In John 8:31-36 What did Jesus mean when He talked about being free?

Question

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[a] 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.

JULIA, you are right, ONLY God is to be worshiped and ONLY God a can forgive sins. Both of these were done by Jesus, as well over 240 prophecies about the Messiah were full filled in Jesus.

Answer 1

The Jews took it to mean a literal slave, like their forefathers were.

Jesus makes us free, 'set' being an alternative translation.
Strong's Number: 1659
Eleutheroo
1. to make free
2. set at liberty: from the dominion of sin

So Jesus was saying that the freedom he offered was complete.

The word 'Ontos' being used in the Greek:
Strong's Number: 3689
1. truly, in reality, in point of fact, as opposed to what is pretended, fictitious, false, conjectural
2. that which is truly etc., that which is indeed
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/Greek/grk.cgi?number=3689&version=kjv

So the believer can be confident that Jesus is the one who could do this thing, and doubt could be removed, a typical thing for God to promise because He spends so much time telling people that we can trust Him: He is trustworthy, without fail.

The freedom he is promising is away from the wages of sin, which is death. The freedom includes salvation, or describes salvation, and what that word means, which isn't just being saved! Is means many things!
salvation

Soteria - ( Strong's Number: 4991)

1. deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation
1. deliverance from the molestation of enemies
2. in an ethical sense, that which concludes to the souls safety or salvation
1. of Messianic salvation
2. salvation as the present possession of all true Christians
3. future salvation, the sum of benefits and blessings which the Christians, redeemed from all earthly ills, will enjoy after the visible return of Christ from heaven in the consummated and eternal kingdom of God.

Fourfold salvation: saved from the penalty, power, presence and most importantly the pleasure of sin. A.W. Pink
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/Greek/grk.cgi?number=4991&version=kjv

So Jesus was saying a lot though they are boiled down to relatively few words. These people heard a lot more at times than just simple little words. They were being promised the desire of all spiritual people: eternity with God unspoiled.

Answer 2

The gospel of John is tricky, especially in this section which is primarily concerned with explaining who Jesus is and why it's important to believe what he says. The passages you wonder about are part of a larger narrative which begins at John 7:37 wherein Jesus attempts to explain that his message is about "spirit" (usually understood to be compassion and forgiveness) and not the Letter of Law. Thus follows the incident of "the woman caught in adultery" who is nearly stoned to death until Js intervenes by suggesting that the guiltless should initiate the ancient capital punishment "let he without sin cast the first stone" upon which the mob slinks away in guilt and contrition.

The material you cite follows immediately from this incident; the implication is that the children of Abraham have avoided slavery to foreign masters (such as the Egyptians, Canaanites, Romans, etc;) nevertheless have been entrapped by their own legalistic understandings of tradition and law which would lead them to execute (rather than forgive) a person for a transgression that they, too, have committed.

Hence the explication in 8:40 that "now you seek to kill me" which John deploys as an example of how the children of Abraham are still caught in limited and somewhat hypocritical notions of piety which will lead to Jesus' execution.

In this context "Freedom" is primarily an escape from the bondage of narrow thinking which destroys people rather than loves or forgives them. This is why the passage ends with a fairly scary observation from Jesus that "now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth"

In short, the truth has not set his listeners free, rather it has enraged them to homicide; in John's view, this is necessary in order to advance the larger notion that Jesus must be unjustly killed in order to "save" humankind . . .

Answer 3

He must be talking about spiritual death, because it is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment. In Revelation 20, we see that many of those who keep His saying are beheaded for there testimony, so John 8:51 can't necessarily mean that we will not die physically. Although some will not see physical death before the return of Jesus. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

Answer 4

I think that the key is in verse 35 - 36

"Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

Jesus came to this Earth so that we could all become children of God. The Jews whose aim was to obey all of God's commands but who had no personal relationship with Him were no different to slaves in a household. Jesus came to elevate them from slaves to sons of God.

God bless you!

Answer 5

That's ridiculous. "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin."

Nobody is a slave to sin unless they CHOOSE to be. We all have free will and are perfectly capable of making choices in our lives to do wrong or right.

And if we DO sin, we also are perfectly capable of asking God for forgiveness, or whomever we've harmed in whatever ways, and never doing it again, AND repairing whatever damage we did.

THAT is true repentance.

Nobody needs "the Son" to set them free. We already are free, if we choose to be.

Jesus also seems to be telling people to worship him there, which is idolatry. Only God is to be worshipped, and God is not a man, as it says numerous times in the Torah. The Messiah is a man. Not a god/man, not the product of a union of a god and a virgin, this is ancient paganism, and it has never existed in Judaism.

Answer 6

Jesus was telling the Jews that if they knew Him as savior that He would take away their sin debt. Since we have all fallen short and committed sin in our lives. With out sin hanging over you you can live free from guilt and know God and walk in His path for your life.There is no peace in this world except the peace given to believers by God.

Answer 7

Instead of being in a Trinity, Jesus and his Father were one by being in agreement with each other as Father and Son. Never was there any disagreement between them. The witness that the Father gave and the witness that the Son gave were in agreement.

Jesus the Son said to the Jews: “The Father who sent me is with me. Also, in your own Law it is written, ‘The witness of two men is true.’ I am one that bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” (John 8:16-18) Jesus here spoke of himself and of his Father as two distinct individuals. So by them enough testimony was provided for the Jews to believe, since testimony was required of two witnesses at least. Though two distinct individuals, yet the Father and the Son were one in their witness or testimony, because both their testimonies agreed.
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Jesus was telling the people who believed in him that through him there is freedom from sin and everlasting life. That whomever believed in him (Jesus) would be free from sin, as if they followed Jesus and his teachings they would gain everlasting life.

Answer 8

It means that in this world it is impossible for us to not sin. Jesus came so that we can be free of sin to enter the kingdom of heaven through his mercy and grace. We are all Sons of God, and he made it possible for us to fulfill our destinies.

Lucifer, Satan, and the gang really screwed things up for us here on earth. Jesus (God) has taken pity on us and feels that there is something worthy in these bodies of material sin.

It means, we ALL have a chance at eternal life.

Answer 9

john 83136 jesus talked free

Answer 10

They say things from the Bible shouldn't be interpreted but just read and anyone has the freedom to understand what they feel like, because it's a sacred book for the soul. The most obvious idea is though that only with belief in Him our souls can be saved. We are humans, so we are sinners, and therefore, slaves...But He can save us.