How can a holy God forgive the guilty?

In John 8:1-11, religious leaders drag a guilty woman before Jesus and demand she be stoned — hoping to trap Him. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt shows how Jesus answers, and how the gospel solves an impossible problem.

Dr. Holt frames the scene around a “divine dilemma”: God is just and must punish sin, yet how can a just Judge forgive the guilty? The leaders think they have cornered Jesus — if He frees her, He ignores God’s law; if He condemns her, He breaks Roman law. Instead Jesus says, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone first.” One by one, the accusers leave. Jesus does not excuse her sin; He tells her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” The dilemma is answered at the cross, where justice falls on Christ instead of the sinner.

Questions this study answers:

1. What was the trap set for Jesus? Either answer seemed to doom Him — condemning the woman broke Roman law, freeing her seemed to ignore God’s law. Jesus escaped both without compromising truth.

2. What is the “divine dilemma”? God is perfectly just and cannot ignore sin, yet He desires to forgive sinners. How He does both is the heart of the gospel.

3. How can a holy God forgive the guilty? Justice is not waived but satisfied — at the cross, where Jesus bears the punishment so sinners can go free and “sin no more.”

“Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” — John 8:11 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the John Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.

[gentle music] On the day Jesus walked into the temple in Jerusalem, he was walking into a trap. Scribes and Pharisees, who'd been angered by Christ's teachings, had come up with a plot to snare him. Specifically, they brought a woman caught in adultery in order to see how Christ would handle it. In today's sermon, we'll see our Lord's response, along with the grace he offered to the woman involved.

The divine dilemma. Now, what is the divine dilemma? The divine dilemma is this: God is good. Why is that a dilemma? Because you're not. The divine dilemma says this: God is just, but here's the problem: you're guilty. God is compelled by his nature to render justice to sinners. Guess what? You and I, and every man, woman, and child breathing would fall under that condemnation. The great divine dilemma is this: how can a just judge forgive sinners? Now, that's not a small problem. There's a verse in Proverbs, Proverbs 17:15. It says this: "He who justifies the wicked is an abomination before God." Proverbs 17:15, the very word of God says this much, that he who would justify a wicked man or woman is an abomination before God. Do you see the problem? He who would justify sinner is an abomination in the eyes of a holy God who hates sin. Now, why is that a problem? It's a problem because it puts into conflict two things we know, that God is holy, God is just, and that God will do right. The just judge will render justice, and yet, if he does so, you and I cannot stand beneath it. We would be crushed. What's the resolution of this? If God is a just judge, he has to deal with sinners. You're a sinner. [tapping desk] What is the door? What is the mechanism? What is the way? What is the route? What is the path by which we can escape the condemnation that we are due, the divine dilemma? In today's text, we're going to attempt to address that dilemma, and we're going to address it through John 8, verses 1 through 11, that speak to the sin of an individual, a woman caught in the very act of adultery, an act that Leviticus said warranted the death penalty. And people are going to peddle this woman who was caught in the act, who was guilty. Her guilt's never in question, going to place her right before the God of all creation, a holy, wise, and just God who's committed to doing justly. And they're going to say, "All right. All right, Rabbi, teacher, you know what the law of Moses says about such as this woman. What do you think we should do about it?" Now, we're going to find that this is a trap, and yet, at the same time, it's a trap that we need to be able to reconcile. How

