John 8:31 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, we have a comforting truth about the spiritual freedom of Christ’s disciples. Jesus saw that his teaching was already taking hold in some of his hearers, and he turned from the proud Pharisees to speak to the weaker believers. After warning those who were hardened in unbelief, he gave comfort to these few Jews who had believed in him. This shows how graciously the Lord Jesus notices those who tremble at his word and are ready to receive it. He does not ignore those who come near to him, even when their faith is still weak.

Jesus also cares for the first beginnings of grace. These Jews believed, but they were still immature, and he did not cast them aside because of that. He gathers lambs in his arms. When faith is only beginning, he supplies what it needs so it will not fail at birth. Christ’s care for new believers is patient, tender, and full of mercy.

Jesus gives a clear mark of a true disciple: “If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples.” When these people believed in him as the great prophet, they gave themselves to be his disciples. But as they entered his school, he set this rule before them, that only those who continue in his word are his true disciples. Many people claim to be Christ’s disciples, but their profession is only in name. Those who are weak in faith still need to make sure they are sound in the faith.

Anyone who hopes to be Christ’s disciple should know this from the start, it is not enough to come for a time and then leave. We must not come to him with any plan to withdraw later. Children go to school for a few years, and apprentices serve for a set time, but Christ’s disciples are willing to belong to him for life. Those who truly are his continue in his word, holding to it in every part and remaining faithful to the end. To continue in his word is to dwell in it, as a person dwells at home, with rest, refuge, and comfort there.

Christ also gives a precious promise to those who continue in his word. They will know the truth. That means they will know all the truth that is useful and needed for them, and they will be more settled in it. Even true believers are often still in the dark about many things they should know. God’s children are still children, and they understand and speak like children. If we did not need teaching, we would not need to be disciples.

Yet it is a great privilege to know the truth, to know what we must believe, how the truths of Scripture fit together, and what supports them. Christ promises that his scholars will be well taught. He also says, “The truth will make you free.” The truth he teaches tends to make people free. Justification, which means being counted right with God, frees us from the guilt of sin. Sanctification, which means being made holy, frees us from the slavery of corruption. Gospel truth also frees us from the ceremonial law and from the heavier burdens the elders had added.

This truth frees us from spiritual enemies, frees us for the service of God, and gives us the rights of his children. It makes us free in a deeper way too, because knowing, receiving, and believing this truth frees the mind from prejudice, mistakes, and false ideas. Nothing binds the soul more tightly than those errors. It also frees us from the rule of sinful desires and passions, and brings the soul back under the right rule of its Maker. The mind is enlarged by the truth of Christ, lifted above mere earthly things, and given greater strength and room to act. A person never acts with truer freedom than when acting under God’s command.

The enemies of Christianity often speak of free thinking, but the truth is different. The freest thoughts are those guided by faith. The truly free-minded person is the one whose thoughts are brought into obedience to Christ.

The carnal Jews, meaning those who thought only in worldly terms, were offended by this teaching. Even though it brought glad news of freedom to captives, they argued against it. The Pharisees resented this comforting word for those who believed, because it seemed to mark off the unbelieving crowd as still in bondage. They answered with pride and envy, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be made free’?” They were upset at the suggestion that the Jewish nation was in any kind of bondage, and that all who did not believe in Christ remained in it. The privileges of believers are often a source of envy and trouble to unbelievers.

The Jews objected to Christ’s words by appealing to their family line. When Jesus had said they needed to be made free, they answered, “We are Abraham’s children,” as if that settled everything. Abraham was a great man, they thought, and they were his descendants, so they could not be treated like slaves. People often do this when their family or nation is fading, they borrow honor from ancestors while living in a way that brings shame.

But Abraham was more than a famous ancestor, he was in covenant with God, meaning God had bound himself by promise to him and his offspring. The Jews thought that covenant gave them a free and favored place, one that did not fit with slavery. So they imagined they did not need the freedom Christ offered, since they were already free-born. This is a common mistake among people who have godly parents and a religious upbringing, they trust that privilege instead of real holiness.

