In John 8, we have discovered that
Jesus was engaged in confrontation with the religious authorities. He announced
that He is the light of the world and those who did not believe in Him were
living in darkness. He had also warned them of the danger of being separated
from God, and so in danger of the fires of hell. He asserted that they were
from below whereas He came from above. The two realms just simply cannot mix. Jesus then turned to a segment of the Jews
who believed in Him, saying, “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.”
Unfortunately, they had completely
missed His point. They were thinking of their physical ancestry. Responding to
Jesus, they said, “We are
Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it
that You say, ‘You will become free’?” What they had just expressed was the prevailing
thought among the Jews. Unwittingly, they had just expressed their ignorance
and were in self-denial. They thought that God had accepted them on account of the
physical relationship. In our modern context, it is like saying that my parents
are Christians, and even if I don’t believe in Jesus, God will forgive me on
their account. They failed to realize that relationship with God is an
intensely personal decision. It calls for individual accountability.
The Jews hated being known as
slaves. Their history indicates that they had been bondage for centuries. They had
experienced bondage to different forces at different periods of their journey –
to the Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and
even at that point in time to the Romans. So Jews would rather die than be
known as slaves. But what Jesus was talking about was something spiritual. He
told them saying, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” Jesus wanted them and
us to know that we are all in bondage to our sin. Like them, many would deny when told we are
sinners. Human beings are experts at trivializing sin until we become
desensitized to it. This was exactly the situation of the Jews. It’s true that
people living in sin also lives in self-denial, and would never think that it’s
that serious. But for us now, with a quickened conscience by our relationship with
Christ, may His Word continue to educate our conscience and help us not to
trivialize sin.
Jesus had given the remedy in verses
31-32. When we believers turn to His teaching, we will discover the liberating
truth of His Word. When we come to the Word of God and seriously and honestly
seek to know the truth, we will definitely come face to face with Jesus and be
liberated by His truth. There is a need however to continue in His word. This
word ‘continue’ means to stay at it, making time to study it, to carve out the
principles to apply. There must be the willingness to act on it. Obedience to
the Word is critical to our spiritual liberation. In other words, to know the Word,
we need to be a student of the Word. And to continue in the Word we must obey
the Word.
In verses 35 and 36, Jesus shows the
difference between the relationship of a slave and a son in the home. Being the
Son, He alone could help the Jews and anyone, to obtain the freedom they could not
acquire for themselves. Jews or Gentiles, men would only be slaves after all. Although
the Jews considered themselves to be sons in God’s household, they were in
reality, only slaves after all. So whatever right they sought to assert was
pointless because they did not have that right in the first place. Unlike them,
Jesus is the Son in the house. His position is forever fixed no matter what. He
alone has every right and so He alone can set us free.
We are delivered from our sinful
life so that we are free to serve God. We must no longer pander to the cry of
our sinful nature. Bear in mind that our freedom in Christ is not a license to
do what we please, but a liberation from the bondage of sin to do what we
ought. To remain free, Jesus said we need to continue to know His Word. We must
not come to it only once in a while, but every day. We come to the Word to read,
study, meditate, memorize, digest, apply, and assimilate. So that we can make
it part of our daily living and life.
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