Free!

"and you will know the truth, 

and the truth will set you free."

John 8:32

       As parents, we admonish our children to "tell the truth".  In a court of law,  people are sworn in to "tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth".  In the Bible, John relays Jesus's message of "if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free."   What is truth?  How is truth defined?  The world says that truth is whatever you want to believe.  Webster's dictionary says it is the body of real things, events, and facts.  

       Jesus, as he stood in front of Pilate being questioned, was asked: "so you are a king?".  To which Jesus answered Pilate, "you say that I am a king.  For this purpose, I was born and for this purpose, I have come into the world--to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."  Pilate then asks Jesus, "what is truth?".  Jesus does not respond. Pilate found no guilt in Jesus.  (John 18: 37-38)   But yet Jesus was crucified anyway.  

       When we tell the truth about something we did which was wrong, we feel a freedom in our spirit.   If we tell a lie and think we have gotten away with it our spirit is heavy and weighed down with guilt.  When we tell the truth we know that we are set free.  When we lie then we are of the character of the enemy who is a liar and the father of lies.  The enemy does not stand in truth, but Jesus does and is the truth.  Lying is a sin and we are slaves to sin.   The only way out of that life of lies is to stand in the truth. Stand in the Word of God which is the truth.  Everything in the Bible is true.  The promises are true, the historical references are true, and the prophecies which have been fulfilled are also true.  We can stand firm knowing that God is true.  There are no "ifs or buts", there is only truth. 

In truth lies our freedom.  We are free from sin if we have the truth, ie, Jesus living in us.  Truth guides our way, truth illuminates the darkness, and truth is a pillar and fortress.  Our founders stood in this truth.  They knew the way to freedom was by declaring that which is true.   We need to stand for truth.  Some may not like the truth,  some may not believe the truth and others may not want the truth but the truth will always come out and the truth will always stand above all else.  We can have that freedom in our lives by declaring that the Word is truth and that the Word abides in us.  Because "... if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)

"But now that you have been set free from sin..."

Romans 6:22