The battle for freedom of some kind is being fought around the
world. Here in our own land there are constant battles for freedom
of religion. Minorities all over the world are fighting for freedom.
Years ago Heine said, "Freedom is the new religion; the religion of
our time." The possibility of freedom is becoming known to all
people because the world has gotten smaller and people everywhere
can see that some other people have attained it, and they want it
also. Once they have seen what can be, what is becomes intolerable
to them. The words of Patrick Henry in 1775 expressed the feelings
and minds of millions. He concluded his address by saying, "Is life
so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains
and slavery? Forbid it, almighty powers! I know not what cause
others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."
Moore puts the same idea into poetry.
Better to dwell in freedom's hall,
With a cold damp floor and moldering wall
Then bow the head and bend the knee
In the proudest palace of slavery.
Men everywhere are recognizing they were made to be free,
and they want to be able to sing with the patriots of America, "My
country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing." They want
to boast with the patriots of Columbia, "And ne'er shall the sons of
Columbia be slaves, while the earth bears a plant, or the sea roles
its waves. Men want to be free and stay free. Lord Acton said,
"History is the record of man's struggle to be free." What is of
interest for us to notice is that in this struggle men are
concentrating on only the lesser of two kinds of freedom. There is a
freedom of external restraint, and a freedom from internal
bondage. Man is giving himself to battle for the first, but is hardly
even aware of the second kind of freedom.
It is the second kind of freedom that brought the Son of God
into the world to become the great Emancipator and Liberator
from sin. Jesus would not think lightly of political freedom, but this
was not the freedom He came to give. The Apostles would not be
indifferent to man's political oppression, but this was not the
message they proclaimed. Man is in a greater bondage than that
which man can make. He is in bondage to sin, Satan, and his own
fallen nature. What can set him free from these tyrants is the
greatest freedom. Jesus stands alone as the one who is able to lead
men into this greatest of freedoms. This means the church is the
most relevant body of people in the world, for it alone has the
answer for escape from the bondage to sin. We want to look at
three aspects of Christ's teaching concerning this greatest freedom.
I. THE CONDITION NECESSARY TO RECEIVE IT. v. 31
Jesus had been speaking to a crowd of Jews who were not His
followers, but as He was speaking some of them believed, and so He
addresses those who had just made their declaration of
independence from the crowd, and Jewish leaders. Jesus made it
clear to them that it is not the start that counts, but the continuing.
Anybody can make a commitment on the basis of a good sermon or
idea shared, but the real test comes when you continue on and
discover truths that you didn't agree with at the time of the
commitment. This happens to so many people. They get started,
but they do not keep going. Israel was happy to leave Egypt and
escape their bondage. They were off to a wonderful start, but it
didn't last, for soon they were longing to return.
Someone has said that if all the Christians who looked back to
their sinful life with a sense of longing to return were turned into
salt, like Lot's wife who looked back, there would be a great many
more pillars in the church, and they would be literally the salt of the
earth. Jesus came to make us free, and free indeed, but if we do not
fulfill the condition of pressing on, and of continuing in His Word,
we will forfeit the goal. Jesus says that only those who continue in
His Word are true disciples. A disciple is defined here as one who
continues in the Word of Christ.
He is no true follower of Christ who only follows when the
Master walks where the follower wants to go. He is no true believer
who only believes when the Lord teaches what he agrees with.
Jesus did not encourage any superficial discipleship. He told those
who believed right on the spot that when they made a commitment
to Him it was absolute and permanent, for it was of no value.
Calvin said, "Here Christ warns them in the first place, that it is not
enough for anyone to have begun well, if there progress to the end
does not correspond with it." Just as man's bondage to sin is due to
his continuance in sinning, so also our hope for freedom from those
powers depends on continuing in the Word of Christ. Jesus was
saying this to believers. The distinction between one who is a
believer and a disciple is that a believer is one who has begun, but a
disciple is one who has continued. Discipleship is the condition for
receiving the greatest freedom.
