WEDNESDAY
Yesterday we saw the alternatives to the biblical ideas of freedom. We conflate the categories of socio-political freedom as a good and apply an over-realized version of it to our spiritual life. The other alternative is a perceived freedom from all restraint that ultimately leads to more bondage. The biblical framework for freedom is that we are free from sin and the law and free to submit ourselves to God's will and to one another.
The culture of Jesus' day, first century Israel, also possessed a culturally informed view of freedom that was contrary to the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus often had conversations with the Pharisees and the Jews in which he attempted to point out this blindspot. He has one particularly poignant conversation in John 8. Not unlike many conversations today that attempt to untangle our American concept of freedom from our Christian concept of freedom, this conversation ends in a rather ugly manner. They accuse Jesus of being a Samaritan and having a demon. Jesus tells them that their father is not in fact Abraham but Satan. Then Jesus claims to be God and they try to stone him. What fun!
In Jesus' conversation with some Jews who believed in him, we see this distorted concept of freedom come to the forefront.
John 8:31–38 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” 34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”
The Jews were thinking socio-political freedom. Jesus was thinking spiritual freedom. They had blended the categories just as we tend to do today. Their identity is so wrapped up in their nationality as descendants of Abraham that they struggle to see beyond that. One could argue that their statement is parsing hairs a bit. They may not be slaves at the moment but they are under the rule of Caesar and the Roman empire. Prior to this the people of Israel had been overthrown by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Before that they were enslaved in Egypt, all of which they apparently overlooked with this statement. Even so, Jesus is not speaking of literal slavery. No matter how many times Jesus suggests that he is not talking of their national identity, but their spiritual identity, the people simply cannot get past it. This blind spot was also wrapped up in their cultural paradigm of the Messiah. They thought the Messiah would liberate them from their socio-political oppression and reestablish the independent kingdom of Israel. This assumption caused them, and many other Jews, to miss the true Messiah completely.
D.A. Carson, in his commentary on John, puts it well:
"Not only does the practice of sin (the Greek is literally ‘the one who does sin’; cf. 1 Jn. 3:4, 8, 9) prove that one is a slave to sin, but the practice of sin actively enslaves. For Jesus, then, the ultimate bondage is not enslavement to a political or economic system, but vicious slavery to moral failure, to rebellion against the God who has made us. The despotic master is not Caesar, but shameful self-centredness, an evil and enslaving devotion to created things at the expense of worship of the Creator. This is why Jesus would not let himself be reduced to the level of a merely political Messiah (6:14, 15). It is not that his claims have no bearing on questions of social justice, but that the pursuit of social justice alone will always prove vain and ephemeral unless the deeper enslavement is recognized and handled. In Jesus’ view, Caesar himself is a slave."
Verse 34 sets the context for the oft quoted words of v. 36, "...everyone who sins is a slave to sin." The slavery Jesus has in mind is a slavery to sin. With this context in mind we read verse 36, "So if the Son (Jesus) sets you free, you will be free indeed." The slavery/freedom dynamic Jesus has in mind is slavery to sin and freedom in Christ. As we’ve been saying this week, the irresistible gospel means freedom from our sin (v. 36) and freedom to obey the teaching of Jesus (v. 31-32). Our loves have been properly ordered.
Even in the opening statement of Jesus in v. 31, we see his concept of freedom is not absolute freedom of self determination to decide our own morality and truth. No! Freedom comes when one submits to the teaching of Jesus. This immediately is a different concept of freedom than our modern American concept which glorifies the self as the final authority on truth and morality. Submitting then to Jesus' teaching, as Keller says, is a constraint that fits our nature and actually liberates us.
Reflection
Do you believe and trust Jesus, that following his teaching (a constraint) actually liberates us? When we believe what he says is true, trusting in the way he teaches us to live, we find true freedom. It is counterintuitive that death to self leads to resurrection life, so you’re really going to have to trust Jesus if you’re going to believe him and follow his way.