What does it mean when the Bible says the earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53-8:11?

Our current English Bibles are based upon Greek New Testaments and Hebrew Old Testaments. Those, in turn, are based upon manuscripts that have been preserved over the last two thousand years. The earliest of these for the New Testament date to around 125-150 AD, and are based upon both written and oral traditions from the original authors. Much of the New Testament was compiled together into Codices, the most notable being the Codex Sinaiticus, which appeared in the mid-4th century. This Codex included the entire New Testament and most of the Old Testament. But, it did not include this passage.

The earliest manuscript that we have that contains this passage is from the 400-500’s, known as the Codex Bezae. This is the earliest appearance, and around 200-300 years later than the average manuscript of the rest of the New Testament. So, when you see this in your Bible, this is saying that this passage is dated to a much later time than the other manuscripts.

If this passage is much later than the other manuscripts, why is it still included in the Bible?

There’s no reason to doubt the historicity of this event. Even if it didn’t appear in written form until later, the story is consistent with who Christ is and how he teaches throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

There are many arguments against this passage, and I don’t really think they hold much water, and don’t want to give them much time. We can discuss that after church if you are interested. However, there is an argument that this passage might not be original to John but to another gospel writer. Most biblical scholars agree that it is not original to the Gospel of John, or not this section of John. However, most conservative scholars agree that this event did happen since it has been preserved, and that it finds it source in the apostles, meaning that one of the apostles witnessed and preserved it and told others about it. Then it was written down. Thus, it should be contained in the New Testament. I agree with RC Sproul here: “I believe that it is nothing less than the Word of God. Whether it belongs here in John’s Gospel or at the end of the 21st chapter of Luke, or somewhere else in John’s gospel, I leave to the ages. But I am treating it as nothing less than the very Word of God.”

Why are we preaching this?

We don’t want to simply slide past this. We believe that this passage happened in history, though it might not have been written down at the same time as the rest of John. We believe that this event happened in the same way that it is recorded here. And this passage teaches us about Jesus and we are in the business of learning more about Jesus.

Application:

You CAN be confident in your Bible

It is the inerrant Word of God

It is authoritative

It is applicable

You CAN be confident in the work of this church so long as we are guided are guarded by the Word of God in all of our ministries.

With that being said, let’s dig into this passage.

Sermon Introduction

Has someone’s goodness ever rubbed you the wrong way? Like this: Someone is so nice, so thoughtful that it kind of annoys you. Can anyone relate to this? I know I can. I remember in college someone aced a really difficult class, and my first thought was this: You just ruined the curve for all of us. You just made us all look bad. I made her success about me. Or what about when someone gives a nicer gift than you at Christmas? They’re doing a good thing, but we get jealous in our hearts and make them the enemy. Radical goodness rubs us the wrong way. Our sinful and corrupt hearts want things to revolve around us and our ideas about justice and righteousness. In short, we want what’s best for us.

It’s no different in this passage. We encounter Jesus still in Jerusalem after the feast. He is teaching in the Temple and a scene begins to unfold around him. This was in a public setting in the middle of a presumably busy Temple. In verse three, the leaders of the religious aspect of Jewish life (scribes are writers and teachers of the Law; Pharisees are congregational leaders) bring a woman caught in adultery into the Temple and circle around her. As this situation unfolds, we will see how Christ shows radical grace to undeserving sinners. In fact, that’s really the main point this morning: Jesus shows radical, remarkable, resplendent grace to people who do not deserve it and cannot even fathom it. And as we move through this passage we will see that the grace of Christ silences, saves, and sanctifies.

Grace that Silences

First, let’s look into Jesus’s radical grace that silences. Silences who? Wrongful accusers. The scribes and Pharisees were supposed to act like pastors. In fact, if they were actually pursuing God’s Word as it is written and as it was intended, they would have acted more like pastors than wolves. But they became more obsessed with the intricacies of keeping the Law than pleasing the One who gave the Law. And this led them to have an accusatory posture toward people rather than the posture of a shepherd or pastor. This passage is a prime example.

