"So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, 'If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'"
John 8:31-32

Firstly, if you didn't read yesterday's post, then do it HERE.

Ok. So, yesterday we looked a few verses ahead of today's verse and saw that Jesus taught that "everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin." The main idea of the blog was to show that you and I, we all, are slaves to something. Paul delineates the "somethings" into two categories: either sin or righteousness (Romans 6).

When I wrote yesterday's blog, I didn't start it with the realization that it'd grow into a little mini-series of posts. It exposes a problem, whilst today's verses show the solution to that problem. Christ, however, said them in reverse. He presented the solution, then the people told him they didn't need that solution, so he exposed to them the problem. I ended up starting with the problem, am now on the solution, and, tomorrow, Lord willing, will tie it together by example of the peoples' comments that connected Christ's two points. So now that's out of the way.

Christ's statement is conditional. "IF." If what? "IF you abide in my word." I have hammered it time and time again, but I'll say it again: John 1 tell us that, in the beginning, the Word was with God and was God, and then the Word came down in flesh, so Jesus is the word; therefore, if we don't know what the Word of God, aka the Bible, says, then there is no way we can possibly know Jesus; it is impossible to know Christ, especially in a saving way, without knowing what the Word of God says. There is simply no way around it. IF you abide in Christ's words then what? Then "you are truly my disciples." Case in point. Disciples were the ones who knew Christ and followed him, who were disciplined by him and for him---aka Christians. If you abide in Christ's words, then you are his disciple. But that's not it, there's another part of the "then" statement. "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

If you abide in the words of Christ, then you'll be his disciple, and, furthermore, you'll know what truth is and, in turn, be set free. Free from what? That's what we looked at yesterday. We are slaves to sin. Anyone and "everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin." "ALL have sinned..." (Rom 3:23). We have all sinned, and, thus, are all slaves to sin, IF we don't abide in Christ's words. But, if we do abide in Christ's words, then we will be set free from the bondage of sin. We will be freed from having to please our sinful nature. And, if we are always busy trying to please ourselves (because of our pride, which is a sin), then how can we fulfill either of the two greatest commandments that tell us to love God with everything in us and our neighbors as ourselves?? We'll use all our resources and energies to please ourselves, leaving nothing left to give to God or to others.

This is what we must be freed of. And the only way to be freed is to "abide in [Christ's] word." So, go grab a Bible, open it up, and read it. Pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see the God of the Bible, Jesus Christ, and that, as a result, you would be freed to love this King, to serve this King, and to do so with all joy. Amen.

Grace and peace-