Before we spend a whole week on one heavy command — "Thou shalt not commit adultery" — we need to be established in grace. Because when you dive into a heavy verse without grace underneath you, the weight can crush you. So we start where Jesus started: not with a stone, but with grace. There is a woman in John 8 who was caught in the very act of this exact sin. Watch what He does — and let it be the ground you stand on all week.
They dragged her to Jesus — "taken in adultery, in the very act" (John 8:4). Guilty. No defense. The exact sin we have been studying all week. The law said stone her, and the men in the courtyard had rocks in their hands. They wanted to know what Jesus would say. He stood up and said one sentence:
"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." — John 8:7 (KJV)
And one by one, the rocks hit the ground. "And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last" (John 8:9). Until it was just Jesus and the woman, standing in the middle of an empty courtyard.
"Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee." — John 8:10–11 (KJV)
Stop and feel the weight of that. The only person in that courtyard who actually had the right to throw a stone — the one truly without sin — laid His down. That is the whole gospel pressed into five words: neither do I condemn thee.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." — Romans 8:1 (KJV)
So before the weight of this command ever lands on you this week — hear this clearly. Jesus is not standing over you with a rock. He stepped between you and the stones, and He took them. And even your turning back to Him — your repentance — isn’t something you have to manufacture on your own; Scripture frames it as His gift to give (2 Timothy 2:25; Acts 11:18). He did not even leave the woman standing in the dark. His very next words were, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). He came not to condemn, but to save. So bring the guilt out of hiding.
But Jesus did not stop at pardon. In the same breath, He said something we cannot leave out:
"Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." — John 8:11 (KJV)
Grace and a command, side by side. Pardon that points you forward. And right here is where a lot of people get it twisted — the teacher who takes the phrase "under grace" and turns it into "sin all you want." So look at what Paul actually says:
"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." — Romans 6:14 (KJV)
"Under grace" does not mean sin can no longer be named. It means sin can no longer be your master. Grace breaks the chain. Paul even asks the question straight out — "shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?" — and answers it with two of the strongest words in Scripture: "God forbid" (Romans 6:15). Because grace doesn’t merely forgive the adulterer. It remakes him. Listen to how Paul says it to a church that had people exactly like the woman in John 8:
"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." — 1 Corinthians 6:11 (KJV)
Adulterers are right there in Paul’s list a verse earlier — and then: were. Past tense. Washed. Sanctified. Justified. That is not a tweak; that is a new person.
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." — 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
So "go, and sin no more" is not God handing you a willpower assignment and walking off to see how you do. The same grace that pardoned you is the power that changes you. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). You don’t white-knuckle your way out of the cell — you walk out free, because He made you new and He will finish what He started: "he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it" (Philippians 1:6).
Don’t take the pardon and stay in the cell. The Judge who had every right to condemn you took your place instead — and then opened the door.
"Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more."
