Let us look at verses
32 and 36. These give us a key to the chapter:
"And ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
"If therefore the
Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
That speaks to us of
freedom by knowledge of the truth. You will notice that
the declaration made by the Lord Jesus in these words
about the truth making free, immediately raised in those
to whom He was speaking the whole question of bondage.
Their instant reaction to His words was, that they
repudiated the suggestion that they were in bondage. Said
they: "We... were never in bondage to any
man..." and in so saying they betrayed themselves
very thoroughly. They showed how utterly blind they were,
and they completely justified the words with which this
portion commences: "I am the light of the world: he
that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness."
There is no need for a light, if there is no darkness.
The Lord Jesus made the statement that He was the Light.
He knew right well how deep the darkness was, but they
were not aware of that darkness, and therefore they saw
no need for Him. They were not aware of bondage;
therefore they saw no need for liberation. It is just
wonderful how this whole chapter justifies Him in
declaring Himself as the Light, and as the Liberator,
because of darkness and bondage existing, although they
were unconscious of it.
Thus this chapter
brings out both the fact and the nature of the darkness,
and of the bondage, and then shows the way of
deliverance, and that way is the Lord Jesus Himself. They
said: "We... were never in bondage..."! He will
show four ways at least in which they were in bondage,
and, inasmuch as they did not recognize any one of them,
it is proved how utter the darkness was.
(1)
Bondage to the Law
First of all He will
make it perfectly clear they were in bondage to the law.
In bondage to the law in this way; that that law stood
over them as a master, as a judge, as something from
which they could not get clear, from which there was no
escape, to which they would have to capitulate by
compulsion. They were in that way in bondage to the law.
The first eleven verses of this chapter are a remarkable
parenthesis. We shall see how they form a part of this
general matter. You notice that these rulers brought the
woman taken in sin, and said to Him: "Master, this
woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act. Now
in the law Moses commanded us to stone such: what then
sayest thou...?" Of course, it was an utterly
illegal act of theirs. They had a court, a recognized
court for such cases, where the law was administered.
They had no business to take it away from the proper
quarter and bring it, as it were, to a private person,
especially to One in Whom they did not believe. But man
will do anything with a view to getting an end upon which
he is set, and these rulers were out to entrap Him. They
were trying to get Him to adjudicate, and to bring Him
into conflict with the Sanhedrin, the judicial court. We
leave that, but notice the issue that arises: "Moses
commanded... what sayest thou?" Will He uphold
Moses? If He does so, and pronounces judgment, He takes
the place of the Sanhedrin, and also immediately comes
into conflict with the Roman authorities who, for the
time being, have superseded Moses in the administration
of the law. Will He set aside Moses? If He does, then He
will be implicated in the sin, He will be condoning it,
and will be a party to evil. It looks like a trap from
which there is no escape.
He is sitting in the
temple teaching, and when they bring in the woman, and
make their charge, and interrogate Him He bends down from
His seat, and writes on the ground. They press Him with
their question, and all He says, lifting up His head, is:
"He that is without sin among you, let him first
cast a stone..." and then stoops down again. When He
has been writing a little while He looks up, and they are
all gone; the Word says: "They... went out one by
one, beginning from the eldest, even unto the last."
Do you say they are not in bondage to the law? He has
brought home to them the law they were trying to bring
home to this woman. He has turned the weapon on to the
accusers, and they, who thought they stood well with
Moses, have come under the lash of Moses, and cannot
stand up to the law. If they could have stood up to the
law of Moses, that woman would have been stoned, but they
could not do it; the law judged them, condemned them. How
proven was their state of bondage, when they went out!
We make our application
as we go along. Not only they but all are in bondage to
the law in that way. God has uttered His law, and has
never taken one fragment away from that law. That law
stands! It is comprehensive, detailed; it touches
everything in life and in character. On the one hand
there is a whole comprehensive catalogue of: "Thou
shalt not!" On the other hand there is an equally
comprehensive catalogue of: "Thou shalt!" And
then the whole of both sides is gathered up into one
thing: If you are guilty of breaking the law at one
point, you are guilty of the whole law. If you break down
at one point, you are responsible for all the rest. We
cannot stand up to that. We are in bondage by nature. God
has spoken, and we cannot get away from it. We are
responsible for all that God has made known of His mind,
of His requirements, both on the side of: "Thou
shalt"; and on the side of: "Thou shalt
not." We shall never get away from that, but shall
have to answer for that one day. Every one of us has got
to stand before God, to answer to Him for His law, and
there is no escape. God will bring it home to us sooner
or later, and it will mean condemnation and judgment for
every one. There is only one way of escape, but we are
all in bondage to the law by nature, and we have all to
answer for the law. Is there one who can say he has kept
the whole law, and never violated any bit of God's
commandment? It is not a matter of how many sins. If you
only commit one violation of God's commandment, you are
guilty of all the rest before God. The law is broken, you
are proved a sinner, and you might just as well go the
whole way, so far as your standing before God is
concerned. The fact of sin is established, and, whether
it be sin more or less, it is judgment.
