The idea of freedom, or the principle of being free, is one that is particularly indigenous to Americans. It’s not limited to Americans, of course, but much of our history is based on the premise that man is designed to be free. Our country was founded on that principle. As the Constitution declares, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Liberty means the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.
So the American Revolution was fought over those truths, that we had a right to be free from tyranny. And to some extent the Civil War continued that fight, eventually taking on the context of freedom from slavery. Then in the 1960’s, we experienced a cultural revolution called the Hippie Movement, which espoused the idea of freedom from social mores. However, not all the freedoms that generation sought were necessarily based on truth, as history has made evident. But nonetheless, the entire history of the United States has this search for freedom interwoven in it’s story, from generation to generation.
Yet after 300 years, I would suggest that we are still trying to come to grips as a nation with the notion of freedom. We are still trying to obtain it. For that matter, we are still trying to define it. And so it is to that question that we come to today. What is freedom, and how does one really achieve it?
Well, I believe that this passage teaches us the answer to that question. The blueprint for freedom was written long before the Constitution of the United States. And it’s author was no less than Jesus Christ. I believe that this passage before us today is one of the most important in the gospel. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is the heart of the gospel.
Making freedom a reality was the purpose of Jesus Christ’s visitation to Earth. In His first message that He preached, He quoted from Isaiah concerning Himself, saying that this prophecy was fulfilled that day in their presence. This is what He read from the scriptures prophesying about Himself. He read from Isaiah 61:1 which says, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.”
The obvious question then is how was that freedom realized? What does it look like? Is He talking about social freedom, or political freedom, or freedom from slavery, or spiritual freedom? Because there are people that have interpreted these statements in all those various ways. But remember, Jesus said that they that worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. So we cannot just apply any template we want to these statements. We must apply them according to the truth.
Well, I suggest that Jesus is speaking primarily about spiritual freedom. But I will add to that the caveat that the spiritual is the fountain from which all other freedoms flow. You can attempt to find freedom outside of the spiritual, but I would suggest that if you do that, then you are being deceived. You are still held captive, still enslaved. Jesus says that in our text in vs. 34, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” So until you take care of the spiritual issue of sin and become free in that regard, you cannot know any other freedom. You are still in your sins, and as such, you are still held captive by the devil, and are a slave of sin.
That is why three times in the previous passage we looked at last week, three times Jesus says to the Jews, that they would die in their sins. Because they had rejected the truth, and as a result, they were still in their sins, still enslaved.
So what is the solution then? Jesus said if you are going to know freedom, then you must first know the truth. Jesus said in vs.32, that when you know the truth, then the truth will make you free. So knowing the truth is paramount to becoming free. You cannot be free and live a lie. As became evident in the Hippy Movement, things that they thought provided freedom, like drugs and sex, only served to further enslave them, because they were not founded on the truth. And I would suggest that many of the new social mores which are being expounded today are simply more of the same kind of deceit; they promise freedom, but they only will produce greater bondage.
And that was the scheme of Satan from the beginning wasn’t it? To lie against the truth and as such enslave men to sin. Satan appeared in the Garden of Eden to seduce mankind to sin by telling a lie, by selling Eve an untruth. As Jesus says in our text in vs. 44, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
So Satan, in his rage against God - his rage that God would choose to shower His affection on man, and make man in God’s image, according to God’s likeness, when Satan himself had desired to be like the Most High and was rejected - so Satan came to man disguised as a creature of God, and he deceived the woman by making her think something evil was good, and he invoked her to pride because she desired to be autonomous like God, and as such mankind fell from their sinless state in God’s presence just as Satan had also fallen. And mankind has been in bondage to that lie all throughout the history of the world.
That is why Jesus calls him the father of lies. And he did not stop with that lie, but he has sold the world a lie ever since. Satan, who controls the world system, has so engineered the world so that according to 2Peter 2:19, he is “promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” What he means is that they are being promised freedom but instead they end up becoming slaves of sin.
So what is truth? Well, to start with, God is truth. Truth is defined in God and by God and there is no truth apart from God. In Isaiah 45:19 God says, “I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.” Psalm 119:160 says, “The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” And vs. 142 of the same Psalm says “your law is truth.” And one more, Numbers 23:19 says "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Now I cannot overstate this doctrine. God is the source of all truth. His word establishes the standard of truth. All philosophy, all science, all the wisdom of man must be examined in the light of God’s truth, and only when it conforms to God’s truth, is it true. As Paul said in Romans 3:4, “Let God be found true, though everyman found a liar.”
