The Truth Makes Us Free

The truth will set you free - John 8: 31-38

(Jn 8: 31-38) "Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him: If you continue in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." We are Abraham, and we have never been anyone's slaves, how do you say, "You will be free?" Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. house forever, the child does remain forever, so if the Son will free you, you will be truly free, I know that you are descendants of Abraham, but you seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you. near the Father, and you do what you have heard near your father. "

A true disciple is one who constantly delves into the truth revealed in his Word, submits to it and makes it the norm of his life. In this sense it is interesting to note that in the book of Acts, the first believers were known as disciples (Acts 9: 10,26). Surely, one of the greatest needs of the people of God at this time is to become disciples of Jesus again.

This verse is well known and has been cited by politicians, poets, statesmen of all ages. Now, before using it, we must correctly understand what Jesus meant by it.
In the context in which Jesus made this statement, Judaism believed that the study of the law of Moses made man free. For that reason, the Jewish rulers looked with disdain on the people they considered ignorant: "These people who do not know the law are cursed" (Jn 7:49).
However, what Jesus said is that it would be "the truth" that could make you free, not the law of Moses. At first, both could seem the same, but we have already seen in this gospel that they are not exactly the same:
(Jn 1:17) "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
It is important to point out this difference, because knowledge of the law, by itself, does not bring freedom to man. In fact, the law has no power to free us from sin. It is true that it shows us what is wrong, but it does not give us the power to do it well. And in fact, curiously, their prohibitions awaken our fallen nature by provoking us to sin (Rom. 7: 7-8). The fact that we are sinners leads us to actively desire what the law forbids. The proverb expresses it clearly: "The stolen waters are sweet, and the bread eaten in secret is tasty" (Pr 9:17). The apostle Paul described this spiritual struggle that every sinner man has experienced at some time because of the law:
(Ro 7: 14-15) "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold to sin, because what I do, I do not understand, for I do not do what I want, but what I hate, I do. "
The law can only show us our sad condition of slavery to sin, but it can not free us from it, therefore, Jesus was referring to something else when he said that "the truth will make you free". That "truth" did not refer to the law that they already knew, but it would be something that they would come to know: "you will know the truth".
The Lord was pointing to "the truth" that he himself was revealing in his own person. He affirmed of himself: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14: 6). Jesus is the Son of God incarnate and therefore he has shown us the Father in a unique way.
(Jn 1:18) "No one has ever seen God, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known."
But Christ not only has revealed us to the Father with total clarity, but He has also left us a perfect example of what a man who lives in accordance with the law of God must be.

"Everyone who makes sin, a slave is from sin"

It was then that Jesus made an important statement using a language that reminds us of the prophets of old when they said, "Thus says the Lord." However, Jesus was the Son, and he could speak in his own name, so he said to them: "Most assuredly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin."
Let us begin by noting that the statement Jesus made was universal and encompasses all of humanity without distinction between Jews and Gentiles. The apostle Paul dealt with the same subject by writing to the Romans:
(Ro 6:16) "Do you not know that if you submit yourselves as slaves to obey Him, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, whether from sin to death, or from obedience to righteousness?"
The Lord was not talking about the political slavery to which Jews had been subjected for centuries, but he turned his attention to the true nature of slavery. And there is no servitude that can be compared to slavery to sin. Sin is indeed the worst of all masters. It chains the man with stronger ties than the iron chains with which a criminal could be imprisoned in his cell. His servitude is much more devastating than that which the political powers can impose, because ultimately it leads to death and eternal damnation.
Even so, few men are willing to acknowledge their slavery. They do not admit that sin has overcome them and that they can not be freed from it (2 Pet. 2:19), that they live as "slaves of diverse lusts and delights" (Tit 3: 3), that they can not get rid of their yoke. They do not want to accept that each new sin they commit becomes the cause of others, in such a way that their power increases more and more over them, to the point where they come to live more and more to satisfy their sinful desires. And far from getting rid of them, their power increasingly oppresses them.
But many sinners not only refuse to accept their state, but make fun of it. Sometimes they may come to recognize that some of the things they do are destroying them, but they claim to do them because they like them and are sure that they can be left at the time they wish. But they ignore that sin, like the worst of narcotics, is a habit-forming one. Sin is a strange force that seizes the will and comes to dominate the being of man. And not only do we refer to sins such as drunkenness or drugs, since any sin produces this same effect; be it ambition, envy, avarice, vices of a sexual nature, pride, rebellion ... they are all equally harmful.
Christ has taught us that outside of him there is no deliverance from sin, and every one of us who are believers know this from our own experience. Now, the first step towards freedom is to recognize and accept our state. We must realize that we have lost control over our own decisions and that we are finally destroying ourselves. Unless we do, we can never appropriate the freedom that the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers us.

