John 8:31-36 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in My word, [then] are ye My disciples indeed; {32} And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. {33} They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? {34} Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. {35} And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: [but] the Son abideth ever. {36} If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Salvation Is A Free Gift That Changes You

Salvation is a free gift from God. But it is a free gift that, when it comes to you, changes you positionally and progressively. When you are saved, you are positionally a Child of God:

Romans 8:16 (ESV) The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God …

When God looks at us, we ARE His Children, if we are saved. This is positional. We are not children of Adam, but of God. But we are also progressively changed, which is what we will look at today. We read:

vs 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him

Word Study: Jesus is addressing BELIEVING Jews. They have BELIEVED (past tense) on Him. The word translated BELIEVED is the Greek Perfect Active Participle of “pisteuō”, which means “to have faith in, to rest in, to place confidence in or rest upon”. According to my commentary:

“The Perfect Tense describes an action which is viewed as having been completed in the past, once and for all, not needing to be repeated. Jesus’ last cry from the cross, TETELESTAI (“It is finished!”) is a good example of the perfect tense used in this sense, namely “It [the atonement] has been accomplished, completely, once and for all time.””

Salvation is BOTH a GIFT and a PARTNERSHIP between God and man.

When we believe on Jesus for salvation, genuine faith plants the Holy Spirit within the life. Salvation causes a change. It is indeed a free gift. But it is a free gift that changes the recipient. You are familiar with the text:

Titus 3:5-6 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; {6} Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior;

It is not our good works, our “righteousness” or what we perceive as our good acts, that bring us into union with God. It is our faith in Him Whom the Father has sent. What are the “works of God that we are to do” (John 6:28)? Jesus said:

John 6:29 … This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Word Study: “The work of God” that pleases God, that brings us into salvation, is that we believe on Christ. When we believe on Christ the Scripture says we are “WASHED” by being born again. We are no longer sons of Adam, but are Children of God. We are “RENEWED” (Greek anakaínōsis, renovated, changed for the better). We are given the Holy Spirit. Not only are our sins removed, as God promises:

Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

But out POSITION is removed. Whereas we were far from God as sons of Adam, we are in the family of God as sons and daughters of God. We previously quoted Titus 3:5-6 in support of salvation alone by faith in Christ alone. But the problem with most modern Preachers, Teachers, and Evangelists is they do not examine the full context of a scripture when quoting it. When you do this, false doctrines like “You can be saved, and be a racist, an adulterer, or a hetero or homosexual sinner”. This is not true. The continuing context of Titus is:

Titus 3:7-8 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. {8} [This is] a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.

Did you carefully read the context? Those who are positionally saved by faith in Christ will also “be careful to maintain good works”. What are “good works”? It is to DO WHAT JESUS SAID, to LIVE ABIDING IN CHRIST AND HIS WORD.

Salvation is a free gift, but it is not a cheap gift. Positionally saved, you progressively act more and more like Jesus. You DO His Word.

Salvation is given freely, but, if you are saved, you will ABIDE in Christ. Consider this text:

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: {9} Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Salvation is a free gift, offered freely to whosoever will. You cannot be saved by your good works. But if you read the promise in Ephesians in context you will see:

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The whole purpose of our salvation is that we WALK IN GOOD WORKS. What are GOOD WORKS?
It is to DO what Jesus said do.

Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand.

The Bible says that our God “is the Potter, and we are the Clay”. The vessel that Christ has put a hand on is the vessel destined and purposed for God’s service. The clay that the Master has put on the potter’s wheel is the clay that will be shaped and molded to His glory. If you are saved, God cares for you. He is a Potter with love as His purpose. God does not abandon us. Our Father SAVES, then COMMANDS, and OVERSEES. God does not call then, like some strange Child play hide and seek with those He called. He calls then He, the Infinite Creator of all that we see, begins to work in the life of those whom He loves.

Illustrate: We know that we are saved when God is at work in our lives. Our salvation is proved by our works! You shall be saved if you call upon the Lord. Some of you may say, “Oh, I wish my name were written down in the Bible, then I could know I was saved”. Listen Beloved, this would bring me no comfort at all. If you do an internet search for “David Buffaloe”, you will find 12,700 people with that name. One is the President of a company called “Vertical IQ”, based in my hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. Another is a “a senior-level marketing professional”. Another is a truck driver. David Buffaloe of Garner, North Carolina, is a participant in the 4-H Club swine program. David Henry Buffaloe died the year I was born, in 1958.

Having your name written in the Bible, or in some “Who’s Who”, will not bring you comfort. What brings every Christian who is genuinely saved comfort is that Christ is written, and because of this you want to continue in His Word. If you have come to Christ for salvation, but what you profess as salvation has not impacted your love for and obedience to the Savior, then Beloved, YOU MAY NOT BE SAVED.

Are You Continuing In His Word?

John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in My Word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed;

Word Study: Jesus is addressing Jews “which believed on Him”. He says, “If ye continue in My Word”. The word translated “continue” is the Greek menō, which means “to abide in, to dwell in, to make yourself at home in”. When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, he said:

John 1:32-33 … I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode menō upon him. 33 … {God} said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining menō on him, the same is {the Christ}…

The Holy Spirit did not just come to visit Jesus, but came and rested on Him and in Him. Jesus in the Parable of the Vine and Branches uses menō to describe our relationship to Him:

John 15:4-5 Abide menō in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it Abide menō in the vine; no more can ye, except ye Abide menō in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that Abide menō in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Saved by faith, the Christian abides – dwells in – makes themselves at home in the Word of Christ. It is not a chore or an irritation or an inconvenience, but a JOY the Christian experiences as they come to the Word of Christ, the Holy Bible.

