John 8:31–38 Sermon
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31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 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’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
Introduction
Introduction
For the introduction, I wanted to answer the question that one might have concerning the beginning part of verse 31 where it says, “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him.”
Abiding in Christ
The question being “What did the Jews believe?”
Mainly, what I see Jesus telling them about Himself is that He was sent by the Father.
In verse 26 Jesus said,
26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.”
Here we see that one of the things they believed was that Jesus was sent and that the One who sent Him (the Father) is true.
Jesus consistently spoke of being sent by the Father
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , all spoke of Jesus being sent by the Father
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Why is this important?
This is important because it gives us the details to the question found in verse 25 of chapter 8.
25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning.
What He had been telling them from the beginning is that He was sent by the Father who is true.
You see, Jesus was not just a man. He was a man who was born of a virgin.
God in the flesh who appeared as the Messiah promised which He consistently spoke of when telling them that He was sent by the Father.
This along with other things that Jesus said concerning Himself is what they believed in our text today.
The question before us today is “do we truly believe that Jesus was sent by the Father who is true?”
The answer to this question determines whether we are free or in bondage.
It answers whether we are blind or not.
As we have covered already going through this Gospel, one can ascent to right information about God but not have faith in God.
One who only has an ascent to right information about God is no different than demons who can also believe that God is.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
So an ascent of God being true does not mean that one has attained genuine faith.
Jesus again, begins to reveal what believing actually means.
There is a reality that is exposed in our passage today.
The reality being that there are those who are free and those who are slaves.
Outline
Outline
1. The free (v.31-32)
1. The free (v.31-32)
2. The blind (v.33)
2. The blind (v.33)
3. The slave (v.34-38)
3. The slave (v.34-38)
1. The free (v.31-32)
1. The free (v.31-32)
Verse 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Verse 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Jesus in verse 31 spoke specifically to those who believed.
Notice that the writer was specific as to who Jesus was speaking this too.
Jesus continued to say to them in verse 31,
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.”
To abide here meant to persist for a specified period of time. It meant to endure or dwell for an extended period of time.
Some words that can help us to understand what abide meant are:
a stay: 85.55
b wait for: 85.60
c continue to exist: 13.89
d keep on: 68.11
a. stay in
b wait for
b. wait for
c. continuing to exist in
d. keeping on
e. to persist in
f. endure in
g. dwell in
It was Jesus telling them that if you persisted, endured or dwelled in His word, you are truly His disciples.
One of the things we shouldn’t do in this passage today is to read this as a condition.
Meaning that the “if” is setting forth a condition that lays upon us the responsibility to abide.
- If you abide in my word (meaning that abiding in His word will show that)...
- you are truly my disciples (meaning that being a disciple shows that you have abided in His word).
This is descriptive not prescriptive.
Meaning that if someone abides in His word, they are truly His disciple. It proves that one is a disciple.
It doesn’t make one into a believer but it shows that one is a believer. If they abide (or remain) in His word.
Jesus is describing what a true disciple looks like. This is further proven in the fact that He was specifically speaking to those who have already believed.
Those who remain in His word prove that they are truly His disciples.
This is a description of a disciple who has already believed. It is not a prescription on how to become a disciple. In fact, it would not apply to those who did not abide.
Our remaining in Him is dependent not on our obedience to His word but upon His obedience which is what brings to us the faith necessary to believe.
If we remain in His word we will prove to be His disciples.
Our being true disciples would be proven by our remaining in Him. Which solely depends on grace not performance.
We cannot abide in Him on the condition of our obedience.
Jesus spoke of this in .
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
So how does one come to abiding in Christ?
to endure (persist) v. — to persist for a specified period of time.
Jesus answers this in .
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
Being made a disciple comes from faith in Christ being sent by the Father who is true.
And it comes because He has chosen us to bear fruit. The fruit that proves that we are truly His disciples.
Why make this a point?
This is a very crucial point because our obedience without faith in the truth of election will default to a performance of faith that is void of dependency upon His completed work.
When one comes to faith they (verse 32),
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
If someone remains in His word they will prove that they are truly His disciples.
And His disciples are those who:
Know the truth
And the truth has set them free
What truth is Jesus speaking of here?
The truth He is speaking of here is the truth of being sent by the Father which is what He had been saying about Himself from the beginning.
Verse 32 also shows us who is not free.
Those who do not abide in His word are not free.
They are slaves and not disciples.
They do not know the truth. And because they do not know the truth of Jesus Christ being sent by the Father, they are not free.
So a question follows: What are they slaves to?
Verse 33 begins for us to answer this question where it shows us who is blind to this truth.
2. The blind (v.33)
2. The blind (v.33)
John 8:33
John 8:33
33 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’?”
First thing I wanted to point out is that not only were there people there who believed, but there were crowds of people there.
According to , they were divided as to who Jesus was.
So the ones who believed were not alone when Jesus spoke these things.
There was much division there as to who Jesus claimed to be.