So as God is truth, Jesus also is truth. As we have seen in our studies in recent weeks, Jesus speaks the things of God, He does the works of God, He does nothing that the Father isn’t doing. So if God is truth, then HIs Son is truth. In fact, Jesus says that He is the personification of truth in John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Notice in that verse, that Jesus doesn’t say He sometimes speaks the truth, but that He is the truth. That means nothing less than perfect truth comes from God. And as Jesus personifies the Word of God, then He is the truth of God, and no one can come to God except through Him. One must come to accept Christ’s word, in order to come to God. God has chosen to reveal Himself in His Son. And what God has revealed is truth. So coming to know the truth, will make you truly free.
Now we saw that in vs.30, many people listening to Him had come to believe in Him. That simply means that they believed that He was speaking the truth. They believed that He had come from the Father. Vs.26 Jesus had said, “He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.” So some people listening to that believed in Him. Some did not, as we see in the later verses. But some did believe Him. And I think that means that they became Christians at that point. Some commentators think that these people were superficial believers. They didn’t really want to follow Christ, but they just acknowledged that what He said was true. I don’t buy that. I think that what Jesus was saying was so radical, so outrageous, that they had to either acknowledge Him as a lunatic, or acknowledge Him as God come in the flesh. So when John says twice that some believed in Him, I think they truly had their eyes opened to the truth, and they believed in Him and they were saved. That is the way that we are saved, we are justified by faith in Christ. Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
So then now that some have been justified by faith, then in vs.31, Jesus speaks of the next step in salvation, and that is sanctification. There are three phases in salvation; there is justification, then sanctification, and finally glorification. All must exist for salvation to exist. If you are justified, and then you are sanctified, but there is no glorification, no eternal life, no heaven, then your salvation is worthless, isn’t it? Paul said in 1Cor. 15:19 “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” And the same thing is true of the other two phases in our salvation. If we are not justified, then our attempts at sanctification through works can never save us, can they? Because Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” So if you skip over justification by grace, and try to become sanctified by works, then you cannot be saved. And by the same measure, justification without sanctification is worthless. As James said, “faith without works is dead.” And Hebrews 12:14 warns us that without sanctification, no one will see the Lord. All three then are necessary for salvation.
That’s why Jesus turns to those people, the people that had believed in Him, who believed that He was the Son of God, who were justified by faith, and to them Jesus said, ““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.” Now I believe that these people were saved by faith in Him, as I said. And so Jesus now is instructing them how to be His true disciples. That is the consequence of truly being saved. We not only believe, but we follow. We join Him, fellowship with Him, allow Him to teach us as we go through each day and every circumstance. It’s not just “I have faith, so I’m saved, and now I can go on with my life and do what I want to do, live like I want to live.” It’s not like Jesus is now my genie and so He’s going to make sure that everything I do works out. He’s going to keep me safe as I go about my business.
No, that’s not discipleship. A true disciple recognizes that Jesus is the source of life, the source of truth, the way to God, and so he follows Jesus wherever He leads us. Most Christians today have it backwards. They think salvation entitles them to have God follow me around and work out any difficulties I might encounter, but stay far enough behind me so as to not hinder my freedom to do what I want to do. That’s not biblical discipleship. Christ doesn’t follow me, but I need to follow Christ.
How do we do that practically speaking? Well, Jesus says how, He says you do it by continuing in His word. He’s talking about relying on the word of God for your day to day situations. This is the way of sanctification. Read the word, and apply the word. That’s called wisdom by the way. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. So we don’t just become hearers of the word, but doers of it.
Jesus said in His high priestly prayer to God in John 17:17, speaking of His disciples, He prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” That’s a tremendous doctrine. The word then is the sanctifying agent in my life. It’s like the old adage, “sin will keep you from the Bible, or the Bible will keep you from sin.” David in Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
Here is the thing that Jesus is teaching at this point. Justification is taking away the penalty of sin. Sanctification is taking away the power of sin. And one day, glorification will take away the presence of sin. But let’s just focus on sanctification for a moment. Sanctification is deliverance from the power of sin. This is the true freedom that Christ brings. It’s not just taking away the penalty of sin but leaving us to live in sin. That would not be true freedom. Christ gives us the power over sin, the power to be delivered from sin. That is the hope of Christianity in this life. That we have victory over sin.
Now the reality is that as long as we are in the body and living in a fallen world we are going to feel some of the effects of occasional sin. No one is going to achieve sinless perfection this side of glorification. But as a Christian we can be delivered from continual sin. That is the meaning of the word used there for sin. It is continual, habitual sin. That’s the good news that Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 61 which we quoted earlier; “the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.”
That’s the same thing that the old hymn Rock of Ages is talking about when it says, that the blood of Christ will “be of sin the double cure, save from wrath, and make me pure.” That double cure is speaking of being saved from the wrath of God, and then the sanctification that produces purity towards God. Justification and sanctification.
