FREEDOM
By Jim Murriner
JOHN 8:32 speaks of freedom.
"If the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
The word "indeed" here is the same word, which is used for” indeed" in I TIM. 5:5 & 5:16 where Paul is speaking of those who are "widows indeed" of widows for certain.
(5:5) "Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day."
(5:16) "If any manor woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let notthe church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed."
So what our Lord is telling us in John 8:32 is that if He makes us free, we will most certainly be free.
We studied sometime ago about the Hebrew word (Adonai) and in our study we saw that when we speak of God as our "Lord" or (Adonai) that we are speaking of God being the master while we are the slaves. The slave is to always do the will and bidding of the master. This is not a bad, cruel and hard thing when God deals with His slaves and gives them a will that is conformed to His will. We who have been saved by the grace of God need to remember just what we were before He saved us. It is not only that we were sinners. Satan because of our former condition had acquired right over us.
ROMANS 5:12 tells us that because of Adams sin we too were under the power and penalty of sin.
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"
Since Satan has power over death, he gained power over all that had sinned.
HEBREWS 2:14 reminds us of this power that the devil has over all mankind.
"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is that devil."
And since all have sinned he then gained power over all. ROMANS3:23 shows us plainly that all have sinned.
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
JOHN 12:31 declares that because the whole world has sinned, the devil is then the prince of the world.
"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out."
JOHN 16:11 also speaksof the devil as the prince of this world.
"Of judgment because the prince of this world is judged"
Satan has such tremendous control over this world that in IICOR. 4:4 he is even called the god of this world.
"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
We therefore because we had sinned, had become hopelessly captive, sold by our sin under the power of Satan, who reigned over us, and afflicted our souls with the hard rigor of his bondage. We were hopeless as we were helpless; for having fallen through our sin under the penalty of death, and thereby under the power of Satan, and having no means to provide a ransom, we were shut up forever, unless someone from without, competent and able, should intervene to deliver us from the prison house of captivity.
EPH. 2:1-2 puts it like this
"And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;"
"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now workth in the children of disobedience:"
Such was our condition, like many of those who fled to liberty in our country in days past, we were in bondage; they many times in physical, but we were in spiritual bondage.
Those who fled to our country in days past and those who come here today fleeing from oppression have the ability to do something about their captivity, but those who are held in spiritual captivity by Satan have no ability to escape their captivity.
JOHN 8:44 tells us that lost people, those who are not trusting in Jesus Christ to get them to heaven are slaves to their father the devil.
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murder from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."
JOHN 8:34 has the same thought.
"Jesus answered them, verily verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin."
The word "servant" used here, has the meaning of "slave". What Jesus was saying here is "everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin".
ROMANS 6:20 teaches us the same thing.
"For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness."
Here again the word servant means "slave", so we can see that before we were saved by God's marvelous grace, we were the slaves of Satan.
We who are children of the most high God need to learn that there is no need to try to get the lost world around us to live any differently than they do, because those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal savior, are helpless slaves of the devil and cannot, by their own efforts, escape from their slavery.
We need to learn what JEREMIAH 13:23 has to say about the matter.
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."
Because of our inability to do anything about our condition, we are told in EPH. 2:8-9 that our works cannot deliver us from this bondage of slavery in which Satan has us bound.
8 "For by grace are ye saved through, faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."
9 "Not of works, lest any man should boast."
All too often we are guilty of telling others that they must turn over a new leaf, or that they need to change their way of living. This is not what the lost world needs, and if you do not know my savior as your savior too, then you need to be made free by Jesus Christ the Son of God. The one who is even God in the flesh.
You need to be delivered from the power of Satan by the one who is able to deliver. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego trusted that God was able to deliver them from the fiery furnace. DANIEL 3:17 tells us of their trust.
"If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O, King."
COLOSSIANS 1:12-13 tells us that all of us who are saved did not deliver ourselves but we were delivered by God.
12 "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:"
13 "Who delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear son:"
JOHN 8:36 our text verse tells us that the only way that we can really be free is for the son to make us free.
"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
For those who were once slaves to Satan to be free indeed they must not be under any condemnation at all.
ROMANS 8:1 tells us this is exactly the condition of each one that is in Christ Jesus.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
JOHN 3:18 tells us that while we were in bondage to Satan that we were condemned to go to hell, but when the Lord gives us grace to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ as our own personal savior, that we are no longer condemned.
"He that believeth on His in not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
JOHN 5:24 declares that believers not only are not condemned, but they shall not come into condemnation, or they shall never again be condemned.
"Verily Verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."
For those who were once slaves of Satan to be free indeed, their freedom must never end. This cannot be said of those who fled to our country for freedom, or of those who were born here. Our physical freedom is constantly threatened. Our Spiritual freedom will never end, it is eternal, everlasting. One reason for this is that the Lord will never stop loving those He has saved.
ISAIAH 54:10 reminds us of this.
"For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."
The word "kindness” used here is translated "loving kindness" almost as often as kindness but what we need to see here is that He is talking about His covenant with the saints never being removed.
ROMANS8:35 - 39 tells us that nothing shall separate us from the love that He has for us.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? “
“As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquers through Him that loved us.”
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,”
“Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Some say, but the devil can separate us. We must remind those that the devil is a fallen angel.
EZEKIEL 28:14 shows us this.
"Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire."
So then the devil cannot separate us from the love of God. For those who were once slaves of Satan to be free indeed, the one freeing them must have paid the complete cost of their freedom.
HEBREWS 10:10-14 tells us that was just what Jesus did.
"By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every high priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
But this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God;
From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.
For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."
These verses show us that Christ' offering of Himself to God the Father did not merrily pay for our sins for a moment but paid for them forever.
GALATIANS 3:13 speaks of His sacrifice as having redeemed or bought us back from being Satan’s slave.
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree."
For those who were once slaves of Satan to be free indeed, they must be preserved in a way that no one can steal them away from freedom.
JOHN 10:28 tells us that no one can snatch us out of Gods hand.
"And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
EPH. 1:13 tells us that those whom the Lord has saved are sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit.
"In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."
There can be no better seal than the Holy Spirit.
EPH. 4:30 in warning those who are saved that we need to be careful how we live so that we will not grieve the Holy Spirit, tells us that those that are saved are sealed by the Holy Spirit.
"And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."