They also said, “We have never been slaves to anyone.” That was plainly false. Abraham’s family had been slaves in Egypt, often oppressed by neighboring nations, carried away to Babylon for seventy years, and at that very time they were under Roman rule. Still, they said this to argue with Christ, even though it could only stir trouble with both the Jews and the Romans.

Their answer was foolish because Christ was speaking about spiritual freedom, not bodily freedom. Truth gives the mind light and widens the soul by freeing it from error and prejudice. But they answered as if Christ had spoken only of civil slavery. Carnal hearts notice only the troubles that touch the body or money, but when sin, Satan, and eternal danger are mentioned, those matters seem strange to them.

Christ then answered their objections and explained his meaning more fully. He did it gently, without throwing their falsehood back in their faces. That is how ministers should deal with those who oppose them, with meek instruction, not harshness. Christ began with a solemn statement, “Truly, truly, I say to you,” to call for careful attention and full agreement.

His truth was meant for all people, though he said it on this occasion to the Jews. “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” A sinful life is a life of bondage. Christ was speaking about the person who chooses sin, makes room for it, plans for it, and keeps on in it. He is not talking about every person who falls into sin at times, since no one on earth lives without sin.

Christ also shows what that slavery looks like. The person who lives in sin is held guilty by sin, under its power, and ruled by its desires. He serves sin, works for its interests, and accepts its wages (Romans 6:16). He is not his own master, because his lusts give him orders and he obeys them.

Then Christ adds that being in God’s house does not mean a person will inherit God’s promises. A servant may live in the house for a time, but he does not stay there forever. A son belongs to the family permanently. This points first to the rejection of the Jewish church and nation.

Israel had once been God’s son, his firstborn. But they had sadly fallen into a servant-like spirit, enslaved to the world and the flesh. So even though they thought their birthright made them safe in the church, Christ told them that, since they had made themselves servants, they would not remain in the house forever.

This also points to Jerusalem, which opposed Christ’s gospel of freedom and clung to the Sinai covenant, the covenant given at Mount Sinai that led to bondage after its time had passed. Because of that, it came to be in bondage with her children (Galatians 4:24-25). In this way, she lost her standing as God’s covenant people, as if her charter had been taken away, and she was cast out like the son of the slave woman (Genesis 21:14). Chrysostom explains this passage in this way: do not think you can be made free from sin by the rites and ceremonies of Moses’ law, for Moses was only a servant and did not have the lasting authority in the church that the Son has. But if the Son makes you free, then you are truly free (John 8:36).

But this warning reaches further still. It speaks of the rejection of all who remain servants of sin and do not receive the adoption of God’s children. Such unprofitable servants may stay in God’s house for a time, like hired workers in a family, but a day is coming when the children of the slave woman and the children of the free woman will be separated. Only true believers, the children of the promise and of the covenant, are counted as free, and they will remain in the house forever, like Isaac. They will have a secure place in God’s work on earth (Ezra 9:8), and they will have permanent homes in heaven (John 14:2).

Christ then shows the way out of bondage into the glorious freedom of God’s children (Romans 8:21). The condition of those who serve sin is sad, but thanks be to God, it is neither helpless nor hopeless. As all the sons of a family have the privilege and honor of remaining in the house forever, so the Son, the firstborn among many brothers and heir of all things, has authority both to free slaves and to adopt children (John 8:36). If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Jesus Christ offers us freedom in the gospel, and he has both authority and power to give it. First, he frees prisoners. He does this in justification, meaning he declares believers right with God by making satisfaction for their guilt. The gospel offer rests on this: to all it comes as a conditional pardon, and to true believers, when they believe, it becomes an actual and full forgiveness. He also pays the debts for which we were arrested under the law. Christ, as our surety, or rather our guarantor, was not bound with us at first, but when we could not pay, he took responsibility for us. He settles with the creditor, answers the demands of justice more than fully, takes the bond and judgment into his own hands, and hands them back canceled to all who, through faith and repentance, give him, if I may say so, a matching pledge to guard his honor. Then they are made free. From the debt, and from every part of it, they are forever cleared, released, and discharged. A full release is sealed against every claim. But those who refuse these terms leave those securities still in the Redeemer’s hands, fully in force.

