Word of Salvation – Vol.12 No.26 – June 1966

 

Freedom Indeed

 

Sermon by Rev. A. H. Schippers on John 8:32b,36

Scripture Reading: John 8: 1-38

Psalter Hymnal: 95 1,2; 414:4; 447: ,5,6; 441:1,4; 408:2,3; 314 1

 

Beloved Congregation,

The urge for freedom is in our blood!  This has always been the case, but in our days it is as clear as daylight.  In many a country a struggle for freedom is going on and people do not even shrink from giving their lives for the sake of this freedom.

“Freedom” is a magic word and it can turn a whole country upside down.  And no wonder!  What is more humiliating for a man than to be subjected to someone else?  And years and years may go by before a group of people is aware of their servitude, but at a certain moment the urge is there and nobody can stop them.

In our days this urge for freedom is all over the world.  On the other hand there are people, also all over the world, who try to stop this movement for freedom.

The days that white people were the masters of all the other races is gone.  Colour-bars cannot prevent the coloured people raising their voices right into the ears of the white men.  In Africa, Asia, and America, and even in Australia, the coloured people are telling us the truth about their lives: that they are human beings too!  The white man has not seen him as such for a very long time.  And those who did not entirely reject the idea of coloured people as human beings, nevertheless did not reckon them as a nice specimen of the human race, a bit, and sometimes very, backward and underdeveloped.  But today the cry for freedom cannot be drowned any more by military force or a whip.  America shows us the impossibility of stopping this movement and even Africa cannot convince the world that the white men are superior to all other colours and can hold them in their state of servitude.  We are well aware of the fact that the world situation has been thoroughly altered after the second world war.  Is it not strange that that alteration has been brought about by the urge for FREEDOM?

And is it not also strange that the urge for freedom can alter the whole world situation?  Is this not proof enough that freedom cannot be killed for ever?  We may take it away for a time, but we cannot do it for ever.  FREEDOM is one of the basic principles of human life!

I think nobody will deny this, not even our young people, our teenagers!  Freedom is such a nice thing.  Especially when you feel the many ties that keep you away from experiencing freedom!

What does the Bible say about freedom and servitude?  Well, the Bible fully agrees with those people who say that freedom is the basis of human life.

Now, I must make things clear from the start, because there is a great difference between “freedom is the basis of human life”, and “freedom IS human life itself.”

The first phrase “freedom is the basis of human life” says that our life has to rest on that basis, whereas the other phrase “freedom is life itself” does not point out a basis at all so that life hangs in mid-air.

Freedom, the Bible says, is not just life, but it is that which must bear life.  It is something underneath life.  Just as servitude is something that is a burden upon life so that life cannot display itself, so freedom is the basis under our life that makes it possible for life to show itself in its fascinating abundance.

Thus it is not true that freedom is life itself, oh no, freedom gives us every opportunity to live, but that also lays a great responsibility on our shoulders, how to keep freedom alive and not to kill it again by ourselves (as we see some of the newly-freed countries do).

There is often a tragic misunderstanding among people about the nature of freedom.  People often think that freedom can be taken away only by others and that regained freedom is nothing else than to have gotten rid of those others.  But there are many cases in which people became all the more slaves after they had thrown off the yoke of others.  They became slaves to themselves, to their own passions and lusts.

We can see today that it is far more difficult for the freed nations to live up to the heights of freedom than to live under the supervision of another nation.  Freedom brings its own responsibilities and its own dangers.  If freedom means “to be left to your own devices” then freedom is not such a nice thing after all!

Then it is even possible that we collapse under the burden of that freedom.

Jesus Christ knew exactly what the case was with the Jews.  And it is remarkable that in John 8 He warns those who believed on Him not to lose sight of the right freedom, In verse 31 it is said: “Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, ‘If you continue in my Word you are truly My disciples'” and in vs.32 “and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free!”

Freedom meant to Jesus something quite different from “our freedom”.  To Him it was not a way of independence and being left to one’s own.  He said to the Jews who believed on Him that there is only one way to become free, and that is first of all by “continuing in Christ’s Word”.

What a difference!  People mean by “freedom”: nobody above you, no master to obey, nobody and nothing than yourself.  And we may widen the scope of this idea of freedom so that we sacrifice our personal freedom on the altar of group-freedom, race-freedom, etc., but freedom means always the same: the group, the race, etc. is wholly on its own and nobody has a right to interfere with the group and race etc.  Every interference from outside is felt as an encroachment on its freedom.

Quite contrary to this idea of freedom is what the Lord Jesus said to the Jews of His days and also to us today: The first step to freedom is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ!  (vs.31).  What is that: to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ?  It means first of all, says Jesus, continuing in Christ’s words.  This characterisation of discipleship prevents us exactly from standing on our own in our own possibilities and opportunities, in our own rights and privileges!

