SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/17/2016 9:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Pretense of Freedom
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 8:33-34
Message of the verses: “33 They answered Him, "We are Abraham’s
descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say,
’You will become free’?" 34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say
to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”
Before we
get started looking at these two verses I want to say something about what Dr.
Wiersbe had to say about this section we have been studying beginning with
verse 30 “As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.” Dr. Wiersbe points out that it is his belief
that those who we are told believed on Him are not the same people that Jesus
is speaking to in the rest of chapter eight.
I have stated earlier that verse thirty has confused me because of what
happened after verse thirty, and perhaps what Dr. Wiersbe says about this is a
good way to understand it. He writes “What
listeners are represented by the pronoun ‘they’ in John 8:33? In the previous verses, Jesus addressed the ‘believers’
mentioned in John 8:30, and He warned them that continuance in the Word—discipleship—was
proof of true salvation. When we obey
His Word, we grow in spiritual knowledge; and as we grow in spiritual
knowledge, we grow in freedom from sin. Life leads to learning, and learning
leads to liberty.
“It is not
likely that the pronoun they refers
to these new believers, for they would probably not argue with their
Savior! If John 8:37 is any guide, ‘they’
probably refers to the same unbelieving Jewish leaders who had opposed Jesus
throughout this conversation (John 8:13, 19, 22, 25). As before, they did not understand His
message. Jesus was speaking about true spiritual
freedom, freedom from sin, but they were thinking about political freedom.”
This is
food for thought as we think about what Dr. Wiersbe writes here.
The answer
to what Jesus states in verse 32 shows that the Jews He is now talking to
completely missed what He was talking about.
They told Jesus that they were Abraham’s children and were never enslaved. I guess they forgot about Egypt, Assyria, Babylon,
Medo-Persia, Greece, Syria, and finally Rome.
However Jesus is talking about spiritual freedom, the kind one receives
when they trust the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, and you are then freed
from sin, and given a new nature. Paul
writes concerning the Jews “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is
circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and
circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter;
and his praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom. 2:28-29; cf. Luke 3:8; Rev.
2:9).” “I know your tribulation and your
poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews
and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9).
Next we
look at what Jesus says to them in verse 34 “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits
sin is the slave of sin.” We have looked
at the words “truly, truly” in the gospel of John and found out that when Jesus
says these words (actually amen, amen) that something really important is about
to be said, something of great importance.
John MacArthur writes “The present tense of the participle translated ‘commits’
views sin as a life principle, innate fallenness and essential wickedness, not
merely as individual acts. Despite their
proud, self-righteous pretense of freedom, the Jews were in reality slaves to
sin, since ‘by what a man is overcome, by this he enslaved’ (2 Peter.
2:19). To be a slave is to be totally
under the control of another and unable to free one’s self. Sin, like a cruel taskmaster, controls every
aspect of an unbeliever’s life, enslaving that person ‘to various lusts and
pleasures (Titus 3:3) ‘in the bondage of iniquity’ (Acts 8:23). While these Jews though their religion and
relationship to Abraham united them to God, Jesus pointed out that they had no
relationship to God. As slaves to sin,
and deceived about it, they desperately needed to be set free from their
spiritual bondage.” And I might add that
all unbelievers need to be freed from their spiritual bondage.
In our
Wednesday night service at our church our Pastor has been teaching us about
holiness and I must say that I have been learning much from this study. When a person has received Jesus Christ as
their personal Savior and Lord they are freed from this bondage as Paul writes
in the book of Romans 6:1 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so
that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still
live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried
with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For
if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we
shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified
with Him, in order
that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is
freed from sin.” Paul speaks of the only real freedom from sin that a
person can have. “22 But now having been
freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in
sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life (Rom. 6:22). Peter writes “Act as free men, and do not use
your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God” (1 Peter
2:16).” Bottom line is once we receive
Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord we are free from the bondage of sin, as
this happened when we died with Christ and were resurrected with Him. We still have what some call the “old nature”
others call it the “flesh” and as Paul goes on to write about this in Romans
chapter seven we still struggle with sin, however we have to remember that we
died to sin as Paul writes “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but
alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11”
Spiritual meaning for
my life today: I am thankful that I
am no longer a slave to sin since I have died with Christ and have been
resurrected with Him.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To remember the truth of
Romans 6:11 “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in
Christ Jesus.”
Memory verses for the week:
(2 Cor. 12:7-10) “7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the
revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given
me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from
exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it
might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,
for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather
boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10
Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses,
with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak,
then I am strong.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Jeremiah.”
Today’s Bible question:
“What two things were tossed into the sea, according to the song sang by
Moses and the children of Israel?
Answer in our next SD.
6/17/2016 10:29 AM
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