The Truth will set you FREE

We like to throw around the phrase “the truth will set you free”.    We use this phrase a lot of times as if there was no meaning behind it.   I bet if you asked someone where this phrase originated they wouldn’t be able to tell you the story behind the phrase, they would just know they have heard it and found themselves using the phrase.  

 

This has occurred many times with phrases from the Bible.  We have taken the phrase and reshaped it till the true meaning has been lost.   I was reading tonight and studying the Book of John, and came across this phrase.  Now, of course I have heard the phrase before, and have used it myself, and I knew that it was a Biblical phrase, but never really took the time to understand it, fully.  

Tonight this phrase was revealed to me in a different way.  Tonight I saw it as a way to divide the saved from the unsaved.  The sinners from the pure of heart.  The Believers from the unbelievers.   This phrase was no longer about being honest, and allowing that honesty to open up life to you, no, it’s about the dividing line between people who followed Jesus and those who did not. 

 

Jesus was teaching people in the Temple and the Jews had decided to enter into a verbal sparring with Jesus about his real identity.   I would have loved to see this take place as I am sure Jesus remained calm and collected during the entire conversation.   The Jews were sticking to one main point, one that Jesus clearly revealed many times over at this point, but this was their only point, and they were sticking with it.  They kept asking Jesus who he is.  While Jesus had answered this politely they were not able to hear what he was saying.  The thought that he was indeed the Son of God, was not a thought they were able to conceive, because their teaching had taught them something else, and since it didn’t fit the rule book they were taught on, it couldn’t possibly be true. 

The Jews kept missing that Jesus was saying, I am the Son of the Father that you read about and say that you love and worship, but yet, you don’t recognize his son.   Jesus began to prophesy to the people that he would be hung on a cross, and this is what it is going to take for them to understand he is who he says he is, but at that time, it will be too late.   

He went on to say in John 8:29-32  That the Father who sent him, Jesus, is with him always, and never leaves him alone and that Jesus always does what the Father tells him to do, so he is well pleased with him.   This is a message that we need desperately today.  We can’t enter Heaven or into relationship with God based on our works, our fleshly works.  We can only enter into Heaven and right relationship with God, by being obedient to his words.  Jesus is saying God, his Father, is well pleased with him because he sets himself to listen to his Father, and being obedient to his commands.  

As Jesus is talking he notices that there is a group of people that believe in him, have faith that he is who he says he is and he addresses them in John 8:31.   

He says if you abide in my word, hold fast to my teachings and live in accordance with them you are truly my disciples.  I am reading this from the Amplified Bible in Verse John 8:31.   He then goes on to say in the next verse, and here comes the phrase, and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.   

Now, you see how we have changed the tone of this verse completely.  This verse isn’t about the truth as we see it; it’s about the Truth of believing.   The truth that will set you free is Jesus.  You are seeing him as who he says he is before he goes to the cross.  You are following him which makes you a disciple of his and his Father (God).   

We have made this a way to tell people that if they speak truth that it will set them free, and that is true, but in such a water down form, that it loses the true impact of the statement.    Jesus is saying here if you want to be free, if you want to understand real freedom follow me.  Listen to what I am telling you and follow what your heart is revealing to you is truth.  You don’t need a book to tell you who the Son of God is or who he isn’t, you need to allow your inner witness to lead you to the truth, and that will set you free.   

Jesus is getting ready to perform the ultimate sacrifice in setting all the captives free, by going to the cross, and the way you receive his free gift, is by believing he is who he says he is.   

We make it so much harder than it needs to be!  All we are commanded to do is Believe.  Just Believe, and you will receive Jesus.  Jesus will lead you to the Truth and that equals Freedom!!!   

We have become such a society of only believing what we see, myself included, but in this section of John 8, Jesus is clearly saying to the Jews, stop being so rigid and factual.  Stop only believing what your eyes can see and believe what your heart is telling you.  If you put down the books that you have made your law and realize that life is happening all around you, they would have recognized that Jesus was the Son of God.  

Let’s not be so focused and continue to be like the Jews with blinders on, and look around at the world and believe what we don’t see.   Let’s see the beauty in people that might not be surfacing as of yet.  Let’s see past a person’s actions, and into their hearts, and recognize them as a child of God.  Why don’t we take a chance and let down the guards we are all carrying around and expose ourselves the way that Jesus did, and let people see our Truth.