Saturday, January 21, 2012

SLAVERY OR FREEDOM


John 8:31-33      To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. 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?”


There are many who believe in Jesus and hold to another set of beliefs. It can happen in churches where people have created rules for members to follow so they do not fall under the world’s influences in a particular time or place. After time passes and society changes, these rules remain and take on greater importance. Some call these rules “traditions”, “the way things have always been”. This problem faced Jesus and continues to trouble the church today.

Being able to link your family tree back to Abraham was important to the Jews. It documented the fact they were the people of God and children of the covenant. They believed this lineage alone made them recipients of the promises God made to Abraham and his descendants. But Jesus says that holding to His teaching will reveal to them the truth and that then they would be set free. They protest the fact that as covenant children and Abraham’s descendants they have never been enslaved. They already had a spiritual superiority as children of Abraham and were therefore exempt from any servant relationship to others.

 The truth Jesus speaks is about himself. It is salvific truth. It is truth that saves. Jesus speaks truth that is liberating to those who are enslaved. The freedom he speaks of “is not that of a person to manage his life free of all the ties that might hinder him in the development of his own identity or authority”. Rather, Jesus is referring to “a freedom that a person does not possess within himself, even if he thinks otherwise and attempts to live by that illusion.” (Herman Ridderbos, The Gospel of John, pg. 308)

People are ready to accept Jesus’ teaching as long as it is teachings about God and fits into their own understanding or framework of beliefs. Jesus does not permit this. Jesus makes our freedom contingent on faith in him. It is this boundary that Jesus establishes that many refuse to cross over. 

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