Sunday Sermons
Go and Sin No More
The reader will have probably already noted that there is some question in various circles concerning the genuineness of John 8:1-11. The NASV in the side reference notes, “John 7:53-8:11 is not found in most of the old mss”. This has moved some commentators to completely ignore these passages, yet there is good reason why the translators decided to keep these verses in the text. Foster notes, “Although the American Standard Version carries the footnote stating that ‘most of the ancient authorities omit John 7:53-8:11’, yet the majority of the translators of the A.S.V. finally cast their vote in favor of the passage. This means that the translators attached great importance to the presence of the passage in so many of the early versions which were made from Greek manuscripts far older than any Greek uncials we now possess” [1] While many ancient Greek manuscripts do not contain the passage, it is still found in a good number of manuscripts. The Latin manuscripts, many of them very ancient, are almost solidly for the passage. Writing in the 4th century A.D., Jerome said concerning this passage that it was contained in “many, both Greek and Latin codices.” Various writers offer an explanation as to why this passage found itself omitted in so many manuscripts. Augustine, a contemporary of Jerome, says that the passage had been omitted by men of weak faith or by enemies of the true faith who feared that the passage might lead to low morals (De Adulterinus Conjugiis, II: c7:III). Foster offers the same theory, that at an early date a copyist misunderstood the teaching of the passage and omitted it. The copyist mistook “neither do I condemn thee” as an approval for adultery. “Later copyists, seeing that one of the manuscripts did not have this passage, became troubled over it and omitted it, or put it doubtfully at the close of the book” (Foster p. 798). And yet, in spite of human imperfection, God has preserved His word (Matthew 24:35).
“He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her”
This has been probably one of the most misused texts of Scripture. People use this verse to justify their silence in reference to things that are clearly wrong and erroneously believe that they will not be condemned, if they accept every one else’s sins. “It would be very perverse to attempt to universalize the declaration of Jesus, for it would prevent the maintenance of law and order. If it required perfect people to pass judgment, then no judgment could ever be rendered against any criminal” (Foster p. 806). Jesus is not justifying adultery (Matthew 5:28,32) and neither is He saying that only sinless men can judge others(Matthew 7:1ff; John 7:24; Ephesians 5:11). Jesus’ statement demonstrated that these men were not as eager as they claimed to carry out this command from Moses, and neither were they morally competent to do so. The Law made it clear that the witnesses were required to carry out the stoning (Deuteronomy 17:7). Jesus is not saying “He who is absolutely sinless let him throw the first stone”, for that would have made the Law completely impractical. God did not require perfect men to carry out His punishments, yet these men in John 8 were far beyond “imperfect”, at the present they were plotting His murder. They had violated the Law by not bringing the man with whom this woman had been involved. “The issue now was not whether the Law of Moses should be respected and obeyed—the Lord, in contrast with these Jews, gave the law its proper place and fulfilled it—but whether these hypocritical pretenders were the proper representatives of it and possessed of the moral competence to carry it out” (Woods p. 164). I believe that it is also important to note that Jesus is not inferring that each one of these men had secretly wanted to commit adultery and that they were just as guilty as the woman who had actually committed the act. They were just as guilty, but their sin was in another realm.
John 8:11 “I do not condemn you”
Jesus is not downplaying the seriousness of her actions, for He will attach the term “sin” to the lifestyle that she had been living. Rather Jesus is saying, “neither do I condemn you to death”. God is fair. In the absence of qualified witnesses to the crime, the execution was not to be carried out. Barclay notes, “In effect what Jesus was doing was not to abandon judgment, and not to say, ‘Don’t worry; it’s quite all right.’ To put it in human terms, what He did was to defer sentence. He said, “I am not going to pass a final judgment and a condemnation now; go out, and prove that you can do better’” (p. 8).
“Go”
I am impressed with the simplicity of Jesus’ solution to this woman’s problem. Stopping the sin in her life did not mean that her life would be over. She still had a life to live, and it would be a wonderful and enjoyable life without the sin. In contrast to the thinking that claims that when the sin stops, the fun stops, Jesus knew that this woman could have a life without the sin.
