Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
I’m sure you’ve heard or read some famous words that you occasionally quote or perhaps have on a plaque in your home. Yesterday and today, we are dissecting some of the most famous and powerful words Jesus ever spoke. So powerful, they should be very impactful in our lives today, 2000 years later!
We are in John’s record, chapter 8. I won’t repeat anything from yesterday, let’s just keep going with Jesus’ next words. If you missed yesterday, I urge you to go into our Archives library, you’ll see the tab on our home page. And carefully engage with our study yesterday.
Now today, let’s watch as the crowd around Jesus is getting agitated! Many, particularly the prideful, religious leaders in the crowd, don’t at all like what Jesus has been saying as He declares Gods’ truth. Next Jesus said: “Truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to the family forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed…I am telling you what I have seen in My Father’s presence.“ (John 8:34-36,38) Now let’s apply the same principle of questions that I taught you yesterday.
1st question: What does Jesus mean by saying “everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family,”? Do you remember Romans 3 says “there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23) And of course, Rom. 6:23 tells us the wages of a life of sin is death! It means EVERY person is born in sin bondage, slavery, and our sin keeps us OUT of God’s loving family and destines us to an eternity apart from God.
2nd question: What did Jesus mean by saying “but a son belongs to the family forever”? Of course, both in the first century and today we understand the wonderful privilege of being either born or adopted into a family, right? Oh, the wonderful sense of belonging and love and safety God has designed to be found in a healthy, God honoring family. Jesus was, of course, talking about the miracle of spiritual ADOPTION that His death and resurrection would make possible for any person. And it would be a forever family with God. Remember adoption by God is explained to us in John 1:12; Romans 8:14-17 and Galatians 4:4-7.
3rd question: And what did Jesus mean by saying: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed…I am telling you what I have seen in My Father’s presence.” Oh my, do you see Jesus declaring that in heaven, when He, Jesus, was there with God the Father for all eternity past, Jesus was able to see people here on earth delivered from their sin by believing God’s Truth! It happened to Noah (Gen. 6:5) and Abraham (Gen. 15:6) for instance.
And do we understand that Romans 6:17,18 explains: “Thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin…you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
And to make it even clearer, Romans 6:22,23 declares: “Now that you have been set free from sin, and have become slaves of God’s, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life.”
Oh my, do you see the great advantage you and I have over those who were standing there that day listening to Jesus? What advantage? While yes, they could SEE Jesus, and you and I can’t, they did not know all we know about what was going to happen that Passover/Easter weekend. Nor did they know all that the apostles would write explaining the words of Jesus, which we have as our New Testament of the Bible.
Do you see, my friends, the exciting privilege you and I have of looking at one passage of Scripture through the illuminating lens of other Scripture? Oh, thank you Jesus for God’s wonderful Word.
Now before we leave John 8, we must look today at one more, very powerful statement Jesus made: “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on My own, God sent Me. Why is My language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear and understand what I say.” (John 8:42,43) This is another example of something that Jesus said which is made crystal clear by another Scripture, in this case 2 Corinthians 4:4 where Paul wrote: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Do we understand?
Every person is born with a veil of spiritual darkness over their mind and heart. That is part of having a sinful nature. That veil is ONLY taken away by the power of the Holy Spirit in opening our minds to understand God’s truth! That’s the truth of 1 Corinthians 2:14. That’s why so many people, then and now, hear Jesus’ words but reject those words as nonsense. Their minds are blinded by the dark kingdom. They simply cannot grasp God’s truth, without God’s help! That miracle of understanding God’s truth is ONLY possible with the work of the Holy Spirit opening our minds to God’s truth.
This is so important we need to pause right here and tomorrow we’ll dig into the last and very powerful thing Jesus said in John 8. It’s so powerful that it still shakes our world today. For today, may I urge you to take your Bible and read John 8 from verse 12 through what we saw today in verse 43, making sure you pause often, to be sure you fully understand it. This is lifesaving, freedom giving, mind illuminating TRUTH, that we must grasp if we’re going to live free, following the light of Jesus in the darkness of our world.
Again ‘life lessons learned’ are at the link just below, then a worship song at the very end, and I’m already preparing to meet you here tomorrow, as we’ll finish John 8 together with Jesus.
Today’s Scripture: John 8.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.