Freedom From Sin
John chapter 8 begins with Jesus retreating to the Mount of Olives. At dawn He resumes His place in the temple to teach. He was interrupted by the teachers of the law and the Pharisees who brought a woman they claimed to have been caught in adultery. Their motive in doing so was to trap Jesus so they could accuse Him. In those days, the Romans did not allow the Jews to carry out death sentences. If Jesus had agreed to stone the woman, He would have been in conflict with the Romans. Yet if He said not to stone her, then He would have been guilty of not supporting the Law of Moses.
Jesus cannot be “trapped” by any man. He began to write in the dirt with His finger. Then He disarmed the religious leaders with His statement, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” With these words, Jesus upheld the Law. However, because of the qualifications He gave, no one was qualified to do so. As He began to write in the dirt again, the men gradually began to leave the temple, from the oldest on to the youngest. Once they were alone, Jesus spoke to the woman asking her, “woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” When she replied that there was no one, Jesus said, “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”
How awesome is the grace of God! In his New Testament commentary, Warren Wiersbe points out that “we must not misinterpret this event to mean that Jesus was ‘easy on sin’ or that He contradicted the law.” Although her sin was indeed worthy of death, Jesus showed how He deals with all sinners - He forgives! The Harvest study says, “the law demands justice but grace allows mercy.” Wiersbe adds, “the law was given to reveal sin (Romans 3:20) and we must be condemned by the law before we can be cleaned by God’s grace. Law and grace do not compete with each other; they compliment each other. Nobody was ever saved by keeping the law, but nobody was ever saved by grace who was not first indicted by the law. There must be conviction before there can be conversion.” However, forgiveness by grace does not give license to continue sinning. Jesus told the woman to, “go now and leave your life of sin.” When we experience God’s gracious forgiveness, we should desire to live a holy and obedient life that glorifies God.
Following the example of forgiveness, Jesus turns to the people and declares, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” My kids and I are studying astronomy. As we learned about the sun, we saw that it is the center of our solar system and is the source of light for all planets. Now as we are studying earth, we see that the sunlight gives life to the plants which in turn are life to the animals and people living here. Because God is light, wherever His light shines will reveal man’s wickedness. To follow the Lord means we will believe and trust Him. This is light and life to the believer. The unsaved are walking in darkness.
Immediately, the Pharisees challenge Jesus by saying that His testimony is not valid because He was appearing as His own witness. Wiersbe explains that Jewish courts could not permit a person to bear witness to himself. Jesus makes three points to refute their challenge. First, Jesus said He knew where He came from and where He was going. The Pharisees knew neither about Jesus. Secondly, any judgments Jesus made were supported by the Father; while the Pharisees were judging by human standards. Thirdly, Jesus was qualified to testify for Himself and His other witness was the Father who sent Him. Because the Father was with Jesus, they were the two witnesses required by law.
The Pharisees were not convinced and continued their opposition by questioning Jesus about where His Father was. Jesus tells them, “you do not know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” Jesus stresses the fact that the Father is known through the Son. To know the one is to know the other. Jesus continues by saying, that He was going to go away and that where He was going the Pharisees could not come. This made the Pharisees think Jesus was going to commit suicide. Wiersbe adds that the Pharisees reasoned that if Jesus killed Himself then he would go to a place of judgment which is why they could not follow Him. The truth was, however, that they were the ones going to a place of judgment. Jesus would be returning to His Father in heaven where no one can go unless he has trusted Christ as his Savior. Jesus makes this clear by saying further that He is from above and they are from the world. If they did not believe in Him they would die in their sins. Although Jesus was in the world, He did not belong to the world. Wiersbe writes that the true believer has his citizenship in heaven and his attention and affection are heavenward while the unsaved person belongs to the world. They are destined to die in their sins while the believer will die in the Lord because he lives in the Lord. In spite of all the evidence Jesus had already given them, the experts in the law ask Jesus in verse 25 who He is. Jesus was clear in His claims to deity. He said He would judge. He claimed to be sent by God. He claimed to have heard from God the things He taught. The religious leaders did not understand this.
Jesus continues in verses 28-29 by telling the leaders that they would know who He was when they had “lifted up the Son of Man” and that He had come to represent the Father. Jesus being “lifted up” referred to His crucifixion as well as His glorification. It would be through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension that Jesus would be revealed to the Jewish nation. Not only did the Father send Jesus, but He was with Jesus. Jesus always did what pleased the Father. The final outcome to this conversation is that many put their faith in Jesus. Wiersbe writes that salvation is a matter of life or death. If we live in our sins and reject the Savior, we will die in our sins. There is no alternative. We either receive salvation by grace or experience condemnation under God’s law. We either walk in the light and have eternal life, or walk in the darkness and experience eternal death.
