John 8

Here's the Chapter: http://www.esvbible.org/John+8/

The first story in John 8 was not originally part of the Bible but was added later and certain Bibles place it in different locations. In the story, the Pharisees bring a woman who has committed adultery in front of Jesus and asks Him what they should do with her. They are trying to trap Him because if He says to stone her, He's going against what He Himself has been going around teaching, but if He says don't stone her, then He is going against the teachings of Moses and the Holy law. This doesn't throw Jesus off at all. Instead, He began drawing on the ground with His finger. What exactly He wrote or drew is a complete mystery and the topic of much theological debate. He tells them, in a famous line, that the person in the crowd who has not sinned may throw the first stone. Meanwhile, He just continues to draw in the sand, and some people believe that He may have been writing out the sins of those in the crowd on the ground because He proved already that He is still all knowing, despite His human form. Jesus proved in saying the well known line that there aren't degrees of sin. All sin is the same to God because all sin ultimately is is separation from God. In the end, all the people leave, and Jesus asks the woman one of His famous rhetorical questions that He uses to make a lesson. He asks if any of them condemned her. She replies that they didn't, and they all left. Jesus then tells the woman that he doesn't condemn her any more than the crowd was able to because forgiveness in the key to Jesus' entire being. Then He tells the woman to go and stop sinning. He knows that command is impossible for any person to successfully complete, but He needs us to at least put forth the effort.

Jesus goes back to talk again with the Pharisees. He again attempts to tell them who He is, and they call Him false because He testifies for Himself. Jesus tells them that the Father has testified for Him, but they are too spiritually blind to see it. He tells the Pharisees, the men most educated in the ways of the Lord that they do not know the Father because if they did, they would love Jesus. Again John mentions that the jews wanted to arrest Jesus but couldn't because it was not His time yet. Again Jesus says He will be leaving and no one there can go with Him. He says this because He will return to God's side in Heaven, but the Pharisees, by refusing to believe in Him condemn themselves to Hell. They still don't understand Him, so He even breaks it down that they will die, but implies that He will not because He comes from above, and He will return there because He is not of this world. He tells them He knows a lot about them and a lot that He could condemn them for, but God is true and doesn't want Jesus to condemn them. In this life we are not to condemn those around us. Jesus says that He can only say what the Father has taught Him, and He can only please the Father. At that moment, many people in the crowd believe in Him, and Jesus tells them that if they believe in Him they are His disciples and the truth will set them free. Today, this is still true, all believers are Jesus' disciples. The crowd tells Jesus that they are not slaves, so they can't be set free. He tells them that anyone who sins is a slave of sin. We have all sinned, so we are all slaves to sin, but we can be freed by Jesus Christ. Jesus again says that if they love God, they should love Him because God sent Him. Then He says that they are children of the devil, and that the devil is a murderer and a liar and doesn't know how to do anything else. And they don't believe Him because He speaks the truth. He mentions for the first time that He is sinless. Nobody can testify anything against Him. He is innocent, which makes His death truly a sacrifice; He had no reason to die, yet He died and took on all of the world's sins: past, present, and future. He speaks again of eternal life, and the Jews say that He is possessed by a demon because everyone, including Abraham and the prophets all dies, so Jesus can't be that special. He says that He doesn't glorify Himself because then His glory would be nothing. Instead, God glorifies Him, but He tells the Jews that they can't see that because they do not know God. He continues by saying He's seen Abraham, and Abraham was glad that He was coming. The crowd thinks this is preposterous and ask Him how he could have seen Abraham when He is not even fifty years old. Jesus tells them that He is the I Am. THIS IS HUGE! That is the name God uses for Himself when Moses asks Him His name. And Jesus calling Himself that is equivalent to Him calling Himself God. This makes the Jews so angry that they pick up stones to throw at Him, but He disappears and sneaks out the back of the temple.