Jesus Spoke Liberating Truth to Disciples

What Did Jesus Do?

“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 8.31-32

All disciples are believers. But are all believers disciples? I think it is possible for one to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, yet not follow him. Demons all knew and believed who Jesus was, yet no one would ever call them disciples. So, when John tells us in 8.30 that “many believed in him,” we might not want to assume that all those folks were, or ever became, disciples. In fact, the extended discourse which follows in John 8.31-59, appears to me to target those “believers” who may have had Jesus in their head, but not in their heart, if you will. Jesus wanted to make sure his audience knew what it took to “truly” be his disciples—knowing and abiding in the liberating truth of his words.

There is, and has forever been, a confrontation, Del Tackett of The Truth Project calls it a “cosmic battle,” between truth and falsehood. Recall that all the world's troubles started in the Garden of Eden with the serpent casting doubt on the veracity of God's words to Adam and Eve (see Genesis 3.1). Ever since the Fall, Satan has been making captives of us all, and he only employs one weapon in his assault—lying. We are all born slaves, as it were, to sin. And sin has been built on a foundation of falsehood from the beginning to this very day. The only way to be freed is to receive and know the truth. Jesus came speaking liberating words of truth, and only those who receive and abide in his words, he called them his true disciples, are set free.

But right there in Jerusalem, amidst the group of people who “believed,” there were those who, in the immortal words of Col. Jessup, could not handle the truth. Though they believed themselves to be free, it took a huge act of denial, or swallowing a large lie, to arrive at such a conclusion about their condition. “We are offspring of Abraham, and have never been enslaved to anyone!” Really? I guess all those Romans in Palestine were just tourists, the same for the Syrians, Ptolemies, Greeks, and Persians before them. But Jesus wasn't concerned about the Romans, for he knew that he was addressing a crowd under the control of a far worse tyrant than Caesar. Satan, who enslaves us all to sin, makes all the despots in the world look like amateurs. And he needs nothing more than a lie to whisper in our ear to subdue us and control us.

Here's the thing, no one can receive and abide in any of Christ's words if they do not first hear and acknowledge the truth that they are captive to sin. That's a hard truth to receive, isn't it? I mean, after a generation of two of “I'm O.K., You're O.K.” psycho-babel, why would anyone accept such a blow to their self-esteem as to admit they are a sinner? But believing that hard truth about ourselves opens the door for us to receive and believe all the many wonderful truths about Jesus, and what he has done for us.

Like the fractious crowd in Jerusalem with Jesus, many today “believe” in Jesus without accepting the hard, but liberating truth about their enslavement to sin, and so they are believers without being disciples. Disciples walk a hard, but glorious, self-denying, cross-bearing road. And every step along the road of discipleship is paved with the liberating truth of the words of Jesus which set us free.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4