“Therefore if the Son makes you free you shall be free indeed.” John 8:36
Freedom! That is a word that many people hold dear. You cannot understand freedom unless you have been in bondage. Some people are in bondage and are not even aware of it. In the above Scripture the Pharisees response to Jesus’ words was “We are Abraham’s seed, and we have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, You will be made free?”
I wonder what concept of freedom was instilled in the Jews. After God called Abraham, his descendants were slaves for over four hundred years under the Egyptians. After Israel turned to other gods during the time of Solomon they eventually were slaves in Babylon for seventy years. As they spoke to Jesus they were under the rule of the Roman Empire who eventually totally destroyed Jerusalem and scattered the Jewish people into the Gentile world. As a history student I wonder what they were thinking.
I suppose freedom is as much a state of mind is it is a set of conditions; meaning you can be free in spirit and be in bondage to circumstances. When Jesus talked of making them free, He was not talking about freedom from Roman occupation but freedom from the bondage of sin. A devote Jew held on to the concept of a coming Messiah that would set them free from slavery. Yet, they did not seem aware they were in bondage to sin. Sin is a harsh taskmaster. It will take you where you don’t want to go, make you do what you do not want, and keep you there longer than you want to stay.
The freedom Jesus was speaking of is that we “might have life and have it more abundantly.” Paul once said that “sin shall no longer have dominion over you.” When the slavery of sin is broken, it gives us the right to walk through other doors of freedom. If we are a follower of Jesus we are not waiting to be free, we are already free. That’s the truth and if we know His word, we KNOW we are FREE!