In the rest of chapter 8, Jesus goes on to share about freedom. The harvest study says, “God’s definition (of freedom) means to be set free from sin to become all that you were ever meant to be! It means to find fulfillment and satisfaction in life and to develop to your full potential.” Jesus says in verses 31-32 that if the believers abide in His word then they will be His disciples, they will know the truth and the truth would make them free. Wiersbe says that discipleship is proof of true salvation. “When we obey His Word, we grow in spiritual knowledge, we grow in freedom from sin. Life leads to learning, and learning leads to liberty.” The Harvest study says that to “abide in His Word means to cling to His teaching; to remain steadfast in it. Applying His Word - testing it - in everyday life till you come to an experiential knowledge that what He says is true.”
The response of the people shows their false sense of security. They say that they are Abraham’s descendants and can’t understand how they can be set free if they’ve never been salves. They seemed to have overlooked the years they were enslaved by other nations as recorded in the book of Judges as well as the Romans who were over them in the present. Jesus responded by saying that if you give yourself over to sin, you will be a slave to it. Conversely, if you give yourself to Jesus, you will be free. The Harvest study states, “when you give yourself over to sin, you are under its control and you become its slave. The devastating affects of sin can spread slowly over time, but eventually a destructive pattern becomes evident and dangerous habits form that are hard to break. Jesus is making that point that a slave has no permanent place in the family; only a son belongs in it forever. The Jews who thought they were free because they were Abraham’s descendants were not really sons - they were slaves. His point is those who do not cling to His Word and who choose a life of slavery instead will forfeit the place and privilege of belonging to the family.”
Next Jesus questions the fatherhood of the Jews by saying that if they were Abraham’s children then they wouldn’t be ready to kill Him and reject His word. By their actions, they are revealing who their father really is - Satan! Wiersbe writes that Abraham was a “friend of God” and fellowshipped with the Father in love. He listened to God’s truth and obeyed it. The religious leaders rejected the truth and they wanted to kill Jesus. This showed that they were very unlike Abraham. Their deeds revealed their true parentage. Wiersbe adds that “nature is determined by birth, and birth is determined by paternity. If God is your Father, then you share God’s nature, but if Satan is your father, then you share in his evil nature. Satan is an imitator (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) and he gives his children a false righteousness that can never gain them entrance into heaven (Romans 10:1-4).” Satan is a liar; the father of lies. God is the truth.
Verse 47 reads, “he who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” The Harvest study states, “what you do reveals to whom you belong. . . Jesus has come to reveal the Father and to unveil the true nature of men to themselves. What each individual does with that truth determines their ultimate destiny.” The people only have two choices at this point - they can either fall on their knees and worship Jesus or pick up the stones to kill Him. They choose the latter, claiming that Jesus must be demon-possessed. Jesus responds in verse 51 by saying that anyone who keeps His words will never see death. Jesus then makes a startling claim by stating that “before Abraham was born, I am!” (verse 58). In Exodus 3:14, God referred to Himself as I Am. When Jesus calls Himself I Am, He is claiming to be God. Of course the Jews saw this as blasphemy and punishable by death. They picked up stones to throw at Jesus, but Jesus “hid Himself, slipping away from the temple grounds” (verse 59).
The main point of this passage is - is Jesus God? In John 1:1, the Bible says that, “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.” John 1:14 tells us that “the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen the glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Word is Jesus. John 8:24 tells us that “if you do not believe that (Jesus) is the one (He) claim(s) to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” Jesus cannot lie and was therefore telling the truth about who He was. He was a man and He was God.
Kay Arthur’s inductive study for kids, “Jesus in the Spotlight”, says, “when you believe Jesus is God, and you receive Jesus as your Savior, then you become a child of God. People change when they become part of God’s family. Because the Holy Spirit lives in every true child of God, they are able to say no to sin. As John 8:34-36 says, a child of God is no longer a slave to sin because Jesus sets him free from being sin’s slave. A child of God wants to obey God.”
“The choice facing each person that day in the temple courts is the same choice you will face; fall down and worship Him or pick up those stones! There is no other choice - to be undecided is to decide against Him. Whether it’s through gentle words or the megaphone of difficult circumstances, Jesus offers you the way to freedom and fulfillment. . . You must make the choice and respond. But realize that if you call Him Savior, you must also accept Him as Lord over your life - all of it: your plans, ambitions, desires, and goals” (Harvest study).
