James Nisbet Commentary - John 8:32 - 8:32

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James Nisbet Commentary - John 8:32 - 8:32


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FREEDOM THROUGH THE TRUTH

‘Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’

Joh_8:32

This is the eternal answer to the protests of modern unbelief. Let us examine the words (a) reverently, (b) candidly, and (c) charitably. The promise is as to those who continue in our Saviour’s words.

I. What is the truth as here set forth?

(a) A body of facts, not a statement of feelings.

(b) Not the assertion of a set of opinions, but the revelation of a Person.

II. Freedom.—‘The truth shall make you free.’

(a) The belief of a Christian is free.

(b) The conduct of a Christian is circumscribed by his baptismal vow.

If beliefs and conduct of Christians are free, they are so by reason of their completeness.

—
Rev. Barton R. V. Mills.

Illustration

‘The mission of Christ to this earth made for liberty. Seven centuries before His Advent the Evangelical prophet predicted that He would proclaim liberty to the captives, and the great Liberator based His first recorded sermon upon this text. No struggle is so glorious as a fight for freedom, and with thrilled interest we read of the long conflict in the early days of the last century for the liberation of the slaves, and our hearts have been touched as we in spirit meet the Christian slaves in Sierra Leone spending their last moments of slavery and their first as freemen before the Throne of Grace. They entered the churches slaves; they left them free. Great and glorious as the struggle for social and political freedom is, the contest for spiritual freedom is nobler still.’