“True Freedom” 

            (John 8:32)  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 

            (John 8:33)  They answered Him, We are Abraham’s seed and were never in bondage to anyone. How do you say, You will be made free? 

            (John 8:34)  Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever practices sin is the slave of sin. 

            (John 8:35)  And the slave does not abide in the house forever, but the Son abides forever. 

            (John 8:36)  Therefore if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. 

 This passage like all scripture, can only truly be understood with the Holy Spirits help. If one is not washed in the blood by receiving Jesus as the one and ONLY Son of God; there by clinging to Jesus as their only hope of salvation, then that same person can not hope to even remotely understand the words of God which is what scripture is… the inspired word of God. It takes God’s own spirit to understand the things of the spirit. 

                (1 Corinthians 2:11)  For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of man within him? So also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 

Freedom is another word that is greatly misunderstood. Americans even as small children are taught in the public school system that they live in a free country. What they are not told is that America only offers a limited freedom. A conditional freedom if you will. Now granted America is more free than most other countries but freedom remains a word that is abused and misunderstood. 

God on the other hand, knows and perfectly understands what real true freedom is. Jesus was talking about freedom to the religious leaders of His time in John chapter 8. The word of God is actually quite full of passages on freedom. God through Jesus His Son, offers the only perfect truly free freedom available anywhere at anytime. True freedom can only come about as long as there is true love present. Love is the main theme while freedom is a by product of that love. 

When a person has a measure of love, that person has a measure of freedom. God through Jesus, offers perfect complete unconditional love and therefore an unconditional freedom as a by product. Only in perfect love can there be true freedom. One may think that the wild creatures are free. After all who tells the coyote or any wild creature what he can and can’t do? Is the bear or elk taxable? Can anyone enforce the so called laws of society on the wild creatures that God has made free? No! They do as they want don’t they! Or do they? In truth, they seem free but they are governed and controlled by fear. Sin has corrupted their world just like the world of men.  

 Take man and sin out of the equation and yes they would be totally free. One can see a measure of freedom in nature, but man has control of the earth and sin brings fear, so in this present world their is no such thing as true freedom. Only the kind of freedom Jesus was presenting in the scriptures is obtainable while sin is on the earth. What is sin you ask? Sin is knowing in your heart what you should or shouldn’t do and then choosing not to obey this awareness. Sin is outright rebellion against what we know to be truth and love. Sin is rebellion against God. 

                (James 4:17)  Therefore to him who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.   

Now that we know what sin is, what in the world is true freedom? The answer to that can only be found by knowing God through Jesus Christ. Oh! why is this you might ask? Because we have already explained that freedom is a by product or result of true LOVE and perfect true love is only found in God. So no one can ever hope to enjoy or perceive freedom without first obtaining true love. Just think about this for a while. It doesn’t take to much thought to reveal the fact that the more a person has love for someone the more they grant that object of love freedom. Remember that old cliché, ” If you love something, you set it free.” On the opposite side of this thought one can clearly see the more hate and sin there is on the earth, the more we lose our freedom. Ever since September 11th (actually we have been losing our freedom ever since mankind fell away from God) in this country we have been steadily losing our freedom due to terrorist and other sinful activities. The more people stray from truth and love and the more they stray from their creator, the more they will continue to steadily lose their much loved freedom. 

It is that simple. Jesus back in His time was explaining this to whoever would listen. All mankind is a slave to sin until we come to repentance and embrace Jesus Christ’s’ teachings. True freedom can only be found in God and through God. If you do things and say things that you wish you hadn’t, then it is obvious that you are a slave. Otherwise why did you do it if you really didn’t want to? You are a slave to sin! There is no other explanation for this. No one can be free outside of a Holy power that brings us to true liberty. There is a power that is available through knowing Christ. Power? Yes! Power! If we truly believe in Jesus and commit ourselves to Him by making Him Lord, we can truly know this power. This power is none other than the Holy Spirit of the living God. Who is this Spirit? He is the Spirit of LOVE.

            (1 John 4:8)  The one who does not love has not known God. For God is love. 

            (1 John 4:9)  In this the love of God was revealed in us, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. 

            (1 John 4:10)  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation concerning our sins. 

