John 14:6-7
Jesus is Truth
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
John 8:31-41
The Children of Abraham
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
33They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you have heard from your father."
39"Abraham is our father," they answered.
"If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would do the things Abraham did. 40As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41You are doing the things your own father does."
"We are not illegitimate children," they protested. "The only Father we have is God himself."
Galatians 5:1-15
Freedom in Christ
1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
7You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? 8That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9"A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." 10I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. 11Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
Hebrews 4:15
Jesus Was Without Sin
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus the Same Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
There are different ways we can look at freedom...One is from a nation and country view...Another is from the Spiritual View...Israel was occupied for many years by Rome and was still occupied by the Roman Empire when Jesus walked the earth...And yet I see Jesus as a Free Man...
St. Paul teaches us that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love...You, my brothers, were called to be free...But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love...The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." ...If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other....St. Paul tells us that when we have freedom we always have the choice to sin...But there is not a True Freedom when we sin...St. Paul goes on to write that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free...Jesus is our example of not only Love, but of knowing what it is to be free and having this True Freedom...
Faith is not Love...Faith is not freedom...Earthly love is not freedom, but Jesus' Love gives us true freedom...So, Jesus and His Father define Love (Love with a capital "L" is God's LOVE, because God is LOVE) and freedom differently than we do...Jesus teaches us that everyone who sins is a slave to sin...Sin causes us not to be free...He says a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever...So if the Son of God sets you free, you will be free indeed....Just because one is related to Abraham, does not free us from sin...Sin keeps us apart from our Father and His Son...Jesus is telling us the Truth about sin, because He has seen Absolute Truth and is seeing Absolute Truth in the Father's Presence...Jesus is the Truth and the Way...We do what we have learned from our father's and mother's (and others) and how we were brought up...We are not free from sin...We have a sinful nature...
When I think about love, earthly love I think that love gives control to the one he loves...If you love someone and they do something wrong you forgive them and still love them...But Jesus' Love is different...He teaches us that when we know the Love He knows and has from the Father, then this Truth sets us free...And Jesus is Truth...He also did not sin...When He says that to know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free, He is in essence telling us to be sinless...
If Jesus sets you free, you will be free indeed...When He said that anyone who sins is a slave to sin, then we must be sinless or free from sin to have the kind of freedom He is talking about...When one sins He has lost the very freedom Jesus is talking about...So you are not free and do not have freedom when you sin...Having the most choices in life is not the kind of freedom Jesus was talking about to the Children of Abraham...He was talking about a special kind of Freedom, when one trusts in God completely and does God's will...Then that person is Truly free...
St. Paul and Jesus both believe that to be free we have to know the Truth...Jesus is Truth...St. Paul and Jesus believe to have this True freedom, we must be sin free...Most, if not all of my life, I thought that freedom meant the person or people with the most choices...Jesus own people when He was on earth had the Romans occupying His country of Israel...But my belief of the most choices in one's life is not what Jesus or St. Paul are telling us...Freedom in the way Jesus teaches is not about having the freedom to make the most decisions in your life...He also means freedom is not doing everything we want...Because, if are doing everything we want and it includes sinning, then we are not free...We could be in the most communistic country and be in a communistic jail -but we could be free and have freedom in Jesus' eyes...If we trust completely in God and do not sin, then we are truly free...Freedom in His eyes is not about where we are, or about the number of decisions we get to make, or about another country occupying your own country...Nor is it about Him letting us do whatever we want, where we want, whenever we want...We are set free when we completely believe in the Father and Son and do not sin, just like He did and is -sinless...Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life...Jesus was and is completely free yesterday, today, and tomorrow...