John 8:17 Commentary and Bible Study

Why did the Lord say ‘your law’? Surely it was his law too. He had come, he said, to keep the law and to fulfil the law. But here he says ‘your law’, because he is referring to the way in which they looked at the law and interpreted it. They did not look at the moral components of the law; their lives were quite immoral. They looked only at the ceremonial and procedural parts of the law. They wanted to keep the ceremonies so carefully; it was as though God would reward them for that and overlook their moral misbehaviour. They wanted to follow the procedures: If a person has committed such-and-such an offence, this is the precise punishment. So Christ says, ‘It is also written in your law,’ the part that you emphasise to the exclusion of the other, ‘that the testimony of two men is true.’ Two witnesses are required for any statement.