The Gospel of John - part 23
Freedom In & Through Christ
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “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. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
John 8:31-38
The quote “the truth shall set you free” has been quoted so often that it now carries a baggage with it that did not exist in John’s mind. It has nothing to do with academics or revealing some dark secret. The truth is Jesus Christ who brings a transformation to those who believe. It is a transformation that takes someone who is captive to sin and death and makes them free to choose the path to eternal life.
Sometimes people get a little confused on what it means to live surrendered to Jesus. When I was young, growing up in church, I believed the more people matured as Christians the more they would all look and talk alike. We would all dress alike and act like a preacher. It made sense, all the pastors, deacons, and older Christians I knew wore a suit with tie, or long boring dresses. They had either gray hair or no hair. And everyone always seemed worried about what everyone else thought about them. When I would go to youth camp, I got to meet these wild people who also called themselves Christian, but I knew they were really immature Christians, because they had brightly colored clothes and sang music with the devil’s drumbeat in it.
It was not until I was in college I realized my idea of ‘Christian freedom’ was really just a form of legalism, which consequently is why I rebelled against it so hard. Legalism isn’t fun for anyone. True Christian freedom is the freedom from sin and God.
When Christ sets us free, we are free to live as God has uniquely and wonderfully made us to live.
Personality quirks, talents, abilities, hobbies, and anything else God has designed us to love can be used for His glory. The difference between living in Christ and living bound to the devil isn’t the difference between a common collective and individualism, it is the difference between being trapped by chains of self-destructive lifestyles and exploring the world God has given you. Rather than rolling in sewer mud screaming, “Let me do what I want and quit judging me”, you can step out of the filth and see a greater reality.
Freedom is experiencing the beauty of God’s Creation and living apart from sin’s taint.
One of my favorite songs of all time is For King & Country’s “Run Wild, Live Free”. Now, I know the idea of ‘running wild’ makes some church people nervous…I get it. But the idea of the song is the same idea here, Christians can run wild and live free in God’s Creation, because we are set free from Satan and we are free to move wherever the Spirit sends us.
Think of a zoo. I love animals, but I’m always a little bummed when I’m at a zoo. Why? Because they aren’t free to roam. The best zoo we ever went to was a giant refuge for the animals. In order to see them, you had to hop on the train or take a truck ride to see the different areas with the animals. True freedom isn’t the lion stuck in a large box being fed everyday. It’s that same lion running wild through the African Savannah chasing his prey. Christians aren’t called to live in safe little boxes being hand fed. We are meant for the wild, roaming free in the land hunting our prey empowered by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus said we would be fishers of men, he wasn’t saying sit on a dock and wait for the fish, he was talking about hunting them down…metaphorically, of course.
Look again at verse 34. Sin is slavery. It is masked as “rebelling against authority” or “being your own person”. Or, the new one since genetics is “it’s just who I am”. Behavior is now tied to identity in the modern world. What we do is who we are, now. But the true nature of sin is slavery. It is being bound to your own selfish desires, always seeking gratification from things that will never satisfy. And they will never satisfy, because sins are false versions of the truly satisfying gifts of God. Think for a moment about specific sins:
Stealing makes you believe you have it, but it isn’t really yours, you have no right to it.
Lying tries to bend reality to your words, but reality is reality regardless what you say.
Lust tries to fulfill the desire for love, but true love is reciprocated while the objects of your lust couldn’t care less about you.
Coveting makes you believe you deserve the object of your desire, but the truth is anything we have is a gift from God, we ‘deserve’ nothing.
Living in sin is not living free to do what you want, it is being bound to false ideas that will only lead to ruin. And the warning in the next section is this:
If we live our lives believing the lies of sin, or living as though God does not exist, then we will one day wake up to an existence in which God is eternally removed from us.
Who is Your True Father?
They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
John 8:39-47
The Pharisees are acting like their true father, Satan, and Jesus is doing the will of His Father
Without Jesus, the sinful person is bound to Satan like a son to his father.
This next section provides an object lesson for us regarding freedom. The Pharisees begin with “Abraham is our father”. This is perhaps one of the most loaded statements in the Bible. For them to claim Abraham as their father means a few things:
their ancestry goes back to Abraham which means they are children of the promise God gave to Abraham—they believe, as the Jewish people, they are the blessings to the nations.
Abraham was called out of the nations to be the father of God’s chosen people—their salvation is secured as long as they keep the covenant given through Abraham, Moses, and David.
Because they have the testimony of Abraham and his descendants written in what we call the Old Testament, they know the truth very well and need to instruction from ‘a carpenter’.
But, in typical Jesus fashion, Jesus bursts their bubble by stating they are, in fact, not children of Abraham, because they are not acting like Abraham. Instead, they are acting like their true father.
The back and forth that continues is a testament to the the truth of what Jesus is saying. The Pharisees continue to charge they are doing God’s will while denying the truth that God is right in front of them. Jesus is teaching them the Truth and the Way to eternal life, but they refuse to believe because it would mean giving up their power and authority—which again helps us understand the nature of sin, because they have no real power or authority. Despite their claims of freedom, they live under Roman rule and are bound to their self-made traditions that mask as God’s will.
The sinful person believes they are free, despite all attempts at logic.
Likewise, the Pharisees demonstrate a murderous animosity towards Jesus that is characteristic of the devil, not God.