can Jesus forgive this woman if he is just? How can he forgive you if he is just? That's what we're going to address. All right, let's look at verses one and two once again, and then we'll work our way through the balance. Verse one. "Now Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him, and he sat down, and he taught them." All right. In today's text, Jesus is back in Jerusalem. In the past few weeks, we've seen him up in Galilee. We've seen him up to the north. Well, here he is back in Jerusalem. In fact, he's in the very temple itself, which is kind of fascinating. What was the purpose of the temple? What did the temple exist to do? What do you think? Any thoughts? It existed to glorify God, right? Like everything else. Every molecule in the created realm exists to glorify God. How much more so the temple that was built for his praise and his adoration. The temple existed to glorify God, and the coolest, most interesting thing there is that at this moment in time, God himself came within the temple walls, dwelt within the temple, and began to teach the people in the temple. Verse two says that he went there not necessarily just to heal, do miracles, although he did this at different times and different intervals. But in today's text, he did that which he often did, that which he principally did, and that was to open his mouth and to teach. And as we said before, that's usually where Jesus got into trouble. When Jesus went around healing and providing miracles and feeding 5,000 with the bread and the fish, everyone loved him. People would run across the countryside to get some of the free loaves and the fish and all that sort of stuff. When he was healing people, they would chase him down in order to get some of that healing. Understandably. He was the miracle man in their eyes. The problem was that when he started talking, they often ran. Remember last week's study? We saw this, that Jesus begins to teach. Jesus begins to speak and instruct even his own disciples, and he says things that are so hard and so difficult for them to understand and grasp, that the overwhelming majority of his own disciples, not Pharisees, not pagans, but his own disciples, left him when he started to talk. Why? Because they had some idea of what he should say and what he should believe and what they wanted to hear, and when he didn't say things that conformed with what they wanted to hear, they said, "We're going the other way." And that would happen time and time and time again. If all he did was do miracles, there never would have been a cross in his future. But when he spoke, people heard what he said, and quite often they didn't like it, and it brought about persecution. Well, here he is. He's teaching. He's teaching in the temple in a place of great visibility. So if you're part of the Jewish Sanhedrin, if you were part of the Jewish leadership, an aristocrat in Jerusalem, one whose own authority and position is somewhat threatened by this guy who's rolling into town, even into our temple, and he's saying things that don't fly, don't mix with what we're saying. And he's healing people. He has no business healing. He's doing all these sort of things, and he's sitting with sinners and tax collectors and thieves and liars and the like. What are we going to do about this? What are we going to do? Well, they concoct a plan. Aha! They concoct a scheme. This is no accident. This is no accident. There's two traps that go on. Number one, they trap this lady. They concoct this scheme by which they're able to perceive the sin that she's engaged in in such a way as to time it that they can bring her straight to his door. So we see that, and they bring this woman in right at the moment that he's teaching and instructing the faithful. So there is, in verse one and two, Jesus has the crowd riveted to his every word, and that is not an unusual thing. Even when he was a child, you remember when Jesus would come into the temple that one occasion, his parents were wondering where he's at. He goes in the temple as a child, and he asks questions, and he has interaction with the adults that boggled their minds. They marveled. They were astonished at his wisdom and his understanding. With that said, here, the adult Jesus has the same impact, probably even greater so. Everyone's riveted to his word, but then the trap is sprungLet's see what happens in verses three through six. Verse three, "Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to him, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act thereof. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say?'" Again, this is not an accident. There's a double trap in some way that the text doesn't allude to, in some way, the time, the circumstance, to be able to bring her in with the idea that we're going to catch him, we're going to catch him, we're going to trap him in something he cannot escape. We're going to put a conundrum before him that he cannot get his way out of. And we know that that's the case, because in verse six, what does it say? "This they said in order to test him, in order that they might have something with which to accuse him." You understand this? This is a trap. I believe that they trapped this woman. They created this situation. The timing is just almost too perfect. Can't say that dogmatically, but I would believe it to be true. But we know at the very least this much, that they're trying to trap Jesus. They're trying to trap him, trying to get him to say something by which they can accuse him. Accuse him to who? To themselves? They already believe he's guilty. Who do they want to accuse Jesus to?