Change only comes from the Word of Christ.

When God saves you, you come from a life of emptiness and darkness and into the blessings of God. The shepherd boy called of Jesus did not stay in the field with the sheep, but through the Spirit our God changed him to be King David. The displaced Jew named Moses murders a man and, becoming a fugitive, is called by God from a Burning Bush. Through him, God writes Scripture, and leads Israel. Abram becomes Abraham, the father of many nations. A liar and a thief named Jacob meets God and is changed into Israel, the Prince of God and the father of the Chosen People. An unknown fisherman hears the Master call one day and, following Jesus, Peter becomes a fisher of men and an Apostle. Those who followed Christ found themselves molded by God, by the Word of Christ.

Illustrate: Several years ago a dear friend of mine Hoyt Wilson told this story. He said that someone offered to sell his dad a car one day and, after his dad looked it over quickly, he agreed to the sale because the price was so good. Hoyt said his dad paid the man off and then went back to work. Later on that day Hoyt said his dad went back to the car – a nice looking vehicle – and tried to start it. Nothing happened! When he opened the hood he discovered that the car had no engine. It looked good on the outside, but without an engine it was no more than a thousand pound paperweight! Beloved, if you are saved, God put an engine inside of you. That Engine is God the Holy Spirit. Jesus said of the Spirit:

John 14:16-17 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth …

Jesus told His listeners,

John 8:31 … If ye continue in My Word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed;

Word Study: The mark of the saved is that they CONTINUE or ABIDE or REST in Christ’s WORD. Jesus says that those who do so are His “disciples indeed”. The word “indeed” is the Greek alēthōs, which means “truthfully, surely, in reality”. Those who walk away from Christ’s Word do not bear the mark of the saved, but of the lost. The Child of God walks through this life while following Jesus.

Physical Birth Does Not Bring Spiritual Birth

John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Word Study: In verse 31 Jesus uses the ADVERB alēthōs, which meant in context “Genuine or Certain Disciples”. But in verse 32 Jesus switches to the NOUN form of the same word, alētheia. If you are genuinely saved, you will be bound to the Word of Christ. If you are genuinely saved, you will NOT be bound to the Word of Man. Jesus said,

“You who are believers following Me are the only ones who will know absolute Truth, and this Truth shall make you free”.

The Jews do not argue with Jesus about truth, but about their freedom. They are filled with pride, and blind because of it. They say:

John 8:33 They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

That which makes sin so insidious is that it loves to BLIND its recipient. Israel has been in bondage to Rome, paying taxes and tribute to Caesar, since the siege of 63 BC. An Idumean, a descendant of Esau and not Jacob, sat on the throne of Israel. The Jews were under Roman bondage. They were also under religious bondage, as the Pharisees and Sadducees twisted the Law of God to suit their desires. They are clearly ignoring their condition. Rather than debate them, Jesus obeyed the Word of God:

Proverbs 26:4 (NKJV) Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him. …

Jesus ignored the obvious, and spoke the truth.

John 8:34-36 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the son abideth ever. 36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Sin enslaves a person. If you give yourself over to alcohol or drugs, it will enslave you, making you want one more drink. If you give yourself over to sensuality, you will chase the feelings of pleasure or pain. Those who find themselves in sexual sin are not happy, but miserable people chasing a high they can never replicate. Sin enslaves. Jesus said “the servant abideth not in the house for ever”, that is, the servant of sin may reign NOW. Bill Gates, Whoopie Goldberg, Mark Zuckerberg, RuPaul, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Elton John, Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton …. no matter how famous, how powerful, how great, no matter that they run the house NOW, “the servant abideth not in the house for ever”. Robin Williams is dead. Whitney Houston is dead. Michael Jackson is dead. These were all on top for a time.

but the son abideth (menō) ever

The son of God never dies. Those who follow Jesus, though they may be relative unknowns in this life, are known of God. Those who are sons or daughters of God “ABIDES or REMAINS in the House of God forever”. The pretend believer, like Judas Iscariot, is with Christ for a time. Then Judas, finding another god that satisfies his passion, departs from the Lord. They show up for a while, then leave. They love neither Jesus nor His Word. But to those who are genuinely saved,

John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

If you have received Jesus as Lord and Savior, you are not enslaved to sin or death. Jesus defeated both on the Cross and in the empty Tomb. These people are not free, but enslaved, blinded by sin. It is shown in their actions.

Physical birth as “Children of Abraham” does not make you a saved person. King Ahab (1 Kings 21:25) was the most wicked person who ever lived, and he was a child of Abraham. King Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:28) encouraged idolatry in Northern Israel. King Baasha (1 Kings 15:28-16:11) murdered all of Jeroboam’s children. King Ahaziah (2 Kings 1:1-2) taught Israel to worship Baal and Baal-Zebub, false gods. These were all sons of Abraham, and all terribly lost.

Physical birth as a son of Abraham does not make you a child of God. You must be born of the Spirit, born again. If you are born of the Spirit, you may sin at times. But you do not SERVE sin. Sin is not your master. Salvation in Christ breaks the chains of sin. The Apostle said:

Romans 6:20-22 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. {21} What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things [is] death. {22} But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

We who are Christ’s are saved to serve God. We are not saved to serve SELF, nor SIN, but the One Who saved us. May God draw you, through His Spirit, into a right relationship with Him this very day. Amen and Amen.