It truly is a mater of life or death. What will your choice be?
Jesus cannot be “trapped” by any man. He began to write in the dirt with His finger. Then He disarmed the religious leaders with His statement, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” With these words, Jesus upheld the Law. However, because of the qualifications He gave, no one was qualified to do so. As He began to write in the dirt again, the men gradually began to leave the temple, from the oldest on to the youngest. Once they were alone, Jesus spoke to the woman asking her, “woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” When she replied that there was no one, Jesus said, “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”
How awesome is the grace of God! In his New Testament commentary, Warren Wiersbe points out that “we must not misinterpret this event to mean that Jesus was ‘easy on sin’ or that He contradicted the law.” Although her sin was indeed worthy of death, Jesus showed how He deals with all sinners - He forgives! The Harvest study says, “the law demands justice but grace allows mercy.” Wiersbe adds, “the law was given to reveal sin (Romans 3:20) and we must be condemned by the law before we can be cleaned by God’s grace. Law and grace do not compete with each other; they compliment each other. Nobody was ever saved by keeping the law, but nobody was ever saved by grace who was not first indicted by the law. There must be conviction before there can be conversion.” However, forgiveness by grace does not give license to continue sinning. Jesus told the woman to, “go now and leave your life of sin.” When we experience God’s gracious forgiveness, we should desire to live a holy and obedient life that glorifies God.
Following the example of forgiveness, Jesus turns to the people and declares, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” My kids and I are studying astronomy. As we learned about the sun, we saw that it is the center of our solar system and is the source of light for all planets. Now as we are studying earth, we see that the sunlight gives life to the plants which in turn are life to the animals and people living here. Because God is light, wherever His light shines will reveal man’s wickedness. To follow the Lord means we will believe and trust Him. This is light and life to the believer. The unsaved are walking in darkness.
Immediately, the Pharisees challenge Jesus by saying that His testimony is not valid because He was appearing as His own witness. Wiersbe explains that Jewish courts could not permit a person to bear witness to himself. Jesus makes three points to refute their challenge. First, Jesus said He knew where He came from and where He was going. The Pharisees knew neither about Jesus. Secondly, any judgments Jesus made were supported by the Father; while the Pharisees were judging by human standards. Thirdly, Jesus was qualified to testify for Himself and His other witness was the Father who sent Him. Because the Father was with Jesus, they were the two witnesses required by law.
The Pharisees were not convinced and continued their opposition by questioning Jesus about where His Father was. Jesus tells them, “you do not know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” Jesus stresses the fact that the Father is known through the Son. To know the one is to know the other. Jesus continues by saying, that He was going to go away and that where He was going the Pharisees could not come. This made the Pharisees think Jesus was going to commit suicide. Wiersbe adds that the Pharisees reasoned that if Jesus killed Himself then he would go to a place of judgment which is why they could not follow Him. The truth was, however, that they were the ones going to a place of judgment. Jesus would be returning to His Father in heaven where no one can go unless he has trusted Christ as his Savior. Jesus makes this clear by saying further that He is from above and they are from the world. If they did not believe in Him they would die in their sins. Although Jesus was in the world, He did not belong to the world. Wiersbe writes that the true believer has his citizenship in heaven and his attention and affection are heavenward while the unsaved person belongs to the world. They are destined to die in their sins while the believer will die in the Lord because he lives in the Lord. In spite of all the evidence Jesus had already given them, the experts in the law ask Jesus in verse 25 who He is. Jesus was clear in His claims to deity. He said He would judge. He claimed to be sent by God. He claimed to have heard from God the things He taught. The religious leaders did not understand this.
Jesus continues in verses 28-29 by telling the leaders that they would know who He was when they had “lifted up the Son of Man” and that He had come to represent the Father. Jesus being “lifted up” referred to His crucifixion as well as His glorification. It would be through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension that Jesus would be revealed to the Jewish nation. Not only did the Father send Jesus, but He was with Jesus. Jesus always did what pleased the Father. The final outcome to this conversation is that many put their faith in Jesus. Wiersbe writes that salvation is a matter of life or death. If we live in our sins and reject the Savior, we will die in our sins. There is no alternative. We either receive salvation by grace or experience condemnation under God’s law. We either walk in the light and have eternal life, or walk in the darkness and experience eternal death.
