John 8:33-38 33They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How do you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who does sin is a slave to sin. 35The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36Therefore, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37I know that you are offspring of Abraham, but you seek to kill me because my word makes no progress in you. 38I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
It is assumed that the subject of the verb in verse 33 is the Jews who had come to believe in Jesus. They continued to be confused about what Jesus was saying and were still thinking on the earthly or humanistic level. When in doubt or confused about a topic, people often retreat to a safe assumption they have believed in the past. In this case, the Jews appealed to their heritage in Abraham. How short their memories were when they said they had never been enslaved. The Jews had been politically enslaved to all the major powers through the ages, and the Jews speaking to Jesus were currently under the control of the Romans. They somehow convinced themselves that they were spiritually free because of their heritage stretching back to Abraham, the father of faith. They thought they were righteous before God and thus, spiritually free.
Jesus saw right through their response and excuse and got to the heart of the issue of freedom. In verse 34 with another timeless truth to pay attention to, he points them to their biggest problem of slavery to sin. Understanding sin will help us appreciate the meaning of freedom. People might think they are free yet are deceived and confused about freedom because they are bound by the power of sin. Slavery to the power of sin results from committing sin. When sin becomes the practice of one’s life, it will take over. Our consciences become lazy and calloused until we no longer see the truth. When we obey the natural tendency to live our own selfish lives, we will become slaves to our deceived passions and bound by the power of sin (Romans 6:12). John also warns about this in his first epistle in 1 John 3:4, 8, 9. The most serious form of slavery is spiritual bondage to sin, which results from committing sin and not turning to Jesus in repentance and faith.
Jesus next uses a play on words with an illustration that compares a son to a slave. Many households of that day had slaves. Slaves have no inheritance but are bound to do the “law” of the master. A son is part of the family does receive an inheritance. In this sense, a slave is temporary but a son remains in the house forever. Jesus shifts the idea of son (lower case) to Son (upper case). The son in the comparison of verse 35 refers to Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus, as the incarnate Son of God, can set us free from the power of sin. God the Father has given Jesus the power to set slaves free. Jesus’ eternal place of authority as judge enables him to set people free from the power and habit of sin!
Jesus recognized the special place of the Jews as the descendants of Abraham, but this privilege did not guarantee the type of freedom of which Jesus speaks in these verses. The Jews had fooled themselves into thinking that they were spiritually right with God when they still harbored sin in their lives. The great sin facing them at that moment was trying to kill Jesus because they refused to believe his words. He had spoken clearly on the topic of his identity and the authority of his words, yet they refused to believe. He had revealed his Father’s teaching truthfully. The Jews were following a different father. The identity of their father becomes the topic of the next passage.
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