The Pharisees and the Scribes wanted to find out the Lord in error, and sought to make Him contradict either law or grace; and seeing that Jesus did not answer their question, they urge Him to pronounce a judgment. But Jesus takes their very law, which they wished to use against the woman, and applies it to them all, so as to condemn them all; and then, when all are condemned and convicted in their own conscience, He exercises grace towards the sinner. Thus God always does with all who cite the law. You want a little of the law, but I will apply it all; and the result is that every mouth is stopped, and all are by the law placed under condemnation. These leaders of the people were not sincere, they were worse than the woman herself, because they wished to entrap, had it been possible, the Lord Himself in a fault. Their conscience convicted, they go out one by one, beginning with those who had most need to sustain their reputation in this world. People condemn gross sinners, but their state was worse than that of the woman. When man applies the law, out of the presence of God, he can be satisfied with himself if he has not committed gross sins; but when he applies it in the presence of God, in the light, then it is another thing-it exposes a quantity of evil things which before he did not believe. So Paul thought himself blameless when he looked at the law in the face of men externally; but we see in Rom. 7 that when he applied all the law to his own state internally, he saw his case was desperate.
At verse 12 Jesus is presented as the “Light of life.” Life alone is not sufficient down here; we need the light to guide us in this world in our new life. The light with the law can but condemn, but the light with the life directs the Christian in his holy walk. When we have Christ, we have light to walk. From verse 13 Christ’s word is rejected. At verse 23 it is said, “Ye are from beneath,” that is from the power of Satan and this world; Jesus was from heaven. At verse 32 The truth sets man free. Those who are under law are under sin; the law cannot deliver, rather it is the strength of sin (1 Cor. 15:56); and if I have Christ, I have strength for good. The Jews were in the house of God, but they were there as slaves, because they were under law, and consequently they were driven out as slaves from His house. It is difficult for man to believe that to be under law is to be under sin, because the law is good, but man does not know himself. But if he seeks to be freed from sin, it is then he finds out the impossibility of it. It is only in Christ we are freed from sin.
At verse 55 the Lord accuses the Jews of being liars, children of the devil, because they said they knew God. How many men are in this state, saying, Our God, our Father,’ while yet they know Him not? Christ’s day spoken of, verse 56, is the day of His glory, when He will be manifested to men. At verse 58 He takes the name of “I Am;” that is the name of God Himself; wherefore the Jews take up stones to stone Him, but as His hour was not yet come, He saved Himself from them.
In this chapter, then, we see that men have rejected His word; in the next chapter they reject His work. What immense goodness in God to bring before them still the works after they had rejected His word! So also in Heb. 2 we see the same thing for Christendom, the word of God conferred by the apostles, and then the miracles of the apostles that accompanied the word (2:3, 4). Great is the responsibility of those who reject the Word of God, since if those who disobeyed the law received a just retribution, how much more will they be punished that reject the Gospel?