31 Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
The Spirit of the LORD is the Spirit of Truth, The Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father thru the Son (John 15:26). HIS own Spirit will be in everyone as HE had promised in Joel 2:28. Jesus confirmed this in John 14:16-17 when He said, “And I (Jesus) will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.”
The Spirit of the Truth are the words spoken by Jesus (John 6:63). If we accept His Word and continue living in it, we will have freedom, freedom from slavery of sins. Let us know how we can be free from slavery of sins.
If we continue the succeeding verses of today, there’s the same question of the Jews to Jesus, in verse 33 to the following; it says, “They (Jews) questioned him, “We are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage to any one. How is it that you say, ‘You will be made free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not continue in the house forever; the son continues forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you... 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But, because I tell the truth, you do not believe me…47 He who is of God hears the words of God; the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”… 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death.”
The answer of our Lord Jesus to our question on “How can we be free?” points to one thing. If we know and accept the truth, the words that He spoke, those very words will make us free from the slavery of sin. On the contrary, there are people who do not want to hear the truth, rather, they embrace the lies which come from the devil, the father of all lies. They depend from their own knowledge brought by just doing everything according to the desire of their flesh and according to their earth bound plans or ambitions, from the devils own nature, thinking the world below and not above. Some also believe that they can do holiness on their own. Many cling on their own righteousness by their own understanding. Romans 10:3 manifests, “For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” These lies makes people sin and become slave of it by rejecting the truth from the Heaven above, the Spirit of truth that comes from the breadth of Jesus from the Father. John 6:63 says, “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” They cannot and do not want to deny the desires of their flesh, they are slaves of their own flesh and its desires.
Galatians 5:17-18 says, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.”
Now is the time to check ourselves. Do we have these works of the flesh? Gal 5:19-21 states, “Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” If we have these works of devil in the flesh, what we have are lies in us and we are considered slaves, not children, not heirs to the kingdom of GOD. On the other hand, if we do have the fruit of the Holy Spirit in us, what we have is the truth. Gal 5:22-23 defines if we live in the truth, that truth will give us freedom, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.” If we receive the Spirit of the LORD, He will bear those fruit in us which will deliver us from slavery of sin, thus making us children and heirs to the kingdom of our Father GOD in Heaven.
Folks, we cannot bear fruit, the fruit that will lasts apart from the vine, we cannot do anything good apart from Jesus, for He is the source of all what is good. He is the truth Himself. He will sanctify us in Himself, the Word is Himself. He has the Spirit of GOD that will help us to do good, he has the Spirit that will sanctify us. Jesus will make us free from sin whose wages are slavery and death (John 17:17, Eph. 5:26, Rom. 6:23).
Our Eternal News: We could be all sanctified, but our sanctification is not ours to do. It is the work of the Spirit of Truth in us. Our job is to hear it, to believe it, and to submit to it by repentance, keep the word and remain in the word. Our work is to reject the lies and deny our flesh and let ourselves be controlled by the Spirit that will give us freedom from the bondage of sins. Our freedom is thru the Spirit of the Truth that we received by hearing the words of Jesus, the Gospel of our Salvation. He will work in us to set us free from the bondage of sins. Let me reiterate it again from our Lord Jesus mouth; “He who is of God hears the words of God; the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God… Truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death…It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life…If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” AMEN .
Comments