“YOU SHALL BE FREE”

John 8:32, 36

You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. - - - If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

The word that catches my attention in these two verses is the word “free.” It appears three times. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Knowledge of the truth shall free us. But what is “the truth?” In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” So knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ shall free us and “If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

You may ask the question, free from what and from whom?

• We are free from Satan’s rule of fear. “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2: 14, 15).

• We are free from the law of sin and death. “For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).

• We are free from the law’s condemnation. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” Romans 8:1).

Prisoners do not know the exhilaration of freedom until they are out of prison. One can become accustomed to being a captive. Freedom becomes something you hear or dream about. However, once freedom becomes a reality through parole or completion of sentence, the moment of truth arrives. Freedom is for real.

In like manner, the Christian comes into freedom through faith in Jesus Christ. A glorious moment of truth that spreads into an eternity.

To emphasize this reality, the Holy spirit is given to the believer. Paul says to the Corinthians “Where the Spirit is there is liberty” (II Corinthians 3:17). Jesus told the disciples that “the Spirit would take the things of mine and show them unto you” (John 16:13, 14). This means that God, the Holy Spirit, will make a living reality of the freedom in Christ to the life of each believer!

What a wonderful reality to awake in the morning to a living freedom that you can know and experience throughout the day. This freedom gives Christians a peace that the world cannot know because they do not know Him. Our privilege and responsibility is to introduce this freedom and peace to the world.

I trust that each of you knows this freedom in Christ and the peace it brings.

Love to you all.