My Meditations

Thoughts on John 8:1-11

8:1 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
8:2 Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them.
8:3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,
8:4 they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.
8:5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?"
8:6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear them.
8:7 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."
8:8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
8:9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
8:10 When Jesus had lifted Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?"
8:11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

Now a lot of people like to quote part of the last verse very inconsistently with the rest of the New Testament, but we’ll get into that later.

Was Jesus telling her to follow the Law perfectly (since sin is transgression of the Law according to 1 John 3:4), and never sin again? This is what most people who have quoted this verse to me are implying without saying it.

Let's examine the situation here. Those who considered themselves experts among the Jews on the Law brought this woman to be judged by Jesus in accordance to the Law. Of course, adultery was a capital offense according to the Mosaic Law, the trap was that according to Roman Law, the Jews couldn't enact capital punishment, and the Romans had no law against adultery.

Now the first thing Jesus did when confronted by the Law is profound. He wrote on the ground. People have wondered what He wrote, but if it were important to John's point, it would have been written. What is important is that He wrote with His finger. Being that He was in the temple at the time, the ground was stone. There is a previous event involving the Law, stone, and a finger:

Exodus 31:18 "And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God"

So Jesus, by writing on the ground in the Temple with His finger when confronted by a ruling on the Law, is indicating subtly that He is the Giver of the Law to Moses. He is doing this because of Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32: 

"You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you."

Keep in mind that the Mosaic Law is ONE Law. It is not 613 laws, or three sets of laws. It is a package deal; as is mentioned in these passages:

Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11 But that no one is [d]justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”

Galatians 5:2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is [a debtor to keep the whole law.

James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

So by being the giver of the Law to Moses, God - in the flesh of Jesus Christ - is the only One that can do away with it. 

By telling them "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first", He's revealing that they are transgressing the Mosaic Law by not following what it said about how she was to be tried. One of the things about their attempt to trap Jesus with the Law was that they weren't following the Law themselves. First, the man was to be brought as well (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22), and there are to be at least two witnesses (Deut. 19:15, 17:5-6), and if pronounced guilty, those witnesses were to throw the first stones (Deut. 17:7). So even the men who represented the Law were guilty of violating it themselves and thus disqualifying themselves from being judges of the Law! As such they've transgressed the Law and are sinners themselves. Realizing this, they left. 

Now verses 10-11 is where it gets interesting. Jesus, having vanquished the accusation of the Law, asks the woman where her accusers have gone, and what is there to condemn her. She replies that there is nothing. And this is the most profound, the Giver of the Law, the only One qualified to judge the sins of man, says, "Neither do I condemn you"!

So let's break this down:

1. The Law, represented by the Scribes and Pharisees in this passage, tried to condemn a lawbreaker, but couldn't, because they were imperfect themselves. Just as the Law was imperfect and could only condemn (Hebrews 7:18-19). It could make no one righteous.
2. Jesus reveals Himself as the One who gave Moses the Law on Mt. Sinai. Meaning that Jesus is truly God in the flesh; thus, only He is qualified to judge the Law and condemn others.
3. Yet Jesus vanquished the Law due to its imperfection.
4. When the woman realized that the Law had been vanquished and she no longer stood condemned, the Giver of the Law did not condemn her, and said an incredibly profound thing, "Go and sin no more".

So, was Jesus telling her to go back to the Law after He had removed it, essentially reversing what He had just done? May it never be! He was telling her that, with the Law removed, the offense was gone as well!

Sin in the New Testament is not about the letter, it is about our conscience. Again, Paul makes interesting statements about the Law in his epistles. It increases sin (Romans 5:20), it is the strength of sin (1 Cor 15:56), the 10 Commandments were a "ministry of death" (2 Cor 3:7) and is passing away (2 Cor 3:11) it is not made for Christians (1 Tim. 1:8-9), who are dead to it (Gal. 2:19; Romans 7:1-4), it was abolished in Christ (Eph. 2:15) and it was nailed to the cross (Col 2:14). Paul also states that anything not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23), and the Law is not of faith (Gal. 3:12).

If the Law was perfect, we would no longer have a conscience of sin (Hebrews 10:2), yet Christ made us perfect by faith (Hebrews 10:10-14), and thus we can have no more consciousness of sins, we are even to impute ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11, 7:1-4).

If I may, I’d like to share something I think I was shown.

One of the things people "insert" into scripture, is the idea of "genuine/saving/true" faith, when in the Bible there is only "faith". What the Bible emphasizes isn't some special kind of faith that the saved have that the unsaved world doesn't, like TULIP implies. After all, is the person who tries to meet John MacArthur's "distinctives" , i.e. works, really showing any greater kind of faith than the Muslim who blows himself up in jihad, believing that doing so gains him paradise? What of the Buddhist monks who light themselves on fire for a political cause, thinking they'll be reincarnated? That takes A LOT of faith to bet your life on your beliefs like that.

