When Jesus Comforts the Accused
In John 8:1-11, we find the story of the woman caught in adultery. After her accusers drug her before Jesus in the temple, and after Jesus confronted them with their own guilt of sin, they turned and walked away. In verses 10 and 11, Jesus spoke to the woman for the first time, comforting her. It’s worth looking at their interaction because, at some point in our lives, we might find ourselves in need of comfort amid accusations, and John 8:1-11 shows us the kind of Defender we have in Christ.
In John 8:10, Jesus stood, looked at the woman, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Commentator Colin Kruse points out that this is the first time in the whole episode that anyone addressed the woman. They dragged her in, accused her of adultery, and demanded her death, but until then, no one spoke anything to her.
Jesus did not start with her sin. He started with her accusers. Isn’t that interesting—and just like him? When she answered that none of them condemned her, Jesus said something amazing in response. “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
How can Jesus say this? Well, in a way, he could say it because now that everyone is gone, there is no real case against her. The charges are dropped, as it were. But there’s a more puzzling question. The scribes and Pharisees weren’t totally wrong. If the law is violated, doesn’t that demand punishment? Shouldn’t Jesus act justly? Is he ignoring the law?
Well, notice what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “You aren’t guilty.” The last thing he tells her is to sin no more. He’s not saying she’s innocent. But he doesn’t condemn her. Isn’t that interesting? Jesus is the most holy person that exists. He can’t overlook sin because if God overlooks sin, that is a real problem. How can there be any justice in the world if God overlooks sin?
Here’s where we get straight to the very heart of Christianity. Christianity says that we are guilty, but we aren’t condemned. How can that be? If we are guilty, we must be condemned. Justice demands it. If we are truly guilty, there is no way around it. Try telling parents whose child is murdered that there is no condemnation for the murderer. They would be outraged, and rightly so. So, how can Jesus say this? How can we be guilty but not condemned?
Perhaps the most amazing verse in the Bible, Romans 8:1, says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Here’s how we can be guilty but not condemned. Only if we’re in Christ. It can only be true if Jesus takes our guilt for us. It only works if 2 Corinthians 5:21 is true. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Only if Jesus takes our guilt and our sin and pays the price for us can we not be condemned. It’s only true if Jesus is condemned for us. The guilt and sin don’t just disappear. The penalty must be paid. Someone must pay it.
We can only be guilty but not condemned by the law if Jesus upholds the law for us. Jesus can only not condemn this woman now if he’s going to be condemned for her later, and that’s exactly what he will do. Jesus knows she should be stoned. He wrote that law! As God, he does demand perfect holiness from his people. But as Savior, he knows that cannot come apart from himself. Instead of throwing the first stone, he will let stones be thrown at him. Instead of her being crushed beneath the weight of their blows, he will suffocate upon the cross under God’s wrath for her sin. Jesus didn’t condemn her then because he would be condemned for her later. That’s why Paul says in Romans 3:26 that God is both just and the justifier—he is just, and no sin will go unpunished, but for his people, he is also the justifier, the one who sets things right on the cross. That’s the only way this works. He can only forgive because he will pay the penalty himself. That’s the heart of Christianity.
Left before Jesus, the only one who really could condemn her, she finds a rock she didn’t expect to receive—the rock that will be struck for her, the cornerstone that becomes a new foundation for her life. If she found that, you can too. This is not a one-off story. One of the things that makes this so powerful is that this is the normative way Jesus works. We don’t see this only here in John 8. We see it throughout his interactions in the Bible.
Throughout the gospels, we see Jesus moving toward sinners and sufferers in ways that shock and surprise us. Jesus shows us that God’s heart isn’t trigger-happy to condemn. In Luke 7, When the woman of the city (likely a prostitute) poured ointment on Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair, and kissed them, the Pharisees were repulsed, but Jesus welcomed and forgave her for her many sins. In Luke 19, Jesus ate with Zacchaeus the tax collector. When the friends of the paralytic brought their suffering friend to Jesus in Matthew 9, Jesus didn’t even wait for them to speak. When he “saw” their faith, he told the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven,” and the paralytic got up and walked out. As Jesus traveled and saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. He taught them from God’s law but bent down and healed their diseases (Matt. 9). Jesus stood outside Jerusalem and wept over them. Throughout his ministry, we find the truth of Isaiah 42:3, “A bruised reed he will not break; a smoking wick he will not put out, till he brings forth judgment to victory.” He brought forth judgment to victory on the cross. He will not break us. He will not put us out. He was broken for us. He was put out for us.
The thing that pours out most naturally from Jesus’s heart is compassion for the undeserving. In his book Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund says it this way: “Time and again it is the morally disgusting, the socially reviled, the inexcusable and undeserving, who do not simply receive Christ’s mercy but to whom Christ most naturally gravitates. He is, by his enemies’ testimony, the ‘friend of sinners’ (Luke 7:34).”
