The Truth Will Set You Free | John 8:31-47
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The Truth Will Set You Free
The Truth Will Set You Free
Have y’all heard this verse before?
It says this...
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
How about this one?
Romans 8:28 (ESV)
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
We love these verses and It makes sense right? We wanna know that all things are working for good, and that we are his workmanship created for good things. These are good verses, and I think at the core the reason we love them so much is that they tell us 2 things, that we have personhood and purpose.
When I say personhood I mean identity, who God says we are, we see this in Ephesians 2:10 we his workmanship and there are a bunch of really good other things the Bible says about us, that we are loved, that we are forgiven, that he knit us together in our mothers womb, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. The Bible says so many good things about who we are, our personhood
Now, our Purpose can be a little more difficult to understand because we all have two kinds of purposes. Our General purpose and our Unique Purpose. General purpose is what God has revealed to all believers in scripture. God wants you to be Holy, making disciples, pursuing righteousness, he wants you to love your husband and wife, honor your mother and father, be in prayer and the word of God. That’s your general purpose. Then there is your unique purpose, and this is where if we go back to Ephesians 2:10 we see “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” so God, before time created Good works that he wanted you to walk in. And he has given you unique gifts and talents to do a work in the world for the kingdom of God.
This is good news, that we have a personhood and a purpose that is designed and implanted by God within us that is ours to walk in.
You living like what God says about your personhood and you living into your purpose ultimately works for your good and God’s glory. Goodness for you in a closer relationship with Jesus Christ and the fruits of the spirit, and Glory for the Lord. That is such Good news!
*Soft Voice* The problem is, no matter how aware we are of our personhood and our purpose, the line between acknowledging the truth and knowing the truth is razor thin and what happens so easily is we can acknowledge the truth while lies seep in and reak havoc. In most, if not all instances, at the root of our doubt, disillusionment with God, hurts, our sin, and our relational distress are lies that we believe.
Jesus has something to say about this, let’s pray together.
We are going t be in John chapter 8 and starting in verse 31
Jesus here has a crowd of some Jews and Jewish leaders and He’s in the middle of going at it with some Pharisees who are trying to catch him in a lie, as they do, and in this midst of this certainly heated discussion the bible tells us in verse 30
As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
So now Jesus is going to address these new believers.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
2 Questions here, first what is “my Word” how do we abide in that? Well what is the word that Jesus has brought to the earth, the new testament wasn’t written yet, and the new testament is implied in what he is saying, but his Word is the good news that he’s brought to this earth that is the Gospel. So Jesus here says to these new believers if you abide, or remain in the Gospel you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. So what set’s us free? It’s the truth of the Gospel that sets us free. Now that sounds really good doesn’t it, something about knowing, not just acknowledging but Knowing and remaining in the truth of the Gospel actually has the power to set us free. Now… set us free from what?
They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Set free from what? Slavery to sin. Other places in scripture, specifically Romans 6, we see this language used where we are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness.
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Those in Christ are slaves to righteousness free from their slavery to sin and returning to John chapter 8
The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
So who sets us free from our slavery to sin, it is Jesus, the son of God.
Now Jesus is going to say something that’s really going to confuse these folks. Now one quick note, Jesus is talking to new believers, jews, and pharisees so now he is going to turn from speaking to the new believers to speaking to the unbelievers.
I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
Jesus here is pointing to a contradiction, these folks are claiming Abraham to be their father, the father of their faith, father Abraham, yet trying to Kill jesus the ultimate fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham. If they were truly Abrahams children in the sense that they are the people of God they would not be trying to kill Jesus. So Jesus here makes a distinction between himself and the Jews saying they each have a different father, you’ll notice one with a capital F and one with a lowercase f.
This confuses the Jews because they know Jesus is a Jew so they should have the same father situation going on. Now they are going to take two swings at who their father is.
They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
So first they say Abraham is their father, Jesus puts the kibosh on that one. Next they say God is their father, Jesus doesn’t accept that answer either. Now get ready Jesus is going to tell them the answer,
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
Oof. That is not the answer they were expecting. So Jesus discusses two kinds of people here. At the beginning he says his disciples whose father is God in heaven, will abide in the good news of the Gospel and they will know the truth and be set free from slavery to sin.
The second is a person who does not know God, and therefore cannot bear to hear his word, and since they cannot hear is word they do not know the truth and they do the works of their father the devil... lie-ing.
Now in this crowd there were both those who have been set free, believers, and those who are still in slavery to lies and sin. These people are rubbing shoulders with eachother in the crowd while Jesus is talking, they are all among eachother. This is the problem, we live in a world that is full of people who do not know the truth, who cannot bear to hear the truth of God’s word and therefore are liars and lie lie lie, and even though we have been set free from our slavery to sin by the truth of the Gospel, we get ever so gently pulled away by these lies. Often times the lies we believe in adulthood are lies that we were told when we were kids that take root in us and grow.
It makes sense, if you think about it, the unbelievers who cannot bear to hear the truth are the very people who make the shows we consume, the people around us at work, our politicians, the pundits on TV, these folks are everywhere. And this is not to demonize them, it is to acknowledge they are not working with the same playbook we are. Here is how this works practically:
It starts with a truth we acknowledge for example, we would all acknowledge that money makes a terrible God, and that the love of money leads to all kinds of evil, and that you can’t love both money and God. Right we acknowledge it. But then the truth we acknowledge is uprooted in our soul, you start to feel the pressure from others in the world around you, or a lie you were told as a kid through your parents, or the media you consumed, that you need to pursue money harder, you need to work harder, climb higher, move faster and instead of your worth being tied to your God-given personhood you begin to live like your worth is tied to your monetary success, and then your God given purpose of being a present father or mother the primary disciplers in your home, a truth you would also acknowledge, starts to fall by the way side. This leads to sin, idolotry, failing personal relationships, hurt spouses and hurt children.
And here’s where it gets even trickier, lets say that story is you and you feel some guilt right now. The devil would love to lie to you again and make you feel like you need to live in shame and you are a terrible father or mother and this lie will lead you to darkness and retreat, and sin when the truth is that you are forgiven and you can repent and jesus is waiting there with open aema and its not too late for the light and grace of the gospel to shine on the darkest parts of our lives.
It is a viscous cycle these lies creep in and we buy these lies and then buy another one to get out of that lie and then another one and another one! You believe a lie and then you buy a lie to try to fix that lie and then you buy a lie to try to fix that lie and then to fix that lie and you are in a cycle of lies that you don’t know how to get out of and before you know it in your mind the cycle of lies becomes the truth and you start living the lie and thats when you lose sight of your personhood and purpose. And you will be trapped in that cycle living in shame loneliness and discontenemt never satisifed believering lie and after lie after lie living in retreat with damaged personal relationshops and sin you will live in that over and over again until you wake up and realize that Jesus paid the price on the cross so we don’t have to believe the lies anymore!
Church, We have to be really good at finding the lie and speak the truth of the gospel to that lie. we have to KNOW THE TRUTH. We must be full of the word of God and the spirit. Not just acknowledge it but we must abide in it and live in it we must speak it over our lives. We have a monopoly on the capital T truth of the Gospel and we need that and the world needs it. We must be really good at knowing the truth of the Gospel. So that we can speak the truth of the Gospel to the lies in this world.
Often times what needs repair in ourselves and others is not a behavioral issue, but a truth issue.
Look at that sin, the struggle, the hurt that you just can’t get past. The relational strife. Those things aren’t just happening. There’s a lie in there. Probably many. That lie is robbing you of life and light and your personhood and purpose.
You have personhood and purpose that has been given you by God, it is the pathway to a life well lived and lies are the greatest threat to you. The challenge here is to build a rhythm in your life of abiding and assessing, abiding in the truth of the gospel, remaining in the word of God, and assessing yourself daily, multiple times a day when sin, doubt, hurt, shame, loneliness, relational issues show up. What lie are you believing and what truth oof the gospel has God given, and jesus bought, for you to be set free from the grip of those lies.
If you abide in my word you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.