the Truth will set you free

Jesus is about to sound a lot like Paul. Or rather, sometime after Jesus says this Paul will have sounded a lot like Jesus is about to sound (when He says the things He's about to say). I said it the other way first because it was far less confusing. We've got 8 verses to cover, so I'll just put them below and we'll go from there.

John 8:31-38

³¹So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." ³³They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?"

 ³⁴Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷I 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."

If you're getting the impression that Jesus isn't saying nice things at the end of this passage, I think you're right. He's only saying not nice things, though, because they're true and they glorify God. We'll get to the not nice things later, though. For right now let's deal with the "Jews who had believed Him".

In verse 30 we learned that as Jesus was speaking many believed Him. If I were speaking and I saw people believing what I was saying, I'd be pretty happy. I'd probably tell them that I was glad they believed, and I'd probably avoid talking about things that they wouldn't believe. That's me, though. Jesus isn't sinful, and He doesn't change His message to tickle itching ears... or more logically to make them stop itching. I always hated that expression.

Jesus responds to their belief—which evidently had been visible or audible— by telling them that abiding that abiding in His Word and being His disciples are linked. You can't have one without the other. Being a disciple is dependent upon and defined (at least in part) by abiding in Jesus' words. When this happens, He says, they will know the truth and the truth will set them free.

What is this truth that sets people free? In John 14:6, Jesus claims to be the Truth. Is it too far of a stretch to say that's the same truth He's talking about? I don't think so, because later on (in John 8:36) He tells us that He's the one who sets people free. We'll get to that later, though. Right now there are more pressing matters. He just suggested that the people He's talking to need to be set free. They don't buy that.

In John 8:33 they tell Him their lineage, basically that they're Jewish. They're kind of puffing themselves up and saying that they've never been enslaved. Although their fathers were enslaved (hence the book of Exodus) they weren't, at least not to any physical master. They didn't get that Jesus was speaking Spiritually. Assuming He's talking physically, they're asking the right question... How can you be set free if you're not enslaved?

This is where things get heavy. Jesus tells them that committing sin makes you a slave. Actually, that's a big logical leap that we shouldn't make from the Text. What He says is that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. This is what I meant by saying He sounds like Paul. In Romans 6, Paul basically says the same thing.

This is a concept we as Christians are probably pretty familiar with. If you sin you're a slave to sin. However Jesus takes it a step further here, even further than Paul takes it (in Romans 6, anyway).

He draws a contrast. Slaves back then would be in their master's house for a set period of time (do a wikipedia search on "jubilee" if you want to know more about that). Sons, Jesus says, will stay in their father's house forever. So if the people He's talking to spend their whole life in sin, they're demonstrating that they're not a son of Abraham. The same is true for us in a sense.

They were expected, as sons of Abraham (and self-proclaimed sons of God) to obey their father, or to do the things he would do. That is to abide in Jesus' words and to know Him (the Truth). Instead however, they hated Him. They tried to kill Him because nothing of what He said agreed with them (John 8:37).

Jesus takes it a step closer to home and talks about his Father. The things He says our the things He's seen with His father. They're not listening to God, they're listening to their Father (John 8:38). Who's that? We'll see in the next post (or you could just read ahead). From this text we just know what they were doing. They were seeking to kill Jesus.

Now let's take a shot at understanding how all of this relates to us...

Romans 2:9-11

⁹ There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. ¹¹ For God shows no partiality.

Here's the deal. God doesn't care what you've said. He doesn't care who your parents are. He doesn't care if you sing to Him, or if you're afraid of Him. He cares about who you are. He cares about what you're doing, what you're saying, and what you're thinking. He cares about how you're living.

Romans 2:11 could also be translated "For God does not accept [or receive] face." Whatever you've put on as a front or a facade on the outside doesn't matter. If you're doing evil and not doing good, all you've got coming is wrath. Even if you "believe" like the Jews did at the beginning of this passage.

The good news is the Truth sets us free. The good news is that the Son sets you free. The good news is that salvation is not dependent on your best efforts, but on whether or not Christ has set you free. If you're set free you will be changed. It's called sanctification, and God does it. Holiness is required from you, and God gives it freely by faith.

So I guess the question here would be who's son we are. The evidence should be in our lives that we are sons of God. If it's not we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). But not in a "I gotta get my act together" sort of way. We need to get it worked out in a "God, I'm sinful and by my nature I hate You. Please work in me and make me what you require." sort of way (Philippians 2:13).