“You
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
̶
Jesus, John 8:32
Much has
been written about the above phrase from Jesus.
There’s a lot of study and thought to be done regarding that phrase,
including exploring the verse previous to it. In that verse Jesus speaks to
abiding in His Word, which in itself has significant ramifications for our
spiritual journey. But the other night in my Men’s group, we focused
primarily on verse 32, digging out some nuggets of gold none of us had thought of
before.
The discussion
started with the simple question: Why is it some people seem to be freer than
others?
It couldn’t
be because God is playing favorites, because He is no respecter of persons (see
Romans 2:11 and 3:21-26). So somehow the difference in freedom must be on the
individual level, either in our understanding of what freedom really is or in
our ability to grasp the depth of freedom we have in Christ.
A key to
answering this question resides in the word ‘know’. The Greek word gnwsesqe is a derivative of ginwskw which, according to Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary,
means “to be taking in knowledge, to come to know, recognize, understand, or to
understand completely” (p. 346). The actual
Greek word in the text is what’s called a future middle indicative verb in the
second person. All this technical stuff basically means that it is a command
and can be translated “you will know.” It also connotes that this “knowing” is
not instantaneous but is instead a process, or a continual growth in our
journey of understanding.
Significance of a Word
Maybe I’m
just a techno-weirdo-wonk, but I find this hugely illuminating and encouraging.
Just what is knowledge? Does one just all of the sudden know something? You
might know the final score of the game, but do you know the intricacies of what
led up to that final score? No you don’t until you take time to dive into the
detailed minutia of what resulted in that score. The more you understand the
minutia the more you grasp the depth of that final score.
So it is with
grasping the depth of the freedom we have in Jesus. Yes it is true that the
final score of placing our faith in Jesus is an eternal destiny in Heaven
rather than Hell, but there’s so much more to that final score. And I think
that Jesus using the specific Greek work in verse 32 shows that He is telling
us that knowing the deeper truths behind the final score will deepen our sense
of freedom in Him. It will also deepen our identity in Him.
What is your picture of Jesus?
Often the
image we have of Jesus is some radiant dude floating a foot above the ground
zooming here and there healing people. So many paintings depict Jesus with some
halo-thing encircling His head and people bowing to Him. In other words, we
often see Jesus as nothing more than a dashboard icon with no feelings or
connection with humanity.
But look at
the picture from The Passion of the
Christ. Yes, it is gruesome, but stop and think that Jesus Christ was God
in the flesh and came to sacrifice His life for our salvation. This is a
staggering realization and is difficult for our finite minds to grasp, but this
is exactly what that one word—know—is encouraging us to do: Intentionally take
in this knowledge, turn this truth over and over in our minds, meditate on it; and
the more we ponder and meditate on this truth, the more we will grasp the
significance of Christ’s sacrifice for us. And the deeper our grasp of this the
more complete will be our freedom and our identity in Christ.
Even for a
moment, let’s try to wrap our minds around the truth that the God with no
beginning and no end came to earth in the flesh starting as a baby and living
life among us, His creation. He didn’t come in clouds of glory, smoke or
explosions, He came as a vulnerable infant born in humble fashion. He lived among
us, healed us, and was ridiculed and eventually executed by us.
Freedom Awaits
Now think of
all the times in our own lives where we have hurt or otherwise disregarded this
God and His sacrifice for us and yet He continues holding onto us (John
10:27-30). Perhaps with this exercise we’ll begin our journey into the knowing
even more deeply the significance of Christ’s sacrifice for us. As we do this our
sense of freedom will grow while we further grasp that our identity and destiny
are secured in Christ and we will no longer be enslaved by the chains of
culture or how the world tries to define us. In other words, we will live even more freely in Christ.