            (1 John 4:11)  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 

            (1 John 4:12)  No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us. 

            (1 John 4:13)  By this we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 

            (1 John 4:14)  And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 

            (1 John 4:15)  Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him and he in God. 

            (1 John 4:16)  And we have known and believed the love that God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 

            (1 John 4:17)  In this is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that as He is, so also we are in this world. 

            (1 John 4:18)  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He who fears has not been perfected in love. 

            (1 John 4:19)  We love Him because He first loved us. 

            (1 John 4:20)  If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if he does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 

            (1 John 4:21)  And we have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also. 

One can see by these passages that the only way to have this Holy power is through knowing Jesus thereby knowing God who sent Him. That is why the world and everyone in it is a slave outside of Christ’s’ power. No one can be good. No one can love his neighbor with true love. Everyone finds themselves constantly doing all matter of evil things. This is the slavery Jesus was talking about at the beginning of this article. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. It is only by coming to God through Jesus Christ and in that union that one can ever hope to have love for his or her fellow man and thereby live a life of liberty and power. If one has the Spirit of God dwelling on the inside, then that same person has the power to resist all forms of evil and slavery. 

            (John 8:36)  Therefore if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. 

This kind of freedom is absolutely wonderful! But even most so called Christians (believers in Christ) only have a measure of this freedom. Why? Because the only way to live in this freedom is to live in Christ. This is a constant everyday renewed dwelling in the presence of God. This kind of freedom from sin that Jesus was taking about is a here and now, in the ever present presence of the Holy Spirit. A constant communing with and an ever present fellowship with Jesus. When believers let idols and other loves cause their once passionate love for God to wax cold, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is broken and instead of experiencing freedom they find themselves once again in slavery to sin. 

             (Galatians 6:7)  Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he also will reap. 

            (Galatians 6:8)  For he sowing to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh. But he sowing to the Spirit will reap life everlasting from the Spirit. 

True freedom can only be enjoyed and experienced through the constant fellowship and dwelling with Jesus through a vital ever present union with the Holy Spirit. When one walks in Christ, the same operates and lives in a fellowship of Holy Love. It is only through and in this Holy Love that one is free from sin and death. 

This is why the world a part from Christ cannot know true freedom or love even though they fight and strive to obtain it all the days of their lives. America only has a measure of freedom. An empty shell or look a like kind of freedom. Freedom can only be obtained by a God fearing culture. Men and women in America enjoyed more freedom back when this country was birthed than they do now. We have not lost our freedom due to an explosion of population. We have lost our freedom because of a constant departing from a God of love and His truth. This and this alone will be the undoing of this nation. the more we turn away from God’s gift of love found in Jesus Christ the more we will find ourselves lost in darkness and slavery. 

When I was a young man I was deeply hurt when I found out that America was not really a place of freedom but a place of idolatry and sin ruled by men who had strayed from their roots. I was rudely awakened by this apparent lack of freedom when I found out I couldn’t just go out and build a log cabin in the forest like my ancestors enjoyed. Now I know that I was ignorant to my time but I thought we were still free on public lands. I believed what my teachers told me in grade school when they told me America was free. Well needless to say my brother and I had to pay 100 dollars to the sheriff for cutting down trees. I remember it hitting me in the stomach hard that we were not really free anymore. 

Since then I have learned more about the true freedom that is found in Christ Jesus. I am able to comfort myself in the fact that someday when sin is reckoned with, and the earth again belongs to God, I will be able then to build a log cabin out in the woods and enjoy a physical life of freedom as well as freedom in the Spirit. I now know that first the earth has to experience spiritual freedom before bodily freedom can be witnessed. Finally, it is important to mention here that only when a person knows Christ and therefore knows love experientially, can one know true freedom and offer it to others. A free person in Christ will always prefer and honor someone else above oneself. Freedom is nullified when one demands his or her way. When we are not living in love, we are not free but rather in slavery to sin and death. 

True freedom then is living in constant fellowship with Holy Love who is God. It deserves mentioning here that it is possible for one to be in chains and locked away in a deep dungeon and still be the most free person on the earth!! God be glorified! Amen! Jesus come and restore freedom to our hearts.