When you come to Jesus “caught in the act,” you expect the full weight of the law to crash into you. It’s what you deserve. But with Jesus, you get what you don’t deserve. You are guilty but not condemned because he was condemned for you. All you have to do to receive that is receive that. Just open your empty hands of faith and accept his cleansing blood. That’s the scandalous grace of the gospel.
Jesus comforted her by not condemning her, but he didn’t stop there. Verse 11 says, “Go, and from now on sin no more.”
We must remember this. Jesus did not merely say, “I don’t condemn you.” He also said, “Sin no more.” True Christianity is both the full grace and forgiveness found in Christ and a call to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him. It includes both melting before his grace and stepping into the obedience he calls us to. He forgives, and he challenges. But notice the order. It’s so important to remember the order. He could have said, “I won’t condemn you if you don’t sin anymore.” But he didn’t say that, did he? His grace comes first, and that grace empowers obedience.
This is how we know Jesus really loved that woman and how we know he loves us, too. If he only forgives and doesn’t care how we then go and live, does he really care about us at all? If he only sends us back into the same lifestyle that got us dragged into accusation, pain, and potential death, would he send us back after forgiving us? Is that what you would do to someone you love? Of course not. Real love is loving someone enough to help them change into who you know they can be. Jesus loves like that. That’s why he calls us to obedience. He wants us to be like him; we can’t do that unless we obey him. But we can’t obey him—not truly—until we’ve been changed by his grace and mercy. Don’t mistake the order, and don’t mistake his love for you. Real grace forgives us completely, and real love calls us higher. Only in Christianity do sinners become saints. Heaven will be filled not with the deserving but with the undeserving.
Two Applications
Now, how does this passage help us? I think in two ways—personally and corporately.
First, personally.
Perhaps no sins result in as much shame as sexual sins. It’s not just what we act out, it’s also the thoughts we have. When Jesus added insight to the law in his Sermon on the Mount, he said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:27-28). Are any of us not adulterers? We are more like this woman than we want to believe. Who among us is qualified to throw stones? We ought to be stoned. Many of us feel so broken, unworthy, and even sometimes repulsive to God. We might even wonder if we’re even Christians.
Well, when your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart, and he knows everything (1 John 3:20). You are not repulsive to Jesus. You do not shock him. Jesus came to save people like you. He wants you to know that. He wants you to experience the cleansing he can give.
Hebrews 4:14-16 says we have a great high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. He calls us to draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Here’s what that means. It means that if Jesus is really a savior—if he’s not just a mentor, or a self-help guru, or an example, or just a judge—if he’s really a savior, he will get down in the mess with you, and save you in time of need because he perfectly understands you. He will be there in the grossness, the desperation, the deepest temptation, and the hottest part of the battle. He is not just a counselor for the after-party when the high has worn off. He’s the hero running into the war with you. His throne is not the bench to approach to pay your fine after the infraction. His throne is a wartime walkie-talkie that you can call when the battle gets hot. He’s there for the dark moments, the moments you don’t even like to think about. He’s there with grace and mercy. He is not aloof to your real life, your real sins, the real you.
Jesus was tempted as we are but remains perfect and sinless, so he knows the real cost of holiness. And his perfection is not a platform from which he condemns but from which he saves. As Romans 8:34 says, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” When you are caught in the act, he won’t condemn you because he was condemned for you.
Your most desperate need when you are most desperate is not to get your act together so you can come to him; it is to simply come to him and receive from his deep wells of grace upon grace. Only then will you even have a chance at getting your act together. Don’t take your problems to the law; take them to the gospel. If you go to the law, you will get justice, which will crush you. That’s its job. But if you go to Jesus, you will find that the law has been fulfilled on your behalf in him, and, therefore, you can find, from his fullness, grace upon grace (John 1:16).
Second, here’s how this helps us corporately.
If the only person who had the moral perfection to throw stones at the woman didn’t, let’s be very careful about picking up any rocks. Sin is serious, but it is no match for Jesus’s cleansing blood. Let’s always remember the heart of Jesus for sinners and sufferers. If we are to make an impact at all in this judging and condemning world, we are going to do it by stepping into the grace of Jesus together. We are going to do it by laying aside our weapons—stones or otherwise—and coming together to find the mercy of Christ for us. I don’t know about you, but I have enough of my own sins. I don’t need to go looking at yours. I have enough need of the cleansing blood of Jesus for myself to keep me on my knees for a while. Don’t you?
We have two options. We can become a community that radiates the beauty of Christ so profoundly that condemnation is only something we know we’ve been saved from, not something we’re looking to bring upon others, or we can become a community that is so hard to please even Jesus himself wouldn’t be welcome. What kind of community do we want?
By God’s grace, we can cultivate a gospel culture where Jesus is our greatest love. Where sin isn’t safe, but sinners are. Where we take each other to the gospel and not the law. Where we together boldly approach the throne of grace to find the help we need. Where we treat no sin too lightly nor too heavily because Jesus commands real obedience, but he forgives the worst we can do because he paid the price. And because he paid the price, we don’t have to. Let’s not ever make anyone pay for what Jesus already paid for. Let’s love him together, and let’s see what only he can do.
