Sermon on John 8:31-36, for Reformation Day, "What is True Freedom?"

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. “Freedom” is, at least in principle, highly prized by Americans. Judging from the attitudes and answers of the Jews who listened to Jesus’ teaching in John 8, 2,000 years ago, they also highly prized freedom. The question is, do we truly understand the nature of freedom Jesus teaches, any better than they did? Freedom and slavery are opposites. To understand one, you need to understand the other.

Jesus is talking to new believers in the crowd, when He says “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The word “abide” or remain, talks about continuing in something, or living together with someone. When Jesus calls His true disciples to “abide in my word”, He’s saying His Word is their continuing life. Jesus calls this vital relationship being living branches connected to the Vine. Outside the vine, disconnected from Christ and His Word, we wither and die. But in the Vine comes life, flourishing, and fruit-bearing. Here, Jesus says life in His Word means His disciples will “know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

It’s this truth and freedom that we want to understand today, on this 501^st anniversary of the Reformation. The Truth, is at once as expansive as all that God’s Word, the Bible, teaches us, and at the same time as simple and focused as the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the Truth. All truth is centered in Him; so His teaching is of greatest importance for us. If we remain in His Word, we will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Free from what? And once free, how do we keep that freedom? How do we live in it? These questions, and the answers in Jesus’ Word, lead us on an interesting discovery. When the Jews heard Him say the “truth will set you free”—they got defensive. A little indignant. “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Notice that they are assuming that they are already free. They are blind to their captivity. Somehow they have misidentified their freedom, and failed to recognize their captivity.

I wonder how people today might respond, if we surveyed them, asking if they were truly free, or whether they were enslaved by anything. How do you think Americans would answer? We are supposedly a freedom loving people, aren’t we? Are we slaves to anything? Or to switch the language to a more contemporary way of talking, are we victims of anything? Are there any forces which hold us powerless? I think when we start to ask the question that way, a lot more people might start giving “yes” answers. It seems like there is a widespread sense in the air today, of victimhood and for some people, a sense that there are certain “powers” that need to be defeated, whatever they may be, in order for us to be free. As we come close to the next elections, it also seems to me that too many people place too great a faith in the government and the leaders of one party or another, to secure us “freedom” from whatever we think is controlling or curbing our freedom. My point, is that whether or not our answer differs from the Jews in Jesus’ day—whether we are free or not—we fall into the same trap. That revolution, or a new leader(s), or this or that policy or whatever, is going to give us the elusive freedom we want.

But what kind of freedom? Political freedom? Freedom for self-determination? Freedom from moral constraints? Tax freedom? Are any of those what Jesus is talking about? The answer is no. Jesus’ Word wasn’t about political freedom, even though they wanted independence from the Romans. He did not proclaim freedom from taxation, when He taught “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God, what is God’s.” He wasn’t teaching a freedom from moral restraints, which appeals to people today, as He reaffirmed the 10 Commandments. Nor did Jesus describe self-determination as true freedom, as He displayed obedience and submission to the will of His Father, saying: “Not my will, but yours be done”, and teaching us to pray in the same way: “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” So what kind of freedom was Jesus about, and how does it exist?

“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.’” Sin is our slavery, sin is our captivity. Our external circumstances of political, moral, economic, or whatever other freedoms you can describe, do not define our real freedom of captivity. It’s sin that enslaves us. Sin binds us with chains and makes us powerless. But sin is not just another exercise in victimhood. Yes, sin produces victims. Yes, some of us are victims of horrible sins against us. But being a sinner is not a victimhood status. We are as often the “oppressors” as the victims. Really, I don’t even think that language is suitable to describe the Biblical truth. In reality, we are all rebels and wanderers from God’s good commands. We expect to find freedom in self-determination, but are rudely confronted by the reality that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. That is, “anything + sin = captivity.

When Adam and Eve believed the lie that their first sin would make them like God, knowing good and evil, they were rudely awakened by the truth that it only made them depraved and ashamed instead. It didn’t even take a single generation for sin to spiral down into hatred and murder. From that time on, humans have routinely sought after what is not good for us. God always intended and still intends that we would seek and do only the good. Every time we convince ourselves that a little lie or dishonesty won’t hurt, or little fooling around won’t hurt, or no one will notice if we cheat or help ourselves to something that’s not ours, we buy into the lie that sin has no consequences. And so we surrender our freedom, when we commit sin.

Since we are so often confused by competing definitions of freedom, and think that freedom must mean getting to do whatever we want—we fail to see that sinning surrenders our freedom, rather than being proof of freedom. Perhaps the best way to understand this is to think of a prisoner who has been released on parole, and decides to use his newfound freedom to commit a bank robbery, and ends back up in the lock-up, or becomes a wanted man again. When we see the line of freedom as the line between good and evil, we are better able to understand that freedom consists in sticking with the good. But we must also perceive that the line between good and evil runs straight through each of us. We are powerless to achieve freedom ourselves. Only Jesus can free us from that slavery to sin.

