What does it mean to be Free?

Some of the greatest verses in the Bible that have to do with freedom and liberty are found in John 8.   In John 8:31-32, Jesus lets us know that if we follow Him (that is what it means to be his disciple), abide in his teachings (His Word) we would “know the truth and the truth that would set us free.” 

Jesus is letting us know that in this life there is the possibility of real freedom and that freedom can only be found in a personal relationship with Him.  But for us to truly appreciate what Jesus is offering here, we need to first understand what we need to be freed from, before we can appreciate what this freedom Jesus is talking about is for. 

The Jewish audience in John 8 believed as children of Abraham they stood righteous or free from condemnation before God based on their racial lineage. But Jesus reminds them of this sobering truth in John 8:34-36, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.   The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”    

Again Jesus is not talking about physical freedom, but a greater freedom, a freedom in our relationship with God.   The audience in John 8 believed that being born as children of Abraham automatically gave them a right position before God, but their true condition was that they were in a state of slavery because of sin.

Again we are not that different.  Before Jesus the Bible teaches that “all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”   There is none righteous, no not one, none of us our good enough.   The reality is that all of us were born with a propensity towards sin and the fact is all of us have practiced sin. This condition testifies that we lack freedom in because we are held down by our sin nature and condemned by God because of it.

Jesus warns them that the one who is a slave to sin will one day be cut off forever.   John 8:35, “The slave does not remain in the house forever.”  In other words, those without Jesus will one day be without God Himself and are not really His children. That is why Jesus tells them in vs. 36, “If the Son sets you free you will be free indeed.”

That is why the gospel is good news.  Listen to these fantastic verses in Ephesians 2:1-5, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…   carrying out the desires of the body and the mind… by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.   But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ… it is by grace you have been saved.”

And so God did for us what we couldn’t do, sent His Son so that through Him we can be liberated from the consequences of sin, free from condemnation, freed from its ongoing effects in our life and become a child of God forever and ever. Yes indeed, “If the Son sets you free you will be free indeed.”