and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
Jesus says this to people who had just believed on Him. He at once attaches a condition: they will know the truth if they stay in His word. Their reply was that they had never been anyone's slaves. It shows they did not yet see what He was offering to free them from.
The Condition Before the Promise
Freedom does not come with the first stir of belief. One writer points to what marks a real disciple, and to the two powers at work:
Continuance is always the test of what is real. Those who continue come to know the truth and its freeing power. The devil enslaves by the power of his lie; Christ sets free by the power of God's truth. He did not flatter them by telling them that as God's nation they were free. He set before them the true spiritual freedom that comes from knowing the truth. They needed it, and so do we!
The promise points forward, and that shows where they stood at the time:
The proof of their discipleship would be continuing in His word. In that word they would find the knowledge of the truth, and by the truth they would be made free (vv. 31-32). So it is clear that these people were not yet free.
His Word, Not the Law
The Jews already had God's commands in the law. Christ points them somewhere else:
So His word (not the law) is the sole means of knowing the truth and its liberty. It was not just a question of commands, or of something God wanted from man. God had already given that, and it had been tested; and what did it come to for them and for Him? Now much more was at stake, God showing Himself in Christ to the world, and doing this in His word, in the truth.
Slaves Who Thought They Were Free
The offer of freedom offended them. Their protest fails in two ways:
It offended the proud Jews of our Lord's day when He said, "The truth will set you free." They answered Him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" Their boast of freedom was false in two ways. As a nation, they had served at least a dozen different powers in their history. In spirit they were where everyone is by nature: in bondage to sin.
Truth Definite Enough to Be Known
"The truth" here is not a vague ideal. One writer sets the promise against people who look open-minded because they hold nothing as true:
They have no truth at all, so they do not care about it, and they like to be free. Since they hold nothing as truth, they are happy to leave others free too. It looks broad-minded, but it means they treat nothing as truth. You may have seen this in their interpretation of the Lord's remarkable words, "If you abide in my word... you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." It is a huge announcement of the love of God. It promises freedom by truth that is certain and known — and, He adds, by the Son — from every immoral influence, from everything that was not the truth.
Because the truth stands on its own, our sense of it is not the measure of it:
The truth is what it is — the truth; it is unchangeable, and our experiences or our enjoyment in no way affect it. Let us ask for grace to measure our freedom in Christ by this standard. Until we know the truth, we are not aware of being free in spirit before God.
What the Freedom Is For
Freedom here is not permission to please oneself. One writer defines it by what it removes:
First, each person who receives the truth revealed in Christ comes into perfect freedom before God. Freedom from what? Everything that would keep your heart and soul from enjoying God to the full.
It also changes the person who receives it:
God has made us know His truth as what delivers us. This freedom is not freedom for our sinful nature. It cuts right through our hearts and makes a real separation, one that God, who is holy, knows fully. So a person comes into his place before God with a broken and humbled heart.
Free Indeed Through the Son
One writer links this promise with the Lord's later words about the Son, and reads them as two stages of one blessing:
after
To know "the truth" frees us from the things that hold the soul in bondage. That is a great thing. But it is the Son Himself who brings the soul into real freedom in the presence of the Father. That is why it says, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
Summary
- Continue — Christ promises freedom to those who stay in His word, not to those who only start well. Staying is the test of real belief.
- Know — what sets free is real truth we can know. Our feelings do not change it. A faith that holds nothing as true has nothing to free anyone with.
- Free from — their boast of never being slaves was false twice over. The nation had served many masters, and every person by nature serves sin.
- Free for — this freedom removes whatever blocks our enjoyment of God. It humbles the heart instead of feeding it. It is never a licence to sin.
- Free indeed — truth frees us from what enslaves. The Son Himself brings the freed soul into the Father's presence.