"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" John 8:32.
The teaching and redemption message of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ shows the love God has for us. He make it possible through Him, by His grace we can have access to salvation, life in abundant and a right standing relationship with the Father. Knowing this truth and applying it rightly through the leading of the holy spirit set us free from the hold of sin and death. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;" Romans 3:24-25.
There is something which can determine whether it is genuine freedom or another form of slavery. That is “the truth”. As our text says, “it is the truth which sets us free.” But, what is truth? what is freedom?
Truth usually means something that is not a lie but here it is deeper than that. It refers to Jesus who says in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. In John 8:36, Jesus and “the truth” are rendered one and the same: “if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” While freedom is the condition of being free from slavery; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints. Another important part of it, is the capacity to exercise choice; free will: the freedom to do as we please.
The concept of freedom has been misrepresented, misguided, interpreted and expressed wrongly in our world today. We think having the capacity to exercise as we pleased without been push around, guided and instructed is being free. Moral values are taught to be the tools contributing to the success of a nation but what is happening today, people tends to neglect this and in quest of freedom dance along with the crowd. Ignorance is the tools the devil is using to blind fold us from what is obtainable and discovering the truth about life, making us to think and feel we are free whereas we are still languishing in his pool as slave.
We are all familiar with one of the famous parable in the new testament told by Jesus Christ. The parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32, who in quest for freedom demands for his own share of his inheritance while his father is still living, and goes off to a distant country where he wasted his substance with riotous living and eventually has to take work as a swineherd. When the light of truth beckons on him, he came to his senses and decides to return home and throw himself on his father's mercy, thinking that even if his father does disown him, being one of his servants is still far better than feeding pigs. But when he returns home, his father greets him with open arms and hardly gives him a chance to express his repentance. He kills a fatted calf to celebrate his return. The older brother resents the favored treatment of his faithless brother and complains of the lack of reward for his own faithfulness. But the father responds: Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
The illumination in God's word is what gave birth to truth. It is this light that give knowledge and beckons the truth about life through the word of God. That is why we are being instructed in the book of Joshua 1:8 " This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."
Knowing the truth, is having the knowledge of the information we have gather, the understanding to comprehend it and the wisdom to direct us to the right usage of the word. This is what transform us and set us free. 1 John 5:20 says "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life."
Truth in the context of our text also refers to genuineness, trustworthiness and reliableness. It is with Jesus, and only with him we can have access to freedom. Anything else may give the illusion of freedom, it may even come with bells and whistles, but it does not compare to the real thing. We are encourage as Christians in the book of Galatians 5:1 "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." And if you have not accepted Him as your Lord and Saviour, you can do that today, He is willing to accept you and make you sons and daughters of God.
Living according to truth gives us an overwhelming confidence of God's good hand in our lives no matter what happens. We no longer live for ourselves but for God according to His principles of righteousness.
Let embrace the truth so that we can be set free.
Prayer
The Lord will illuminate us to be able to discern the truth, grant us the understanding to comprehend it and the wisdom to apply it rightly in Jesus Name (Amen).
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God bless you.
