Free from what?
Being tied down by work? A bad relationship? Injustice? Consequences? Our own failures?
Jesus told a group of those who believed in Him, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” That made some of the religious people who heard him angry. They didn’t like His insinuating that they weren’t already free. Jesus answered them this way: “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” (John 8:32,34)
Jesus said that there is a slavery that binds the soul.
David said it like this:
“The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.” (Psalm 14:2-3)
“Good” depends on how you measure it. God measures it by His own character. None of us pass. Jesus said that “whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” When we open the door to sin, it gets a hold on us.
Becoming free means having our will and actions under right control.
But whose control?
Jesus said, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” He said that truth exists. Freedom comes in knowing it.
When Jesus was arrested, He told the Roman governor Pilate, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (John 18:37)
Being free means being loosed from control by sin. Jesus has and is the truth that makes a person free.
David described being set free like this:
“Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.” (Psalm 124:7)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.