Rome. To the empire. Why? Let's talk about that. So verse six says, "This they said, testing, that they might have something with which to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger, as though he did not hear them." All right. As we said a few moments ago, everything in verses three through five just reeks of a setup that is intended to put Jesus in a corner. First of all, again, the circumstances, they'd found or potentially orchestrated a capital punishment-worthy offense. Secondly, they brought only one of the two guilty parties. Interesting, only one of the two. One of the two guilty parties they brought to Jesus while he was teaching in this public place. This was a violation of Leviticus 20, which we'll see in a moment. And thirdly, then they ask him for a verdict. So they bring one of the two parties in the circumstances that really seem odd, but one of the two parties, they bring the party in while Jesus is teaching. Not just while he was down having a sandwich or something, but in a place publicly, where he would be put on the spot and that everyone would be able to hear him. If he said something wrong, they did this in a public setting because they knew it. In the temple, in public, if he says something that violates our laws or Rome's laws, we've got him because everyone would have seen it. So then they ask him, they set up the trap, and then they spring it by asking, "All right, Jesus, what should we do with her? Come on, Jesus, what should we do? I mean, she's guilty. She did it. We caught her in the act," and that was necessary. Which is, again, part of why you think this isn't an accident that they caught her. But they caught her in the act. They say she's absolutely guilty, that her guilt is never contested once in this text. And they roll her in front of him and say, "All right, what are we going to do?" And their idea was that there's no right answer. Kobayashi Maru, there's no winnable circumstance, no setting by which Jesus can hope to escape. That's their idea, and they were so pleased with themselves. You can just imagine the scheming and the like that they had. "Oh, we've got him. We've got him here. He can't get out of this. Because either direction he goes is going to irritate someone, and everyone will hear it, and then we can pounce." Now, why was there no right or clear answer? Why was this such a trap? Why was either answer going to get Jesus into trouble? Well, let's say for a moment that he agreed. He said, "All right, she's guilty. Bring on the stones." Right? Let's say that he agreed with the Mosaic law in this case and said stoning in this case, at this time, the circumstance is warranted. Let's get it on. Let's say he said that. Let's say they stone her to death right there. Who would he be in trouble with? Rome. Why? Well, think about it. Why didn't the Jews just kill Jesus? Why did they ever go to Pontius Pilate? Why did they make this case that Jesus needs to be dealt with? Why'd they go to Rome? Why didn't Caiaphas just say, "Off with his head"? Why did they go that route? Well, they went that route because Rome's decree over its vast lands was this, that those that Rome governed could not engage or enforce capital punishment apart from Roman due process. See this, Rome reserved the right to put people to death. They said, "We are governing you, Israel, and so in this matter, with regards to capital punishment, we're not going to allow you to just knock off your adversaries and your foes on your own with trumped-up charges. We're going to make sure that those that you accuse are brought before us so we can get a finger on the pulse of what's really going on." That was one of the best ways to make sure there's no weird conspiracies of people just disappearing under Israel's judicial system, is that Rome said, "We will be the final arbiter." Because that way, they could better understand what was happening and how to govern the populace there in Jerusalem. So if Jesus had said, "Yep, let's stone her," the problem is that Rome said you can't do that. And if he had gone down that road, then he would've been in trouble with Rome, and they could've accused him to Rome. They could've accused him to Pilate and the local Roman government. Now, on the other hand, let's say that Jesus says, "I am a loving and forgiving Jesus, let her go." Now, if he had said that, done that right then and there, what would the problem there be? Well, in their mind, the problem was obvious. The problem is that that's in violation of what Leviticus 20:10 says, which is this, "The man who commits adultery with another man's wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall both be put to death." Again, it's fascinating that they had rolled in one of the two. She was caught in the act. Presumably, the guy was caught in the act too, right? Presumably, if they were in position to capture her, they would've been in position to capture him, but they didn't. So they were selectively enforcing this judgment. All the more reason why it's very possible this was a trap that they had for this woman. Whatever the case is, they think that Jesus is now in a quandary that he can't walk his way out of. There's no miracle, there's no snapping the fingers and making the bread appear that's going to somehow overcome the problem that they've placed before him before the eyes of the populace in the temple itself. They think that they've got him. So how would Jesus respond?Well, initially

he didn't. What does he do? What does the text say he does initially? He stoops down, right? And he begins to write something on the ground. He stoops down as if he's not hearing them, as if he's a little disengaged from their nonsense over here, stoops and starts to write. Now, what did he write? Short answer is God only knows. We don't know. We have no idea what he wrote, and there's a lot of people who try to guess what it was that he wrote. We really don't know. It's one of those fascinating mysteries. It's one of the many questions I want to ask on the other side, right? But we know this much. Whatever he was writing, whether he was just doodling, drawing stick figures, or whether he was writing words, whatever he was writing, it was in the purview of those watching. They saw what he wrote, and we know they were impacted moments later in some significant way because it says their conscience is going to convict them, and it might not be just by what he says here, it might also be by what he wrote. They're rolling this woman, and this is one of the many speculations that exists with regards to what he wrote. But they're rolling this woman, they say she's an adulterer, she deserves stoning. What if he looks these guys in the eyeball? And there just in the dirt, writes down their sins. Liar,

heretic, thief. What if he looked them in the eyeball and began to write down that sin which most convicted them? What if he did that? We don't really know. But again, we know this much. What he did in that moment was significant to its original audience because they saw it, and in a few moments here, they're going to depart, in part because of what he'll say, but very possibly because of what he wrote. Now let's look at verses seven through nine. "So when they continued asking him, he raised himself up and he said to them this, 'He who is without sin

among you, let him throw a stone at her first.'" Now, this is brilliant because what it had the effect of doing is it reversed the trap. See, Jesus did not deny the law of Moses here. Not a bit. They were listening for that. They were listening to see if he would deny the law of Moses. He doesn't. He does not do that. Rather, what he suggests is that they're not fit to enforce it. You see this? They're not fit to enforce it, and notice his words cut to their conscience. Probably not because that's the only thing he said, but very possibly because of whatever he wrote. Whatever the case is, he looks up and says, "You want her to die? You want her to die on the basis of a sin that she's committed? All right.