In the rest of chapter 8, Jesus goes on to share about freedom. The harvest study says, “God’s definition (of freedom) means to be set free from sin to become all that you were ever meant to be! It means to find fulfillment and satisfaction in life and to develop to your full potential.” Jesus says in verses 31-32 that if the believers abide in His word then they will be His disciples, they will know the truth and the truth would make them free. Wiersbe says that discipleship is proof of true salvation. “When we obey His Word, we grow in spiritual knowledge, we grow in freedom from sin. Life leads to learning, and learning leads to liberty.” The Harvest study says that to “abide in His Word means to cling to His teaching; to remain steadfast in it. Applying His Word - testing it - in everyday life till you come to an experiential knowledge that what He says is true.”
The response of the people shows their false sense of security. They say that they are Abraham’s descendants and can’t understand how they can be set free if they’ve never been salves. They seemed to have overlooked the years they were enslaved by other nations as recorded in the book of Judges as well as the Romans who were over them in the present. Jesus responded by saying that if you give yourself over to sin, you will be a slave to it. Conversely, if you give yourself to Jesus, you will be free. The Harvest study states, “when you give yourself over to sin, you are under its control and you become its slave. The devastating affects of sin can spread slowly over time, but eventually a destructive pattern becomes evident and dangerous habits form that are hard to break. Jesus is making that point that a slave has no permanent place in the family; only a son belongs in it forever. The Jews who thought they were free because they were Abraham’s descendants were not really sons - they were slaves. His point is those who do not cling to His Word and who choose a life of slavery instead will forfeit the place and privilege of belonging to the family.”
Next Jesus questions the fatherhood of the Jews by saying that if they were Abraham’s children then they wouldn’t be ready to kill Him and reject His word. By their actions, they are revealing who their father really is - Satan! Wiersbe writes that Abraham was a “friend of God” and fellowshipped with the Father in love. He listened to God’s truth and obeyed it. The religious leaders rejected the truth and they wanted to kill Jesus. This showed that they were very unlike Abraham. Their deeds revealed their true parentage. Wiersbe adds that “nature is determined by birth, and birth is determined by paternity. If God is your Father, then you share God’s nature, but if Satan is your father, then you share in his evil nature. Satan is an imitator (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) and he gives his children a false righteousness that can never gain them entrance into heaven (Romans 10:1-4).” Satan is a liar; the father of lies. God is the truth.
Verse 47 reads, “he who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” The Harvest study states, “what you do reveals to whom you belong. . . Jesus has come to reveal the Father and to unveil the true nature of men to themselves. What each individual does with that truth determines their ultimate destiny.” The people only have two choices at this point - they can either fall on their knees and worship Jesus or pick up the stones to kill Him. They choose the latter, claiming that Jesus must be demon-possessed. Jesus responds in verse 51 by saying that anyone who keeps His words will never see death. Jesus then makes a startling claim by stating that “before Abraham was born, I am!” (verse 58). In Exodus 3:14, God referred to Himself as I Am. When Jesus calls Himself I Am, He is claiming to be God. Of course the Jews saw this as blasphemy and punishable by death. They picked up stones to throw at Jesus, but Jesus “hid Himself, slipping away from the temple grounds” (verse 59).
The main point of this passage is - is Jesus God? In John 1:1, the Bible says that, “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.” John 1:14 tells us that “the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen the glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Word is Jesus. John 8:24 tells us that “if you do not believe that (Jesus) is the one (He) claim(s) to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” Jesus cannot lie and was therefore telling the truth about who He was. He was a man and He was God.
Kay Arthur’s inductive study for kids, “Jesus in the Spotlight”, says, “when you believe Jesus is God, and you receive Jesus as your Savior, then you become a child of God. People change when they become part of God’s family. Because the Holy Spirit lives in every true child of God, they are able to say no to sin. As John 8:34-36 says, a child of God is no longer a slave to sin because Jesus sets him free from being sin’s slave. A child of God wants to obey God.”
“The choice facing each person that day in the temple courts is the same choice you will face; fall down and worship Him or pick up those stones! There is no other choice - to be undecided is to decide against Him. Whether it’s through gentle words or the megaphone of difficult circumstances, Jesus offers you the way to freedom and fulfillment. . . You must make the choice and respond. But realize that if you call Him Savior, you must also accept Him as Lord over your life - all of it: your plans, ambitions, desires, and goals” (Harvest study).
It truly is a mater of life or death. What will your choice be?
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