Tag Archives: hold to my teaching

JOHN’S GOSPEL…TRUE FREEDOM – 14

Bible Study, ,

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭31‬-‭36‬ ‭NIV‬‬

How many times have we heard this statement, “The truth will set you free”? Is this true? No, it isn’t! “But…” you may argue, “Jesus said it, so it must be true.” What people quote is only half of what Jesus said. Half a truth is a whole lie. 

What Jesus actually said makes all the difference. Let’s read it again. 

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

The difference between the misquote and the truth is huge. What Jesus meant is…We can only experience real freedom when we fulfil two conditions…

First, if we claim to be disciples of Jesus, we must obey His teachings. 

This means more than giving lip-service to everything He taught, not only to what is pleasant or convenient for us. For example, 

What do we do with “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you?” How do we respond to “Do not take revenge?” 

What about…

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Second, we must understand the nature of true freedom. 

It becomes clear, in Jesus’ debate with His opponents, that their concept of freedom differed from His. 

“They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

They equated freedom with their circumstances. What they claimed, that they had never been slaves, was not true because, at that very moment they were under the yoke of Roman occupation! Their own history was dotted with episodes of enslavement to foreign powers. 

However, Jesus revealed a slavery far worse than enslavement to human oppression. 

“Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” 

Enslavement to sin is worse than enslavement to another human or humans for three reasons. First, sin affects the heart and conscience. We are always enslaved to someone or something. Sin enslaves the attitude and the behaviour. Guilt, shame, and fear enslave the mind.  Second, it is impossible to free oneself from slavery to sin and its internal effects.  Third, slavery to sin has eternal consequences. 

Paul discussed this issue at length in his letter to the Romans. 

“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Although to sin is a choice, the consequences are inevitable and the outcome eternal. 

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We only become slaves to other people’s words, attitudes, or behaviour if we choose to react in a sinful way. We can only be truly free in our minds and hearts when we respond according to Jesus’ teaching and not according to our sinful desires. I say “desires” because we react or respond according to what we really want to do. If we want to retaliate and add our sin to the other person’s sin, we will. If we want to be true to Jesus, we will choose to respond with love and forgiveness rather than with retaliation.   

The difference between true freedom and slavery to sin depends on one powerful truth. We cannot free ourselves. Only Jesus can break sin’s power over us and set us free from obeying the sinful desires of our old nature.  

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

How does Jesus set us free? He died to pay our debt of sin and break Satan’s hold on us. Our baptism is the outward symbol of an inward truth. 

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭4‬-‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

When Jesus died, we died with Him when we received Him as Lord by faith. His death was credited to us. Now we can live by the power of His Spirit and not by the power sin had over us.  

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Freedom from guilt, shame, and  fear is far more powerful than freedom from external pressures over which we have no control because God’s peace then rules in our hearts. We are not driven by sinful desires but protected by God’s peace. 

To be continued…

WHAT IS FREEDOM?

Christian Life, ,

WHAT IS FREEDOM?

“To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are truly my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.’” (John 8:31, 32, NIV).

Freedom is an overworked and misunderstood word in our world.  For many people, “freedom” stands for “we can do anything we like, no matter what it does to us or anyone else.”

God is also passionate about our freedom because He gave it to us in the first place, but He views it from a different perspective. Firstly, He cherishes the freedom He gave us so much that He will never intrude on our freedom to choose, even though we destroy ourselves in the process.  People love to blame God for the consequences of their choices. They become embittered and turn away from Him.

Secondly, God wants us to choose to love Him. We are not robots, programmed to love Him with no choice in the matter.  We are His children, loving Him freely because we want to. 

Thirdly God wants us to love and obey Him because He knows the consequences of the wrong choices we make.  Why do we warn our child not to cross a busy street in peak hour traffic?  We know that he is likely to be injured or killed if he does.  Why does God give us commandments and prohibitions?  His laws are intended to create boundaries within which we can be safe and free. He knows that sin will destroy us if we indulge.  But He still allows us to choose.

When we choose against Him, it breaks His heart to see the suffering we endure because of our foolishness. Yet He does not interfere because we made the choice not to heed Him, and we must take the consequences.    

When we read through the Bible, we discover that God is about setting His people free.  He did miracles to set the children of Israel free from slavery in Egypt, from hostile tribes in Canaan and from captivity to invading enemy armies.  But he went much further than that. He sent His Son to free us from the guilt and penalty of sin and He gave us His Spirit to free us from sin’s power. 

Why, then, do we still insist on making the kind of choices that destroy our bodies, our souls, our families and our inner freedom? What holds us in slavery? Anger, bitterness, jealousy, unforgiveness, addictions, habits, idols?

