John 8 - Wiersbe Study Bible

8:2 The development of the entire chapter can easily be seen to grow out of this striking event in the temple. Our Lord’s declaration that He is the light of the world (v. 12) certainly fits, and so do His words about true and false judgment (vv. 15,16,26). The repeated phrase “die in your sins” (vv. 21,24) would clearly relate to the judgment of the woman, and the fact that the chapter ends with an attempt to stone Jesus shows a perfect parallel to the opening story.

8:3 Our Lord found Himself again in conflict with the Jewish religious leaders, but this time they set a trap, hoping to get enough evidence to arrest Jesus and get Him out of the way. However, their plot failed, and a controversy followed. In this chapter we see a series of contrasts that reveal the graciousness of Christ and the wickedness of man.

8:4 The Pharisees would not be likely to catch a couple “in the act” of adultery, so we wonder if the man (who never was indicted!) was part of the scheme. The law required that both guilty parties be stoned (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22) and not just the woman. It does seem suspicious that the man went free. The scribes and Pharisees handled the matter in a brutal fashion, even in the way they interrupted the Lord’s teaching and pushed the woman to the front of the crowd.

8:7 It was required by Jewish law that the accusers cast the first stones (Deut. 17:7). Jesus was not asking that sinless men judge the woman, for He was the only sinless person present. If our judges today had to be perfect, judicial benches would be empty. He was referring to the particular sin of the woman, a sin that can be committed in the heart as well as with the body (Matt. 5:27–30). Convicted by their own consciences, the accusers quietly left the scene, and Jesus was left alone with the woman. He forgave her and warned her to sin no more (John 5:14).

8:11 We must not misinterpret this event to mean that Jesus was easy on sin or that He contradicted the law. For Jesus to forgive this woman meant that He had to one day die for her sins. Forgiveness is free but it is not cheap. Furthermore, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law so that no one could justly accuse Him of opposing its teachings or weakening its power. By applying the law to the woman and not to themselves, the Jewish leaders were violating both the letter and the spirit of the law—and they thought they were defending Moses!

8:12 To “follow” the Lord Jesus means to believe on Him, to trust Him, and the results are life and light for the believer. The unsaved are walking in darkness because they love darkness (3:17ff.). One of the major messages in this gospel is that the spiritual light is now shining, but people cannot comprehend it—and they try to put it out (1:4,5).

8:13–20 Not all of the Jewish leaders had left the group, and others had no doubt come along after the woman left. As usual, they debated with Jesus. This time, they accused Him of bearing witness to Himself by claiming to be the light of the world, and Jewish courts would not permit a person to bear witness to Himself. But light has to bear witness to itself! The only people who cannot see the light are blind people!

8:15 Jesus made it clear that their witness was not dependable because their judgment was faulty. They judged on the basis of externals, mere human judgment, but He judged on the basis of spiritual knowledge. The way they judged the woman taken in adultery proved that they neither understood the law nor their own sinful hearts.

8:20 Their further attempts to arrest Jesus were again thwarted by the Father, for it was not yet our Lord’s hour when He should give His life. When the servants of God are in the will of God, they can have courage and peace as they do their duty.

8:21–30 The true believer has his citizenship in heaven (Luke 10:20; Phil. 3:20,21). His affection and attention are fixed heavenward. But the unsaved belong to this world; in fact, Jesus called them “the sons of this world” (Luke 16:8). Since they have not trusted Christ and had their sins forgiven, their destiny is to die in their sins. The Christian dies in the Lord because he lives in the Lord (Rev. 14:13), but the unbeliever dies in his sins because he lives in his sins.

8:30 Salvation is a matter of life or death. People who live in their sins and reject the Savior must die in their 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.

8:31 Jesus addressed the “many who believed in Him” mentioned in verse 30, and He warned them that continuance in the Word—discipleship—was proof of true salvation. When we obey His Word, we grow in spiritual knowledge, and as we grow in spiritual knowledge, we grow in freedom from sin. Life leads to learning, and learning leads to liberty.

8:33 Their claim that Abraham’s descendants had never been in bondage was certainly a false one that was refuted by the very record in the Old Testament Scriptures. The Jews had been enslaved by mighty nations, as recorded in the books of Exodus and Judges. The ten northern tribes had been carried away captive by Assyria, and the two southern tribes had gone into seventy years of captivity in Babylon. And at that very hour, the Jews were under the iron heel of Rome! How difficult it is for proud religious people to admit their failings and their needs!

8:34–36 Jesus explained that the difference between spiritual freedom and bondage is a matter of whether one is a son or a servant. The servant may live in the house, but he is not a part of the family, and he cannot be guaranteed a future. (Jesus may have had Isaac and Ishmael in mind here; see Gen. 21.) “Whoever commits sin [continually] is a slave of sin.” These religious leaders would not only die in their sins (John 8:21,24), but they were currently living in bondage to sin!

8:41,48 The leaders could not refute our Lord’s statements, so they attacked His person. Some students think that the leaders’ statement in verse 41—“We were not born of fornication”—was a slur on our Lord’s own birth and character. After all, Mary was with child before she and Joseph were married. But the personal attacks in verse 48 are quite obvious. For a Jew to be called a Samaritan was the grossest of insults, and then to be called demon-possessed only added further insult.

8:43,44 The most difficult people to win to the Savior are those who do not realize that they have a need. They are under the condemnation of God, yet they trust their religion to save them. They are walking in the darkness and not following the light of life. They are sharing a “living death” because of their bondage to sin, and, in spite of their religious deeds, they are dishonoring the Father and the Son. These are the people who crucified Jesus Christ, and Jesus called them the children of the devil.

8:47 The worst bondage is the kind that the prisoner himself does not recognize. He thinks he is free, yet he is really a slave. The Pharisees and other religious leaders thought that they were free, but they were actually enslaved in terrible spiritual bondage to sin and Satan. They would not face the truth, and yet it was the truth alone that could set them free.

8:58 Jesus’ statement can also be translated, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Again, this was another affirmation of His divine sonship, and the Jewish leaders received it as such. He had once again made Himself equal with God (5:18), and this was the sin of blasphemy, worthy of death (Lev. 24:16). Jesus was divinely protected and simply walked away. His hour had not yet come. We cannot help but admire His courage as He presented the truth and invited blind religious men to trust Him and be set free.