Devotional John 8: The Adulterous Woman and the 'I Am' Declaration Reflection on John 8, where Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, forgives the adulterous woman, and reveals His divinity before Abraham. Topics: Devotional, New Testament.

Devotional John 8: The Adulterous Woman and the ‘I Am’ Declaration

Today’s devotional is found in the Book of John, chapter 8, and is a continuation of the previous chapter.

Synopsis: To add a little context, in the chapter before this, Jesus did not want people—including His brothers—to know that He was going to the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. He knew that they were trying to kill Him and could not let it be known that He would be present. So He asked all His brothers to go to the feast and said He would remain in Galilee. But He still went in secret. And during the time He was in Judea, He also went to teach in the Temple, and the crowd followed Him. Seeing this opportunity, the scribes, elders, and Pharisees went after Him to arrest Him. But they could not do so because His hour had not yet come and they lacked sufficient evidence. Still, in today’s chapter, they tried once again to test Him using the Scriptures—more specifically, the laws of Moses. They brought with them a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. Using the laws of Moses, they put Him to the test by asking: what should be done with the woman caught in adultery? Jesus, while writing on the ground, asked them if any of them who was without sin would cast the first stone. And one by one, they all left. Furthermore, in this chapter, the Pharisees and scribes constantly questioned Jesus’ authority to do the things He did, to the point of questioning the eternal life Jesus promised them if they believed in His word. They told Him that all who gave them the word died (i.e., Abraham, Moses, and the prophets) and asked, who do You think You are? Are You greater than our father Abraham? How can You say You have seen Abraham when You are not even fifty years old? It was here, in this chapter, where Jesus answered them that before Abraham was born, ‘I Am’—which is the name God used to refer to Himself to Moses. Then, they picked up stones to stone Jesus.

Observations

In this chapter, I noticed two main points:

1. We cannot condemn anyone for their sins, for we are neither perfect nor worthy to do so. The Judge of the universe is God alone, not us. Furthermore, it is precisely this attitude that draws us away from God, as we believe we are morally superior to others when we try to condemn them. We forget that all sins separate us from God, regardless of how small they may seem to us. In other words, before condemning others, we must look at ourselves, repent, and follow Jesus, because we walk the very same path as other sinners when we do not repent.
2. In this chapter, Jesus unequivocally asserts that He is not just any man, but indeed God Himself, as He was eternally present before, during, and after creation. And it was precisely because He declared Himself to be God that the Pharisees and others obtained the pretext to crucify Him on the charge of blasphemy.