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Jesus, The Light of the World, Part IV, John 8:33-42
Jesus has declared himself to be the Light of the World and in so doing everything he says is light and there is no darkness in Him.
In our study of John 8 He is in conversation with those of Israel who are leading the people to what they think is light but it is not light but only religion.
Religion is not light for light is only in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Religion is not a person, religion is a system designed by man to placate a god, a god who is pictured mostly as an angry god who demands ritual, sacrifice and ceremony.
Light does not do this.
Light opens up to man a Father God who loves them and has sent light that the pathway to Him is clear for He says:
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Jesus Christ makes plain to the religious hierarchy that they are slaves to sin and only by him can they be rescued for in:
John 8:32 he says: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
By this he declares that their religion is a vain exercise in its attempt to reach God and only by knowing truth will they be made free.
Jesus will soon declare unto them that not only is He the light but he is the truth so only by knowing Him will they be made free.
The truth, Jesus Christ, the Word, the Son of God, the Son of Man, promises that those who stay in him, those who abide in his word, those who accept his word as their rule of faith and practice, will be made free!
The kind of freedom Jesus Christ gives is the freedom to obey God, a freedom we do not have in our natural state which is a state of death for we are dead in trespasses and sins and can only be made alive to God by God himself.
So without Christ we are slaves to sin and without power to obey God.
But a Christian, one who is created anew in Christ Jesus is now made free to move in harmony with the mind and the will of God.
We no longer have to be in bondage to sin but we now have the freedom to be obedient unto righteousness.
As Paul so proclaims in Rom. 8:21, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
The new birth delivers us from that which ties us up in corruption, that which enslaves, that which makes it impossible to serve God, and gives us the power to obey and serve Him.
And again listen to the Apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 3:17, Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. What is this Liberty? Liberty to serve self? No!
Liberty to serve God as we are called upon in:
Gal. 5:1, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Sin will try to entangle you and lessen your liberty to serve God.
Paul emphasizes this in Gal. 5:13, For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Liberty for an occasion to the flesh is not the liberty that God gives to serve him.
So the hearers of Christ respond in John 8:33, …….. We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
As usual, coming from the natural man the message is missed.
They miss the mark, they miss the point, for they are natural and walk not in light but in darkness.
They see only physical bondage for the natural man is bound only to the physical.
But even in that they refuse to remember their history.
They forget the bitter and cruel bondage in Egypt that the earlier sons of Abraham had suffered through.
They forget the bondage of the oppressors during the time of the Judges.
They forgot the 70 years of Babylonian captivity and they forget their present Roman Masters.
They are so proud, that you know that sudden destruction is eminent in Israel.
They are insulted. Some itinerant preacher dares to say that they are not free but instead they are in bondage.
Man is no different today as we proclaim that modern man continues to be a slave to sin.
It is no difference today than with the Jews who stood before Jesus Christ.
The natural man does not want to hear that he is not free.
He cannot tolerate this message.
Tell the sinner that there is no good thing in him, tell him that he is the slave of sin, tell him that he is a captive of Satan, tell him that he cannot think a godly thought, tell him that he cannot receive God's truth, tell him that he cannot believe, tell him that he cannot please God, tell him that he cannot come to Christ, tell him these things and he will tell you that you are wrong and he is not in bondage.
A sinner does not know that he is not free for he is dead to this truth.
But except by the grace of God neither would you, nor neither would I!
So Jesus retorts their claim in John 8:34, ……. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Of a truth, of a truth, Jesus proclaims.
He does not get on the track they try to lay.
He stays on the spiritual track that he has laid.
Not physical bondage he tells them but spiritual bondage.
There is a greater bondage than social or economic slavery.
Are you a sinner?
Why do you continue to sin?
Why do you continue to serve sin?
Why is your life dominated and controlled by sin?
Are you not bound by Satan, the slave master of sin?
Can't you see that sin binds you and that you do not have freedom to serve God according to God's will?
Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin!
Jesus says! This is the bottom line. This is the conclusion of the matter.
And he continues with this theme in John 8:35,36, 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.
Jesus tells them that the status of a servant is not secure.
A slave can be sold to another owner.
A slave has no permanent standing in the master's house.
A slave has only temporary standing in the family.
If sold he then is in bondage to his new owner.
The Jews insisted that they had standing because they were of Abraham's house, Abraham's seed.
They belonged to the favored family, the family that had covenants and promises with God.
But by saying this, that the slave abides not forever in the house, he infers that just being the natural descendants of Abraham, gives them no title to the blessings that belong to Abraham's spiritual children.
Just being part of a chosen people did not entitle them to abide in the house.
Only the son of the house abides in the house.
The slaves of sin serve sin and will be sold from the house.
Remember Isaac and Ishmael?
Which one abided as a son?
Isaac of course abided as a son, Ishmael was the son of the bondwoman and was banished from the house.
Unless they were made free they would soon be cut off from the temporary place of privilege that they presumed to be a permanent place.
And Jesus Christ came to set them free.
He is the only one that can loose the chains of sin and set them free to truly serve God.
He came to preach deliverance to captives of sin.
He came to deliver from the condemnation of sin.
He came to deliver from the power of Satan.
He came to deliver from the bondage of sin.
And he came to deliver from the authority or fear of man.
As I have said before this deliverance was so that man would be free to serve God.
In sin there is no freedom to serve God because sin is man's master and no man can serve two masters.
A sinner saved by the grace of God is no longer free to follow his old nature without consequence.
Spiritual freedom is not license to do as I please, but freedom to do as I ought.
I now can do as I was created to do.
Two passages verify this as the freedom Jesus is talking about:
In Luke 1:74,75, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
And in Rom 6:16-18,22, Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
We were indeed created to serve God, our creator.
Satan robbed our service through the act of disobedience which led us to serve Satan instead of God.
But Jesus Christ has bought us back by the shedding of his blood and created us to be new in all things and to be conformed to the image of Christ, who is our servant example.
We will be servants one way or the other, in bondage to sin or in liberty to Christ.
So Christ continues to present truth and light to the religious by saying in:
John 8:37, 38, I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
Jesus acknowledged that those before him are the offspring of Abraham.
They are his descendants in the natural sense.
But Jesus Christ is more interested in Abraham's descendants in the supernatural sense.
He gives us an important spiritual principle here.
Abraham's true children are those who follow Abraham's example of faith.
As we see in Gal 3:7, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
These men who were the seed of Abraham were not the children of Abraham in the sense of this verse!
In these men before him, the teaching of Jesus Christ had found no room, no place of acceptance.
Not even a little crack in their heart for the word to enter for they exhibit no faith.
These are they who desire to kill him.
He knows who their father is and it is not Abraham for Abraham would not desire to kill him.
An awful hatred was at work in their hearts, an hatred built upon hypocrisy.
But he reminds them that he can be trusted because he is a witness to that which he speaks.
What he speaks he speaks as an eye witness just like these before him do what they do because that is the character of their father the devil!
Like father, like son.
Do we not mimic our father?
Are we not chips off the old block? Are we not acorns that fall close to the tree?
Jesus was from the Father and he revealed exactly the character of the Father.
They were of their father the devil and their character revealed exactly the character of their father whose spiritual offspring they were.
He revealed God in his manner of life; they revealed the evil one, the devil in theirs.
They were the spiritual seed of Satan!
What father does your or my character reveal?
We are to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith!
And they be not in the faith for they answer Jesus in John 8:39-41a, ……….. Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. |