This week, Dr. Tony Evans expounds on the divine promise of freedom for Christians. Presently, many Christians live as prisoners captured in war. As Christians, we often feel as though we are imprisoned behind enemy lines because of certain circumstances or situations in our lives such as an addiction, pains of the past, uncertainty about the future, or problems of the present. We feel powerless; therefore, rather than seeking freedom, we falter in our cells of imprisonment. This is not what God desires for His people. Freedom is one of the great promises God gives to His people. God’s freedom is liberation from illegitimate bondage or limitations that prohibits us from being all that we are supposed to be as a redeemed people. God saved us to be masterpieces of His glory. We must understand that freedom does not mean the absence of boundaries; freedom without legitimate restrictions leads to chaos. In today’s scripture passage, Dr. Evans reveals three important points that Christians need to understand to experience freedom through Christ.
Freedom requires the Truth (John 8:31). For us to experience freedom, Jesus informs us that it requires the truth. Knowledge and belief of the truth lead to deliverance. As Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” Jesus revealed it as an absolute standard by which reality is measured. It is not negotiable. Truth originates from God; it exists and it can be known only through Him. The question is, “What will be our source of truth?” People appeal to many sources of truth such as feelings, reason, and moral instincts. They all fall short of sufficiency. Feelings should not be our source of truth because they change. Reason should not be our source of ultimate truth because we have finite understanding. We are always learning something new; however, God is not learning or gaining new information. Moral instincts should not be our source of truth because they vary from person to person. The only acceptable source of truth is God’s Word. In contrast to our culture’s postmodern view of relative truth, as Christians, we must make a fundamental decision to rely on the objective standard of the word of God if we want to gain our freedom.
Sin creates slaves (John 8:34). "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” The crucial insight that we must have for freedom is the truth about our own sin. Not surprisingly, Jesus portrays sin as a slave master. Sin is a violation of God’s standards and is addictive. It creates addictions in our lives that enslave us. Like a tattoo, sin leaves its imprint on our souls, preventing us from experiencing freedom. The Bible refers to these addictions as strongholds. In order to gain freedom from these strongholds, we must identify the spiritual cause and cure to have an experiential release. This will not be easy. Why is this so difficult? It is difficult because our sin corrupted nature, which causes us to desire self-control rather than God control, will resist the truth. We have old, bad ways of thinking that need to be changed. Therefore, we must earnestly seek to know and live according to the truth, God’s truth.
Freedom comes from the Son of God (John 8:36). How does the truth set us free from our situations in life, situations in which we do not know the truth, are not dealing with the sin, or are not operating in the truth? We must begin by realizing that the freedom must be based on God’s truth. Freedom is, therefore, the result of the knowledge of the truth and the activity of the Son of God. The Son does not set us free until the truth is known. People want deliverance from the Son before knowing the truth. We must first discover the truth of God concerning the subject and what He promises in relationship to this subject. Only then will we have access to the freeing power of the Son. Information does not set us free; the Son does. Jesus is the one who unlocks our cells of sin. Christ promises that our freedom will be freedom indeed. Indeed means “surety.” The same word “indeed” is used in reference to Jesus being raised from the dead. He rose indeed. This means it will be a true victory. Jesus may do this directly or he may have other believers come alongside to help us gain freedom from our bondage.
Paul wrote to the Galatians, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free.” Freedom is a divine gift that all Christians begin to experience at the point of salvation. Our freedom does not end at salvation; it continues throughout our lives. We gain freedom from our bondages of sin as we come to know, understand, and believe the truth of God’s word. When we live in accordance with the truth, we gain access to the freeing power of the Son of God. He alone frees us from our former slave master of sin.
