The Truth Will Set You Free
John 8v31-32
3rd January 2025
Everybody is searching for freedom, but I don't think we agree on what freedom is or how to get it. Jesus told us that the truth will set us free, but there are some preconditions:
John 8v31-32
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you
are really my disciples.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
There is such a thing as "the truth"
Regardless of people talking about "my truth" and "your truth", the fact remains that either a statement is true or it’s false. If you think a wall is red, and I think it’s green, then either it’s red and I’m wrong, or it’s green and you’re wrong, or it’s some other colour and we’re both wrong. Since I’m colour blind, it’s probably me that’s wrong. The fact that I think a red wall is green doesn’t mean it is green, it just means that my eyes don’t work very well. Perception is not reality. Instead of saying "my truth" and "your truth" people should say "my perception" and "your perception". Much of what we perceive is false or, at least, inaccurate.
Does 2 + 2 = 4, or 5, or 6 or 127? Does it = 3 for me and 39 for you? Are we both right? No! 2 + 2 = 4.
Here’s a more important example: In Acts 4v12, Peter said of Jesus Christ, "salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved". Either Jesus is the only way of salvation, or there are others, and all religions lead to God (or at least, several of them do) or there are no ways to God and we’re all doomed.
Don't be deceived. It cannot be true that God created the universe if you're me but He didn't if you're you. This is obviously nonsense. If we disagree, at least one of us is wrong. Either God created the universe, or some other being created the universe (but wouldn’t you call that other being "God" anyway) or nobody created the universe.
Similarly, it cannot be true that Jesus is God if you're me, but not if you're you. Either He is or He isn't.
But most seriously, such postmodernist nonsense allows the conceit that salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is important for me but unimportant for you. If you’re right that faith in Jesus is either false or irrelevant, then it’s false or irrelevant for me. If I’m right, and Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins, and rose from the dead 3 days later, and offers us eternal life, then nothing is more important for you.
Truth is not pick-and-mix, believe what you like and hope it works out for you. Truth is absolute. Truth must be good for us. Believing that which is false must be harmful. When it comes to questions of life and death, or eternal life and eternal death, believing that which is true must be extremely valuable. And, as we will consider a bit later, the truth will set you free. Falsehood will not.
It is possible for us to know what the truth is
Mankind has been searching for the meaning of life for thousands of years. Jesus promises that, subject to the conditions mentioned in this saying, "you will know the truth". There are answers to the big questions, and you can know those answers.
My father used to tell me that we can’t be certain of anything. I asked him if he was certain about that. The reality is that he wanted to believe that we can’t know anything, at least anything about God, because he wanted the freedom to behave as he wished, and he realised that accepting any truth about God, or about ethics, would constrain him. I found all this most unsatisfactory. It’s self-chosen intellectual despair. So I began reading philosophy books. I soon found that the authors of those books didn’t know the truth about God, or about Man, or about death, or about ethics.
God communicates the truth to us. He sent us many prophets. He gave us the Bible. As we've been thinking about recently, Jesus Christ is the Word, the ultimate message from God. But as John 1v9-10 says of Jesus, "The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him."
The truth is only available to disciples of Jesus Christ
Paul wrote, "Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" (1 Corinthians 1v20). God knows the truth, of course. Man struggles to find the truth but without God he cannot find it.
Mankind's problem is not that God fails to communicate, but that people who don't know God don't receive His messages, because they're blind. Truth and wisdom about the really important questions are mysteries to them. In Romans 1v21-22 Paul writes this about Man, "although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools".
However, truth and wisdom about the important things are available to us as gifts from God. Paul says, "Since… the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe… We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1v21-24). In 2 Corinthians 4v6a he writes, "God… made his light shine in our hearts…". In Ephesians 1v17 he describes the Holy Spirit as "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation". In the next verse he prays that "the eyes of your heart may be enlightened”. In Colossians 1v9 he says "We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding".
James advises us, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God… and it will be given to you." (James 1v5) and writes about "the wisdom that comes down from heaven" (James 3v17, NIV).
So truth is real, and wisdom is real, but we need God to reveal truth and wisdom to us. I can remember the time before I know Jesus Christ. I remember how little I understood. I am amazed at how much God has taught me.
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see
John Newton
To be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we must hold to His teaching
This is self-evident. A disciple is by definition a person who accepts what his teacher (or rabbi) tells him.
When we first found saving faith in the redeeming blood of Christ, we repented of our sins. That is, we decided that, from that moment, on we would live in accordance with the will of God. We’ve all failed on that front many times, but the decision still stands. We still want to live God’s way. We hold to his teaching. We do so with imperfect understanding and imperfect fidelity, but that is our intention. If we do not, we are not His disciples.
As Jesus asked rhetorically, "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6v46). Calling Jesus "Lord" is not enough. We must act in accordance with His lordship.
Then the truth will set you free
Obviously, the truth sets us free from error.
The truth sets us free from worldly thinking. When we accept that Jesus is Lord and the Bible is His perfect book, we don’t need to believe what the society around us thinks, or what our teachers and friends think. We just need to believe the Bible and obey it. (We do, however, have to think about how to confront and correct the worldly thinking we find everywhere.)
The truth of the Gospel sets us free to be children of God. When we truly repent, then God gives us a revelation of who Jesus is and what He has accomplished for us on the cross. Through repentance and faith, we are born again.
We are then free from the penalty for sin. We are forgiven, and reconciled with God. We will survive the Day of Judgement and will live with Him for ever.
The truth also sets us free from the power of sin. Before we were saved, we were caught up in sinful attitudes and habits, but Jesus said, "Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8v34-36). As we trust in God, and as we study the scriptures, and as we pray, as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper and support the church, the Holy Spirit works in us over time to make our lives godly.
However, in order to be set free from sin, we need to acknowledge the truth that our sin is, indeed, sin. This requires us to accept that what the Bible calls sin, is sin, regardless of what we used to think, or what we want to think, or what the society around us says, or even what our church says. As Isaiah 5v20 says, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil". And we need to consciously and prayerfully turn away from all the sin in our lives if we want to be free of it. As we accept the truth and live in the good of it, in full submission to the will of God, as revealed in the Bible, God will break our sin habits, and even drug and alcohol habits, setting us free.
And I believe that there is another area in which the truth sets us free. I believe that we damage our mental health when we deny the truth about ourselves. If we tell ourselves that we're not angry when we are, or that we’re happy when we’re not, or that a relationship is healthy when it’s toxic, or that we’ve forgiven somebody when we haven’t, we hurt our own minds. Then the part of our minds that believes the lies we’re telling ourselves wars with the part of our minds that knows that the lies are lies. This is self-inflicted mental harm, and it can make us ill. I further believe that mental distress can result in physical illness, as our bodies cry out for our mental conflicts to be resolved.
Prayer helps enormously with this. As well as praying for God’s kingdom and for the well-being of others, it’s important to pray about ourselves, what we need and how we feel. Jesus is the "Wonderful Counsellor" (Isaiah 9v6). You can tell Him anything. You can never surprise Him, because He knows everything already, but you can unburden yourself to Him. You can tell Him the truth about your thoughts, feelings, temptations, hurts and desires. As you share with Him and rest in his presence in prayer, you will find out the truth about yourself. And the truth sets you free from beliefs about yourself that are not the reality and from the sometimes devastating mental and physical consequences of those false beliefs.
The truth will one day set us free even from the presence of sin and illness. We who believe the truth of the Gospel will live with God in glory for all eternity. Then, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain" (Revelation 21v4).
Jesus Christ said, "I am the way, the truth and the life" (John 14v6). Let us give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Truth, who sets us free indeed.