Continuing our journey through John
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.37 I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word.38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did.40 As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.
41 You are doing the things your own father does.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
This is a profound passage.
How will we know if we are his disciples? If we hold to his teaching.
THEN we will ‘know the truth’. The truth isn’t a statement memorized, it’s a life lived and practiced.
How can we be free? Many of us delude ourselves into thinking we’re living free lives when we’re not. The Jews had been physically enslaved a multitude of times, let alone enslaved by their own sins, yet they could not see it.
It’s not enough to simply acknowledge God, or to even declare him as Father (which is quite an amazing and remarkable thing to realize), yet as we’ll see in the next passage – What is this Father God of yours like? Jesus and the Jews were talking about different fathers in this passage.
What is your Father like?