It means: to listen continually to the words of Jesus Christ and to obey Him.  In other words, Christian freedom begins with sacrificing ourselves on the altar of obedience to Christ.  It starts with the attitude of Mary, Martha’s sister, who sat at the feet of Jesus Christ and listened to His words.

But here we must be careful.  So often Christians think that the Lord Jesus liberates us from this world to turn to heavenly things.  Then we want to hear sweet words about heaven and about singing angels and peace and joy around God.  But the words of Jesus are the truth about our human life on earth in the sight of God.  Therefore Jesus taught the people time and again how to live with their fellowmen, how to treat the other.  Jesus’ words were so penetrating into the relationship between God and people and between one man and his neighbour that the disciples once said: Who can, then be saved?

Devoutly reading the Bible and sitting in the church listening attentively to the sermons, singing – even enthusiastically – the hymns and offering as much as we can is not yet “continuing in Christ’s words”.  All these things are very nice and cannot be missed in true worship, but being a disciple of Jesus Christ means: to follow Him, and do as He did.

In this way we shall know the truth, Jesus said.  This is the second step to the freedom of the Christian, to true freedom.  There is an obvious relation between the truth and freedom, and also between falsehood and freedom, and this relationship influences our view of what freedom really is.

The Jew said to Jesus: What are you talking about?  We ARE free!  We have never been in bondage to any man; How is it that you say: “You will be made free”?  They did not even know that they were servants, servants of sin, and that there was not freedom at all in their life.  It is always a clear proof that we are prisoners of sin when we start to argue with Jesus and with God’s Word instead of listening to Him, It means that we are still maintaining our own ideas about life and freedom, because we think them right.  The second step to freedom is therefore to recognize and acknowledge the fact that we do not know what the truth is, and as long as we don’t know the truth all our ideas about freedom are senseless, yes, they are lies and they deceive us.

This means that on the road to freedom we have to give up all the brightness and thoroughness of our own thinking and to become again a child that has to learn right from the start, “The truth will make you free”.  But Pontius Pilate’s question to Jesus has to be answered first: WHAT is truth?

Jesus Christ has answered this question.  Not when he stood before Pontius Pilate, but here in this 8th chapter of John: vs.36 “If the SON therefore makes you free, you will be free indeed.”  Jesus (compare the verses 32b and 36) thus identified Himself with the truth, as He says in another place “I am the truth,…!”

Boys and girls, all your desires to be free are legitimate and right.  Do not be a slave any longer, break all the ties that bind your young life.  But one remark: Before you start trying to break away, know what you are after, what kind of freedom you really want.  Do you know what freedom really is?

Jesus did not argue with the Jews about all the different kinds of freedom.  He came immediately to the point when they boasted about their freedom and said to them: “I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin”.  What is sin?  Is that all sorts of transgressions and trespasses?  Yes, it is, but this is not the deepest meaning of sin.  Sin is nothing else than to refuse to accept the Lord as our Master.   Sin and disobedience are identical.

The Jews of Jesus’ days did not feel themselves slaves of sin, because they thought that they were very strict in their obedience to God’s law, and so they did not feel the burden of God’s wrath upon their life.

So why accept Jesus’ words?  The Jews thought that if they did not feel it, there was nothing to worry about.  That was the big lie of their religious life.

Freedom in Jesus Christ brings first of all freedom from the lie wherein we live and whereby we think to know what freedom is: to be your own master!  And we do not know how hard and severe that master is!

Till Jesus Christ comes into our lives.  Then we discover the truth about our own lives.  Then we come to realize that true freedom is: no condemnation any more, no burden of God’s wrath, no slave of one’s self, not being driven to and fro by one’s own passions and desires; and positively this means: we belong to Jesus Christ.

Then we are free from our parents, free from everybody and everything.  Nobody above us, nobody but Jesus!  But how strange: in Jesus Christ we see our parents, we see our teachers at school, we see all those in authority over us, we see them no longer as people who want to limit our freedom, but as instruments in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ to keep us in the freedom into which He has bought us with His blood.  Then obedience becomes a joyful event in our lives.  Then we experience that we are indeed free, because we can breathe again in the air of restored relationship, restored with the Lord, but also restored with our fellowmen.

Then we discover that freedom is the basis of our lives, that it is not life itself, but giving stimulus to life.  Standing on the basis of freedom we live a life dedicated to God and our neighbour.

Jesus said: freedom has to do with being a Son and not a slave!  Free, that is: to be home again!  Free, that means: to have a FATHER.  That is the freedom in life, that is the freedom in death!  Always free.  Looking the Lord straight in the eyes and saying to Him: Father.  And then God saying: My Son, My Daughter.  Is there a joy deeper than this?  Is there a freedom more real than this?  Jesus says: No, there is not.  And only when we listen to His words are we on the road to that freedom.

Amen