source

"And the slave does not stay in the house forever, the son does stay forever"

Jesus has described his hearers as slaves of sin, lacking true freedom. Now he is about to explain to them what his end will be given his condition as slaves: "And the slave does not stay in the house forever, the son does stay forever."
A slave could not enjoy the privileges of the master's house forever. He could be fired or sold at any time, since his relationship with the master was temporary. Unlike this, the son was the heir and had a permanent position in the house.

"So, if the Son will free you, you will be truly free"

The Son had come so that men could be "truly free." Now we are going to consider several important aspects of this "freedom".

1.- The means to achieve freedom
It is clear from the words of Jesus that we can not free ourselves, but that the freedom from the tyranny of sin must come from without. Our good purposes can not free us from the power of sin. In fact, every effort to get rid of him, seems to do nothing but narrow his noose over us.
The Lord had already explained that the means by which we could attain this freedom would be to know the truth: "and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (Jn 8:32). Now in this verse we see that "the truth" of which he spoke was closely related to himself: "If the Son shall free you, you shall be truly free."
The only option proposed by God for our freedom is found in Christ. However, man refuses to believe in this solution and desperately tries to change this world through other means: politics, education, economics ... but they are all doomed to failure, as we can constantly verify.

2.- The nature of this freedom
The Jews were only interested in being freed from the yoke of Rome, and for that reason they saw Jesus as a political Messiah, as a revolutionary who would lead them to victory over them and who would restore national independence.
But that is not the "true freedom" that man needs. Of course, this does not mean that political freedom is not important, but we know that we can be free in that sense and at the same time be under the yoke of other tyrannical masters. And as we have already seen, the Lord was referring to the worst of them all: sin.
The nature of true freedom is spiritual, and goes far beyond what the Jews understood in this sense. For them it meant only being free from the bondage of idols or from the darkness of pagan polytheism. But the spiritual freedom of which Christ spoke was much greater. It is about the freedom from sin and all the negative effects that it has brought to our lives. It includes forgiveness and the justification of all our sins (Jn 5:24) (Rom. 8: 1). It entails the liberation of the sense of guilt and the tranquility of conscience (He 9:14). He regenerates us through his Holy Spirit to be new creatures who live in holiness free from the domination of sin (Rom. 6:14).

3.- The way in which Christ gets this freedom

The term "redeem" referred to the payment that needed to be made to free a person from slavery. In the Old Testament the figure of the "Redeemer" was constantly associated with Jehovah (Is 44: 6), and here we see that it is the Son who liberates all those who believe in him.
And as for the price he was going to pay to carry out such a liberation it would be nothing more and nothing less than his own blood. The sacrificial system of the Old Testament had served to teach the Israelites that in order to obtain the redemption of their sins they had to pay a price. And so the sacrifice of each animal, with its blood spilled on the altar, symbolically anticipated the price that Christ was going to pay fully with his death on the cross. John the Baptist had already anticipated it when he presented the Lord Jesus: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29). In this way Christ has achieved our full redemption:
(Eph 1: 7) "In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace."

4.- The results of this freedom

In the first place it is clear that we have been freed from sin in order not to continue living in it: "Because you, brothers, were called to freedom, only do not use freedom as an opportunity for the flesh" (Gal 5:13). This freedom should lead us to live in holiness and obedience to God in a clean communion with God.
But also regarding our position before God there have been important changes. By being liberated we are no longer slaves, but children, and therefore, we remain in the house of the heavenly Father, forming part of his family (Ro 8: 15-17). This is the "true freedom" to which Jesus referred.

We are the instruments that God is using at this time to promote, that true freedom, that of the soul, mind and spirit, other things will come in addition.When I see a person in the street asking for alms, I always give him, but the next day this person continues to be dependent on a social system, because he lives in bondage of thoughts, they are mental ties, captivity, the Lord has told me at this time I want to give freedom to the oppressed, what we have to give them, but we the people of God have more than material things we have the word of eternal life, we have Jesus, who offered himself out of love for us and made us truly free.