If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free

 

 Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin.  Where I go you cannot come."  So the Jews said, "Will He kill Himself, because He says, 'Where I go you cannot come'?"  And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above.  You are of this world; I am not of this world.  Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."  Then they said to Him, "Who are You?"  And Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.  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."  They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father.  

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.  And He who sent Me is with Me.  The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."  As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

 

- John 8:21–32 

 

Yesterday we read that, on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles,  Jesus spoke to the religious rulers again, saying, "I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."  The Pharisees therefore said to Him, "You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true."  Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going.  You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.  And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.  It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.  I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me."  Then they said to Him, "Where is Your Father?"  Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also."  These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.

 

  Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin.  Where I go you cannot come."  So the Jews said, "Will He kill Himself, because He says, 'Where I go you cannot come'?"  And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above.  You are of this world; I am not of this world.  Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."  Then they said to Him, "Who are You?"  And Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.  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."  They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father.    My study bible explains that when Jesus says He is going away, He refers to His death, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven.  

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.  And He who sent Me is with Me.  The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."  As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.    My study bible tells us that lift up has the double meaning of being nailed to the Cross and also of being exalted by His Father upon the completion of His work. 

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed."  Jesus expects all who follow Him to be disciples, my study bible says.  This Greek word for disciples literally means "learners."   It explains that to abide in Jesus' word is the responsibility of all believers, not simply the clergy or an elite class of zealots. 

 

"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."   The truth here is a reference both to the virtue of truth, and also, more importantly, to Christ Himself (John 14:6).   To be free, my study bible comments, refers to the freedom from darkness, confusion, and lies, as well as the freedom from the bondage of sin and death.

To be set free in Christ's truth is to delve into the deepest aspects of truth; that is, of the divine spiritual reality into which we are all set, from which comes all of creation.  It is to abide in that which comes from Creator of all, and from the God who is love (1 John 4:8).  The freedom comes from the embrace of that truth, which comes from an absolute level of being.  Moreover, this truth is inseparable from love, which is its nature.  Possibly most importantly, faith in Christ has the capacity to lead a person past errors of many kinds.  Christ teaches us to judge with righteous judgment, and not according to appearances.  As we are led forward into our faith, we might find ourselves dropping social prejudices of all kinds in order to better follow our Lord, who teaches us truly how to love, and also what is good for us.  We will find ourselves changing habits, deciding that some things we do are harmful in ways we didn't perceive in the past.  In addition, our faith teaches us to pause the kind of harmful attention to things we're better off without, like an excess of social media that seeks to stir up too much emotion.  Christ's freedom enables us to filter out the noise, the excess, the things we don't need to focus on, in favor of what is more real and more important, and crucial for our well-being from the inside-out.  Faith in Christ sets us free in other ways as well, because it is faith that can get us through a bad time, a seeming disappointment, a great traumatic event, and carry us through to a regenerated life -- just as Christ's Crucifixion leads to Resurrection.  His story becomes the fabric of our own lives through our participation in His life, and this truth really does set us free to find out how God sees our lives, and not simply to be stuck with a set of values that needs expansion in Christ's light.  Christ's truth sets us free to understand success in terms of God's values rather than the purely worldly or material, and that is a freedom indeed.  Christ's freedom will extend all the way to the Cross, when He is willing to lay down His life for His friends.  But even the Cross will not stop His more abundant life from manifesting, nor would it stop His faith from spreading in the world.  Jesus says, "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."  God calls to us through the words of Christ, and that is a liberation for us from all the things that bind, so that we, too, might be truly free.