The Son shall set you Free.

Precious love – flowing like a river – washing sinners – me/you clean in its blood stained water. What a privilege to benefit from this grace.

”Yes, My love is like a river – more like a raging torrent – carrying everything before it, washing all the dross away and lifting you up into My very Presence where you can meet with Me. Remember the picture of Peter – walking on the water when he saw Me coming across the waves – till he doubted and when he did and started sinking I lifted him up again. So, I am also inviting you all to step out of the boat onto the storm tossed waters of this life and to walk to Me, to walk with Me into the future. The waves as fearsome as they may seem to be represent My love for you and the world – ready to wash clean and then to take you forward in power into My new kingdom. My invitation to you is to join Me in the great venture – building My new kingdom of which you are now an honoured member, invited by grace through My blood which washed you clean.”

Now let’s continue to listen to Jesus from John 8:31. Jesus is addressing the Jews who had believed in him, verse 31. Referring back to the previous verse. Yet as we read this passage it appears that they still do not understand the true requirements of discipleship. They have still not been set free, because they did not even understand what it was all about. They still believed that to be a true Jew you simply needed to be descended from Abraham. They believed that they had been set free from slavery when Moses took them out of Egypt. Therefore they were surely not slaves any more.

In reality they were slaves to the law and to sin. Jesus starts by telling them that a real disciple would be one that would hold to His teaching. If they did this then they would know the truth and the truth would set them free. But what did he mean by the Truth? We see the answer to that in verse 36 for it is the Son that is the one who sets us free and is the embodiment of Truth in a person. Once they had been set free they would be true sons not of Abraham but of the Father himself.

The proof that they were not yet true sons of the Father is the fact that they were planning to kill Him. We will revisit the whole question of fatherhood and who we belong to next week as we complete the piece up to verse 47. Please read through this passage and contemplate it and if you have any questions please place them on the blog.

Let’s gather our thoughts together now about what Jesus has said to us in this passage. The first question I found myself grappling with is whether I am in fact living in true freedom. In Galatians 5:1 Paul tells the reader: it is for freedom that they have been set free. He then tells them that although they have been set free they had moved back into a slavery to the law. The question I ask myself is, “Am I living in true freedom?” “Do I truly accept the full liberation Jesus offers me daily?” “How does that show in my life?”

I am also reminded again of the slow process that people seem to go through to gain understanding of biblical teaching. In a way it is discouraging because as I teach the Bible I know that many are not really grasping what I am trying to teach. Yet it is also in a way encouraging because many of these folk would eventually come to full faith and understanding of what it means to be a disciple and would become true followers of Jesus. Jesus’s timing is often so different to ours. Maybe our greatest need here is patience. As we consider these things it should encourage us to continue praying for people who we may have been praying for for many years already without any response because there is always a possibility that they may still come to faith in Jesus‘s time.

This teaching is so important and dense that I am going to leave it there till next week. May Our dear Lord be close to you and bless you all.