Scripture Reference: John 8
Freedom and Bondage – Continued
Please read John 8:31-47 for background to this section.
Jesus explained to the Pharisees that the difference between spiritual freedom and bondage is a matter of whether one is a son or a servant. The servant may live in the house, but he is not a part of the family; and he cannot be guaranteed a future. (Jesus may have had Isaac and Ishmael in mind here as referenced in Genesis 21.) “Whoever keeps on practicing sin is the servant of sin [literal translation]” (see John 8:34). These religious leaders would not only die in their sins (John 8:21, 24), but they were right then living in bondage to sin!
How can slaves of sin be set free? Only by the Son. How does He do it? Through the power of His Word. Note the emphasis on the Word in John 8:38–47, and He had already told them, “The truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). They would not “make room” for His Word in their hearts.
In the rest of this section, you see the debate centering around the word father. Jesus identified Himself with the Father in heaven, but He identified them with the father from hell, Satan. Of course, the Jews claimed Abraham as their father (Luke 3:8), but Jesus made a careful distinction between “Abraham’s seed” (physical descendants) and “Abraham’s children” (spiritual descendants because of personal faith; Galatians 3:6–14).
These Jewish leaders, who claimed to belong to Abraham, were very unlike Abraham. For one thing, they wanted to kill Jesus; Abraham was the “friend of God” and fellowshipped with Him in love (Isaiah 41:8). Abraham listened to God’s truth and obeyed it, but these religious leaders rejected the truth.
Nature is determined by birth, and birth is determined by paternity. If God is your Father, then you share God’s nature (2 Peter 1:1–4); but if Satan is your father, then you share in his evil nature. Our Lord did not say that every lost sinner is a “child of the devil,” though every lost sinner is certainly a child of wrath and disobedience (Ephesians 2:1–3). Today, as Christians, we have to be careful not to label all unbelievers as “children of the devil.” Both here and in the Parable of the Tares (Matthew 13:24–32, 36–43), Jesus said that the Pharisees and other “counterfeit” believers were the children of the devil. That is because they are false. Satan is an imitator (2 Corinthians 11:13–15), and he gives his children a false righteousness that can never gain them entrance into heaven (Romans 10:1–4).
What were the characteristics of these religious leaders who belonged to the devil? For one thing, they rejected the truth (John 8:40) and tried to kill Jesus because He spoke the truth. They did not love God (John 8:42) nor could they understand what Jesus taught (John 8:43, 47). Satan’s children may be well versed in their religious traditions, but they have no spiritual understanding of the Word of God.
Satan is a liar and a murderer. He lied to our first parents, “Has God indeed said?” (Genesis 3:1), and engineered their deaths. Cain was a child of the devil (1 John 3:12), for he was both a liar and a murderer. He killed his brother Abel and then lied about it (Genesis 4). Is it any wonder that these religious leaders lied about Jesus, hired false witnesses, and then had Him killed?
The worst bondage is the kind that the prisoner himself does not recognize. He thinks he is free, yet he is really a slave. The Pharisees and other religious leaders thought that they were free, but they were actually enslaved in terrible spiritual bondage to sin and Satan. They would not face the truth, and yet it was the truth alone that could set them free.
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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