I had a bit of a wake up call a few weeks ago. I don’t know how it came about, but it for whatever reason I could not have my morning coffee. It could be that we ran out of beans or that our kids used up all our milk for breakfast, I don’t really remember. But what I do remember is not having coffee. The reason I remember that is that I wandered through the rest of the day, bleary eyed with a dull headache! Turns out over time I had gotten so used to having coffee, that I had become mildly dependent on it… I think some people call that addiction… Sometimes we get hooked on something over time without even realising it. We meet people like that in our passage today.
Scripture Reference: John 8:31-38
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
Jesus now turns from speaking to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law to talk to his disciples, those who had believed in him. He tells them that “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”. Again Jesus is alluding to the fact that not only is he the light that shines into our spiritual darkness, he is also the truth that sets us free. But the disciples around him don’t seem to understand what he is talking about so they say “Hang on, we have never been slaves of anyone. In fact, we are the offspring of Abraham! So then how can you say that we will be set free?”. They did not realise that even though they were Abraham’s decendents, they still had a heart problem. Their problem wasn’t so much who their parentage was, but rather what ruled their hearts. So Jesus tells them directly: Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
This truth is hard to swallow. It is the truth that makes the Gospel so offensive to people. We don’t want to be told we have been tangled up and chained down by sin. We want to maintain the illusion that we are the masters of our own universe. But you don’t have to realise you are addicted to coffee for you to be addicted to coffee. The reality exists whether you see it or not. Outside of Jesus, every human being is a slave to sin.
But that is what makes the Gospel such great news too. Jesus says the truth will set you free. Once you realise you are enslaved, you can seek a redeemer to set you free. When Jesus dies on the cross for us, he sets us free from the power of sin over us. This is a deep down breaking of the chains that have kept us captive, and this freedom is eternal. Jesus himself promises that “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
So where are you at? Are you ready to admit you need to be freed? Are you ready to live out of the freedom you have in Christ?
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, I admit that I have been enslaved by my sin. Thank you that on the cross you break the chains of my slavery and set me free. Help me to live in response for you. Amen
Spiritual Challenge:
Consider your life: What is one area where you feel stuck or enslaved. Consider how the freedom you have in Christ changes that situation, then live out of that.