(2)
Bondage to Sin
Then note they were in
bondage to sin. They said: "We... were never in
bondage to any man." He said: ''Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the
bondservant of sin." Only a little while before,
they had been unable to stand up to that, to face that:
"He that is without sin among you, let him first
cast a stone...." These very people have walked out,
and in walking out had admitted they were not without
sin. Now He says: "Every one that committeth sin is
the bondservant of sin." So that they were
self-confessed slaves of sin. Oh! they would not have
said it in word, but it had come home to their
consciences.
Now, leaving these
Pharisees aside, that does not want a great deal of
enforcing, so far as we are concerned. I do not think we
would be in the place of religious Pharisees, who would
in word repudiate any bondage to sin, that is, by nature.
None of us would say that we were sinless. But I ask you;
Have you ever tried to stop sinning? Have you tried never
to sin? Have you started a day, and in starting it said:
I will not sin today? How have you got on? You know quite
well that you are in bondage to sin, and there is no
option about it. It is not something concerning which
you, if you are not saved and in Christ, have the
mastery; it is your master. We know quite well that out
of Christ sin has dominion over us, and we are in bondage
to sin. That is what the Lord Jesus makes quite clear,
and brings home here.
(3)
Bondage to Satan
The third thing which
comes in, is that they were in bondage to the devil.
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of
your father it is your will to do." That is an awful
thing to say, but He proved His case. And has it not
proved that He was right? These religious Pharisees slew
the Lord of Glory, and two thousand years have proved
that they did the devil's work; that the devil was behind
it; that it was not the work of God; and that what He
said, as recorded here, was perfectly true, that they
were of their father the devil, and the works of their
father they did. They were, therefore, blindly in bondage
to the devil.
This is a still deeper
fact lying behind the state of every man and woman born
into this world. They are under the tyranny of God's law,
they are in the bondage of sin, but back of that is the
tyranny of the devil. What we have to recognize is that
we are not merely dealing with sin, powerful as sin is in
itself, but it is Satan himself back of the sin with whom
we have to reckon. You cannot outwit the devil! You may
try to take precautions against sinning, but you will
find that you are up against, not some abstract thing,
but a sinister, cunning intelligence, which can trip you
up just when you do not want to be tripped up; can get
you at the time when you are off your guard, when you are
tired, and unable to stand up. It is all plotted, all
thought out, all worked to a scheme. The devil is back of
this sin business, with his great intelligence as well as
with his great power, and every man and woman outside of
Christ is not only in bondage to sin, but in bondage to
the devil. It is all very well for people to say they are
not going to sin again, that they are going to give up
sinning. They cannot give up the devil like that, he is
not going to be put off so easily. They are not dealing
merely with some habit, something into which they slip
from time to time. They are in the toils, and grip, and
dominion of the devil, and they have not only to be saved
from sin, they have to be saved from him. Even religious
Pharisees were there, in bondage to Satan.
(4)
Bondage to Judgment
Then the fourth thing
is brought to light here by the Lord Jesus, and that is
they were in bondage to judgment. Because of this other
threefold bondage, judgment rested upon them, the
judgment of God. "Ye shall die in your sins,"
but that is not merely going out, ceasing to be.
"...It is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgement," and there is no escaping that.
In bondage to judgment; that is, judgment stands as
master of the situation for every sinner. So you see,
what He said about being in bondage is a very, very great
thing, a thing which is true in all directions. When He
said: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free," and the whole question of
being in bondage came up, instantly they repudiated the
suggestion, the insinuation. He proved His case, and
showed that they were very much more in bondage than they
had ever thought.
Christ
- the Truth Making Free
That is how we are, but
He added: "And ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.... If therefore the Son shall
make you free, ye shall be free indeed." We have
seen the one side, the bondage; now we look at the other
side, freedom by the truth. What truth makes free? There
are several sections to this Gospel by John. The first
section has to do with life, and the second section has
to do with light. Each of these sections circles round
the Person of the Lord Jesus. When he is dealing with
life, the central declaration is: "I am the
life," and when he is dealing with light and truth,
the central declaration is: "I am the light."
