TO BE FREE (JOHN 8:31-47)
On the Easter weekend of 2013 I joined a fellowship group to visit prisoners and was given a timely lesson and insight on the lack or worse, the absence, of freedom. It took an hour just to get into the facilities because of security. We were screened and most of our things were surrendered to the front office except for props for a skit. The things we had to leave behind in a locker include bags, phones, keys, wallets and even tissues longer than those in mini packets. The two groups of women prisoners who attended – the early group with 15 and the latter group with19 - had to line up and wait for guards to call them to attend the hour and a half long meeting. An employee was in the room to ensure safety. Praise God, half of them accepted Christ.
Later I found out from the internet that the prisoners can be divided into local prisoners, mainland Chinese and foreign prisoners. Many of them are sex workers, drug addicts and the mentally disturbed. The two problems in these institutions is overcrowding in the jail and isolation from the outside. Convicted prisoners in most facilities are permitted two to four thirty-minute visits per month with up to three people at a time. Worse, prisoners do not have regular access to telephones, TV, and internet.
In John chapter 8 Jesus has a message for the Jews who claimed they were proud descendants of Abraham and were never ever (emphatic in Greek) enslaved (v 33). They were offended by Jesus’ offer of freedom but missed the point. He was not talking about physical and external enslavement, but spiritual and internal.
What truly enslaves people? Why can’t they free themselves? How can Jesus free us?
Dare to Live as a Disciple
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
What is a disciple? Do you know the word “believer” and “follower” is not used in the KJV Bible and the word “Christian” is only used three times in the New Testament (Acts 11:26, 26:28, 1 Peter 4:16)? However, 261 times it talks about disciples. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19 ends with Jesus’ imperative to make disciples of all nations. What is a disciple? A disciple is foremost a student, a learner, a pupil, an apprentice, a follower, an adherent, none of which refers to a master, teacher, or expert yet. Every disciple is a believer, but not every believer is a disciple. A disciple accepts not only the Jesus’ leadership but His lordship, not only His assistance but His authority, not only the right but the rule of Jesus in his or her life.
A disciple is a follower of Christ, and not a fan or friend of His. It is to learn from Him, to look to Him, and to live for Him. The path of a disciple is not exempted from suffering, shame and sorrow. This is the first of three times Jesus used the phrase “my disciples” (John 8:31), the other distinctive marks of being “my disciple” include to love one another (John 13:35) and to bear much fruit (John 15:8).
Once upon a time there lived an elderly millionaire who had four nephews. Desiring to make one of these his heir, he tested their cleverness.
He gave to each a $100.00 bill, with the request that they hide the bills for a year in the city of New York.
Any of them who should succeed in finding the hidden bill at the end of the year should share in the inheritance. The year being over, the four nephews brought their reports.
The first, deeply chagrined, told how he had put his bill in the strongest and surest safe deposit vault, but, alas, clever thieves had broken in and stolen it.
The second had put his in charge of a tried and true friend. But the friend has proved untrustworthy and had spent the money. The third had hidden his bill in a crevice in the floor of his room, but a mouse had nibbled it to bits to build her nest.
The fourth nephew calmly produced his $100.00 bill, as crisp and as fresh as when it had been given him. “And where did you hide it?” asked his uncle. “Too easy! I stuck it in a hotel Bible.”
The best evidence of a disciple is not church attendance, a beautiful cross or a baptism certificate, but keeping God’s word.
While disciple is a noun, the verb in verse 31 is to “hold to,” translated in KJV mostly as abide 61 times. Others include remain 16 times, dwell 15 times, continue 11 times. The words remain, continue and abide are identical, interchangeable and indistinguishable in KJV.
Just as the noun for “abide” is “abode,” so “abide in” usually refers to a house, lodging, residence, accommodation, and dwelling, so the word suggests making a residence, calling it home and residing in it, not living overnight or short-term as a guest, visitor, renter, boarder, lodger or tenant. “Abide in my word or teaching” means to be inside and not outside of His word, to be a doer and not a mere hearer of His word, and to subject to His word and not object to His teaching. The Bible is not mean for carrying about but to carry out, not for collecting dust but for daily practice. God’s word is central and core to a disciple, not a choice or a convenience.
