Week 2    Day 3

    Listen:

The Woman Caught in Adultery

John 8:1-11

And 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 sitting down He taught them.

And the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman taken in adultery, and standing her in the midst, they say to Him, Teacher, this woman was taken committing adultery, in the very deed. And Moses in the Law commanded us that such should be stoned; what then sayest Thou?

But this they said, tempting Him, that they might have reason to accuse Him. But Jesus, stooping down, with His finger wrote in the earth.

And as they continued asking Him, He stood up and said to them, He who is without sin among you, let him first cast the stone at her.

And again stooping down, He wrote in the earth. And they, having heard, and being reproved by conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the elders until the last; and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

And Jesus, standing up and observing no one but the woman, said to her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Has no one condemned thee?

And she said, No one, Lord.

And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more.

Apocalypse Explained 222:7

This makes clear what is signified by the Lord’s writing with His finger in the earth in John 8:1-11.

The Lord’s “writing in the earth” signifies the same as in Jeremiah: “They that depart from Me shall be written in the earth,” namely, that they also were condemned on account of adulteries. Therefore, He said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” The Lord’s writing twice in the earth in the temple signified their condemnation for adulteries in the spiritual sense. For the Scribes and Pharisees were those who adulterated the goods and falsified the truths of the Word, thus of the church; and “adulteries” in the spiritual sense are adulterations of good and falsifications of truth... Therefore that nation was also called by the Lord,

An adulterous and sinful generation (Mark 8:38).

Apocalypse Explained 815:5

One of the ten lepers that were healed by the Lord, who was a Samaritan, returned and fell upon his face at the feet of Jesus; and Jesus said to him, Arise, go thy way; thy faith has made thee whole (Luke 17:15, 16, 19).

In the same [gospel]: Jesus said to the blind man, Thy faith has saved thee; and immediately he was able to see (Luke 18:42, 43).

In Mark: Jesus said [spoke] to the disciples, when they were unable to heal a certain man’s son who had a mute spirit. Jesus said to the man, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believes. The father of the boy, crying out with tears, said, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief; and [the boy] was healed (9:17, 23, 24).

There were three reasons why faith in the Lord healed these people: first, because they acknowledged His Divine omnipotence, and that He was God.

The second [was] because faith is acknowledgment, and from acknowledgment contemplation; and all contemplation from acknowledgment makes another to be present. This is a common thing in the spiritual world. So now, when a new church was to be established by the Lord, it was this contemplation, from an acknowledgment of the Lord’s omnipotence, from which they were first to look to the Lord; and from this it is clear what is here meant by faith.

The third reason was, that all the diseases healed by the Lord represented and thus signified the spiritual diseases that correspond to these natural diseases; and spiritual diseases can be healed only by the Lord, and in fact by looking to His Divine omnipotence and by repentance of life. This is why He sometimes said, “Thy sins are forgiven thee; go and sin no more.” This faith also was represented and signified by their miraculous faith; but the faith by which spiritual diseases are healed by the Lord can be given only through truths from the Word and a life according to them. The truths themselves and the life itself according to them make the quality of the faith.

previous		next