So all that is being said focuses upon Him. "Ye
shall know the truth." "I am the truth"!
And it simply amounts to this: Ye shall know Me, and you
will be set free. What does it mean in this respect to
know Him as the truth, and be made free? It is not just
knowing the fact of the existence of the Lord Jesus. It
is not just believing that there is such a Person. It is
knowing what He stands for, what He means.
The
Law Fulfilled, God Satisfied
What is the truth in
the Lord Jesus which stands over against the bondage of
the law, by which we are made free from that bondage? It
is this, that while God never reduced His law by one
fragment, one iota, the whole law was fulfilled by the
Lord Jesus for us. Everyone has been beaten by that law,
but God has never said: "Well, you cannot fulfill
that law; I will let you off." Never! He said:
"You have to face that!" Impossible! Well, what
is the way of escape? God will have His law fulfilled!
The Lord Jesus came and said: "I will fulfill it,
and when once it has been fulfilled, it can be taken out
of the way." It could never be set aside until it
was utterly fulfilled, and so He fulfilled the law to
God's perfect satisfaction, on our behalf. "Lo, I am
come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) to do
thy will, O God." And He did it perfectly, and,
having fulfilled the law and made it honorable, He put it
out of the way, and introduced the dispensation of grace,
so that we sing now:
Free from the law, oh, happy condition!
Jesus hath bled, and there is remission
Cursed by the law, and bruised by the Fall,
Grace hath redeemed us once for all.
The truth in Jesus, by which we are made free, is that He
has satisfied God in the matter of the law. But we must
remember it all hangs upon Who Jesus Christ was. No
ordinary man could do this universal, heaven-and-earth,
time-and-eternity work. Only one who had been placed in a
unique position of universal representation could effect
this.
Sin
Atoned for, Man Justified
The next point is sin.
It is the truth in Jesus over against bondage to sin.
"Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our
behalf...." His soul was made an offering for sin.
"A full atonement he hath made." "But he
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for
our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon
him; and with his stripes we are healed." The truth
in Jesus, by which we are set free from sin, is that He
has dealt with the whole sin question on our behalf, and
that deliverance from the bondage of sin is a full
deliverance in the Lord Jesus, as the Sin-bearer.
Satan
Overthrown, Man Delivered
The same thing is true
in relation to the bondage of Satan. "Now,"
said He, as He went to the Cross, "shall the prince
of this world be cast out." "...The prince of
this world hath been judged." And, reflecting, with
Divine illumination, upon what took place in the unseen
at Calvary, the Apostle says: "He stripped off from
himself principalities and powers, and made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in his cross." And
as the outcome of that the Apostle says: "But thanks
be to God, who leads me on from place to place in the
train of his triumph, to celebrate his victory over the
enemies of Christ" (Conybeare). Calvary was Christ's
victory over the Devil on our behalf, and because of what
He did there, we are set free from the bondage of Satan.
Judgment
Suffered, Man at Rest
Then the bondage to
judgment. If He, of His own free will, without being
personally involved by birth or nature, took our place in
regard to sin, and as under the law, and under the power
of Satan, and then destroyed them all, He has destroyed
the consequences which follow them - judgment. In His
Cross He received our judgment, and the judgment due to
us was exhausted upon Him. The Psalmist, prophesying of
that, put prophetically these words into His mouth:
"All thy waves and thy billows are gone over
me." That was the judgment of God going over His
soul as He represented us. Blessed be God, you and I in
Christ are not to face judgment. It is past for us, but
all these things remain for those outside of Christ.
The
Family of the Free
There is one other
thing which must be noted. "If therefore the Son
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
"If the Son...." It is very impressive how
often that title is used in "John." And,
alongside of it, "the Father." The name
"Father" occurs one hundred and eleven times in
John's Gospel. "The Father," and "The
Son," are familiar terms. Then it is impressive,
recognizing those familiar terms, that you have at the
beginning of "John" so much about being born
again. "But as many as received him, to them gave he
the right to become children of God, even to them that
believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor
of the flesh..." and to Nicodemus: "Ye must be
born again." That is a family thought. There is the
Father; there is the Son; but to be in that family, you
have to be born into it; and "if the Son shall make
you free," that means you are in the family. He
said: "The bondservant abideth not in the house...
the son abideth...." If you are in bondage to the
law, you have no place in this family. This is a family
of the free ones, of the free born. How are we to be set
free from the bondage of sin, to Satan, to judgment? By
being born again. The Son makes free. It is given to the
Son to give eternal life to as many as He will, and we
receive eternal life when we are born again. It is the
gift which Christ, the Son, gives us. It is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. How are we set free? By
being born again and brought into the family. We become
members of a family of those who are free from all these
things which speak of bondage.
