…and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)
When Christ spoke these words, He spoke of something far beyond what his listeners could have imagined. At the time, many thought He would soon free Israel from political oppression. Yet the freedom Christ offers contains something far richer than we could ever hope for.
What truth?
In the verses leading up to this statement, Christ had to explain some very important things.
Then they began asking him, “Who is your father?” Jesus answered, “You do not know either me or my Father. If you knew me you would know my Father too.” (John 8:19)
It’s at this point that Christ was making an earth-shattering point: He is God, and as God, He was there to bring salvation to the world. Christ had the authority and power to fulfill His purpose, yet few people were ready to understand what He was saying. Christ then had to show the difference between Him and His listeners.
Jesus replied, “You people are from below; I am from above. You people are from this world; I am not from this world. Thus I told you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.” (John 8:23-24)
Christ handed them a huge dose of reality. Being a Jew wasn’t going to save them. Keeping the law, then offering sacrifices when they failed, wouldn’t save them. Christ was the only way to the Father, and only believing His words could make them righteous before God. And we can rejoice because some of them did believe.
Then Jesus said to those Judeans who had believed him, “If you continue to follow my teaching, you are really my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)
What freedom?
The Jews put a lot of faith in their bloodline. They were certain they had God’s promise simply because of where they were born, not what they believed. Many were so blind that they had no idea how deeply sin had penetrated their lives, nor did they see the bars of their own prison.
“We are descendants of Abraham,” they replied, “and have never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin.” (John 8:33-34)
How many of us were once like that? How sweet did our freedom seem when we ignorantly assumed we were unshackled from the burden of following someone else’s rules? Like these Jews, and all sinners, we foolishly believed that being apart from God meant we could do whatever we wanted. We thought we were free, but Christ rescued us even if we didn’t realize we were slaves to sin.
And that’s what makes sin so enticing. It offers freedom but delivers sorrow and death. Christ didn’t come to break our spirits and set us under a bunch of rules. Under sin, we had no freedom. All we could do was follow our passions and lusts wherever they took us. Some found nothing but disaster while others found lives that appeared to be good and successful. Yet in the end, we were all on an inescapable path toward what we deserved – God’s wrath and eternal punishment.
Christ frees us from the pull of sin. He gave us His righteousness, and now Christians can choose something we never could before. Through the blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can now choose to live lives pleasing to God. We can live the lives we were always meant to live, but couldn’t in our previous enslavement to sin. We don’t live these lives to earn righteousness, but instead as a response to the righteousness freely given to us by Jesus Christ.
Using our freedom for God’s glory
We’ve been set free. We are no longer under the imperfect law of Moses, mandated to keep its impossible commands. Those who are Christ’s can, quite literally, do whatever they want. We can choose sin or choose God. That freedom is both terrifying and liberating, but what do we do with this freedom?
Live as free people, not using your freedom as a pretext for evil, but as God’s slaves. (1 Peter 2:16)
Sin is always a choice. As Christians, we can never say “I couldn’t help it.” We are free to yell at our family, look at pornography, waste money, and do anything else that serves sin instead of God. Yet no matter how broken we are, we can never overcome God’s forgiveness.
What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:1-2)
True followers of Christ don’t see their freedom as an excuse to finally indulge in everything we’ve wanted to do. We don’t want to invite sin into our homes; we want to take it out back and shoot it. Twice. Sin is what put our wonderful savior on the cross, beaten and mocked by the very people He had created. If He died to pull us out of the death we were so content to stay in, how could we ever think true joy and satisfaction could be found there?
Instead, we must see our freedom as Christ does. We are free to love God completely. We are free to love all the attributes of Christ and rely on the Holy Spirit to make us more like Him. We are free from trying to be good and can finally become holy through the power of the cross.
Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to, and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. (Romans 6:16-1)
Let us never forget that true freedom isn’t found in doing what we want. It’s found in leaving the shackles of sin and walking with the one we need most.
