Part 15a – John 8
John 8:30 says many believed on him and then in John 8:31-32 Jesus said to them “if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
According to Jesus Christ, to be a disciple we have to continue in Jesus’ word and by continuing in his word he says “you shall know the truth and this truth will make you free”.
Immediately the Pharisees tried to justify their freedom saying that they were of the seed of Abraham and therefore did not need to be set free because they believed they were free already. Jesus cuts straight to the point and says anyone who commits sin is the servant of sin, he knows the heart of a man or woman, no one else knows that except the man or woman themselves, what insight.
As we begin to continue to live in Jesus’ word we begin to experience truth and this truth will make us free, and on this basis we can really do business with God on His ground not on our ground. The place that this takes place is the place of the heart, the spiritual place that is in all of us. It is this place that needs to be reclaimed for God and not for ourselves. What I am talking about does not take place in the realm of the natural or the realm of the intellect, it can only take place in the spiritual. If we truly want to know God and His freedom then we have to find the spiritual place in our lives and then endeavour to find God there so that He can begin the work of redemption, “continue in my word and the truth will make you free”. This is a place where we learn to abide in order to be free.
In order for this work of redemption and freedom in the spirit to begin we have to let go all of our pre-conceptions and doctrines (both about God and our existence and our origins), that is everything we have accumulated through our lives in order for us to get back to the real issue, the issue of God himself, and when there we need to ask Him to reveal himself to us again in a fresh and living way.
We do this by abiding in “The Word” and “The Word” will set us free. Paul points out in Romans 6: 12-13 where he says “let not sin reign in your body”, “neither yield your members (you as a whole person) as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive….” So what we learn here is that by continuing in “the word”, “the word” will set us free. To ‘continue’ requires an action on our part, Christ died for Sin once for all but for us to live in that freedom requires us to make daily choices to yield to God in order for us to live in the truth that has set us free.
We will continue in Part 15b.
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