Lessons from John 8: Introduction to John 8

As most of you know, my son Matthew and I had the opportunity to travel to London and Rome with his homeschool group as part of their studies of Christendom, the beginnings of Christianity, and its spread.

One of the things we needed to take with us was a special power source in order to connect with their electricity to charge our iPads, cell phones, blow dryers, and curling irons. And with no special power source, we would not be able to use our electronic gadgets.

In fact, though I was able to borrow a blow dryer that was designed for such travels, I was not as fortunate to find a special source for my curling iron. It had two different size prongs, one being a little larger than the other. So I went without!

Now, if you knew how crazy curly or wildly big my hair is you would be concerned for me!

Well, what’s my point in all this?

Spiritually speaking, there is only one true power source and that source is Jesus Christ.

There is no other way to receive salvation, light, life, and freedom.

And as we have seen throughout our lessons in the book of John, as Jesus revealed Himself, we find two distinct groups of people.

There are those who truly believed Jesus was who He claimed to be and left their old ways of living. They embraced the new life that Jesus had for them. These were people like the 12 disciples, the woman at the well, Nicodemus, and now in John 8, a woman caught in adultery.

Then there were others who refuted Jesus and rejected His claims of equality with God.

Yet, there were others in this chapter who were in a state of uncertainty. Even after hearing Jesus’ words, and His claims, they made no commitment. They struggled to understand Him or His words, which were plain and true.

Many today struggle with these same issues. Because to accept Jesus, they have to accept the truth about themselves, uncomfortable truths. Jesus and the truth of His Word does that!

Jesus and His Word exposes us for who we really are inside!

He knows our hearts and He is wise to our thoughts! Nothing is hidden from His sight! All is exposed as it is before Him.

Jesus is the light that exposes the darkness of our hearts and our world.

How do you respond when His light shines on your life? Do you allow Jesus to shed the light of His truth in your life, daily exposing the darkness of your sin? Or do you try to run and hide? In other words, does Jesus and the truth of His Word bring you freedom or fear?

This, my friends, is what we are looking at in John 8 as Jesus continues to make Himself known to the people, and to us.

Terri Hamman

Faith & Fitness Coach