Either the ones who responded were genuine believers, the crowds or the Jewish leaders.
Why would they bring up that they were the offspring of Abraham? Weren’t they slaves before?
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John c. The Children of Abraham (8:31–59)
If Jesus is offering freedom, the assumption is that the Jews are currently slaves. This they emphatically deny: how can they be considered slaves to anyone or anything when they are Abraham’s descendants (lit. ‘seed’)? It is unlikely that the objection means the Jews have never been in political subjection to anyone. That would be absurd: there was scarcely a major power whom the Jews had not served: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Syria and Rome had all held the Jews in political captivity. True, their relative freedom and especially their religious independence under the Romans (whether in the days of Jesus or when John most likely wrote his book) was substantial; yet the fact remains that they were in service to Caesar.
Jesus in speaking of freedom is telling them that if they remained in His word they would show that they are free.
He was most likely doing this to again expose those who were professing to be disciples from those who were actually His disciples
In we see an example of those who claimed to be His disciples and yet because of what Jesus said,
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
Then in verse 66 of ,
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
Notice how Jesus then addresses the ones who claimed to be of Abraham’s offspring.
They thought themselves to be free which would have meant that what Jesus was saying didn’t apply to them.
Which would mean that those who did not remain in His word would show themselves to be slaves.
remain in His word they are free.
Their denial of being slaves for them was backed by the fact that they were of Abraham’s descendants. Descendants literally meaning Abraham’s seed.
They believed that since they were of the offspring of Abraham that what Jesus was telling them didn’t apply.
This response couldn’t have meant that they were not slaves to a nation since they had been captive to Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Syria and now Rome. Which held them as captives to their rule. This was known to them.
If Jesus is offering freedom, the assumption is that the Jews are currently slaves. This they emphatically deny: how can they be considered slaves to anyone or anything when they are Abraham’s descendants (lit. ‘seed’)? It is unlikely that the objection means the Jews have never been in political subjection to anyone. That would be absurd: there was scarcely a major power whom the Jews had not served: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Syria and Rome had all held the Jews in political captivity. True, their relative freedom and especially their religious independence under the Romans (whether in the days of Jesus or when John most likely wrote his book) was substantial; yet the fact remains that they were in service to Caesar.
The appeal to Abraham may have been a religious one since it is what they were faced with when Jesus was saying these things to them.
They thought that they were not slaves according to their heritage. Thus their appeal to their being of Abraham’s seed.
To be the seed of Abraham was to be beneficiaries of the covenant because of being born into the Abrahamic promise. Circumcision and lineage being what initiated this.
But what they couldn’t see was that they were sick as Jesus spoke of in Mark 2:17.
had all held the Jews in political captivity. True, their relative freedom and especially their religious independence under the Romans (whether in the days of Jesus or when John most likely wrote his book) was substantial; yet the fact remains that they were in service to Caesar.
12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
True, their relative freedom and especially their religious independence under the Romans (whether in the days of Jesus or when John most likely wrote his book) was substantial; yet the fact remains that they were in service to Caesar.
They thought that because they were born into the Abrahamic Lineage that they were entitled and given (by birth) freedom and royalty.
It is much more probable that the Jews are talking about spiritual, inward freedom and privilege. Thus, Rabbi Akiba is credited with saying that all Israelites are kings’ sons, i.e. the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (B. Shabbath 128a).1 The Jews saw themselves as ‘sons of the kingdom’ (cf. ). Bauer (p. 125) and Barrett (p. 345) rightly compare , where the Jews are convinced they are whole and therefore need no physician—just as they are here convinced they are free and therefore need no liberation (cf. also 9:40–41). The final sentence of this verse, How can you say that we shall be set free?, has an ugly, challenging tone to it that anticipates v. 53. These ‘believers’ are already demonstrating their unwillingness to hold to Jesus’ teaching (v. 31), for their sense of inherited privilege is so strong they can neither acknowledge their own need nor recognize the divine Word incarnate before them. Their very words demonstrate their slavery in the categories of the next verse.
Especially from what the Scriptures had prophesied.
They were blind to their condition before God.
Not believing that Jesus was sent by the Father (who is true) proved that they were blind.
Jesus would deal with this later in .
They were blinded from seeing that their privileged position in the covenant was not what would bring them to saving faith.
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
They thought that since they were naturally born of Abraham’s seed that they were free.
But Jesus exposed what was underneath.
In fact, what He did here is expose what is underneath every one apart from genuine faith.
He revealed that we are all slaves.
Slaves to what?
3. The slave (v.34-38)
3. The slave (v.34-38)
Verse 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Verse 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Verse 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
Verse 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
Jesus begins to address them in verse 34 with them needing to pay special and close attention to what He was about to say.
Another way of saying truly, truly is verily, verily.
Or “I tell you the truth.” A modern way of saying this would “listen up ya’ll.”
This was said in order that the listener would pay close attention to what they were about to hear.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”
This is what they were blind to.
