Or, Freeing Slaves Who Fight Against Freedom
Scripture: John 8:33-38
Date: October 21, 2012
Speaker: Sean Higgins
I believe that one of the most important things we must always remember is that we always do what we most want to do. That’s how humans work, all of us, all the time. We may have conflicting desires, antagonistic wants may battle for victory but, for any and every decision, we always do what we most wanted.
It is also important for us to remember that we always serve someone or something else. In the spiritual realm, for any and every decision, we are always serving someone other than ourselves.
So, in one sense, we are always free and, in another sense at the same time, we are always confined. In other words, we are always willing slaves. This universal truth is taught by the apostle John (1 John 3) and by the apostle Paul (Romans 6). But Jesus taught it first.
We skip ahead to the scene in John 8:31-38. It’s within a week of the end of the Feast of Booths and Jesus is still in Jerusalem, still teaching around the Temple, and still causing men to drive their cars into ditches. In 8:28, Jesus said that when He was lifted up—code for being killed on the cross—then He would be known for who He really is: the Son of God. John reports that “as [Jesus] was saying these things, many believed in him” (verse 30).
Jesus greeted this believing. He spoke to the group, some from the group believed, and because they believed He speaks again “to the Jews who had believed in him” (verse 31). If we closed our Bibles now, we’d think that verses 31 and 32 involved Jesus encouraging these believers to persevere by reminding them about the advantages of following Him. Instead, we see Jesus wiping off their spray-on faith. He shows that their believing is just make-believing.
The condition of true discipleship is abiding in His Word, sticking to the teaching and sticking with the Master. We identify true disciples as those oriented by Jesus, those who go in the direction He points them. Disciples enjoy the two-stage fruit of true discipleship: their eyes are open to the truth and their wills are freed.
It is this issue of freedom that ignites the Jews. Freedom is only discussed in John 8:32-36 in the entire Gospel of John. Jesus speaks about the fruit of freedom and the Jews throw a fit. They counter that they don’t need any of that, they are already free.
They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” (John 8:33, ESV)
They only take exception, for now. Soon they will take up stones for a different sort of backlash (verse 59). They deny that they need to be free with a resentful tone. “How is it that you say,” “What makes You think You can say” and then they repeat the ridiculous. These believing Jews argue by asserting their privilege. We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone . They must be referring to spiritual rather than political liberty. They just put their tents back in the attic after the Feast of Booths, a feast that commemorated Israel’s protection by The Lord after He delivered them from being slaves in Egypt! For that matter, they were, at that very moment, under the rule of the Romans. They probably hadn’t forgotten the Babylonians, Assyrians, or Greeks either. The reason for mentioning Abraham is that, as his offspring, they were free from the false worship of the Gentiles. They knew the truth, they knew God’s law, they had the covenants and sacrifices. But they didn’t know God or God’s Son because they were slaves.
Jesus answers their assertion in verses 34-38 with four facets about spiritual slavery.
With the typical, sit-up-and-pay-attention-to-this formula, Jesus states the reality about spiritual slavery.
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. (John 8:34, ESV)
An axiom is a universal truth, a truth that is true for everyone in every place. Reality in the moral world—like it or not—includes the fact that sin makes men slaves and slaves sin. Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin .
Jesus clarifies what He meant by freedom in verse 32. True disciples will be free from slavery to sin. He’s telling this to the Jews who were slaves to sin but who didn’t think that they were.
How could they be slaves and believe that they were free? Because they were willing slaves. Sin is a vicious master that makes its victims volunteer to serve. Sin enslaves and the enslaved sin. They were happy about their captivity, so much so that it offended them when Jesus offered them freedom. From the outside, we know it’s irrational. But from their perspective, from the 360 degree distortion field, it made sense. Their bind to sin blinded them to their bind to sin. Part of slavery to sin is wanting to be a slave to sin. That’s a huge part of the problem.
Sin is a powerful master who convinces us to put on the handcuffs willingly, like the ox led to the slaughter.
It doesn’t mean that every slave to sin enjoys it as much as he could. It’s possible to be miserable and yet still prefer misery over freedom. For these Jews, the ties that bind were religious. They were convinced that they were free and that proved that they weren’t.
Jesus uses a simple illustration to make a single contrast about spiritual slavery.
The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. (John 8:35, ESV)
The point of this analogy is relationship. Jesus isn’t switching subjects, He is still explaining who are true disciples.