We can easily see that the scribes and Pharisees were not concerned with this woman’s holiness. They were not concerned with her pleasing God. They were trying to accuse her and trying to use her to accuse Jesus. They were using an image-bearer to lay a trap for the Son of God. Think for just a moment about the grievous nature of what they were doing. Parading a sinful woman around to “catch” Jesus.

They had gone to a home — whether it is the woman’s or a man’s is not important — and witnesses her adultery. You can imagine what that actually means. She was caught in the sinful act of adultery. And let me be clear: Adultery is sin. Full stop. In the Law, it is written in Leviticus 20:10 “10 “If a man commits adultery with a married woman—if he commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.” Okay - so what do we see here? If the Law was being applied correctly, there would be more than one person to be stoned: The adulterer and the adulteress were to be stoned. And the adulterer was missing. So it’s clear: The Pharisees and scribes weren’t actually concerned with the letter of the Law; they were chiefly concerned with Jesus threatening their power and influence in the world.

Their accusation distorted what the Word really said. Sound familiar? Let’s think about the first accusation, the first time someone said ‘Did God really say?’ The serpent’s strategy in deceiving Adam and Eve was to have them question or misinterpret the Word of God. That led to confusion which led to sin. This is what Satan has been in the business of all along. In fact, Satan in Hebrew simply means accuser. Satan seeks to have us mistrust the Word of God so that we will then mistrust the character of God. It’s the same with these accusers. They weren’t interested in biblical faithfulness. They weren’t interested in holiness unto the Lord, which is the concern of the Law. The law exists so that people might be holy, not that people might accuse others. If they were, they would’ve brought out the adulterer as well. They were interested in power and popularity. They wanted to strike down anything that might threaten that. This was their posture.

They had heard of Jesus’s compassion toward sinners, no doubt. Maybe they had heard of his conversation with the woman at the well. They knew he associated with people they deemed undesirable. His posture was opposite theirs: He had the posture described by Paul in Galatians 6:1: “If someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit...” This is the posture of a shepherd. This is the posture of Jesus. Compassion toward sinners. Meekness when in the presence of unholiness.

Now, what were they exactly trying to catch Jesus doing? They were hoping that his compassion would lead him to break the law or say something that is contrary to the Law. Here’s the trap they laid as described by D. A. Carson:

“If Jesus disavowed the law of Moses, his credibility would be instantly undermined: he could be dismissed as a lawless person and perhaps be charged in the courts with serious offences. If he upheld the law of Moses, he would not only be supporting a position that was largely unpopular but one that was probably not carried out in public life, and, worse, which would have been hard to square with his well-known compassion for the broken and disreputable, his quickness to forgive and restore, and his announcement of the life-transforming power bound up with the new birth.

In other words, they were trying to have Jesus contradict the Law or contradict himself, and in so doing silence him forever.

Once they accuse the woman in order to accuse Jesus, he does something interesting: He bends to the ground and begins to write with his finger. Now, we aren’t told what Jesus is writing here. We don’t need to assume anything about what Jesus might have written here. One picture that might be conveyed is this: Jesus was writing on the ground with his finger. The Law was written with the very finger of God. Jesus had claimed to be God himself several times over. Perhaps he was reminding the scribes and the Pharisees (zealots about the Law) that he was the very giver of the Law. Maybe this was a subtle reminder that this finger had written the Law and had interpreted the Law and was sovereign over the Law. In other words, “How dare you accuse the one who wrote the Law with this very finger with which I am writing on the ground??”

Now, Jesus then speaks: “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” And he continued to write on the ground. According to the Law, which they knew, the eyewitnesses of the crime were to be the ones to throw the first stone. And in so doing, they must not be participants in the sin as well. Again, D. A. Carson is helpful:

“Jesus’ saying does not mean that the authorities must be paragons of sinless perfection before the death sentence can be properly meted out, nor does it mean that one must be free even from lust before one can legitimately condemn adultery. It means, rather, that they must not be guilty of this particular sin.”