II. THE CAUSE OF RECEIVING IT. v. 32
Discipleship, which has been defined as continuing in the Word
of Christ, leads to the discernment of the truth. Jesus says that if
you continue in it you shall know the truth. It is not maybe, but you
shall know it. It is a promise, and it will be the knowing of the truth
that shall liberate you. The greater the discernment of truth, the
greater the freedom. All ignorance is bondage, but none is more so
costly as the ignorance of the truth of Christ. Men will go to the
battlefield to kill and be killed for national freedom, but they will
not take the time to study the Word of Christ that they might gain
and maintain the greater freedom from the bondage to sin. All
other freedoms lose their value to the degree that one does not
possess this greatest freedom.
J. C. Ryle said, "All political liberty, however useful for many
purposes is worthless, unless we are children of God, and heirs of
the kingdom by faith in Jesus." The problem is that one cannot
even discern this truth unless he fulfills the condition and continues
in the Word. It is only by continuing that one can find the truth,
and only as one has the truth can he be free. Truth is the battering
ram by which we smash down the gate of ignorance and escape into
the light from the dungeon of error. Truth is what sets us free
because it is only by knowing the truth that we even become aware
that we are in bondage. The Jews to whom Jesus talked were not
even aware of their bondage. Like men today they considered only
the external factors and never thought of the tyranny within. They
were surprised and probably indignant at his statement that the
truth would set them free.
In verse 33 they reply that they are Abraham's seed and never
were in bondage to anyone. Jesus did not argue their claim about
never being in bondage even though he could have easily won the
debate, for they had been in bondage to Egypt, Babylon, and now to
the Romans. Jesus is not concern about winning an argument
about external bondage. He is concerned about the worst bondage
and the greatest tyrant that man faces. So in verse 34 Jesus comes
out with a clear statement that He is talking about spiritual
bondage and slavery to sin. A good many Americans would be
offended just as these proud Jews were, if you told them they were
slaves and not free. Many who sing of liberty are in greater
bondage than they realize. They do not know that they are captives
of their sinful nature. It is the job of the church to help those who
live in our great land of liberty to realize that they still need to be
set free through the truth of Christ. No person is truly free until
they have found the greatest liberty in Jesus.
III. THE CONSEQUENCES OF RECEIVING IT. v. 35-36
On the 4th of July, 1779 this proclamation was made: "This
day being the anniversary of our glorious independence, will be
commemorated by the firing of 13 cannon from West Point at 1
o'clock P. M. The Commander-in-Chief thinks proper to grant a
general pardon to all prisoners in the army, under sentence of
death. They are to be released from confinement accordingly."
Certainly it would be that these men so pardoned would the
happiest men alive, for what greater freedom could be had than
that which came to them as a consequence of national freedom? We
already know the answer, but Jesus in verse 36 stresses it. If the
Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. That is to be truly
and really free.
All other freedoms, however good, are only partial, and they do
not make one free indeed. These men pardon from prison gained
freedom from the external restraint, but it would not release them
from their internal bondage. A greater boon it would have been if
they had been given the Gospel of Christ, for it they would have
received Him they would have become free indeed. This was the
case with Madam Guyon who spent 10 years in French prisons, but
who had such inter freedom that she could write,
My cage confines me round;
Aboard I cannot fly;
But though my wing is closely bound,
My hearts at liberty.
My prison walls cannot control
The flight, the freedom of the soul.
Oh, it is good to soar
These bolts and bars above,
To Him whose purpose I adore,
Whose providence I love.
And in thy mighty will to find
The joy, the freedom of the mind.
Jesus says in verse 35 that a servant does not abide forever in
the house, but only the son does. All men are still slaves, no matter
how many freedoms they have, if they have not found freedom in
Christ. Knowing this will not make the Christian less patriotic and
less thankful for the great liberties of our land, but it will keep him
from sentimentalism, and idolatry of the state. It will make him
conscience that when the state has done all it can, it has not begun
to do the work that only the church can do by the power of the
truth in Christ. This truth when received leads to the greatest
freedom.