Slaves have a connection with the master of the house. They are in the house, they taste some of the benefits of the house. But they may be sold to another master or they may be released. There is no determinative relationship, no permanent place for them in the family. Likewise, there was no determinative relationship between these Jews and Jesus.
A son, however, has more than a connection with the master of the house, he is family. Not only is the relationship determinative, it is enduring. His sonship status frees him to honor the father, to enjoy the household benefits, and to do it without fear of losing it.
But it does not free the son to dishonor the father or honor another father as his own. It does not free him to expect someone else’s inheritance. He has relationship, that relationship is based on love, not contract. But it is no less determinative than slavery to sin. Freedom is a decisive factor away from sin.
Jesus makes things personal when it comes to spiritual slavery.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36, ESV)
He switches from the third person in verses 34 and 35 to the second person in verse 36. He moves from a universal truth and a general illustration to a specific promise. It isn’t only what sons have, it’s what He as God’s Son does.
The Son, capital “S”, sets slaves free. He was sent by the Father for that purpose with the authority of His Father to do it. Jesus uses His authority to deliver not to dominate. Apart from Him, they would remain in their slavery and die in their sins (see verses 21 and 24).
Jesus, and Jesus alone, makes men free indeed . “Indeed” must emphasize not being deceived about one’s freedom. After verse 35, it must also emphasize the permanency, even eternality, of one’s freedom. It also stresses that we are sons.
Again, this freedom isn’t absolute unrestricted independence. True freedom includes family responsibilities. We don’t get out of or away from determinative relationship. It’s that we get out of and away from a bad relationship into another better binding one. The Son sets us free to desire righteousness, never to define righteousness.
Human freedom does not equal human autonomy. Any definition or ideology that says otherwise is semantic rebellion against the divine dictionary. God alone defines terms, including freedom. Adam and Eve were free as long as they obeyed God completely. They were free only when they reflected God rather then when they tried to become gods.
We are always in a determinative relationship, with sin or with the Son. We are always serving some master, but serving the Son is freedom. The one who knows that he’s a slave is free, the one who doesn’t know (or admit) that he’s a slave is not. Bound to Jesus we are free from everything. Free from Jesus we are bound to everything.
Terms are important, and spiritual slaves abuse them.
I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father. (John 8:37-38, ESV)
There is a difference between “seed” (σπέρμα) or offspring in verse 37 and “children” (τέκνα) in verse 39. These Jews were offspring in that they were physical descendants of Abraham. But there has always been a fleshly and a figurative sense of offspring, and these Jews show themselves not to be spiritual children of Abraham, or of God the Father.
We identify what family a child comes from by what father they imitate. By this it is evident, says John in his first letter, who are the children of the devil and of God. Jesus explains that they weren’t listening to Him: my word finds no place in you . There’s no place at home for His Word.
They were listening to someone. We are always listening to someone. Someone always has our ear. If it isn’t Jesus, we’re left in darkness. They were listening and acting like someone: their father. It takes until verse 44 to name him, but it’s not good.
Because the world works the way God make it to work, rebels will try to change the meaning of words.
Our country, for example, defines “freedom” as the ability to kill unborn babies. That can only make sense as “freedom” for slaves. But we must be wise in how we understand it as Christians. True freedom is obedience, not killing, and obedience includes a determinative relationship, an ongoing commitment to take care of the child. Freedom requires sacrifice and work. God does not call parenting bondage, He calls the guilt of murder bondage. He calls it blindness to believe that killing is better.
True freedom is freedom to serve our kids for their lives, rather than freedom to kill our kids for sake of phony freedom.
That’s one example, but it serves to show that men need a Savior . If slavery to sin includes a willingness to sin, then what hope do we have? Certainly not an internal hope. Slaves cannot liberate themselves because the nature of this slavery (irrationally) blinds the slaves from their enslaved condition. It isn’t that I see my slavery and don’t care, it’s that I don’t see my slavery.
It would be like going into a morgue to find out which of the dead men want to come outside and play. This is what we’re up against in evangelism.
This is what we’re up against in mortification. Like I said this morning, if we can’t be trusted to know ourselves truly, and if we keep others from knowing us, how will we kill sin? If the only view you have of yourself is yours, you really should get a second opinion. The greatest danger in my life exists inside of me and not outside of me, so I can’t be left to myself.
Our hope is in the Son. Our hope is in the Spirit opening our eyes, drawing us to Christ, uniting us to Him, that we may be free indeed.