They were stunned. The accusers fell silent. They had laid a trap and the trap had been set on them. Jesus knew their hearts, their minds, and their actions. He knew that they were adulterers that should have stood condemned under the same law. He knew that they were malicious witnesses condemned under Deuteronomy 19:15-21. He knew that they were sinful men. Their only choice was to fall silent under this radical teaching of Jesus.

“The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” And they fall silent, convicted, and they must leave. Their attempt to embarrass Jesus leads to their own embarrassment. Their attempt to humiliate leads to their own humbling. Their attempt to judge leads to their own condemnation. Jesus was showing her radical grace, a concept they were obviously unfamiliar with, and it silenced the accusers. The grace of Jesus silences the accusers.

We have been the ones condemned and accused. Let’s be real here: She was caught in adultery. She is probably naked and bare, full of shame and guilt. Standing in a crowd, embarrassed. Think of Adam and Eve: What was the first realization they made when they sinned: We are naked and afraid. Shame. What was God’s first act of grace? To take the life of a living being and clothe them. Taking away their shame. Before our salvation, we are full of shame and guilt. We are accused, rightfully. This woman was really caught in sin. She was really an adulterer who deserved to die. In our sin, we are the same. We really do sin and we really are caught in it. We are naked and shameful. We are guilty. We deserved to be stoned. And Satan accuses us. But the grace of Christ silences the accuser. He shows us grace and clothes us, not in the skins of animals, but in robes of righteousness. Praise God! He has shown us undeserved grace and mercy. Praise God that you are in Christ and now face no condemnation for your sin. He has taken your death and died for you. And he has risen that you might have eternal life. God’s grace has silenced your accusers.

This woman experienced this: Where are they? They aren’t there. They had to leave in shame. Divine grace silences accusers.

Grace that Saves

The grace of Christ also saves. Earlier in John, we see this: John 3:17 “17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” There is real sin in this passage. I think the modern temptation is to read this passage and say, “Well, no one threw a stone so there is no sin.” That’s a terrible reading of Scripture. As we’ve covered several times, adultery is a real sin and is deserving of death, just as all sin is. Jesus never excuses her sin. He never says that it’s okay. If her sin was okay, there would be no need for him to say that he wasn’t condemning her. But he shows her his radical grace that saves. See, when Jesus said, “The one without sin among you should be the first throw a stone at her,” I am sure that she closed her eyes and expected to get hit with a stone. But that’s not what happened. The accusers were silenced. The whole crowd realized something: We are all sinful. We are all worthy of condemnation under a holy God, and none of us have any right to take eternal justice into our hands.

She wasn’t saved by sheer dumb luck. She wasn’t saved by her works, as we could see. She was only saved by the grace of God. Grace is defined as unmerited favor. Something given to us that we could never earn. This woman is a prime example of unmerited. Here she was, caught in sin publicly, and now being publicly forgiven. Jesus’s grace silences accusers and saves sinners. He did not condemn her. That’s grace. “No one, Lord,” she said. No one was condemning her. The expectation of the religious leaders was that they would condemn. That’s been the mode and method of the Pharisees and scribes. But here, they themselves are convicted and gone. All that’s left is Jesus. I wonder if she thought he would pick up a stone and kill her. He was the only qualified to do so actually. And the sinless man doesn’t cast a stone. He doesn’t smash her head with a rock. Instead, he reaches to her with an offer of saving grace.

This is radical. This is remarkable. This is the marvelous grace of our loving Lord that we sing about. Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. This is the saving grace made possible on Calvary's mount by the outpouring of Christ’s shed blood. There the blood of the Lamb of was spilt. Grace, grace God’s grace! Grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God’s grace! Grace that is greater than all our sin.