Here is a rule of thumb for life: if you find yourself despising someone to the point you’d like to see them strung up and killed, that’s not God giving you those emotions. That’s the devil.
God seeks to reconcile His enemies, the devil seeks to destroy his enemies.
Therefore, when someone seeks revenge on their enemies or ways to get rid of their enemies, they are listening to the devil. God calls us to love our enemies in order to bring them to the understanding they need Christ, because we have been reconciled to Him while we were enemies of God.
We love because He loved us.
We seek peace, because He sought peace for us.
But this isn’t what the Pharisees want, or are doing. They are seeking to destroy Jesus, because they are listening to their true father, the devil, who wants to end Jesus’ mission on earth. And that is how we know those who are working with God and those working against.
If someone wants to draw people to Christ, they are with God.
If someone wants to block people from Christ, they are with the devil—even if they claim to be a Christian.
Now, church people will typically not just come out and say they don’t want someone to meet Christ. They try to dress it up, first.
“That’s not how we do things.”
“Those people wouldn’t like us.”
“We don’t want to make people uncomfortable.”
Or, choose whichever passive aggressive euphemism for “I just don’t want to” you like.
Freedom for all
The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
John 8:48-59
- They believe Jesus has a demon because He is offering eternal life.
- How can He offer eternal life? Every great prophet has died, is he claiming to be greater than even Abraham?
- Verse 58: Boldest declaration of Divinity yet.
The conversation has centered on the truth and how can the Pharisees know that Jesus is really who He says he is. Jesus has told them they cannot know the truth, because they are bound in their sins to the devil. The devil is their father, and they cannot hear God. Now, in retaliation, they claim Jesus is the possessed one…and He is a Samaritan to boot.
Jesus reiterates the truth He has been teaching since the beginning of His ministry:
Whoever trusts in Jesus will have eternal life.
Look again at verse 51. The ‘truly, truly’ is a double ‘amen’ that we have read before and will read a few more times in John. It is Jesus’ way of emphatically saying, “This is the truth”. When you come across a “truly, truly” you should highlight it in your Bible.
But how can Jesus promise these things?
It is because, as John has been demonstrating for the last 8 chapters, Jesus is God taking on flesh and living amongst us so that we can be saved. Here, though, we have an extra nuance that we may miss if we aren’t careful.
Look again at the context of our passage. This is the tail end of a long episode that started in chapter 7. The Jews are celebrating the Feast of Booths (Sukkot) which we’ve talked about is the commemoration of the Wilderness Wandering following the Exodus. The imagery Jesus has used through these few chapters has harkened back to God’s provision in setting His people free from Egypt and building them into a nation for Himself. Now, Jesus goes even further back to Abraham.
Of course, reading the story, the Pharisees are the ones to invoke Abraham’s story, but Jesus uses their arrogance to teach a profound truth which John doesn’t want us to miss. Look at verse 56:
Jesus says that Abraham rejoiced that he would see the time of Jesus, and Abraham did see it.
The Pharisees make the obvious observation: Jesus isn’t that old, how could he have seen Abraham. Jesus proclaims the boldest declaration of His divinity stating, “Before Abraham was, I Am”. That is why the Pharisees are ready to stone him. Forget going through the Romans, they had had enough. He had used the name of God and took it for Himself.
Jesus can offer freedom and life, because He is the author of life.
But, here is the nuance: The last few chapters have been about the freedom Jesus offers to those who will believe. Consider how the motif has surfaced:
The Festival of Booths is a celebration of Israelite freedom from Egypt. They didn’t need Egypt, because God gave freedom and life.
Those who believes in Jesus will have ‘Rivers of living water’…civilizations are tied to rivers, because they need water to survive. The believer is not tied to something else, because the river of living water will flow out of his heart. It would be if the city could travel around because the river that sustains life travels with it. It’s a difficult analogy for the modern world, but the point is: Christians are not bound to a particular place or ritual for eternal life, because the Holy Spirit gives life directly to them.
Even the controversial story of the woman caught in adultery makes sense here, because it is the story of woman who is caught in her sin, bound for death because she is guilty, but Jesus sets her free. And in her freedom, she is called to sin no more, because she is set free from the taint of sin. She is no longer bound to her false desires, she can live free in the Truth.
When Jesus says, “I am the light of the world”, that Light is another way we are free. How do people move in the darkness? Slowly and cumbersomely. When the light shines, we can more unhindered, because we know where we are going. As Christians free in Christ, living in the light, we can follow whatever paths God lays in front of us, because we know where we are going…we are on our way to Heaven. And wherever God leads us in this life, we know it is for our growth, His glory, and to benefit others along the way. The Christian life is best summarized by Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes 3:12-13, “I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.” Be joyful, do good, and take pleasure in working for God—what better summary of the Christian life is there?
And finally in our passage today, the promise given to Abraham by God is fulfilled in Christ. Abraham was to be a blessing to the nations. What better blessing is there than Christ, who sets the captives free and gives eternal life to those who are dead in their sins and bound to the slave master—Satan?
Today, ask Jesus to set you free, by believing He died to set you free. Stop listening to the lies of Satan and find true freedom and true life.
To every soul locked in a cage
In the prison of your past mistakes
No, there’s no time left to waste
You can make your great escape
We’re made to run wild, live free
Love strong, you and me
“Run Wild, Live Free” by For King & Country