³² And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 

³² And you shall know the truth,

If a person does engage with the truth, with the reality of who Jesus is, then something genuine will happen to them. These people will go beyond the mechanics of religion and will enter the liberating power of “the truth.”

“Know” is experiential knowledge of the truth. It is truth about Jesus. It is one thing to know about Christ academically, but it is another to experience His saving grace in one’s life.

John refers to “truth” seven times (vv. 32 ([two times], 40, 44, 45, 46). Truth and Jesus are closely associated so that knowledge of the truth is connected to growing as a disciple.

and the truth shall make you free.”

Truth liberates. It will make the will unfettered. Genuine engagement with Christ will free the soul to do the will of God. This freedom comes from without. Truth can only be validated by itself. Either it is real, or it is not. Truth in this context is Christ Himself.

PRINCIPLE:

Becoming a growing believer means appropriating the revelation of Christ to experience.

APPLICATION:

Faith alone does not save a soul. It is what we place our faith in that saves. It is the object of what we believe that gives us eternal life. In a generation of skepticism, it is refreshing that we can “know the truth.” Others live in despair and hopelessness.

The truth will set people free from spiritual slavery. Freedom biblically refers to liberty to do what one should do, not what one wishes to do. This person is no longer under slavery to sin. There is liberty in Christ (2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 5:1, 13; cf. 4:4–7; James 1:25).