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John 8:31 & 32 -
Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are
ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.
If you look
back on the context of these two verses you will see that
the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking of His relationship with
the Father, His death, and He ends it up in verse 29 saying,
"I do always those things that please him" (speaking of God
the Father). Then in verse 30 many believe on him because of
His words. They were saved. Then He says to them "If ye
continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and he
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
Now, I know that a lot of times we hear verse 32 quoted as a
salation verse, that when a person gets saved they are set
free; and that is true, the truth of the gospel will set a
person free from their guilt, their condemnation, etc.
However, in context, the Lord is speaking this to people who
are already saved. And he is putting some conditions on it,
"If ye continue in my word... then the truth shall make you
free." Now there are two ways to look at this. 1. If they do
not continue in his word, then they were never saved (never
a disciple). 2. If they do not continue in his word, then
they will not be made free.
First of all let's look at the
definition of the word continue: To persevere in; not
to cease to do or use; To hold to or unite. The Bible says
in John 17:17 Sanctify
them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
If someone who says that they are saved and does not
continue in the truth, it is a good sign that they are not
saved. A few verses to go with that is I John 1:10
If we say that we have not
sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 2:4
He that saith, I know him,
and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth
is not in him. I John
4:20
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a
liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen,
how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
So that is one angle. Then if a
person really is saved and they do not continue, persevere
in, hold to the truth; believe it, study it and apply it,
then they will still live a life weighted down with sin
because they will not let the truth make them free. For
example, I was saved in 1989 and made free from Hell, the
wrath of God, etc. However, since then, I have been studying
the Word of God and been tryng to hold to it and apply it
to my life and the truth has continuously been making me
free from many things in my life that I was once bound to;
such as the worldly, fleshly music, clothing, attitude and
so on. And the truth will do that to anyone who will start
digging in the Word of God to find the Heart of God and to
tune their heart to His.
Until next
time,
Sis. Tanya |
in the
