"You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free...So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."John 8:32,36
Is there anyone among us who does not desire to be free. We all want to be free. The small child asks, “Do I have to go to bed now?” The adolescent can’t wait to get clear of his uncomprehending parents. Developing nations want to shake off the economic control of the colonizer. The popular notion of freedom is simply the complete absence of restraint. To many freedom is then being able to do whatever we want. When people speak of the popular notion of freedom they like to think of the birds. Birds are thought to be the freest of the creatures just because the birds can go anywhere (it seems), do anything, without restraint.But is that freedom? Jesus the sovereign, risen, living Lord of the universe, is the source and content of real freedom in your life. Only Jesus alone can set us free. He says in John 8:36"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
The problem Jesus sees is that people think they are free, when it fact they are slaves. He says in John 8:34-35, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever" He is saying that everyone sins. Therefore, Jesus is saying that everyone is a slave of sin. This means that sin is not just a bad act, but a power underneath in our hearts that makes us do bad acts. We sin because we are sinners. So our slavery is slavery to this power inside of us. Jesus completely obliterates the myth or delusion that we have free will. We are all taught from as far back as we can remember that we are all free and have free will. But Jesus says that just is not true. There may be kinds of freedom that we can make for ourselves, or that look and feel to us like freedom, but not this one. That's Jesus' point. We are not really free. We are like slaves on a galley. We may have minds that think; wills that make choices; and hearts that have feelings and affections; so we think we are free. This slavery is too deep and pervasive. And all of us have it. Jesus says that the spiritual freedom that He is talking about is as different as that of a slave and a son. The son is in the house and has aces to everything. He can go wherever he wants to go.He can stay as long as he wants to stay. But the slave has no rights. if you are a slave to sin, you do not have the freedom of a son. Only Jesus alone can set us free.
Sin enslaves in two ways and because of that freedom comes in two forms. First, sin enslaves us by producing compelling desires. Sin enslaves by making anything look more desirable than Jesus. That's what sin is: desiring something above Jesus and then acting on it. The second way sin enslaves is by eventually damning us. In the short term it feels free and brings pleasure, but unless something intervenes, it leads to hell. This is slavery because though what people do feels free, they would not say that if they saw clearly that the end of that road was destruction.
How does Jesus frees us from sin's domination and damnation? First,He frees us from the damnation of sin by becoming a damnation for us. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). Second, He frees us from the domination of sin by changing our nature at the root through the new birth. And the essence of it is that he gives us eyes to see that our Savior is more to be desired than anything in the world and frees us to desire Jesus more than anything in the world. And empowers us to do what we desire. That is true freedom! We are free indeed.
What does the full freedom that Jesus offers really look like? So what other kinds of freedom are there? What freedom comes short of "free indeed"? There are at least four kinds of freedom, but left alone in each kind, you really end up not free because each one adds a crucial dimension of freedom to the last until we get to the full freedom—"free indeed."
First, is the freedom of desire. If you don't have the desire to do a thing, you are not fully free to do it. If you do it only out of duty, obligation, will power, or others expectations to do what you don't want to do, nobody calls that full freedom. There is a constraint and pressure on us that we don't want and that is not freedom.
Second, is freedom of ability. What if you have the desire to do something, but you have no ability to do it, you are not free to do it. I would love to fly but I cannot. Therefore, I am not free to fly.
Third, is freedom of opportunity. What if f you have the desire and the ability to do something, but no opportunity to do it, then you are not free to do it.
Finally, is the freedom of destiny. What if you have the desire to do something, and the ability to do it, and the opportunity to do it, but it destroys you in the end, you are not fully free—not free indeed.
You are fully free—completely free, free indeed—when you have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will make you happy in a thousand years. Or we could say, You are fully free when you have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will leave you no regrets forever. And only Jesus can make that possible. If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed.
Let me give you an illustration of this freedom to see if I can make it as clear as possible. Let's take skydiving, for example. What you want is to experience the fullest possible exhilaration of freedom in skydiving. Let's suppose then that you are on your way to the airport to go up for your first real jump, but your car hits a pothole on the way, you have a blowout, and run into a telephone pole. You are no longer free to jump, whether you have the ability or not, because the opportunity passes while you wait for the tow truck. You lack the freedom of opportunity.
Or suppose you do make it to the airport, but it turns out that you skipped all the classes and don't know the first thing about skydiving. You lack the most basic abilities—like how to operate the parachute. The opportunity is there, but you don't have the freedom of ability. They're not going to let you jump.
But suppose that you make it to the airport, you went to all the classes, and have all the abilities needed. You take off in the little plane, but as soon they open the door and you look down, all your desire vanishes and in its place comes a paralyzing fear. The opportunity is there, the ability is there, but you don't have the freedom of desire.
But there is one last requirement for full freedom. Suppose you get to the airport with no obstacle (you have the freedom of opportunity); you have all the know-how necessary (you have the freedom of ability); you look out the door at the tiny clusters of silos and barns and farmhouses a few miles down, and just can't wait to jump (you have the freedom of desire). So you jump. And as you free fall, enjoying every second of it, unknown to you, your parachute is defective and is not going to open no matter you do. Are you free—fully free, free indeed? No. What you are doing seemingly so happily and so freely is going to kill you. Even though you don't know it yet, you are in bondage to destruction. It feels like freedom. But very soon the whole thing—all the exhilaration—will prove to be an illusion. In thirty seconds you'll be dead.
In order to be fully free—free indeed—the Son of God must set you free. We have no man made parachute. We have a Savior. Because he died for us, there is no condemnation. The unchangeable, deadly, gravitational pull of our sins is broken. He has caught us in mid-fall and has become our supreme Treasure and source of our highest pleasure. Our destiny, our desires, our ability, and opportunities are new. He is their source, and he is their content. He gave us the new desire, and he is the new desire. "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
Is it not then utterly foolish for a Christian to envy the so-called freedom of those who pitch themselves out the skyscraper window of sin and exult for a season in the exhilaration of free-fall greed, or free-fall drugs or free-fall fame, or free-fall sex, or free-fall power, or free-fall luxury oblivious of Jesus. All this freedom is like a vapor, but those who trust in Jesus, and treasure him above all, will mount up with wings like eagles, and be glad—a thousand years from now. They will be free indeed.
Looking to Jesus for my freedom,
Pastor Bill
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