The second thing light does is causes seeds to grow. This is what’s happening to the blind man, spiritually speaking. The light of the knowledge of Jesus shines upon this man who had been born blind, and what you find in his story is rapid growth. And let me point out also, briefly, that this is the new section of the Gospel. In the first section, chapters 1-4, Jesus is revealing himself to others as the light. Then in the second section, chapters 5-8, you have hostility growing up against him. You see the light is shining and now the creatures of the darkness don't like it. They're fighting him, initially over the Sabbath question. But what they really don't like is that his goodness is exposing their evil, and so you have that building up. The great climax of that is in this horrible story of their trapping the woman, in the eighth chapter, and then a discussion at the end of the chapter where Jesus points out that they're really children of the devil.

Whatever the sins of those who would come in faith and believe on him, he died for all of them. He died for the sin of adultery, for murder, for pride, for anger, for arrogance, for rebellion, and for every other sin that we can and do commit. All those are the sins for which Jesus died. When Jesus, in compassion, stands before you and says, "Neither do I condemn you," it's because he bore that condemnation himself. That's the gospel, you see, and that's what these legalistic teachers of the law never understood. This is not to say that the law isn't important. The law has a great purpose. It's given by God. It points out our sin. It shows we need a Savior. But the law doesn't save. That's why Jesus Christ came, in order that he might save you.

Those accusing this woman of adultery had to have seen every single detail. How would you ever accomplish that? How would you ever get witnesses to see the very act? The only way that could possibly have happened is that it must have been a setup. You have to have had your witnesses there ahead of time. You had to put them in the room, hiding behind the drape or station them at the door, peeking in the keyhole. It couldn't have happened in any other way.

This week we are looking at a story from John 8. Before we go on to look at this particular encounter, it might be helpful to give a brief outline of John’s Gospel up to this chapter where this famous story is found.

She said, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” So you notice that Jesus began to talk about that. He did not tell her that he wanted to go back to the previous topic of her relational life. He let her change the subject, but he talked about it in terms of the revelation of the way to come to God, on which the Jews rather than the Samaritans were correct.