What does it mean that "the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)?

The power of His words was felt and many took the place of believing on Him. The Lord tested them by telling them that one who was not a mere nominal follower but a disciple indeed is characterized by continuing in His word; that is, in the whole truth that He brought. Continuance is ever the test of reality, and where that exists the truth is known in its emancipating power. The devil enslaved by the power of his lie: Christ liberates 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 that true spiritual freedom which is the result of the knowledge of the truth. That they needed, and so do we!

How simple are the Lord's words to the Jews, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). First of all, the soul, individually, by the reception of the truth revealed in Christ, is set in perfect freedom before God. Freedom from what? Everything that would hinder your heart and soul thoroughly enjoying God. "The servant abides not in the house for ever: but the Son abides ever" (John 8:35). The servant is in bondage; the Son is in liberty. There is the contrast; and who is the Son? The blessed Lord Himself; and what does He do? The moment He takes you into association with Himself, of course on the ground of death and resurrection, you are in the same atmosphere as He is, and therefore when He says, "the Son abides ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (ver. 36), He indicates the abiding liberty into which His grace brings us, that we may enjoy the rich portion He shares with us. I like to admit, honestly and openly, that I am a Free Churchman. You say, The Free Church of Scotland? No, nor of any other land; the Free Church of God — of Scripture. I am also a thoroughly Established Churchman; and greatly rejoice further to be a member of the United Church. The Established-United-Free Church is the Church of Scripture, and membership of anything but that is foreign to its teaching. God's Assembly is established, united, and free, and I should be ashamed to own that I was a member of aught else. All Christians are united to Christ and to each other, are in the liberty of sonship before God individually, and are brought by God into the most wonderful liberty collectively, His saints, all together, forming the temple of God. Now see how other scriptures present it.

Truth, God's truth, could make them free. But from what? From any earthly power? That, and nothing more, was their thought. He, however, was speaking of the thraldom of sin, a much worse bondage. Now this, which is Christian teaching, is set forth at length in Rom. 6, vii. The law could never promise that freedom for the Jews. Grace alone can for those, who, believing on the Lord Jesus, own Him as their life, and learn practically the blessed result of being in Him who has died, reckoning themselves dead indeed to sin. Over such sin shall not have dominion; for they are not under law, but under grace (Rom. 6:14). On this teaching the Lord did not enter further with the Jews. The time for that had not then come. He just explained His meaning to leave none in uncertainty about it. "Verily, verily, I say to you, Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abides not in the house for ever: but the Son abides ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (34-36). A servant and a son are very different thoughts, and speak of different positions. Under law the latter was not enjoyed (Gal. 4:1-3).

The Lord declares to those who had been brought to believe in Him, that, if they remained firmly attached to His word (for it is a question of His word), they should be His disciples indeed, they should know the truth, and the truth should set them free (v. 31, 32). The truth supposes the full revelation of that which is divine and heavenly, that which was revealed in His Person, and in His words, and would be fully made evident when He should be glorified, and the Holy Ghost should have come. I do not think that those of whom verse 23 speaks were those who believed in Jesus, but the Jews in general. They trust to their outward position according to the flesh: they had never been in bondage, they say, forgetting, however, all their history, and their position at that very moment. The Lord passes over all that, to present the ground of the truth as to the state of man before God, and the effect of the law; for He identifies these two things - being a slave of sin, and being under the law, as the man of Romans 7 "Every one that practises sin, is the slave of sin," captive of that terrible law of sin that is in his members; but being a slave, he may be sent away from the house, and sold. The Jews, sinners under the law, would be sent away from the house of God; but the Son belonged to the house, and dwelt there always, and necessarily; if He made them free, they should be free indeed, free from sin, and free from the law. The Son, the revelation of the Father, as object, and power of life in him who shall have received Him, acting by the word, takes the place of the principle of sin in man, and the law which in vain forbade man to commit it.

A wave of conviction passes over the multitude, and on hearing these words many, we are told, believed on Him; but the expression is no stronger than with regard to those who "believed on His Name" when at the feast-day they saw the miracles that He did; and of whom it is said that "Jesus did not commit Himself to them" (John 2:23-25). Of these also the Lord speaks doubtfully, and presently they resent His words and lapse into unbelief the fiercer for their disappointment in Him. Perhaps they had caught at the lifting up of which He had spoken, as exaltation by the people, followed as He had said it would be by the manifestation of Himself. The Lord's words to them are certainly words well suited to turn them from any thought of mere political liberty to be gained, and to test them as to their need of a real salvation. Abiding in His word, He tells them, would prove them to be really His disciples. They would know the truth, and the truth would make them free. But at once they resist and resent this. They, the seed of Abraham, in bondage, needing to be made free? they cry: how can He speak of that? they were never in bondage to any! Spite of its notorious contradiction to the truth, their protest shows of what bondage they were thinking. But the Lord will not raise a question here, but goes deeper. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that practiseth sin is the bondman of sin;'" and this, though men often count it freedom, is the bitterest bondage. Hence, as this is the condition of man in general, the first thing that he needs is to be set free. There is no such thing in the spiritual realm as self-attained freedom: salvation from sin must be of God.

Those present when the Lord spoke did not understand this. They said, "We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to any man. How sayst thou then, Ye shall be made free?" Jesus tells them the plain and naked truth. "Whosoever committeth (or practises) sin is the servant of sin." How exceedingly plain and yet how solemn. He cannot be free who is a servant of sin — a slave of sin. So simple that a babe can see it at once, and yet we could not find it out. It was necessary for God's Son to come from heaven to teach us this truth, and even now the mass of Christendom knows it not.

We have good reason to thank and praise God that we are freed from both sins and sin, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Speaking of bondage to sin, He pointed the way of freedom from it; “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32); but in verse 36 we are told of further freedom—not only from, but into. So we read, “If therefore THE SON shall set you free, ye shall be really free.”

The Son makes us free indeed, not only does the truth set free. We may take up truth apart from the Son. Intellectuality is a sore evil, affecting not only such as believe not, but also the children of God and to all it is a most deadly spiritual affliction. Truth taken up by the intellect will not be a delivering power in the soul. The Lord's own hand removes our fetters through the Spirit by the truth. The Son abiding for ever, in grace and love delivers His own. Jesus risen, in His own authority and by virtue of His death and resurrection, delivers. He gives perfect liberty. His gracious work has effected the liberty. He Himself has broken the bars of the prison-house, and has opened its doors and vanquished the power of sin. And He the Victor snaps asunder the chains of each individual believer who has true faith in Himself where He is, by giving to each such heart the conscious knowledge of His resurrection power, and of the eternal life being secured to the believer beyond death, sin, and the law.

The truth makes us free. The truth is what it is — the truth; it is unalterable, and our experiences or enjoyment in no way affect it; let us seek for grace to measure the extent of our liberty in Christ by this standard, for until we know the truth we are not consciously free in spirit before God.

God has made us know His truth as that which delivers us: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This liberty is not that of the flesh, because it penetrates our hearts with all the reality of a separation well known to God, who is holy. Thus one gets straight into his position with one's heart broken and humbled. If anyone talks of separation from evil without being humbled about it, let him beware lest his position be simply that which at all times has formed sects, and has also produced heterodoxy in doctrine.