“From now on sin no more”
What a refreshing statement! Please note that this woman was caught in the act of adultery (8:3), and adultery is not something that people just casually embrace. There are strong and deep desires or needs that move people into this sin, yet Jesus knew that this woman could from this day forward live without this sin. Our culture especially needs to hear this simple solution, for we live in a culture where many people no longer believe that they can successfully resist what the Bible labels as sin. I recently read a letter in which a widow spoke to a young homosexual man who was complaining that following the Bible would demand that he deny his feelings for other men. She quickly pointed out: 1. Look 10 times at the Bible for every one time at your “inner voice”. We must take the Bible’s word for it and not our feelings (Proverbs 3:4; Romans 3:4; John 17:17). She also reminded this young man of a very important truth. The sin of homosexuality is not the only sin that must be avoided. She said, “I am happy today that I am a widow because I am able to talk to you about self-denial from a position of some credibility. Know that it is not only 20-year-old men with attractions to other men who must deny themselves for the sake of Christ” (World Magazine, 8-2-2003, p. 35). I do not feel sorry for the young man who must give up his homosexual relationship, or the adulterer who must abandon his mistress, for everyone, without exception, must deny sinful desires of they are going to please God (Titus 2:12 “instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires”). There are many sinful desires that must be rejected and it is unreasonable when a certain group of people in our culture argue that giving up their particular sin is more difficult or impossible. Self-denial in any area is painful (Galatians 5:24), but it is clearly “do able” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). The homosexual community seems to be arguing that their desires are far more ingrained, deeper, and thus legitimate, but such is an insult to every other sinner who has repented, as if repenting and abandoning their favorite sin was nothing and easy.
“No More”
The sinful activity can actually be stopped! One is not destined to fall back into a particular sin time and time again. I know that our culture often argues that once a person falls into a particular sin, they will never get out, but Jesus disagrees. The drunkard can actually stop, to the point that Paul could say, “Such were some of you” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Notice that Jesus did not spend days, weeks and years with this woman in order to help her out of her sin, He simply sent her on her way. This is something that she could actually do without His constant physical presence.
Preventing Repentance
If this story had originated in today’s culture, some would argue that Jesus’ command is unreasonable, for how is this woman going to earn a living without being a prostitute? Our culture has been very successful at setting up roadblocks around the idea of genuine repentance. It is often argued that repenting of a certain sin is unreasonable because it would bring family and economic hardships, such as in the case of two fornicators who would lose a significant portion of their monthly social security payment if they married. Notice that Jesus considered all such considerations as completely irrelevant to the issue at hand. Stopping the sin, the sin that can draw us down to an eternal hell at any moment—that is the most important issue! (Matthew 5:29-30).
In the news recently has been the development that the Episcopalians, in the diocese of New Hampshire, have just elected the first openly homosexual bishop anywhere in the worldwide Anglican community. This has resulted because in the religious world there is definitely a growing pro-homosexual theology that argues that since many homosexuals claim they’ve always been attracted to people of their own gender, homosexuality is inborn, created by God, and therefore the passages that condemn this sin are irrelevant in today’s culture. This is a clear example of placing human opinion above the word of God, and viewing the feelings of sinners as infallible while claiming that God does not know what He is talking about (Jeremiah 10:23; Romans 3:4). But allow me to deal a little with this issue of claiming that one has had a certain sinful desire from birth. First, no one can remember all their feelings and what has transpired in their life all the way back to day one. So it is an exaggeration to say that “I have been this way from birth”. People also need to be careful about claiming that they have always had a certain sinful desire from day one, because such accuses God of sin, for He is the creator of our bodies and souls(Genesis 1:26). If a sinful desire has been in our heart going all the way back to childhood, then you need to read Psalm 58:3 “They wicked are estranged from the womb; these who speak lies go astray from birth”. Early sinful desires are not inborn, rather, the presence of those things simply proves that from an early age such a person was embracing selfishness and wickedness. Paul makes it very clear that he was not born sinful (Romans 7:9), and Isaiah clearly preaches that there is a time before a child knows the difference between good and evil (Isaiah 7:16).
True Freedom
This woman clearly had many problems in her life to be involved in adultery, yet notice how the chance to repent and the command to repent “sin no more” was the most important thing she needed to hear. Even Christians can get into the practice of complaining (James 5:9), but in light of the fact that we have been forgiven and we are going to heaven, all of our problems should shrink by comparison (Romans 8:18). Christians at times wonder why God allows them to suffer even though they are being faithful to God, and among the other reasons, one explanation why God allows us to suffer is because compared to the problem that the world has (facing eternal woe), many of our earthly problems are really nothing. The fact that we are forgiven should remind us that all our present problems are small and temporary (Romans 5:9-10).