Second, Christ has power to rescue slaves, and he does this in sanctification, meaning the process of being made holy. Through the strong teaching of his gospel and the powerful work of his Spirit, he breaks the power of sin in the soul, gathers the scattered strength of reason and virtue, and strengthens God’s claim against sin and Satan. In this way the soul is made free.

Third, Christ has power to make strangers and foreigners into citizens, and he does this in adoption. This is a further act of grace. We are not only forgiven and healed, we are also honored and given status. There is a charter of privileges as well as a pardon. So the Son makes us free citizens of the kingdom of priests, the holy nation, the new Jerusalem.

Those whom Christ makes free are free indeed. The word here means really, truly. It is not the word used in John 8:31 for true disciples, but the word that means “truly” or “really.” This means, first, the promise is true and certain. The freedom the Jews boasted of was only imaginary. They praised a false gift. But the freedom Christ gives is sure, real, and produces real results. Servants of sin promise themselves freedom and imagine they are free when they throw off religion’s restraints, but they are fooling themselves. No one is free indeed except those whom Christ makes free.

It also means that this freedom is of the highest kind. It truly deserves the name freedom, and compared with it, all other freedoms are little more than slavery. It brings great honor and benefit to those who receive it. It is glorious freedom. It is the kind of thing that really is, while the things of this world are only shadows, things that are not.

Christ then applies this to the unbelieving and complaining Jews, answering their boasts about being Abraham’s descendants (John 8:37). He says, in effect, “I know very well that you are Abraham’s seed.” He grants what is true, and he does not argue with their claim in order to avoid needless anger. He wants to help them, not provoke them, so he says what may win them over: I know that you are Abraham’s seed. They boasted about their descent from Abraham as something that made them great and honorable. In truth, it only made their sin greater and more serious. By their own words, Christ will judge proud hypocrites who brag about their family line and upbringing: if they are Abraham’s seed, why do they not walk in the faith and obedience of Abraham?

Their behavior did not match their claimed honor. Christ says, “You seek to kill me.” They had tried this many times, and they were now planning it again, which soon became plain when they took up stones to throw at him (John 8:59). Christ knows not only the evil people do, but also the evil they plan, desire, and try to do. To try to kill any innocent man is a dark crime, but to plan the death of the King of kings is a wickedness beyond easy words.

Why were people who were Abraham’s seed so bitter against Abraham’s promised Seed, the one through whom they and all the families of the earth were to be blessed? Jesus gives the reason: “My word has no place in you” (John 8:37). The old Latin version puts it this way: it cannot fit in you.

“My word does not take hold of you. You have no taste for it, no interest in it. Other things attract you more and please you more.” Or, “It does not grip you. It has no power over you and makes no impression on you.” Some scholars read it this way: “My word does not enter into you.” It came down like rain, but they were like rock, so it ran off instead of soaking into their hearts, like rain on plowed ground. The Syriac version reads, “Because you do not accept my word, you are not convinced of its truth or pleased with its goodness.”

Our translation is very meaningful: “It has no place in you.” They were trying to kill him, and so to silence him, not because he had hurt them, but because they could not stand the convincing, commanding power of his word. Christ’s words should have a place in us, the deepest and highest place. They should live in us like someone at home, not like a stranger or guest. They should also have room to work, to drive sin out and to grow grace in us. They should have the ruling place, on the throne, and dwell in us richly.

Many people make a profession of religion, but Christ’s word has no place in them. They will not give it room, because they do not like it. Satan does all he can to push it out, and other things fill the place it should have. Where God’s word has no place, no good can be expected, because there is room left for all kinds of evil. If the unclean spirit finds the heart empty of Christ’s word, he enters and lives there.