John 8:31-41
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”
39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.” [1]
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What does it mean that the truth will set us free? What is truth? What is freedom?
This statement by Jesus is quoted a lot, and frequently incorrectly. Jesus isn’t stating a general principle that by knowing the truth about an issue will set us free from anything binding that has to do with that issue. He is speaking about a specific truth and a specific freedom.
The truth of course is the truth about Himself, what He teaches, what comes from the Father. How do we acquire this truth? By holding to His teachings, by following His word, by shaping our lives in conformity with the Father’s will as seen in Jesus. Truth isn’t just an intellectual academic proposition. It’s the shape of a life lived in harmony with God’s will. Truth is not so much something to be known, as it is something to be done, to be lived.
And by living this truth, then we are free. This is very different from how our culture defines freedom. We think of freedom as being able to do what we want, no limits, no restrictions. At its worst, this view of freedom is very self-serving. And is in fact not freedom at all, because such a life is actually slavery to our own fallen nature. Freedom is being able to live as we were intended, as we were designed. And so true freedom comes as we live in the covenant oneness that we have with the Father through faith in Christ.
This counterculture, counterintuitive view of freedom is quite the paradox from our culture’s perspective. Seeking to conform all of our lives to the will of another seems to be the opposite of freedom. But that is what Jesus is calling us to do. Just as the first shall be last, losing our lives gains our lives and other paradoxes, so also here: True freedom comes from keeping the teachings of Christ. For then we will be free to be shaped into the people God has created us to be, His covenant children, here on earth to be His representatives.
So my prayer today is that I show myself today to be a disciple by living the teachings of Jesus. I pray that His Word and will be seen in my thoughts, words and deeds, so that I may experience today and always the blessing of true freedom in Christ.
[1] The New International Version. 2011 (Jn 8:31–41). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