“Neither do I condemn you.” These are precious words from a perfect Savior. Beloved, if you are in Christ, this is what he says to you. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But if you are not in Christ, you do stand condemned today. You are not clothed. You are still under shame and trying to sew fig leaves together to cover yourself. But Christ has grace. Receive him in faith today and experience new life. If you have questions about this, please reach out to me after the service. I’d love to tell you more about his grace this morning.

God’s grace, however, does not stop at the moment of salvation. It continues on in a sanctifying work.

Grace that Sanctifies

In telling her to go forth and sin no longer, Jesus was not telling her to do anything he wouldn’t empower her to accomplish. He that began a good work in her would finish that work. This is what we call sanctification. That word comes from the word sanctus, meaning holy. Sanctification is the process of being made holy. It is God’s grace that saves us (we are saved by grace through faith in Christ) and it is God’s grace that keeps us and sanctifies us. And remember, I said before, sanctification was the original purpose of the Pharisees and the scribes. They existed to be champions of God’s law to God’s people in order glorify God by holiness. They were to help the people be sanctified by showing them and teaching them God’s code for holiness, his very law. Instead, they used the law for power and held it over people’s heads.

The Pharisees and scribes held the sin of this woman over her head. Jesus released her from it. Then he gives her grace to experience what we call progressive sanctification. Progressive sanctification means that over time, we are more and more conformed to the image of Christ. It doesn’t mean that we will ever achieve sinless perfection. We don’t believe that anyone will ever do that. But it does mean that the Spirit works to show us grace to repent from sin and introduce more holiness into our lives. Day after day, month after month, year after year. The Spirit works in helping us not sin anymore.

In Christ, our sin is condemned but we are not. He wants us to not sin. He wants us to get rid of our sin. He wants us to be killing sin everyday. In fact, God’s saving grace is proven outwardly in his sanctifying work of grace. What do I mean by that? We know a tree by its fruit. Let’s use this woman as an example: She had a reputation as an adulterer. Jesus had worked saving grace in her. But when the rubber meets the road, her reputation could only be changed if her works change. And that is the work of sanctification, and it can only come by the work of God. The Puritan theologian Thomas Manton says this: “The whole work of sanctification, from its first step to its last period, is all of grace, all must be ascribed to God's free goodness.” He who began the work — saving grace — will bring it to completion. He who saves sanctifies. And he who saves and sanctifies receives all the glory in the lives of those whom he has saved and sanctified.

Believer, do not forget that the gospel still applies to you. God’s grace is still a necessity in your life everyday. God is not only the Author of your faith, but the finisher and completer of your faith. He not only began the work in you, but will finish that work. We can hear Jesus’s words to this woman as words to us as well: “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” He knows we will struggle, but this is a reminder that he will be with us to the end, sanctifying us in his grace over and over and over again. God is glorified in us when we are sinning less. His sanctifying work shines through. And that sanctifying work proves his saving work to a world that needs it.

Conclusion

A warning before we dive fully into the conclusion: We must not take the place of the Pharisees and scribes in this passage. As the church — those who have been saved by Christ — we must make sure that we are not condemning sinners. That’s not our job. We are not the judges and we are not saviors. We have no saving grace to give. Now, that doesn’t stop us from using Scripture to reprove, rebuke, correct, and exhort when needed. That doesn’t stop us from calling out societal ills brought on by sin. That doesn’t stop us from discipling each other in the Word, which sometimes means calling out sin. But we are not God. We are not the righteous Judge who can save or condemn. Make sure you aren’t picking up stones. Instead, share Christ. Instead, share a message of grace, since you have been shown grace. Remember Galatians 6:1 “1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit.”

This passage is controversial. It’s not merely controversial because of its inclusion in the New Testament. Its controversial because of its content: This passage shows us the radical grace to an undeserving sinner. If you are in Christ today, you and God are the only ones who know the depth of your sin. Your sins are many. But you have a friend in Jesus. A friend who sees your sin and condemns it rightly. But doesn’t condemn you. He has silenced your accuser. He has saved you by grace. And he is sanctifying you by his grace. Let’s pray.

Now let’s sing about what a friend we have in Jesus.