Set Free Indeed

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

SET FREE INDEED

John 8:31-38

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."  33 They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" 34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you have heard from your father." 

NIV

There is far more to this conversation, or rather we should say, confrontation than what we have here, however, we need to park here for just a moment. Jesus is talking to those who believed in him as he tells them about holding to his teaching. In order for us to really be his disciples, or learners as in pupil, as a direct translation of the Greek means, then we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. When we stop to think about that, we must first be a learner, we must first be his pupil. That means we have to study under his teaching. It is not just saying we believe therefore we are free. We need to hold to his teaching, we need to study his teaching, learn from it. When we were students in school, especially in our higher levels of education, we needed to learn things and assimilate them into our being if we were going to be able to put that knowledge into practical application toward our career. We cannot be a doctor without knowing within the knowledge required, and to continue to grow in further knowledge. We cannot be a Minister of the Word without knowing the Word and continue to study and grow in the knowledge of the word. The same is true of being his disciple, his learner, his pupil. We have to learn and continue to learn. We can never say we have learned it all, that we have become as knowledgeable as our teacher. But the point is as we seat under his teaching we learn the truth. Later we will see this confrontation with the Pharisees when Jesus tells them their father is the devil, the father of lies. But Jesus is all truth, every word that comes from him is fully the truth. This should give us a clue as to who we need to learn from, Jesus or the world. The world, symbolizing all non-believers, non-learners, non-pupils of Jesus, is under the influence of the father of lies, the devil. They are not set free, their minds are imprisoned by a lie, an illusion set before them by the devil. Once we were like them, but we have heard the word and believed, we became learners, pupils of Jesus and we have learned the truth and that has set us free. That has to mean we no longer live by the lies of this world. We no longer are imprisoned by its standards or limitations, or chains. We have abdicated our citizenship in this world for we have become citizens of the kingdom of God. We do not, and cannot hold dual citizenship. That would be the same as having two fathers, which is impossible. Our Father is God, their father is the devil. We cannot have both God and Satan as a father, it is one or the other. At one time we were children of Satan, in a sense, but we have been adopted by God and as we are in Christ now we have the right to be called children of God. We are free indeed.