Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say to you, Every one that practises sin is the bondman of sin.
The scene is a dispute in the temple. Men who claimed Abraham as their father insisted they had never been slaves to anyone. The Lord answered with a solemn "truly, truly." His words move the argument off politics and ancestry, and onto a bondage they had never counted.
They insisted they had never been slaves. One commentator points to the yoke they had worn so long that they no longer felt it.
It was not that the Jews of that day carried a lighter load. They had grown so used to the yoke that they forgot it and denied it altogether. And if their outward bondage came from God's righteous government, still less did they judge rightly their state before God. That state was what the Lord Jesus was now bringing to light. Their proud spirit was stung by His word, which laid bare their slavery to the enemy. "We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to anyone." Jesus in His answer brought in the light of God. How true, solemn, and humbling! No bondage is so real, none so degrading, as that of sin. Could they seriously deny it was theirs? Unbelief blinds people to their moral state, and even to plain facts.
They wanted to argue about who had ever ruled over them. The Lord left that question aside.
But the Lord will not raise that question here; He goes deeper. "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin" — and this, though men often count it freedom, is the bitterest bondage. Since this is the condition of man in general, the first thing he needs is to be set free. There is no such thing in the spiritual realm as freedom a man wins for himself: salvation from sin must come from God.
People flatter the sinner. They call the man who does as he pleases free, independent, his own master. The Lord's word turns that picture around.
What a divine thought that is in John 8 — "Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin." The man who gratifies his lust is not a man of pleasure with independence, the Lord says. He is a slave, a captive — he serves sin.
The bondage is not the penalty God adds later; it is what contact with sin does. One writer taught children this with a picture from a kitchen.
Imagine an old fly talking to a young fly. It would say, "Whatever you do, do not touch that sticky tape. It looks and smells nice, it is very attractive, but do not touch it." The little fly will not listen. It thinks it must have one touch, so it puts out a leg — and the leg gets stuck. It puts out more legs to push itself off, and they stick too. Come back in half an hour and you would find the little fly nearly dead, sticky all over. The fly cannot touch the tape without being caught by it. That is like sin. Am I giving you my own ideas? I will tell you what our Saviour said: "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin."
Verse 34 opens an argument. If they are slaves, what is a slave's place in a household worth?
The Lord, in His reply, passes over their history in connection with man, and exposes their state before God. By their sins they proved themselves to be the slaves of the evil principle of sin. Being slaves, they could have no continuing place in the house of God, a picture here of the position of privilege they had just claimed. The slave can be dismissed; the Son abides for ever. The Son, whom they were rejecting, could indeed make them free.
If sin is a master, the cure must be stronger than rules. One writer marks what the law could never promise.
He was speaking of the slavery of sin, a far worse bondage. Romans 6 and 7 set out this Christian teaching at length. The law could never promise that freedom to the Jews. Grace alone can give it. It gives it to those who believe on the Lord Jesus and own Him as their life. They learn in practice the blessed result of being in Him who has died, and reckon themselves dead indeed to sin. Over such, sin shall not have dominion; for they are not under law, but under grace.
- Practice deceives — men count it freedom; the Lord calls it the bitterest bondage.
- Practice blinds — long habit makes a yoke easy to forget, so the loudest denials came from men still wearing one.
- Practice binds — nobody touches sin without sticking to it, as a fly sticks to the tape.
- Practice excludes — a slave has no lasting place in the house; the master can send him away, but the Son stays for ever.
- Practice ends only in Christ — the law could never promise this freedom; grace gives it, and the Son sets the slave free.
Now the bondman abides not in the house for ever the son abides for ever.
Jesus has just called His hearers slaves of sin. Now He draws a picture of a household, where one figure has a permanent place and the other does not. Two questions follow: what is "the house", and who is the son who stays?
The people He is speaking to had boasted in their descent from Abraham and in the law. One writer points out that the law has its rightful place, but it deals with people only as servants. Servants get no permanent place.
Did they boast in the law? What place had they under it? Slaves! Yes, and they were faithless to it; they broke the law; they were slaves of sin. It is not the slave, but the Son, who remains in the house... The law has its just place; it is for servants, and deals with them justly. The result is that they have no permanence, and no freedom either. Law could not meet the case; nothing and no one less than the Son could.
"The house" is God's own house, not a family home. That is what makes the servant's position so weak. For these hearers, the link with God ran through natural descent and law, so they stayed only by permission.
Their link with Abraham was a natural, fleshly one, and so it fitted the law and worked through the law. But as far as any link with God went, this left them still servants — failing servants, with no living place in the house... So their place there was only allowed, only tolerated — to put it in the truest and gentlest way. And only "for ever" marks a link that is real: "The servant does not remain in the house" (here it is a question of God's house) "for ever; but the Son remains for ever."
Commentators differ here. Some read the words as a general principle about two positions in a household. The question is which one you hold.
This is not a contrast between the servant and the eternal Son. The question is, Are you a servant or a son? If the former you must go, but if the latter you remain.
Others hear Christ speaking of Himself. What He is as Son is the reason He can set anyone free.
Why? Because of the greatness and glory of the One who gives this holy freedom, and His closeness to God. He gives Himself with it, in the things of God. This is what He taught: "The servant does not remain in the house for ever, but the Son remains for ever." This holy nearness and closeness belong to the Son for ever — note the words, "THE SON" — so He Himself can give this real freedom, and no one else can.
A third writer holds both together. The principle is general, but the application belongs to Christ alone.
He is in the freedom that comes from relationship. He is not under the slave's law, which may throw him out. The principle is general... In fact, only Christ Himself can make free, and this is how the Lord applies it here: "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." For the Son is no mere servant in the Father's house. He is one with the Father in word and purpose, and His work is the work of salvation, which alone can make free.
Abraham once sent Hagar the slave woman and her son Ishmael away. One writer says that old scene points to something far more serious.
We cannot help remembering the apostle's illustration of Hagar and Ishmael. The casting out of the slave woman and her son was soon to happen. Even this is only a shadow of what is worse: the dreadful final rejection into outer darkness. The unsaved sinner must surely face it, however zealous a law keeper he may be.
For the believer, this permanence becomes his own. Sonship is a bond nothing can break.
We are no longer slaves but sons, because the Son has made us free. If we continue in His word, we are truly His disciples, and as we come to know the truth we feel its power to set us free. The "house" also comes into view — the place of sons, our eternal home. Unlike the slave's position, this relationship can never be broken.
The ground of that place is not our record but His.
We are made free, and may "go in and out and find pasture" as children of the house. I have a place as a son because of what Christ is as a Son.
- Servant — a slave of sin has no settled place in God's house. He stays only by permission, and the law can give him no permanence and no freedom.
- Son — the contrast is between two positions in a house, not two kinds of people. Commentators differ over whether "the son" means any son or Christ Himself.
- Freedom — only One with a permanent place can hand out freedom, so the next verse rests on this one.
- Shadow — Hagar and Ishmael put out of Abraham's house is the picture. The reality behind it is a far more final rejection.
- For ever — nothing can break the believer's place, because it rests on what Christ is as Son, not on our own record.
If therefore the Son shall set you free, ye shall be really free.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.