You who are sinless amongst this group, you fine people, you aristocrats and scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees and all the elite among you, let the one of you who is without any sin, any sin on his radar or in his history, let him be the first. Pick up one of the stones and strike her down."

Now, if you were in that group, would you be in a position, if that was the criteria, would you be in a position to pick up a stone?

Not in the least.

If the situation was reversed, I could just as easily be the one standing before Jesus with the crowds chanting for my death. Whatever the case is, they're convicted. Their conscience convicted them. Jesus didn't fall prey to either of the directions they wanted him to go. He did something brilliant. Part of the reason I believe in the authenticity and legitimacy, inspiration of this text, because the way Jesus handles this, it's inspired from on high. He turns the trap back on them. They recognize what's happened, and then they depart. And notice there in the text the way in which they departed. Who departed first? The oldest. Those with the little gray hair. Why? Why did the oldest departed first? Well, again, we don't know for certain. We don't want to be dogmatic, but

is it not possible

that if they were convicted of conscience, which is what the scripture absolutely says, if they were not convicted of conscience, that those who had the greatest baggage, the greatest backlog of sins, those who had lived the longest and therefore sinned the most, would be the most convicted at that time? Meanwhile, the young Turks here, so to speak, the young folks among them, perhaps those who were more brash or bold, perhaps those who had less baggage at this time, they were the last to leave. However, they all left.

They all departed. And then we see there in verse eight that after he stooped to write on the ground, they heard it, they were convicted of conscience, they went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even last, and Jesus was left alone

and the woman was standing in the midst.

Finally, she has this one-on-one moment, this encounter with Christ. As a side note, be careful how you judge others.

In the eyes of heaven, your sins are an open book, warranting the same judgment that you would gleefully at times render to others. If you go to the beach, you go to Jones Park, you go to Walmart, and you see someone with eight nose rings, and I don't know how many can fit, but you got all manner of different things going wrong. A graduate of Bad Life Choice University walking there through Walmart or Jones Park or what have you.

When you look at such a one, if your first instinct is to be judgmental, not just judgmental in the sense of, "I think I'm going to let you go over there and I'm going to stand over here," but judgmental in the sense of thinking, "That person deserves what they get," that's dangerous, because that's what the Pharisees were doing. A better approach when you look at someone who is clearly broken and as lost as lost can be, is to look at such a person and say, "You know,

if it were not for the grace of God, I would be in the same predicament. There but for the grace of God go I." That's the right disposition when you see others who sin in the culture around you. It's not to rush in like, "I can't wait to judge such an individual." Rather, we say, "If it weren't for God's grace in my life and what He's already forgiven of me and what He knows about me, what He's done for me, if it wasn't for the grace of God, I'd be in no different situation." All right. Let's look at our last verses, verses 10 and 11. Verse 10. "Now when Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, 'Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?'

And she said, 'No one, Lord.'" She only speaks three words in this text. "No one, Lord."

And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I. Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more."There's two mistakes we can make with regards to the woman that we see in this text. The first can be what the Pharisees did. We can be too quick to judge her, and others like her, even in our own day and our own culture. We can be too quick to judge such a one. On the other hand, a mistake you can also make is to be too quick to exonerate her. Now, it goes without saying, we're sort of rooting for this woman here because we see ourselves in her, even if our sins are different. We're sort of rooting for this woman because we know that she's subject to the schemes and the plots of the Pharisees. Boo. You know? The guys with the tall hats and the thin pencil mustaches and like, "He he he." These guys trapped this woman, so our heart goes out to her. We say, "Oh, I want her to be able to survive all this and succeed in life and the like." But the truth is, no matter what we think about this woman, no matter how we might see ourselves in her, the reality is she is guilty, and we can be too quick to want her exonerated or too quick to believe she should be exonerated. Again, this gets back, as we close this morning, to the divine dilemma. The divine dilemma is that, yes, we might want to root for her, but she's still guilty. So the question is, the question remains, if she is guilty, if she has sinned, if she has broken the law of one greater than herself, if she has broken the laws of a thrice holy God who is committed to enforcing His own justice, otherwise is not a just judge, if she has done this, how in the world can He spare her, let alone invite her onto His golden shores? And to the same point, how can He do so with you? Again, your sins may or may not be different.

