What Does "The Truth Will Set You Free" Actually Mean?
John 8:31-38
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
“The truth will set you free” is a popular and well-known statement, but what does it actually mean?
Jesus is not speaking in vague generalities about the concept of truth, but is making specific reference to the truth about Himself. Let’s look at His statement in context, drawing from yesterday’s reading:
28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
29 And he who sent me is with me . He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him. 31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” [John 8:28–32].
So, what is the truth that will set a person free?
That Jesus is the Son sent from the Father, and those who hold fast to that knowledge will thereby be identified as Jesus’s disciples and they will be set free as a result.
From what are those people set free? Jesus tells us:
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed [John 8:34–36].
People who know the truth about Jesus are set free from slavery to sin.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The very fact that modern people have taken the phrase “the truth will set you free” and stripped it of any reference to Jesus merely proves the point that He is making—what matters is holding on to the truth about Jesus, which is the only truth that has power to truly save.