Truth Who Sets Free

Sometimes a verse spoken out of context can provide impetus to study and analyse passages of Scripture more carefully.  It seems people are pleased to quote fragments from the Bible to condemn others, justify themselves or to gain credibility--even when they think little of God or the Bible as a whole.  For instance, I read a news article that quoted from John 8:32 where Jesus said, "The truth shall set you free."  The writer went on to list things what the passage did not say.  Infinitely more important than what the Bible does not say is what God does say and the message Jesus intended to convey.

In the passage that preceded this well-known quote, Jesus proclaimed He was the light of the world.  The Pharisees opposed Jesus, and they complained He bore witness of Himself and thus His witness was not true.  Later people asked Jesus who He was really in John 8:25-32:  "Then they said to Him, "Who are You?" And Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. ²⁶ I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him." ²⁷ They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father. ²⁸ Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. ²⁹ And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him." ³⁰ As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. ³¹ Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. ³² And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Jesus was not speaking of some arbitrary revelation of truth, but He specifically spoke of Himself as the Truth.  Jesus was sent from heaven to earth by God the Father, and the witness Jesus gave concerning Himself was true.  When Jesus was lifted up on a cross and crucified, He said it would show and confirm what He truly was:  the Lamb of God sent by God to provide atonement for the sins of the world.  Jesus would lay down His life on Calvary in obedience to His Father in heaven, and He would take up His life again by rising from the dead.  Verse 30 says many believed in Him--not just that He was being honest--but that He was the Son of God, the promised Messiah God would send to save sinners.  To those Jews who believed Him Jesus said, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. ³² And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  Anyone could have followed Jesus around, but His true disciples heard and obeyed His word.  These are those who would know the truth, and the truth would make them free.  The text does not allow us to substitute our truth or what poses as truth in Christ's place, for He objectively is the truth.  To unbelieving religious leaders who remained slaves to sin Jesus said in John 8:36:  "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."

Jesus plainly identified Himself as the truth to Thomas and His disciples in John 14:6:  "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."  By the power of the Gospel, Christians are set free from sin that brings death and are set at liberty from the Law of Moses that condemned us.  We are set free from the curse of sin and set free to worship, serve and have fellowship with God forever.  Paul wrote in Romans 6:17-18, "But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. ¹⁸ And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."  The freedom Jesus brings is infinitely more than a feeling or a change of mind but a complete transformation of a person who by faith in Jesus goes from slavery to sin and self to be a new creation, a child of God and citizen of heaven.

If we misunderstand what "truth" means in John 8:32 means, we will arrive at very wrong conclusions of what "free" means as well.  This illustrates the importance of carefully reading and considering the context of Bible passages when we quote a phrase or verse, for our flippancy can cause people to miss Jesus Christ and the critical points He was making.  It is God's word, after all, and the wise are zealous to hear Him speak.