September 7, 2025 - John 8:31-36 - "Free Indeed"

John 8:31-36

"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

The LORD ordains our times and our seasons. Every moment, every turn of our path, every change of circumstance is governed by His wise and sovereign Hand. That truth alone brings rest to the souls of His elect, redeemed, justified, and called-out children. If we are His, then it is because He has set His love upon us, and even the winding roads, the ups and downs, and the unexpected detours are led by Him according to His eternal purpose. And the hub or center of that purpose is Christ—the One Who makes His people free indeed.

When Jesus spoke to the Jews in John 8, He met a people who thought themselves already free. They were Abraham’s natural seed, religious, privileged, outwardly prosperous. Yet our LORD exposed their bondage: “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin… If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:34, 36). What men call freedom is often merely slavery in disguise. Wealth, health, pleasure, morality, even religion—all can bind the soul in chains. True freedom is not found in ourselves, nor in our works, nor in any earthly security. It is found only in the Christ, the Eternal Son of God Who came in the flesh to redeem His chosen spiritual Israel (Galatians 3:14).

Christ Himself is the Truth that makes us free. To know Him is not merely to assent with the mind but to be taught of the Spirit in the heart. The Gospel is not an invitation to try harder or to add our effort to His. The Gospel is the Revelation of what God has accomplished in His Son—at Calvary, once for all, in "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). The righteousness He earned and established is not ours by attainment, but God’s righteousness, worked out and obtained by Christ alone and His finished work on the cross, whereby He cried, "It is finished” (John 19:30).

How freeing it is to rest in this! Religion tells us to keep striving, praying more, doing more, to clean ourselves up. But Christ declares, “It is finished.” The Truth sets us free from the endless treadmill of self-righteousness. It frees us from condemnation, from the burden of trying to make ourselves acceptable to God. In Him, the sinner finds peace—peace that cannot be shaken by shifting circumstances or stolen by the accusations of conscience. And this freedom is not abstract or uncertain. It is as real and solid as the death and resurrection of Christ. When He died, His people died with Him. When He rose, His people rose with Him. God has accepted His Son, and because He has accepted the Son, He has accepted all who are in Him. That is freedom. That is rest.

Paul writes in Galatians 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” The liberty of the believer is not fragile, nor dependent on our feelings or our "faithfulness." It rests entirely on Christ’s faithfulness. He is the Son Who abides forever, and in Him we abide forever. This is why the Gospel is not a system of rules, ceremonies, or obligations. It is Christ Himself. It is His Person, His work, His finished redemption. Apart from Him, we would have remained slaves—slaves to sin, slaves to self, slaves to unbelief, slaves to dead works and the condemnation of the law. But in Him, we are adopted as sons, heirs of God, freemen in the household of Grace.

This is the sovereign work of Almighty God. From all of fallen humanity, He appointed the salvation of a chosen people. He accomplished it through His Son, Who came in the flesh to fulfill every one of His just demands. In time, He reveals what was already obtained once and for all on the cross. The Son has made His people free— not half-free, not temporarily free, but free indeed.

Let us then rest in Him. Let us not be drawn away by the noise of religion or the allure of this world’s false freedoms. Let us not build houses built on sand of our own works or morality. Instead, let us bow in thankfulness before the Son Who did it all. For in Him we are free—truly, eternally, and gloriously free.

“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).