The task in verse 31 is to continue, the test is “my word” (vv 31, 37, 43), and the transformation is being a disciple.
Dare to Learn the Truth
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Once, truth and falsehood met at a crossroads, and after they had greeted each other, Falsehood asked Truth how the world went with him. “How it goes with me?” said Truth. “Each year worse off than the last.” “I can see the plight you are in,” said Falsehood, glancing at Truth's ragged clothes. “Why, even your breath stinks.” “Not a bite has passed my lips these three days,” said Truth. “Wherever I go, I get troubles, not only for myself, but for few who love me still. It's no way to live, this.” “You have only yourself to blame,” said Falsehood to him. “Come with me, You'll see better days, dress in fine clothes like mine, and eat plenty, only you must not gainsay anything I say.”
Truth consented, just that once, to go and eat with falsehood because he was so hungry he could hardly keep upright. They set out together and came to a great city, and went into the best hotel, which was full of people, and sat and ate of the best. When many hours had gone by, and most of the people had gone, Falsehood rapped with his fist on the table, and the hotelkeeper himself came up to see to their wants, for Falsehood looked like a great nobleman. He asked what they desired.
“How much longer do I have to wait for the change from the sovereign I gave the boy who sets the table?” said Falsehood. The host called the boy, who said that he had no sovereign. The Falsehood grew angry and began to shout, saying he would never have believed that such a hotel would rob the people who went in there to eat, but he would bear it in mind another time, and he threw a sovereign at the hotelkeeper. “There,” he said, “bring me the change.”
Fearing that his hotel would get a bad name, the hotelkeeper would not take the sovereign, but gave change from the reputed sovereign of the argument, and boxed the ears of the boy who could not remember taking the coin. The boy began to cry, and protest that he had not had the sovereign, but no one believed him, he sighed deeply and said, “Alas, where are you, unhappy Truth? Are you no more?”
“No, I'm here,” said Truth, through clenched teeth, “but I had not eaten for three days, and now I may not speak. You must find the right of it by yourself, my tongue is tied.”
When they got outside, Falsehood burst out laughing and said tot Truth, “You see how I contrive things?”
“Better I should die of hunger,” said Truth, “than to do the things you do.” So they parted forever.
Truth is important to John. The word truth occurs once in Matthew and thrice in Mark and Luke, but 25 times in John, more than any New Testament book, seven times in chapter 8 (32*2, 40, 44*2, 45, 46*2), so John is just as interested as any philosopher to get to the bottom of truth.
Why is truth so elusive nowadays? Because of the presence of the biggest Deceiver. The devil’s truth is relative, subjective and deceptive. It is agnostic and amoral, neither does it save or satisfy. The nature of modern truth is to contradict but not correct. European truth, in particular, has sent generations and millions of people in the hell of cynicism, pessimism, existentialism. What is the devil’s truth? The devil’s truth is that there is no way, no truth, and no life, but Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6)
What truth is Jesus advocating? The truth about who He is. Verse 32’s “Then you will KNOW the truth” is inseparable from verse 28 of the same chapter: “So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will KNOW that I AM…” To John, Jesus Christ is the truth, the indispensable, irrevocable and impeccable, all else is irrelevant, invented and inferior.
For Jews and philosophers truth is transcendent, but to Jesus it is transparent –truth is personified, embodied and manifested in Christ. Truth is not a postulation but a person, not information but incarnational, not in an argument but in the advent. It is not infinity and beyond, but God with us; not vague in thinking but visible in Jesus, not conceptual but concrete in Him, not metaphysical but physical in His appearance. God is not unknown, unrevealed and unfriendly, but knowable, reachable and available in Christ. In Jesus truth is personal, not impersonal, not an ideology but an individual, a relationship and not a reason.
The truth Jesus refers to is the truth that He is the I AM (vv 28) of the Bible. What does I, I Am (ego eimi) mean? It means He exists, He is Self-existent and preexistent. There is no preposition, pronoun, or other person other than I AM. He is past, present and permanent. He is before everything, the beginning and the end, the origin and the owner of life.