But to correct a flaw in my analogy, salvation in Christ Jesus is not “parole” either. Our freedom in Christ Jesus is not a fragile thing that is daily being revoked and reinstituted. We’re not in one minute and out the next. But Christ has fully paid the price for our sins and liberated us. Baptism is not just washing away our former record, but the beginning of God’s work in you, that He intends to see through to completion. He warns us that there is a path back to captivity, but He sets our feet on the pathway of life and freedom. He secures and keeps us on the path of freedom, by putting His Holy Spirit into us to turn our hearts to repentance and faith. His Spirit, living in us, opens our eyes to His Truth, seeing the wrong of our sin, and the goodness of His undeserved grace and love. So instead of parolees, we are freedmen and freedwomen, heirs of an incredible inheritance of freedom, forgiveness and life in Christ Jesus. And rather than the Holy Spirit being a parole officer to bring judgment upon us, He is our constant companion and strengthens and equips us for daily new life.

To understand how completely we depend on Jesus for our freedom, listen to the last verses of the reading: “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” This verse relates to another passage in Galatians, where Paul explains that slaves received no inheritance; only sons did. So also Jesus, God’s Son, belong to God’s house forever. He has control over the inheritance. He opens the door that no one can shut, and shuts what no one can open. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Only He can liberate us from the captivity of sin. He broke the “age bound chains of hell”, one Easter hymn sings. In this struggle between good and evil, Jesus delivers us from evil chains, to the freedom of the good.

But now that we are freed in Christ Jesus from slavery to sin, how do we live in that freedom? Curiously, in Romans 6, when Paul writes about this, he says that we were once slaves to sin, which leads to death—but now, thanks be to God, having been set free from sin we are now slaves to righteousness! (6:18). On the surface, this sounds like changing one form of slavery for another? Why is this how Paul talks about our freedom? He goes on to explain that he’s speaking in human terms, so we can understand. Sinning leads to more sinning—a downward spiral to lawlessness. But serving God leads to an upward spiral—righteousness leading to sanctification or holiness.

He goes on to explain that when we were slaves to sin, we were free with regard to righteousness—but what did we get out of it but shame and the fruit that leads to death? Sin always leads to that dead end. But being slaves to God produces a different fruit—sanctification, and its end, eternal life. Slavery is surprisingly hard to leave behind. Anything that controls our life, our routines, and behaviors, becomes second nature, part of the air we breathe. But we want to live in the pathways of freedom and life. Freedom is easily surrendered or lost—any of the lesser forms of freedom we discussed above. But most importantly that we do not submit again to sin and become slaves to sin. As freedmen and freedwomen in Christ, He leads us into the way of goodness and life—and yes, to our old sinful flesh, being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ might feel like a new kind of slavery. But to the new spiritual nature that we are in Christ Jesus, it is joy and light and life. There is a broadness and goodness and joy waiting to be discovered in Christ’s freedom. We experience the freedom and joy of following in His goodness and life, and surrendering the old baggage, guilt, shame, chains and lies of sin and death to Him to be destroyed forever. And the joy of serving others, seeing acts of generosity and kindness impact the lives of others, the joy of thankfulness and contentment—these are all tastes of the joy of that freedom. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Whenever we feel captivity creeping back upon us—whenever we begin to falsely define our freedom or make false idols and seek freedom from them, may we always call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus, and receive His freedom. Recall your baptism. There God placed His Name upon you and made you His child. He is ever calling us to freedom, and granting it to us by the forgiveness of our sins. Christ gives His freedom and life, not to restrict us or coerce us, but that we might taste the real and everlasting joys of freed life in Him, and never again submit to a yoke of slavery and deception. Finding our freedom always in Him alone, Amen!

Sermon Talking Points

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1. Read John 8:31-36. In v. 31, Jesus addresses those who already had begun believing in Him. What does He say is the result of continuing in His Word and discipleship? Vs. 31. What then would be the result of not remaining in His Word?
2. V. 33 is a puzzling or astonishing answer, in light of the history of the Jews enslavement by Pharoah, in Babylon, and their present rule by the Romans. Why was their assumption of freedom wrong on a much deeper level than their political freedom? V. 34
3. How would we answer Jesus, concerning our own freedom vs. captivity today? Do people think that they are enslaved to anything? To use slightly different language, do they think they are held victims to anything, or held powerless by any forces in our world today? If so, what solutions do we look to for such forms of “captivity” or powerlessness? If not, how is our definition or understanding of freedom often too small or narrow?
4. Reflect on the modern American notion of what freedom is. Can you recognize any distortion or perhaps contrast from what the Biblical notion of freedom is? Why is that? How does Jesus talk about freedom? V. 32, 36. What about Romans 6:15-23? What is surprising about the description of freedom here? How is Christian freedom kept and lived out, and not lost? Galatians 5:1, 13; 1 Peter 2:16; Jude 4.
5. John 8:35-36 lay a foundational truth down—that we do not possess the power of liberating ourselves. How is this truth liberating in itself, and an ultimate testimony to the grace of Jesus Christ?