‘The Truth Shall Make You Free’

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, 'You will be made free'?"
Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.
Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
[John 8:31-36 NKJV]

When Jesus says that “the truth will make you free”, we know that He is the living embodiment of what Truth is. In this context ‘the Son’ and ‘the Truth’ are synonymous — either can be used and will mean the same thing. Thus verse 32 could legitimately read ‘and you shall know the Son, and the Son shall make you free’.

Likewise verse 36 could read ‘Therefore if the truth makes you free, you shall be free indeed’. Jesus is ‘the way, the truth and the life.’ and said so [John 14:6 NKJV]

Some among the Jews are beginning to be persuaded by this young man, for ‘as He spoke these words, many believed in Him.’ [John 8:30 NKJV] We see here that Jesus is now talking to those Jews who believed Him — and they want to know more — asking what it means to be free because they have ‘never been in bondage’.

Jesus answers by saying that the freedom He provides is freedom from our sin nature. Effectively, freedom in the Spirit, not a freedom to go your own way, for that freedom is ‘bondage to the world’.

---

---

Faith In God is a terrific adventure in the dark; I have to believe that God is good in spite of all that contradicts it in my experience. It is not easy to say that God is love when everything that happens actually gives the lie to it. Everyone’s soul represents some kind of battlefield. The point for each one is whether we will hang in and say, ‘Though things look black, I will trust in God.’
(from ‘Baffled To Fight Better’)

---