“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

I’m sure this must have happened to you, like it has happened to me.  You get a letter, an email, or another kind of text message, you read it, misunderstand it, and draw the wrong inference.  Happens all the time.  That’s at least one weakness of such text messages, despite their obvious value.  What causes the breakdown?  The lack of a voice tone, a facial expression or body language.  If you could have heard them describe it live and in person, or at least on film, the misunderstand might never have occurred.

When I read the Scriptures I must admit that on some occasions it seems like a video would be better than a written text.  John 8 is an example of such a case.  On its face it is obvious that Jesus gets into a heated discussion with the Pharisees (v. 13) “in the temple area where the offerings were put” (v. 20).  These Pharisees had plenty of gall to pass around on this day.  First, they suggest he is suicidal (v. 22).  And if Jesus isn’t, they were “ready to kill” him (vs. 37, 40, 59).  Next, they pointed to the alleged illegitimacy of Jesus’ birth (vs. 41, 48) by claiming their own birth purity and status as children of God (v. 41).  They also accused him of being demonized (vs. 48, 52).  All in a day’s work for being strict law-keepers, I guess.  I would love to have seen it.  For his part, it appears that Jesus stoops to ad hominem attacks.  But that conclusion is wrong.  Sure, he says they will die in their sin (vs. 21, 24), are of the world (v. 23), their parentage is of Satan (v. 44), are murderous and untruthful (v. 44) and “do not belong to God” (v. 47). But those are facts; he is not name-calling. Forceful, blunt power under control is what we see here.

It is in the midst of this increasingly heated debate that John adds, “many put their faith in him” (v. 30).  What follows is a kind of short-lived intermission dialog that belies whatever infantile faith they had:

“To the Jews who had believed in him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

First of all, remember that the Great Commission is about making disciples (Matt. 28:19-20), not making decisions.  Jesus does here what any spiritually mature person would do when people begin to move forward spiritually: challenge them to keep going.  Faith obviously beings the process.  But holding to God’s Word and Christ’s teaching will “really” make them disciples (v. 31).  They only took one step in a journey of a thousand miles, and it wasn’t enough to ensure their salvation as the text shows.

In this intermission dialog we discover the fact that Jesus wanted them — and wants us — to be free.   But freedom comes in several stages. Let’s start with his latter comment in verse 36: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  Well, on the cross Jesus did set believers free from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13), the penalty of sin.  That much is an accomplished, historical fact.

As we back up in the conversation, it is clear Jesus has another aspect of freedom on his mind.  It is not his death that brings freedom, but “know[ing] the truth [that] will set you free”.  Free from what?  From the slavery to sin: “everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (v. 34).  Jesus tells this rowdy group that real believers will become disciples who deal with their own ‘issues’.  Much of the truth Jesus has in mind God gave Paul, who penned such books as Galatians and Romans.  In Romans 6 he repeatedly says we have “died to sin” or are “dead to sin”, “freed from sin,” and “no longer slaves to sin”.  These descriptions are true because of our position of no longer being “in Adam” but “in Christ,” the framework for understanding Romans 5:12-8:39.  This kind of freedom is a day-to-day freedom from the power of sin that keeps people alienated in bondage.  Jesus tells us clearly: “a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever” (v. 35).  That’s any son, not the Son.  He speaks of us, not himself here.

Since freedom is the topic, Jesus concludes by hinting at the last freedom to be ours: “I am telling you what I have seen in my Father’s presence…”  If God sent Jesus to bring us freedom from the penalty and power of sin, why not freedom from the actual presence of sin?  That’s what we find in the Heavenly Father and his Son, who brings all the freedom we can possibly experience this side of heaven.

How much freedom from the Liberator do you have in your life?