They could not see their bondage.
So what does it look like for someone to be in the practice sin?
First, it is someone who is enslaved to sin.
First, it is someone who is enslaved to sin.
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Someone who practices sin (meaning someone who performs sin), will obey it.
Performing sin can mean someone who is parading sin. Which would mean someone who does not have conviction.
Practicing sin is someone who commits to breaking God’s law.
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
It is speaking of someone who is bound or enslaved to law breaking.
They are mastered by it and they do what they are told to do by their master which is sin.
Second, it is someone who is blind to their sin.
Second, it is someone who is blind to their sin.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
Like in our text today, someone who practices sin, does so because they are blind.
They are darkened in their understanding.
They are alienated from the life of God.
This is why they are doing what is offensive to God.
Apart from faith we are left with a corrupt nature that breaks God’s law.
One apart from saving faith not only can’t see what they are doing but they also refuse to see what they are doing as law breaking.
They are unable to see God as One worthy of glory.
Instead they continue to practice the sin they are in. The sin they can’t see as offensive and deserving of God’s wrath is their pleasure.
They not only serve sin which they are mastered by, but they take delight in it.
That is who we are apart from faith.
veryone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
veryone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
And a slave would mean that they do not have the privileges that a son would have within a household.
More specifcially in the household of God.
Jesus would use an example of a household to explain the difference between a son and a slave.
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 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, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
Verse 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
Verse 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
A slave was not considered an actual member of a household and they did have part in the inheritance of a household.
They were able to be sold or even expelled from the household.
But a son was considered a member of the household and they were entitled by birth to the inheritance of the family.
He who is the servant of sin, is, under the dispensation of the law, an involuntary subject of the law; therefore a slave of the letter; and he who is such a slave of the letter, is a slave of sin. Paul also goes on this presumption in . The slave of the letter, therefore, being a slave of sin, abides not in the house of God, the theocracy. The application is obvious: In the kingdom of God there have been hitherto children and servants (; ); the servants at this time are the unbelieving Jews; they are one day driven out (; ; ). Not all Israel, but only the unbelieving portion; of these, who treat the law as a mere statute, a slavery to the letter, which corresponds with the bondage of sin, it is declared that they hold no relation of affinity and sonship to the master of the house. The reference of the servant to Moses, propounded by Chrysostom and Euthymius, belongs to a different train of thought and a different aspect of the servant, .* The house; typically denoting the royal family of the Lord, the household of God, ; .
In reading this it struck me when the Psalmist spoke of the house of the Lord.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
Culturally speaking, someone who had the inheritance of a household remained in order for the inheritance to be passed on.
In speaking of Jesus being greater than Moses the author of Hebrews said,
5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
Of course this does not mean that Moses was not a child of the covenant.
What the author of Hebrews is doing is pointing out what Christ gave as superior to Moses.
Jesus in speaking of a slave in verse 35 is speaking of those who thought they were sons because of being of the seed of Abraham.
But they were slaves because they practiced sin which a son of God cannot do.
9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
The slave of sin does not have the inheritance given to those of faith.
But those of faith who are sons, have been freed and are given the inheritance that is promised which is Christ.
Becoming a child of God comes from faith in the truth of who Jesus is.
And this truth according to verse 32 set us free from being slaves.
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8
What truth? The truth of who the Son is. The Son sent by the Father.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus being called the Son meant that He had all the rights to the inheritance promised in the house of the Father who sent Him.
And because He was entitled to everything that the Father had we became children of God by faith in Him.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
Those who place their faith in Him will not remain slaves. But they will become sons and daughters
This right came from believing in the truth.
In Jesus said,
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Then in verse 36 He says,
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Notice that truth and the Son are interchangeable.
Verse 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Verse 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
In verse 32, Jesus said,
the truth will set you free
Then in verse 36,
if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Which means that the Son (Jesus) who is the truth has set us free and we are free indeed.
We are those who have been freed from the bondage of sin which happened because His word remained is us by grace.
But for those who remain in bondage to sin? Jesus says in verse 37,
37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.
The word of Christ not dwelling in someone shows us that they are still slaves to sin.
Verse 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.
Verse 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.
They are not sons. They belong to another father. To another household.
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
2 Corinthians
Someone who has not believed is not a part of the household of God.
And the clear evidence of this is the practice of sin.
This does not mean someone who wars against their sin.
But someone who lacks conviction of sin and parades their sin.
Jesus is saying these things in order to show who are actually His disciples.
38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
Jesus said that He was with the Father and saw everything the Father has seen. Showing us His equality and superiority over all.
Verse 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
Verse 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
But those who claim sonship and yet are in bondage to sin will show that they only do what they heard. Showing us that they are slaves.
Jesus doesn’t say that they saw what their father saw but that they only do what they have heard. Which sounds like what a slave does.
Let us be thankful for those of us that God has made sons in His house forever.
But for those who are still in sin and have not come to a saving faith in Christ, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ!