Truth and Freedom

After the confrontation that started with the woman caught in adultery Jesus continued to debate with the Pharisees and Scribes. He told them that he was the light of the world and that without him they would die in their sins. Jesus told them that he came at the bidding of his father and that if they were true children of God they would hear his voice and believe him. They didn’t.

Throughout this conversation, in fact for this conversation and for most of his ministry Jesus was misunderstood. The Jewish leaders had already made up their minds and could not hear Jesus for their own thoughts. That is the same thing that happened in the passage we will talk about today.

John 8:31–36 NASB95

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet 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 commits sin is the slave of sin. “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

First notice that these words were not addressed to the Scribes and Pharisees but to those who had already decided to believe in Jesus.

John 8:31–32 NASB95

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

He was not talking about salvation because he was talking to people who already believed. He was however, talking about obedience. If you continue in my word you are truly my disciples you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Free from what.

Obviously Jesus did not mean free from the consequences of sin, those who believe in Jesus and accept him as Lord are free from the consequences of sin even when they do sin, even when they do not keep the words of Jesus and obey him. He was not talking about being free from the presence of sin. Even Jesus himself, who never sinned, was often surrounded by the sins of others and affected by the sins of others. So if you are not freed from the presence of sin or the penalty of sin what exactly are you freed from?

The Jews had this same question. They said that they had never been enslaved by anyone, an odd statement since they had been literal slaves to the Egyptians and were now practically slaves to the Romans. Jesus responded that if you commit sin you are a slave to sin.

Now we have all seen examples of this. Perhaps the most common example of slavery to sin is one of the most frequently committed sins, the lie. Have you ever seen someone tell a little lie and then a bigger lie to cover the little lie and then two more to cover those lies until they spend much of their time and effort trying to keep up with the lies and cover them with more lies as seems best to them. What is a slave but someone who cannot do what they want to do but must do as another directs them? Does not a series of lies demand more and more of your time and effort to keep the lies going and keep the carefully constructed fiction from falling apart. Do you not become a slave to your lies using time you needed for other things to maintain and support them.

The story is told of a little boy who was left at home by himself and broke a vase while playing ball in the house. He knew not to throw a ball in the house, his mother had told him not to several times and he knew he would be in trouble when she got home. So he lied. He told his mother that he did not break the vase. She replied that he was the only one there. So he said that his friend came over and stumbled into the vase and broke it. His mother replied that he was not supposed to have friends over when she was not home. He said that he didn’t invite the friend and did not know he was coming. His mother asked why he didn’t send his friend away and ask him to come back when his mother was home. The boy replied that he was going to but his friend had fallen off his bike and scraped his knee so badly that he could not ride or walk home so he asked him in just to bandage his knee for him. His mother asked how the boy stumbled into the vase since he could barely walk. The little boy said that it happened after the bandaging and that the other boy felt much better after the bandage was applied. The mother suggested that she call the little boys mother to check on him and the boy replied that she was not home and that was why the boy came to his house. The mother asked if the other boys mother knew he was out visiting and having bike wrecks while she was gone.........and on and on it goes, one lie covering up another until it all falls apart.

Sin is like that. We begin to sin because it seems like a simple solution to our problems but it never is. The truth is that the cost of sin is always more that than it is worth. The truth is that sin always does more harm than good. The truth is that one sin often leads to another, and another, and another. Only one think in heaven or on earth has ever been effective at ending the cycle of sin. That is Jesus Christ. Jesus says that if you obey his word you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

The truth is that no matter what you say or do you will have to serve someone or something. Not me you might say, I am going to prove that no one can tell me what to do and I rule my own destiny. Of course we know that is not true. You may want to stop paying taxes but if you do the government may cause you to do some other unpleasant things that you don’t want to do. You may want to fly like a bird but gravity will have the last word. You may want to live life on your own terms but no one determines their own health or sickness or the time of their death. We all have to do things we don’t want to do and we all expend time and energy doing things that we would rather not do.

Following Jesus is no exception. If I hear and obey Jesus sometimes I will want to do the opposite of what Jesus says, I will want to get even rather than forgive, I will want to look out for number one instead of putting others first. I am a naturally sinful person, and so are you. There is no freedom from service and there is no freedom from doing anything we don’t want to do, there is only freedom of choice.

When we sin we have to choose over and over, again and again. If you steal you have to choose whether or not to lie to cover it up, if you lie you have to choose whether to lie to everyone or just some people. You have to choose which lies to tell and what lies to tell to cover up those lies. When you sin you are constantly trying to figure it all out and constantly trying to stay ahead of everyone else. You have to be continually on your guard and you have to watch what you say and who you say it to. The more you sin the more things you have to keep up with and the more effort it takes to keep it all together. Sinning becomes a bigger and bigger burden the more you become involved in it. The better you become at sinning the more tempting it is to sin to get what you want and the more sins you will probably commit leading to more things to juggle and on and on and on.

Contrast that with obeying the word of Jesus and living in truth. Once you have decided to obey Jesus you no longer have to weigh all your options or consider every possibility, many of them are eliminated just by obeying the word of God. If you live in the truth you don’t have to remember different versions of things or juggle different options, you just go with what is true.

like the little boy caught in series of lies, the first lie was told to get him out of trouble but the more he lied the more trouble he seemed to be in, the longer this went on the harder it was to keep up with the lies and to anticipate what the result of each lie would be. Had he gone with the truth he may have been punished but the punishment would soon be over the he could go on with his life without worrying about it. As long as the lie was out there he had to worry about getting found out, and of course he could not control the circumstances around him, what if his mother did check on the other boy, what would he do then?

Obeying God and living in truth can be very freeing indeed. It can free you from the power and tyranny of sin. Sin cannot force you to stay on your toes or to cover one lie with another if you obey God and live in truth. Sin may be all around you, it may even affect you, sin may still impact your life but it will not control you. You will not be its slave. Do you like to think of yourself as a slave? Someone who is forced to do the bidding of others. Do you like the idea of sin taking over your life and causing you to do things you didn’t want to do? If not then why keep doing it? The only true freedom we have is the freedom to choose. If we choose sin we are on our own. Our only allies are other sinners who are interested in themselves and their own interests.

On the other hand if we choose to obey God and follow Jesus we have the greatest ally in the world. Someone who loves us so much he would die for us, someone who never lies and who always has our best interest at heart. Not only that but this ally has all the power and authority he needs to do anything he wants to do. There is nothing on the earth or in heaven that can thwart his purposes and nothing that can resist his will. It is this ally who promises to set you free saying that who the son sets free is free indeed. If all of that were the total offer it would be worth it but just like the late night infomercials I can say but wait there is more. Jesus has the power to make this freedom last not just for a time, not even just for a lifetime but for all eternity. Perfect freedom, guaranteed by a perfect freedom giver, guaranteed to last forever by the one being who has always been and will always be, the one being who is eternal himself.

Sin in temporary, sin will be destroyed. This world and this life are temporary, they both will end but Jesus is eternal, his promises are eternal, his promises are true and so his promise of freedom is true and eternal. He whom the son sets free is free indeed.