I'll tell you this much, they're numerous. Our sins are numerous, and God is holy beyond our imagination. Even our righteousness is like filthy rags. You get that? Even our righteousness, even the things we think we do that are really nice and kind and gracious and patient, even our righteousness is like filthy rags before this holy God. How in the world, if He's a just judge, if He's holy, and if He's good, can a good God look at stinking sinners like us and say, "Come on in. I'm going to take all this stuff you did, and we're going to sweep that in the broom closet of heaven. Come on in." How can He do that? Again, He cannot. To use the anecdote that's most familiar in this case, let's say someone was to go in your home, steal your car, drive it off a cliff, burn your house down, harm those that were most important to you in your world, and then that person's caught, and that person is brought before a judge, just downtown here. And let's say that judge was to look at this person, who clearly did these things, who clearly burned your house down, stole your stuff, harmed your family, and he looked at this person, and he goes, "You know what? You done bad, but I'm a loving judge. And so I forgive you. Walk out those doors scot-free. Just don't do it again." Now, how would you feel? If it had happened to your loved ones, your stuff, how would you feel? Well, I know the answer, and so do you. You would feel that that judge had abdicated his responsibilities. You would say that judge is not just. Right? The one thing you expect of the judge down in the county courthouse, the one thing you expect is that that judge will render justice. These things are synonymous, that the judge will render justice. And if the judge lets the guilty go without consequence, without payment, then justice has been abdicated. And if you saw that, your response would be to say, "That's not fair. That's not right. We need to get rid of that judge and put someone in the role who will uphold justice." Would we not believe that? Would we not desire that? If so, why in the world would we expect God to do anything different?

The divine dilemma.

God is good, you're a sinner. How is that resolved? It's resolved in what we've just seen. Jesus says, "Neither do I. Neither do I condemn you. Is there anyone here to condemn her?" She says, "No, not one." He says, "Neither do I. I do not condemn you, but I will be condemned for you."

See, that's the gospel. The gospel is that we have a problem. We are sinners. We have sinned more times than we can count. The wages of sin is death. We deserve not just the stoning. We deserve the fiery pit. That's what we deserve. But the good news for this woman in today's text, and the good news for us this morning is this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You see, in this sense, justice was rendered. Justice was rendered for everything you've ever done and everything you're yet going to do. Justice is rendered. How? It was poured out, but it was poured out on someone other than you. This is the gospel. You have a problem. You have sinned. You've broken God's laws, but God's solution to that problem is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He looked down upon us standing in the law place, and the judge, so to speak, came down from his seat, took the noose, and put it around his own neck. And in that way, judgment occurred. In that way, enforcement, penalties, consequences existed, absolutely. It wasn't just swept into the cloak room in heaven. Justice has been rendered, but the good news, the hope, the joy that we have this morning is that the judgment due your sins was poured out on someone other than you. And it could only be poured out upon one who was sinless if it was going to be an effective propitiation or payment for your sins. And that's just what happened. Jesus looked at this woman and says, "Woman, the wings of refuge enfold you. The everlasting arms are spread around you. And I will endure the cup of God's own wrath, my Father's wrath poured out, that would otherwise fall upon you. You're mine, and I'm yours. Go and sin no more."

This morning, if you stand in that truth, if you believe and you profess and say, "I trust that His work is perfect, that if I were ever to go to heaven, if I were to go to heaven today, and if I stand before Him, I'm not saved on the basis of anything I can point to that I've done, but rather, I can point to Him and what He has done." If that's your faith, if that's what you believe, then the good news is this, that that's the singular basis by which you are saved. And there's nothing, nothing you might do tomorrow that will ever rip you out of the hands of the one who's forgiven you. There's nothing that we might ever do that will cause God to fall out of love for us tomorrow. Because when He adopted you into His family, when you became a child, a son or daughter of the Most High God, that's permanent. And from now on to eternity, amazing grace 10,000 years from now and 10,000 years beyond, that will be our status. So that's our hope. That's our joy. That's why we're excited. That's why I'm excited this morning, because I know this and I believe this to be true. But at the same time, remember this as we go out these doors. What did Jesus add to the woman? He says, "I forgive you. I forgive you, but go," and what? "Sin no more."

See, the right response of a heart that has been forgiven, the right response of you and I this morning, we who have been forgiven at the greatest cost that's ever been poured out or paid for any transaction in the history of mankind, those of us who've been forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ poured out for our soul, should respond by going and sinning no more. Not that we're going to be perfect today or tomorrow or even in the next hour, but we should, as a walk of life, say, "You know what? Jesus gave it all. Jesus paid it all. Jesus did everything. Jesus lived the life I should have lived. He died the death I should have died. I'm going to honor Him in that by going and making choices that are different than I made today, that I made yesterday, that I've made in my past." Go and sin no more. Pray for the grace to do so this week. Let's pray.

[gentle music] To search through an archive of Dr. Holt's previous sermons, please visit us at fpcgolfport.org, or you can look us up at sermonaudio.com.

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