“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’ (Joh 8:31-33)?”

How many times have you heard that the truth shall set you free?  What does the phrase mean?  Is it about knowledge or, more likely, is it about a relationship?  Do you know the one who will set you free?

I was in pursuit of the answers to these questions when I found a comment by Gerald Borchert in The New American Commentary regarding the Jewish response to Jesus’ allegation that they were not slaves.  They denied that they had been enslaved to anyone.  According to Borchert, their denial, “seemed to be ridiculously untrue. After all, historically they had been slaves or a vassal state of most of the great powers: beginning with Egypt, thereafter Assyria, Babylonia, Media-Persia, Macedonia, Egypt again and Syria, then finally Rome (Borchert 1996, 303).” 

But, for the Jews their freedom was not tied to their political situation.  Their freedom was a religious freedom based on their identity as sons of God, as His chosen possession, and as God’s own prized possession (Deu 14:1-2) all of which was tied to their identities as Abraham’s descendants (Borchert 1996, 303).  God had not only rescued Israel from the bondage and the slavery of the Egyptians, but He had seen them through the wilderness and into the promised land.  The context of this discussion continues to be the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles in which this deliverance is celebrated.  Being a descendant of Abraham, “was the guarantee of escaping the bonds of Gehenna just as the people of Israel earlier escaped the bondage of Egypt (Borchert 1996, 304).”  By that reasoning the Jews denied their enslavement.  In the midst of their celebration of freedom Jesus was going to tell them that they were still in bondage.

But “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin (Joh 8:34).’”  My thoughts immediately jumped to several friends in the midst of the strong grip of addiction.  One who is addicted, one who grieves as he struggles along side his son who is in the grip of addiction, and one who has quite clearly been freed from his enslavement to addiction.  Why has one been delivered and not the others?  I think the answer is in Jesus’ use of the word “practice.”

Now, I just put my daughter to sleep and I’m tired, so I don’t want to do a Greek word study tonight, but I do want to point to some other places where the word is used.  “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness (1Jo 3:4).”  The Jews who had attempted to entrap Jesus were practicing lawlessness while simultaneously resting in their freedom from the bonds of Gehenna.  Gehenna was the place of punishment described by the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 30:33).  Or how about this one, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth (1Jn 1:6).”  It seems that which we practice reveals to whom we are in bondage.  But it is actually worse than that.  Our practices reveal our sonship; they reveal which family we belong to.  “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning (1Jn 3:8).”

To be free is to abide in Jesus’ word.  Adam Clarke notes, “it is not enough to receive God’s truth—we must retain and walk in it. And it is only when we receive the truth, love it, keep it, and walk in it, that we are the genuine disciples of Christ (Clarke 1810-1826, 579).”  To abide in Jesus’ word is to rest in who Jesus is.  It is to trust in who Jesus says He is.  “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (Joh 1:12-13).”

There are a lot of people today who think they know Jesus.  They will even tell you that He has forgiven them.  But when you look at the practices of their lives it is clear that they are living in darkness.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer labeled this kind of life a life of cheap grace.  “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate (Garrett 2014, 384).”  He contrasts cheap grace with costly grace.  “Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ (Garrett 2014, 384).”

Are you a member of God’s family or do you belong to another family?  Do you know Jesus?  How well do you know Jesus?  Does your life reflect that you believe He is who He says He is?  What is it costing you?  At the very least it should cost us those sins that we find hardest to give up… those sins that we prefer the most.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  Also, I wrote a blog that specifically discusses what is meant by “the word.” Don’t forget to check it out if you are interested in knowing more.

Image by Sang Valte from Pixabay 

Borchert, Gerald L. John 1-11. Vol. 25A, in The New American Commentary. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996.

Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary On The Bible. Public Domain, 1810-1826.

Garrett, James Leo. Systemic Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014.