The Woman Caught in Adultery

["Click here for John's account"]

These verses are recorded in the King James and the Living Bible Translations of the Bible. They were added at a later date and were not part of the original text. But it is such a beautiful story that I think we should study it and see how it's truths apply today.
After the Jews attempted to arrest Him, Jesus dismissed the crowds and each went to his own house. Jesus and the Disciples left Jerusalem and went up on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. Early the next morning, He came back into Jerusalem and entered the Temple. Sense the Scribes and Pharisees could not arrest Him the day before, they now sought to entrap Him, to catch Him in "blasphemy", a sin worthy of death, thus they could rid themselves of this troublemaker once and for all.
They brought to Him a woman who had been caught in adultery. The Law was clear, the woman was to be stoned to death. "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery." Now the Law of Moses commands that she be stoned to death." "What do you say about this?" What do you say about this? We have learned to live with the reality of adultery. Some Denominations believe that it is an unforgivable sin, others do not. But like everything else, it is the same today as it was at the time of Christ.
What were the alternatives? She was to be stoned to death, as the Law said. This would have gotten Him off the hook this time as far as the Pharisees went. But... What about His teaching of "forgiveness" and "compassion". He could say to the Pharisees, forgive her for this is the intent of the law and this would comply with His ministry of forgiveness. But in reality, He did neither. He seemed, for the moment, to not even hear what they asked Him.
In reality, Jesus not only heard their words but also perceived their thoughts. He stooped, and with his finger, wrote something in the dust. We are not told what He wrote but whatever it was, it did four things:

It showed the wisdom of thinking twice and being slow to speak.
It made them all the more vocal in pushing for an answer from Him.
It turned the thoughts of the Pharisees from the guilt of the woman to their own guilt.
Finally, it may have given them a false security which only increased the impact of His words when, at last, He looked up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."

Notice what those words accomplished. He neither condemned nor upheld the Law. He pronounced neither guilt or innocence upon the woman. The Law, as recorded in Deut. 17:7 says, the hand of the accuser must be first upon the accused. He then stooped again to the ground, giving the accusers an opportunity to contemplate what He had said and when He looked up, He observed that all of the woman's accusers had turned and walked away.
Then Jesus turned to the woman and asked, "Where are your accusers?" "Does no man accuse you?" Respectfully, she replies, "No man, Lord." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I, go and sin no more." Why didn't Jesus condemn this woman who obviously was guilty of adultery? Matthew Henry suggests two reasons:

Because He had not gotten involved in "secular" affairs.
Because those who accused her were more guilty than she.

These reasons were probably true but I believe that, in His infinite wisdom, he saw in her a hope of forgiveness and forgave her with the command, "Go and sin no more." Someone had suggested that there are only two kinds of sin, forgiven sin and un-forgiven sin. All have sinned, all are sinning and all will sin. The difference is whether or not it is repented and forgiven sin.

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