If we are rejoicing in
that great liberty which is ours in Christ, our great
desire is that should be the joy of all. If you do not
understand those terms, we will put it this way: You
should know the Lord Jesus in a saving way, and then you
will be set free from the law, free from sin, free from
Satan, free from judgment.
A
Curious Feature
We have noted in
chapter 7 that the general character of this Gospel takes
a turn, and a new aspect of the Person and work of Christ
is introduced. With that chapter the matter of light is
brought in, but when we reach the section which is marked
by chapter 8, this "light" assumes definite
form, and that form runs through to the end of chapter 9.
The first eleven verses of chapter 8, as it will be
noticed, are something in the nature of a parenthesis.
They seem almost like a curiosity. This will be
recognized by the absence of any sense of continuity
between verses 11 and 12. Verse 12 seems to throw back to
verse 52 of chapter 7. Why is this? What is the
explanation of this curious feature? Whether John himself
knew why or not, there is here one more remarkable
instance of a progressive spiritual history being
followed. We shall see this as we proceed.
The
Person of Christ Before the Doctrine
There are two sides
from which this parenthetical fragment can be viewed, the
natural and the spiritual. The natural is that which
relates to the trap which was set for Christ. These
Jewish leaders, seeking to ensnare Him, brought this
woman, as they said, taken in sin, and presented to Him
this query: "Moses commanded... what sayest
thou?" When all the factors are taken into account,
it would seem to be a trap from which escape would be
exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. In laying it
they would consider, if He set Moses aside, there would
be a clear case against Him before the whole Jewish
world, and especially before the Jewish Sanhedrin. Such
an attitude would also involve Him in a charge of Himself
being a party to sin. If, on the other hand, He stood
with Moses, and agreed to, or demanded the stoning of
this woman according to the law, two things would happen.
He would come into collision with the Roman authorities,
who for the time being had superseded Jewish law, and
then also He would bring a very large social feeling
against Himself, for morality had become very lax, and it
would be difficult to be popular, if such extreme
measures were applied in such directions. There may have
been other features, but, on the face of it, this seems
to be a reasonable interpretation of what was going on.
The probability is that the latter alternative is the
weaker surmise, and that, inasmuch as so often He had
taken a place of superseding Moses with His: "...but
I say unto you..." they would be content to get Him
into moral implications of seeming to condone this sin,
against which Moses had so severely prescribed.
With this trap before
us, and - as they who laid it might think it to be - one
from which there is no escape, we are able to see why the
Spirit of God has placed this incident where it is, when
to the human mind it appears to be so unconnected with
the narrative. In three ways it serves the main purpose
of bringing out the glory and greatness of Christ. Before
we consider those three ways, let us notice, first of
all, that it does stand at the threshold of a new
section, and it is not so much a mere incident that
becomes the focal point of attention, but the Person.
This reminds us that it is the Person Who is always
presented first, before the doctrine, and that all that
which follows emanates from and works back to Him. This
is a law which governs everything in the Scriptures.
Teaching is never something in itself, and we are not to
be governed by a system of doctrine, however high and
good. What is essential is that everything shall be
related to the Person, for it is the Person Who makes the
doctrine live, and Who governs it. Apart from the living
presence of the Lord in our lives, the teaching resolves
itself into something merely theoretical.
Now, as to the
above-mentioned trap, and the three ways in which the
main object of John's Gospel is served by it.
The
Superiority of Christ
Firstly, there is the
escape from the trap. This escape is magnificent. It is
not merely cleverness. Mere cleverness would simply
resolve itself into extrication from a difficulty, but
here the issue is so much more far-reaching, and leaves
standing tremendous moral and spiritual factors, which
challenge the world, and especially this religious world.
It is not merely that those who sought to capture Him
have been frustrated in their purpose, or disappointed of
their object; they are left with something to think
about, and that something for them raises the ultimate
issues between themselves and God.