The core question of the Bible isn't what one does that shows they have the super-faith that the reprobate don't; it's the question of "what is your faith in?". One of my favorite parables to bring up in this debate that shows this plainly is Luke 18:9-14:

9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’
13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; because, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

To me, this Pharisee sounds like many in the church, who think they're a special chosen class of genuine Christians. He did works of faith, he tried to follow the law...he even gave credit to God; but, ultimately, his faith was in himself and his own righteousness. He looked down on other sinners with greater sins than himself. Yet, in the modern church, this man would be looked upon as a great man of God who had "genuine faith", and the Tax Collector would be looked down upon as simply looking for "cheap grace" or "easy believeism". Yet Jesus portrayed this as just the opposite - because it's about what our faith is in.

(BTW, to anyone reading, don't ever call it "cheap grace" - God came down in human flesh, was rejected, tortured, and hung on a cross; paying the highest price for our redemption, just so he can give that redemption away for free. I do not want to be the man held accountable at the Judgement for calling it cheap, as if it was worth less than their works).

And this gets into something else that I think the Lord is showing in scripture - that of what "lukewarm" really is referring to in Revelation 3:16. Aside from the passage in Luke above, there is another humble, yet VERY profound passage in Luke 7, which I find many pastors ignore:

36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat.
37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,
38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke within himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, because she is a sinner.”
40 And Jesus responded and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” So he said, “Teacher, say it.”
41 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
42 And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them shall love him most?”
43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.”
44 Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered into your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
45 You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in.
46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.
47 THEREFORE I SAY TO YOU, HER SINS, WHICH ARE MANY, ARE FORGIVEN, BECAUSE SHE LOVED MUCH. BUT TO WHOM LITTLE IS FORGIVEN, THE SAME LOVES LITTLE.”
48 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who also forgives sins?”
50 Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

Now what her sins were isn't important (many, including me, have speculated), and I think Luke is being gracious in not telling us, because she is forgiven. Needless to say, Simon the Pharisee either knew of her sin or recognized what kind of sin she may have displayed.

What I find profound here in relation to Revelation 3 and Luke 18, is the part emphasized in v.47; when examined in the context of these verses:

Galatians 3:
10 Because, as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, because “the just will live by faith.”
12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them will live in them.”

Galatians 5:
3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the entire law.
4 Christ has become of no effect to you, those of you who are justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

James 2:
10 Because, whoever shall keep the entire law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

Romans 3:
23 because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

John 7:
19 Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?”

The core problem is that no one has kept the Law, and in not keeping the Law, WE ARE ALL GUILTY OF IT ALL. Meaning, that whether the woman in Luke 7 was a prostitute, a lesbian, a sorceress, a drug-user, a murderer, or whatever. WE are ALL bearing the same guilt, as NONE of us has met the standard, that is, the righteous perfection of God. We are all homosexuals, fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners etc., and all those things that people say you have to stop doing in order to be forgiven of doing them in the first place (when they themselves are just as guilty).

Ergo, the core problem with Simon the Pharisee (and modern Pharisees), in light of verse 47, wasn't that he was any less a sinner than the woman, but that he was blind to his own sin.

I say again, THE CORE PROBLEM WITH SIMON THE PHARISEE WASN'T THAT HE WASN'T ANY LESS A SINNER THAN THE WOMAN, BUT THAT HE WAS BLIND TO HIS OWN SIN.

Thus we have Laodicea, who was "lukewarm" (I wonder the actual etymology of that word) in that they thought their riches (products of their works) were evidence of their lack of need from God. In essence, their problem was that they were self-righteous, as blind to their own sin as Simon was. That's why Jesus tells them to go buy salve for their eyes.

And that's why the men who tried to convince Jesus on the basis of their works in Matthew 7:21-23 were "workers of lawlessness", because they weren't wearing the only righteousness that ever met the Law: Christ's, which is attained by faith in Him; their faith was really in themselves and their works.

Just something I have been given, that I want to shout from the rooftops.

(One more thing, I don't think the woman's tears in Luke 7 were "tears of repentance" ie. "turning from sin" in the modern vernacular...I think they were tears of joy. She gave him a gift of very expensive perfume as evidenced by the alabaster flask. Perhaps it was a gift, or type of gift, given to her by a lover, that she gave as a token of her love because she put her faith in Christ as the Messiah who WILL redeem her).