 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  Galatians 5:1

God treasures, values and longs for us to be free.  What about us?  If we really want to be free, Jesus offers us the solution. When we bow to Him in faith, submission and obedience and follow Him as our Master, we will enjoy the fruit of His love, joy, and peace.

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

Apologetics, ,

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

“O yes He did!” you might vehemently protest, and I will just as vehemently protest that He did not, at least that is not what He meant.

Let’s read what He said, in context, of course.

To the Jews who believed Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ (John 8:31-32)

How many times have you heard someone quote Jesus’ words out of context: ‘The truth will set you free’?

The whole truth of what He said hangs on the issue of being His disciple. Unfortunately, even being a disciple of Jesus is misunderstood today. In Jesus’ day, a disciple was a person whom a rabbi (teacher and model) called to follow him. The rabbi had implicit confidence that, after spending time with him day and night, not only learning what he believed and taught, but also learning to imitate him in every way, those who followed him would become a replica of him. They, in turn would teach his yoke to others.

A disciple had to learn his rabbi’s yoke – his understanding of Yahweh’s original intention in the Torah – His instructions for living that would guide him on his journey towards his destination which was Zion, the place where He had established His name. Only a rabbi with sh’mikah, the authority recognised by two witnesses, was permitted to have his own yoke and to teach his yoke to his disciples.

Jesus had sh’mikah, authority from the Father to which both the Father and John the Baptist bore witness at His baptism, to override every other yoke and “bind” His yoke on His followers. Unlike the yoke of rabbis like Hillel and Shammai, who placed heavy burdens on people which the Pharisees and religious leaders slavishly followed, Jesus’ yoke was easy and His burden light.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matt. 11: 28-30)

It was in this context of discipleship, not to the casual observer who had no commitment to follow Jesus as his model and mentor, that Jesus spoke these words. True freedom can only be experienced by those who understand Jesus’ yoke and put it into practice in their everyday lives. The core of His yoke lies in His disposition as the Son of God and His representative on earth. He said, ‘I am gentle and humble in heart.’ Slavishly trying to follow a set of rules can never bring the rest He promised. 

What is this rest He promised? It is the rest of soul that has received forgiveness of sin through Jesus and has been reconciled to the Father by faith in Christ. He is no longer obligated to keeping a set of rules to gain favour with God. He has been reinstated into His family as His son or daughter; he has received God’s gift of righteousness through Jesus; he has been redeemed from the slave market of sin and transferred from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of God. He has a new nature and a new Master.

All this is God’s doing; it cannot be taken from him. He can rest in what God has done for him, and he is free to walk in God’s truth through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the freedom Jesus offers to those who throw in their lot with Him in loyalty, trust, and obedience.

This is a far cry from what some people believe He said, if they even know the source of the statement! There can never be true freedom outside of Jesus and outside of being His disciple by holding to His teaching. It is not the truth that sets us free but the experiential knowledge of the truth when we believe and practise the teachings of Jesus in the disposition of the Master that keeps us from living in the sin that produces fear, guilt, and shame.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

IF YOU HOLD TO MY TEACHING

Christian Life, ,

IF YOU HOLD TO MY TEACHING

To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.’ (John 8:31)

Jesus’ promises often came with a condition. “If you do this…I will do that.” In this instance, being a disciple of Jesus is only possible if we hold to His teaching. In other words, as we have already come to understand, we can only learn to be a follower if we are in the yoke with Him, in close association with Him and learning to “plough a straight furrow” like a young ox learning from an older one.

The first question we must answer is, “Did Jesus change the rules in the New Testament?” Why does what He taught seem so different from the laws of the Old Testament? Did He do away with everything God taught His people before He came, and set up a whole new set of teachings for us to follow? Remember that He said:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish but to fulfil (Matt. 5:17).

Did He mean that by fulfilling the requirements or the Law and the Prophets, they are no longer applicable to His followers? He certainly did not mean that God’s Word as recorded in the Old Testament, is longer valid. That cannot be because God’s Word is a revelation of who He is, and He does not change.

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished (Matt. 5: 18).

If Jesus did not do away with the Law by fulfilling it Himself, what did He do?

First of all we must remember that the essence of God’s character is love. Everything He taught His people to do was the fleshing out – the practical application – of the two greatest commandments.

‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied, ‘”Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’ (Matt. 22: 36-40).

However, over the centuries, the great rabbis of Israel gradually added their interpretations of God’s teaching and created an ever-increasing set of instructions (called the Talmud) to help God’s people understand what He meant by His Laws and to protect the people from inadvertently misunderstanding (so they thought) and misapplying what God wanted from them. These interpretations and restrictions gradually overtook God’s original intentionto teach His people to fear the Lord and to treat one another with honour and respect. 

