95. Free
John 8:31, 32 If ye continue in my word, than are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
You shall be free! Everyone in the world wants to be free. Revolutions, uprisings, resistances, rebellions, civil wars and many wars were waged partly on the desire for freedom. The First War, incited by Satan, was based on the false promise of freedom. All people since Adam also want to be free of authority. We basically don’t want anyone telling us what to do. Children can’t wait to grow up unto the age when they can be free of parental authority. Rebellion is inherent in the sinful heart of original sin. Rebellion is driven by the desire to be free. Rebellion is the essence of Sin.
Free to do what you want, however, is not the freedom promised by Jesus in the Gospel. False teaching and misunderstanding of the Gospel leads to license, which means one is free to do what he wants, or whatever he feels like. The Promise of Freedom involves the promise of freedom from our Enemies, the tyranny of Sin, Death, and the Devil.The Enemies seek of hold us in bondage. In the context of John 8, Jesus is talking about slavery to sin. John 8:34: “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” This is not the freedom we want, but it is the freedom we need.
Part of our problem is that we don’t want to be free from sin; we like to be free to sin. The sinful heart does not see Sin as a problem, as a tyrant, as a slaveholder, or as the Enemy from which we need to be freed. This slavery problem needs to be revealed by the Word of God as a problem, a problem from which we cannot free ourselves; and it is a problem from which we do not really want to be free unless the Lord is working on our heart to convict of sin and its consequence. When the Holy Spirit convicts of sin through the Word, then He points us to Jesus in the Gospel, which makes us free. He makes us free indeed.
True freedom is having the desire and the power (the power that comes from the Gospel) to turn one’s life around and do good works. We are free to forgive; we are free to love unconditionally, we are free to do good for others; we are free to love God and neighbor; we are free to keep the moral commandments. Before we knew Jesus and outside of Christ we do not really have the holy desire to live morally, to die to self, to give our lives for others, to trust in God above all things. When Jesus promises freedom He is promising conversion, a total life change.This change happens from the first moment we believe, but it needs to happen every day with repentance and faith. Therefore, we continue in the Word and Truth (Jesus) so that we can be free indeed. Now we have the proper desire to be free, free to love.