Set Free
Jesus said something profound,
John 8:36 Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
He said this after stating the following,
John 8:34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.
Jesus is saying these things to the Jewish people, which He was sent to deliver according to God’s promise and the truth. They were asking Jesus who He was.
John 8:25 Then they said to Him, “Who are You?” And Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. 26 I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.”
They did not understand that He was speaking to them of the Father.
John 8:28 Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. 29 And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” 30 As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.
Jesus did not live by His own strength in the flesh, and He did not do things based on what He wanted. The primary desire of Jesus was to please the Father by being in unity with Him and yielding to His will. This is why Jesus is considered the most humble man that ever lived; He never did anything based on His own desire. He was fully submitted to the will of God.
After saying these things, it says many believed in Him. To those who believed in Him, He spoke the following.
John 8:31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
This saying disturbed them in their minds and led them to ask him,
John 8:33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”
Interestingly, if we were to go on to read all of what occurred in this exchange in the Scriptures, we would learn that these very ones who claim to believe in Him turned on Him. His claim to set them free from their bondage to sin went unheard and unattended due to their offense that they needed to be set free in the first place. They preferred to argue that they were not in bondage to start with. They allowed a red herring of their natural descent to get in the way of a beautiful promise because of their pride in their “heritage.”
Jesus truly sets us free from sin when we believe and accept who He is and what He has accomplished on our behalf. The power of sin has been broken, and we can live in freedom from sin’s rule over us in Christ.
Those who truly believe that they are in Christ and that Christ lives in them have been set free! Those who take Him at His word just as He took His Father at His word can walk in the freedom Christ died to give to them. It is for freedom that Christ sets us free. Freedom from the tyranny and power of sin!
