The Truth Shall Set You Free

Then Jesus said to those Judeans who had believed him, ‘If you continue to follow my teaching, you are really my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’  John 8:31-32

 In the days that Jesus walked the earth, slavery was a known institution. People could see it clearly around them every day. You looked at someone and knew they were a slave. You never wanted to be a slave. There was an "us" and a "them." Many, if not most, people in the world today are either unaware or less aware of slavery, but it is no less prevalent. In fact, according to recent estimates, there are nearly 50 million people living in slavery in our world today! If you look at the top 10 countries in the world by population of slaves, you might be shocked to find the United States among them. Isn't slavery illegal here? Yes, but so is murder, and yet it still happens. 

 Most of us don't know any slaves personally, and yet we are still a part of the cycle. I can pretty much guarantee that everyone reading this has products in their home, whether clothing or solar panels or electronics, that were produced by slave labor. Did you know that the United States is by far the largest importer of at-risk goods in the world? According to 2023 estimates, we brought in $169.6 billion dollars’ worth of these. The nearest other country was Japan at only a third of this, or $53.1 billion. We certainly cannot see ourselves as high and mighty or above reproach for having anti-slavery laws when we import so many of our goods from places that openly utilize them.

 So, why am I talking about slavery today? Because Jesus was talking about it in these verses. What? You don’t see the word slavery here? No, but you do see the word, “free.” In order to be freed, you have to have been enslaved at some point. Jesus’ initial audience with these words was quite offended at the inference, they picked it up right away. They responded with, "We are descendants of Abraham," they replied, "and have never been anyone's slaves! How can you say, 'You will become free'?" [John 8:33 NET]. You see, in their society, being called a slave was quite an insult. It was being equated with the lowest of the low.

 The statistics I shared before reflect societal bondage, forced labor, etc. but the reality is that there are 8,213,269,530 slaves in the world according to the United Nations estimates on Friday, March 28, 2025. How could there be so many? That’s the population of Earth. The truth is, we are either a slave to sin or a slave to Christ, there is no in between. Everyone on earth, from birth to death, male or female or anything in between, rich or poor, everyone is a slave. A slave has no control over their situation. They cannot choose to go somewhere or do something, it is forced upon them. You may not see this reality in your life, but it is certainly there.

 Before accepting Christ as your savior, you were powerless over sin. It had control of you, imposing its will on you, causing you to go somewhere or do something. No matter how much willpower you mustered up, you could not eliminate sin from your life. Once you ask Christ into your life to be your Savior, to free you from the bonds of sin and death, you are now slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:17-18). In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 we are told that we are not our own, we were bought with a price – the shed blood of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

 But it is in this slavery to righteousness, this association to Christ, that we find true freedom. In today’s verse, we read that if we hold to Jesus’ teaching we are really His disciples. It’s not just about praying a prayer and signing up for fire insurance. It’s a changed life, a changed heart, a freed spirit. As we live in Jesus’ teaching, as we obey Him and follow His ways, we get to learn the truth.

 Truth has a lot of different connotations in today’s society. We’ve come to recognize that everyone’s experience and understanding of life is different. If you have ten different witnesses to an accident, they will tell ten different stories. That’s not because nine of them are lying, they are each sharing what they perceived, but they are doing so from different angles, with different perspectives, coming from different backgrounds and understandings. But the reality is that there is only one absolute truth to the situation, one thing that actually happened. It is likely a combination of many of these different testimonies, which is why in biblical times a testimony had to be corroborated by two or three witnesses. If you just hear from one person, you don’t get the whole picture. The exception to this? God. He can actually see all of it, inside and out. He knows what each person involved was thinking and actually doing, even if they didn’t know it themselves. God’s truth is absolute truth. My truth, while it may be “true” for me, while it may express my understanding of a situation, isn’t complete.

 Today’s verses tell us that if we are truly Jesus’ disciples, following His teachings, then we will know the truth, and the truth will set us free. We will be free from bondage, slavery, to sin and death. We will be free to follow our hearts and recognize our indebtedness to Christ, making us slaves to righteousness. We are now free to do the right thing when we couldn’t before. We are free to do good and glorify God’s Name. We are free to cast our crowns before Him crying, “Holy! Holy! Holy!” (Revelation 4:10-11). We are free to be His disciples, following Him and learning from Him forever!

Here's the Thing: Slavery to righteousness may not sound like freedom to you. I get that this can be a confusing topic. It’s not quite as bad as predestination vs free will, but it’s in the same ballpark. The key here is that, in Christ, we are freed from sin and death. Neither of them hold power over us anymore. There is no condemnation for those found in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).