Then secondly, as being
a part of those issues, something has been done, which no
one but Christ could have brought about. Meet any of
these Jewish leaders in the course of daily life, and
seek by argument or by accusation to bring home to them
conviction of sin, and to precipitate the effect of such
conviction, that is, a slinking away under condemnation -
such a thing would have been impossible. They were so
utterly satisfied with their own righteousness. Were they
not the people, God's chosen, possessing the
oracles, within the covenant? Were they not always
thankful that they were not as other men were? No!
nothing could have been a more thankless task, than to
try to bring sin home to their consciousness. But here it
is done, and they themselves have provided the very
ground for it. No one but the Lord Jesus could bring home
to Jewish hearts condemnation because of sin. Here we
see, what we have said above, to be so true; that it is
not doctrine, the philosophy of Christianity, the
morality of the Christian religion. Such would utterly
fail in cases like these, but the whole question of sin
and condemnation is related to the Person; "and this
is the condemnation, that light is come": "I am
the light...."
A
Change from Law to Grace
The third thing which
inheres in this parenthetical fragment, is that of the
change of the dispensation. From time to time as we have
moved through the chapters of this Gospel, we have
remarked upon the fact that chapter 1 is the seed-plot of
the whole Gospel, and that what is there in fragment, is
developed subsequently. This is true with regard to the
passage under consideration. In chapter 1, verse 57, we
have: "The law was given by Moses; but grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ." What an example of that
is here. They said: "Moses commanded...." That
was the law, and by that law this woman ought to die. But
how magnificently through Jesus Christ grace and truth
came in. But for this there would have been no escape for
the woman, so far as the law was concerned. But while
grace does not condone sin or make it less sinful, grace
provides a way of forgiveness and salvation. The law was
turned back upon the heads of these Jewish leaders
themselves, and smote them in condemnation; grace found a
way of escape for this one, whom they had sought to
destroy on the ground of having violated the law, and yet
concerning which law they themselves are proved not
guiltless.
Proceeding further into
chapter 8 we find that, with this which we have mentioned
standing at its threshold, it contains an emphasis upon
the fact that Christ is the Light, that man by
nature is in darkness, that darkness means bondage, and
that liberty comes through knowledge of, and obedience to
the truth. Christ is here set forth as the revelation of
God, and as such He is the Truth; therefore the knowledge
of Him, and obedience to Him, is the way of liberty and
of light.
Christ
Writes on the Ground. God Writes in the Dust.
Various interpretations
have been given to Christ's act of stooping down and
writing on the ground. Some have thought that He was
writing the sins of the Jews. Others have been content
with the simple explanation, that He was merely showing
contempt for the accusers of this woman in their
contemptible conduct; or, at best, indifference to their
attempt to catch Him.
May it not be there is
something deeper and richer than this in His conduct? His
actions were always so full of meaning, and seeing that
He was the perfect embodiment of the Gospel, may we not
expect to be led by this act - seeing that it was so
deliberate and repeated - to some larger eternal reality?
God has written His mind in dust more than once in this
world's history. Indeed, this has been His deliberate and
chosen way. In Adam He wrote an expression of Himself. In
Moses the finger of God wrote Divine thoughts on tables
of stone. These were objective expressions of the mind of
God; that is, they were something outside of and apart
from God Himself. In His full and final expression He, in
grace, stoops right down to men to associate Himself with
them, and in humanity gives an expression of Himself for
their salvation first, before judgment. This stooping
down is revealed in the letter to the Philippians,
chapter two. From God-equality to man-likeness, and
deeper yet He has stooped to deliver from the curse of
the Law and the death of sin. He has written in the dust
of this earth, for all - this woman taken in sin, and all
others - that "There is... no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus... the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus made... free from the law of sin and of
death" (Romans 8:1,2). "God... hath... spoken
unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all
things..." (Hebrews 1:1).
What an inscription!
What dust! What grace and truth! "...He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father" (John 14: 9).
He could well afford to
seem indifferent to the Law and its exponents, to have no
interest in their case (as some have interpreted His act)
when He well knew that with Himself had come, securing on
the one hand a perfect satisfying of God in man
representatively, the Law fulfilled and its regime ended,
and on the other hand a dispensation of grace: a
transition from the outward to the inward, from the
transient to the permanent, from the earthly type to the
heavenly reality. It is all in the deepest meaning of
Sonship.
Chapter 9 following is
really a part of this one thing, and while it introduces
several extra factors, it becomes a grand object-lesson
of the truth enunciated in chapter 8. We shall,
therefore, pass immediately into the next chapter.