Unlike philosophers whose only experience is that of life, Jesus’ expertise is that of life and death and eternity., because gave life, tasted death and rose again. In this chapter Jesus did not conceal but revealed who He is, when He exists and where He’s from:
John 8:38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father (KJV)
John 8:40 I have heard of God (KJV)
John 8:42 I proceeded forth and came from God (KJV)
John 8:55 I know him (KJV)
John 8:58 I am (KJV)
Jews Jesus
Sinful Sinless (v 46), preexistent, perfect peerless permanent I am 24 28 58 Heaven
Death Deliverer
“We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone.” (v 33) “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (v 34)
Slave to sin (v 34) The Son sets you free (v 36)
slave has no permanent place (v 35) a son belongs to it forever (v 35)
your father (v 38) my Father (38)
kill me (v 40) love me (v 42)
slave has no permanent place (v 35) he shall never see death (v 51)
What does it mean to say He is the truth? The truth of I AM refers to His authority, ability and availability of Christ. What truth is worth His coming, suffering and dying for men?
Truth 1: You are a slave to sin. You do (present tense) the works (plural) of “your father” (38, 41, 44*2). (You are doing the things your own father does, NIV ) You are a regular and repeat offender. It is in your DNA. You do it more than once, more and more, more of the same.
Truth 2: A slave has no permanent home. A slave has no home. Hell is not home; it is a house on fire, a place where you are home alone, the darkest place lighted by inferno.
Truth 3: The Son remains into the “age” ever 71, world 38, evermore 4, age 2, eternal 2. He is self-existent, eternal and endless, unceasing and unending, perpetual and permanent. Ever, evermore and ever and ever and again, forever. He is divine (v 28, I AM), eternal (v 32, abides forever; v 58 before Abraham was), sinless (v 46, Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?).
God’s truth is knowable. The knowledge of Jesus is available, evident, incarnate, observable, and understandable.
Dare to Leave Your Past
32 and the truth will set you free.”
“Oh, you preachers make me sick!” a fellow said to a witnessing Christian on the train one day. The Christian assured him he was not a preacher. “I don't care what you are. You Christians are always talking about a man going to hell because Adam sinned.”
“No,” the Christian said, “you need not go to hell because Adam sinned. You will go to hell because you refuse the remedy provided for Adam's sin. Don't keep complaining about something that has absolutely been taken care of. If you go to hell, you will go over the broken body of Jesus Christ, who died to keep you out.” (from Illustrations of Bible Truths # 361)
Is man totally free? It’s been noted that nothing is certain except for two things - death and taxes. Actually, we are not free from sin, Satan and death- from depravity, the devil and destruction. Jesus did not mince his words and was blunt to a fault. The devil is your father, a murderer, a liar and the father of lies (v 42). The real truth to John is not that you are not free because of what Adam did, what Satan did, and what you did, but you are free because of what Jesus did for you. Jesus’ point is whoever can free you from sin, Satan and death is the One who speaks the truth, not Satan, science or society. If he is right about sin, Satan and death, then he is right about man’s freedom, his finiteness and his future. He is so adamant,
feisty and sure about it that he repeated the double negative “not never” (ou me) three times in the chapter, more times than in any chapter in John:
John 8:12, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
John 8:51, I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
John 8:52, If anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.
The Jews thought their allegiance was to Abraham, but Jesus pointed their allegiance was to sin and the devil. The Jews said they are they were descended from Abraham, but Jesus said their debt was to sin. The slave of sin means no submission and surrender to sin, having no resistance or means of resistance.
Conclusion: Sin is irresistible, indisputable and inescapable but for Christ who broke the chains and brought us freedom. God’s freedom, however, includes the choice to receive or reject Him. You cannot choose life or death, but you can now choose eternity. Abraham Lincoln says, “Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought.” Are you free to be God’s child or forced into slavery by Satan? Do you want to be chained and caged or set loose and cut loose? delivered? There is no freedom apart from the Son. True freedom is saying to death’s face, I am not afraid of you because Someone confined you, conquered you, and condemned you.”
