If I were the woman, I might say, "Lord, thank You for Your forgiveness, but how can I sin no more?" This is why chapter eight goes on to show us how to be freed from sin. In this chapter the Lord told us three times that He is the great I Am who can set people free from sin. In verse 24 He said, "Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins." Verse 28 says, "Jesus therefore said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, and that I do nothing from Myself, but as My Father has taught Me, I speak these things." Then verse 58 says, "Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I am." Seemingly, the Lord was mistaken in grammar. He should have said, "Before Abraham came into being, I was." But with the Lord there is just one tense—the present tense. With Him there is no element of time. He does not say, "I was." Instead, He says, "I am. I am forever. I am in eternity past. I am in eternity future." This great I Am not only will forgive you but also will set you free from sin. John 8:32 says, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." Then verse 36 says, "If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed." As the I Am, the Lord is the One who is able to free us from sin.

In the age of grace, Christ is qualified to forgive and redeem judicially. He is also qualified to set us free from sin organically. This is the proper shepherding. In our vital groups, we need leaders who know how to shepherd sinners who need the forgiveness of sins and the setting free from sins. If all the saints practice this kind of shepherding, the vital groups will be flourishing. When the Lord Jesus was teaching in the temple in John 8, He was shepherding a lost sheep in sin who was shamefully caught by the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees. He shepherded her first by telling her that He did not condemn her. Then He shepherded her further to free her from sin.

In chapter nine there is the Lord's shepherding of a blind man in religion. After the Lord healed this man, the Pharisees said to him, "Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner." But he responded by saying, "Whether or not He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see" (vv. 24-25). The Lord shepherds us by forgiving our sins, setting us free from sin, and opening our eyes to see. If we are not certain about the divine things, that means we are still blind and need our eyes opened by the Lord.

The Lord Jesus revealed in chapter ten that He is the Shepherd, the door, and the pasture (vv. 11, 14, 16, 7, 9). The door is for people to go in and come out. When they come out, He is the pasture to them. That means He is a feast for the shepherded sheep. Christ was the door in the Old Testament age for His people to enter into God's economy by being kept in the custody of the law. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and their descendants such as David, Solomon, Isaiah, and Jeremiah entered into the fold of the law in a positive sense. Christ, the Messiah, was a door for the positive Old Testament saints to go into the God-prepared fold to be kept there until He, the Messiah, would come in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, Christ was the door to go in. In the New Testament, He is the door to come out. One of those who came out was the blind man healed by the Lord in John 9.