So that is the path of sanctification. Sanctification is progressive, by the way. There is a sense in which we are sanctified, consecrated, and set apart at salvation by the blood of Christ. That is positional sanctification whereby we have been set apart from the world for good works. But there is also practical sanctification, and that comes from continuing in the word. As God reveals truth to you through His word, then you apply that truth and it becomes a sanctifying agent that works to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ. That is why the text doesn’t just say the truth sets you free. That’s true, but it’s not once and done. It’s continually making you free. Each day continuing to apply the word, and that continuance working in us that which is pleasing to God. That’s discipleship. Sanctification is discipleship.
And that’s God’s goal for His church. When Christ commissioned the church, He said go into all the world and make disciples. Not just believers. But followers of Christ in conduct and in truth which is doctrine.
Well the Jews answered Jesus back by saying, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” Now first of all, I don’t believe that this “they” who John refers to are the same people that became saved. I think these people are the Jewish religious leaders who have been having this running debate with Christ all throughout this whole passage. Because these people obviously do not believe in Him. They accuse Him of being a liar, and in vs.41 they even accuse Him of being born of fornication, of being illegitimate. So obviously these cannot be those who believed that He was the Son of God.
But the really confusing part was what they said. They said they had never been enslaved to anyone, when in fact, they had been enslaved numerous times, starting with Egypt and then in Babylon and they were under a form of bondage even then to the Romans. So it is difficult to know what they were talking about. Except for to note the irony that when you are enslaved to a lie, the lie is that you are not enslaved. Many times I meet people who are obviously weighted down under the bondage of sin, and yet they extol the virtues of their freedom. I suppose there is no lie like the lie you tell yourself.
That is the curse of sin which brings condemnation. To refuse to acknowledge it and thus refuse to repent of it. For instance, to be an alcoholic and deny it is obvious folly to everyone but the alcoholic. But that is very often the case. They say, “I can take it or leave it.” But in actuality, they only take it. Perhaps that unwillingness to face their sin caused them to deny their enslavement and to blind themselves to their reality.
So Jesus gave an answer designed to prove HIs point. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” Again, this is speaking of habitual, continual sin. In other words, if you are living in sin, then you are obviously a slave of sin, and you have not been set free. You may tell yourself you are free, you may tell others that you are free, but your actions say otherwise. You are still in your sins, and you will die in your sins, unless you believe in Him, which Jesus said meant to continue in His word and follow Him.
And then Jesus says, “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.” What Jesus is saying was in response to their claim as Abraham’s children. He is saying that their actions demonstrate that they are not Abraham’s children, because Abraham’s children are the children of faith. They believe God and He counts it to them as righteousness. But these men demonstrate that they are not Abraham’s children because they are not children of faith. So Jesus says that they are slaves. And like Ishmael in the house of Abraham, they will not inherit the blessing of the son Isaac. They will not stay in the house forever, because they are not true sons. These men had a temporary stay in the household of God in the sense that they belonged to the tribe of Israel. But when they were judged according to their works, they were found to be doers of wickedness, and thus slaves of wickedness, and not sons of righteousness.
That was the judgment. But thank God Jesus doesn’t stop with the judgment. He offers once again salvation. He says in vs.36, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” This is the reality of salvation, that we are truly free if Christ has made us free. If the spirit of man has been freed, then he is free inwardly, in a way that no earthly chains can contain. Because if Christ has made us free, then we have fellowship with God in a realm that cannot be ascertained by those who are not free in Christ.
In a simplified way of looking at slavery and freedom, we might say that those who are slaves have someone else take advantage of their labors. If they make money, it’s not really theirs to enjoy, it’s their masters. If they have possessions, they are not really theirs to keep, for they are their masters. The master owns everything that the slave has. Such is the reality of the lie that Satan has foisted upon the world. He has promised that you can enjoy the fruits of a sinful life. but the fact is, that he owns all that you do. All that you do in that world ends up being left behind when you die in your sins and face an eternity in hell.
But if the Son shall make you free, then not only are you made free, but you receive the adoption as sons, and consequently you receive an inheritance that will never fade away, reserved in heaven for you. As a result of that hope, we know that our labor is not in vain. That what we do in this world will be used for the glory of God. So we find our freedom in service to God, knowing that He keeps track of our works, and will reward us in the day of our glorification.
Listen, today is the favorable year of the Lord. Today the Lord offers freedom from the captivity of sin that has kept you hostage. The Lord is ready to save all that call upon Him. Believe in the truth and be saved. That is the offer extended to you today. Receive all that God has prepared for those that love Him. Or continue to believe the lie of this world and you will die in your sins. There is a very clear choice, and the choice is yours. There are two paths, two possibilities before you today; the truth and the lie. God is the author of truth, and Satan is the author of lies. One path leads to freedom, and the other path leads to further enslavement. I pray you will believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. May today be the day that you are made free indeed.
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