Jesus is the Matrix (Explaining Jesus to gamers):

Imagine a supercomputer that is self-aware, and has given itself the task of creating a virtual world within its logical system, a self-contained MMORPG if you will. In this world, the computer creates other software artificial intelligence, who live and die in the simulated world. To them, it is 100% reality. In the middle of it, the Supercomputer decides to enter into the 'game' itself and live as one of the AIs, is 'born' into the world, and 'dies' in the world (they still exist as data). In fact, all of the manifestations before and after this are also using the very same code, or logic, that was made into an AI in the game and was used to generate the world in the first place. In a way, the manifestation is very much like computer firmware, or software, that is integral to the Supercomputer itself. Is it then an AI, or is it the SC? It's 100% both. This is what Christ essentially is according to the Bible. Jesus is how the SC created and interacts with its creation. Much like how firmware interacts with software on behalf of the hardware - yet the hardware and the firmware are still one and the same, only one is an expression within the system (in this case the universe) and one is outside of it, yet one is integral to the other from the view of the software.



The SC’s ‘Representative AI’ is still, in fact, the SC in AI form. That is what John 1:1-3 and 14 are saying. The Word, i.e. "Logos" or 'Code' that was with God and is God and created all that was made became flesh. Much like a foam cup being set within a foam cup.



The difference is that in our reality, this Supercomputer isn't a material object generating virtual reality, it's a non-material mind that generates the material reality (as quantum physics suggests) that allows us to generate virtual realities using logical data. We call it God.


When we place our faith in Jesus, He writes Himself in us per Galatians 2:20 and Ephesians 1:13-14. We've been encapsulated and moved to his VLAN. 

I know someone who was lying on his bed, and thinking about the sheer magnificence of the hyperdimensionality of God and was "caught up" such that he wondered if it was the rapture. He saw stars all around as if in space, and felt what he describes as the presence of God, which was the most incredible sense of love, joy, and peace he had ever felt. He was there for a moment, and being unsure of his faith, asked God "who is right? Is it the Calvinists? who?" He then "descended" back to where he was.

A year and a few months or so later, he was away on a trip, again lying in bed, listening to some old Latin hymns, and was caught back up into the stars, with the same presence and feeling of love, joy, and peace - he said it made him overwhelmed with awe. This time, he only praised God and thanked Him. He wanted to be closer to God, to be with Him, but it felt like he was being stopped, like something may be in the way, or it wasn't time yet. He again "descended" back.

Yet later again, he had a vivid dream, where he was walking and talking to someone in casual conversation, he remembers specific details about where he was, but didn't recognize the place, only things like that it as early morning before dawn, walking down a hill, seeing an empty parking lot in front of him, a slight morning chill, a sense of trouble with him in the world and a resignation that God would take care of him. As he walked away from the person he was talking to, along a long sidewalk to what looked like a building with gov't architecture, he looked up and felt his spirit and God's Spirit say in unison, "IT IS TIME" and what he felt through his limbs was like electricity, but without pain, and he was lifted up, "raptured" back into the stars and God's presence, before quickly "descending again" and waking up.

He doesn't know the meaning of these things. He says he keeps these "private revelations private". But tells them because he is still trying to figure out their meaning. Maybe it was God telling him that He doesn't need to worry about his place in Him. And maybe the last one was God letting him know some things about when God was really coming. Maybe it wasn't anything at all, but he couldn't imagine that kind of love, joy, and peace coming from a demonic source.

lifting you in prayer socalexile thank you for a truly timely sharing that you have no idea how the words you have written here have validated many a word among this household even in the past 24 hours.

This constant reminder of Faith is the harp to my ears personally. The lesson of the sinner defined rings true. Amen! and thanks for speaking up!

Paul uses two words for "sleep" in his writings. He uses both in 1 Thess. 4 and 5.

In 1 Thess 4, the word is koimaō, like in v.15. This is Paul's word for dead Christians, to differentiate them from the dead unbelievers. In 1 Thess. 4 he uses that word to let the readers know that those believers that are physically dead will not miss the rapture.

www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2837&t=KJV

1 Thess. 5 is where it gets interesting. In verses 6 and 10 he switches to another word for sleep, katheudō, which according to BLB can metaphorically mean "yield to sloth and sin" or "to be indifferent to one's salvation":

www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2518&t=KJV

Why the switch if he meant the same thing as koimao earlier? Read verse 6, it makes no sense if he's talking about physically dead people (unless someone wants to claim that Paul is telling people not to die). He's talking about not being given to sin and instead of being alert for the Lord's return, and it's the same word in v.10:

5:3 Because, when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they will not escape.
5:4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that this Day should overtake you like a thief.
5:5 You are all the children of light, and the children of the day, we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
5:7 Because, those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk are drunk at night.
5:8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
5:9 Because, God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
5:10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

Did you read that? Whether or not we are spiritually awake or yielded to sin, we will be with the Lord!

It's a matter of rewards at the Bema Seat: bible.org/article/doctrine-rewards-judgment-seat-bema-christ

As we yield ourselves to the Lord he will grace us with more joy, peace, and if you study how the tribes of Israel were laid out in the promised land with those most faithful closest to Jerusalem, it MAY determine our proximity to the Lord in the re-creation.