The Law with its additions became a noose around their necks rather than a way of life that expressed God’s love. Jesus’ intention was not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” but to peel off all the man-made additions and take His people back to the way God wanted them to live.

Jesus was constantly bumping up against the religious leaders in His attempt to show His people what God meant by His teachings (Torah). Their focus was on strict adherence to the letter of the law to the exclusion of love because they wanted the people to applaud them for being “holy”. They were more concerned about what the people thought of them than what God thought of them.

Jesus expressed His love for people, especially those whom the Pharisees held in contempt, by treating them with compassion, not judgment. He called Matthew, a despised tax collector, for example, to follow Him. Matthew was obviously a wealthy man from his dishonest extortion of money from his people. He made a banquet for Jesus and invited his unsavoury, outcast friends to the party. The Pharisees were outraged. Didn’t Jesus know who these people were? How could He mix with them?

Jesus heard them complaining to His disciples.

On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’ (Matt. 9: 12-13).

Did you get the point? He was quoting from the Old Testament Scriptures. God had spelled it out to His people in Hosea’s day – mercy, not sacrifice.

Jesus bumped into the Pharisees again soon afterwards. They were on His trail because His disciples had picked grain and rubbed it in their hands on the Sabbath. How could Jesus allow them to do that? Didn’t He know that they were “breaking” the Sabbath, according to their superimposed laws?

Once again Jesus tackled them about their attitude. God did not judge people in the Old Testament for ignoring His rules when they were hungry (read Matt. 12:1-6). He concluded with this accusation:

If you had known what these words mean: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the innocent (Matt. 12:7).

No, Jesus had no intention of abolishing the Law. He came to show His people what God meant from the beginning and to put them back on the road to loving God and their fellow men by showing them how to love. When love is the motivation of our lives, we don’t need rules because love will always express itself through mercy.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

FREE TO OBEY

Bible Study, ,

FREE TO OBEY

“Even as He spoke, many believed in Him.

“To the Jews who had believed in Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'” John 8:30-32 (NIV).

Freedom! Is that not what the human race craves? Everyone wants to be free but free from what? What is freedom? Is it freedom to have no boundaries so that I can do as I please? Millions have tried that and found it doesn’t work. In fact, that kind of “freedom” produces the worst kind of bondage.

It’s the trap Adam and Eve fell into in the beginning. When the devil offered them “God-likeness” in exchange for disobedience, did they not believe that to be like God meant that they could make their own rules?

The essence of true freedom is not only freedom from…but also freedom to…There is no freedom without boundaries. When boundaries are in place, within those boundaries we are both safe and free. When God put Adam and Eve to the test, He gave them one restriction to check their compliance. Up to that point they were like God because they were in perfect oneness with Him. Would they protect that unity at any cost?

Slavery is the consequence of believing that we can make our own rules. The problem is that disobedience to God’s way produces the fear of punishment which is essence of slavery. God created human beings to be His sons and daughters who would live with Him in submission and obedience. It is self-will that had produces the spirit of slavery in the human race and the enmity against God that goes with it.

When Jesus offered His disciples freedom, He was saying that true freedom is to come back under His authority and do life His way. Real freedom is returning to God and becoming one with Him again. That means recognizing that His way works and submitting to Him in love, trust and obedience.

Living in obedience to Jesus is like playing an instrument in an orchestra under the direction of a conductor. Imagine the cacophony if every instrument played a different tune! Every musician plays his own part but, under the master musician and when each part is played under his direction, the orchestra produces beautiful and harmonious sounds.

It takes the greatest power in the world, the power of the Holy Spirit, to control our self-will and submit ourselves to God’s authority and God’s will. Strangely enough, submission to Jesus is the only way to experience freedom. Real freedom is freedom from the beliefs and behaviour that produce shame, guilt and fear. The problem is that that more we try to be free by doing our own thing, the more we are enslaved by the emotions our behaviour produces.

Jesus’ offer includes setting us free from those enslaving emotions by forgiving and removing our sin and reconciling us to the Father. It is our rebellion that has alienated us from God and set us on the path of self-destruction.

As we read on, we see that even Jesus’ followers did not understand the nature of their slavery. There are many of Jesus’ so-called followers today who are just as much in bondage as unbelievers because they do not understand that true freedom is to be one with the Father and with His Son. Jesus was a true son because He refused to do anything that would break His union with the Father.

Imagine the impact the church would make on an unbelieving world if it returned to the simplicity of Jesus’ invitation, “Follow me; remain in me.” Just as He protected the love and unity He had with the Father by His submission and obedience, it is our task to protect love and preserve unity with our Father and with His children at all costs. Then we will truly be free.

The greatest freedom of all is peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and the peace of God which transcends all understanding when we allow Him to direct our paths.

Are you free to obey Jesus?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.