The truth will set you free

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."

John 8:31-32 (NIV)

The truth will set you free. That's one of those truths that I hold on to. The truth will set you free. Period. Well, no, not exactly. If you hold to my teaching... Wait a minute. We have to do something before the truth sets us free? We can't just wily-nily be doing what we want and have the truth set us free? Nope. Not gonna happen. Jesus said we must hold to His teaching. That means we must know His teaching. The verb translated "hold to" here is menō which means to remain, abide, sojourn, tarry. We must be actively living in His Word. It must be an active part of our lives. We should be reading it every day. We should be letting it affect every area of our lives. We should let it influence every decision we make. We should be clinging to it. THEN we will be His disciples. THEN we will know the truth. THEN the truth will set us free. Are you free?

Diligent Study

³⁹You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, ⁴⁰yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

John 5:39-40 (NIV)

In this passage Jesus is telling the people that the Scriptures point to Him. Despite all of their diligent study, they have failed to see the object of the Scriptures. They've read their Bibles, studied their commentaries, listened to their sermons and yet they haven't realized it's all about Jesus. They want eternal life. They read the Scriptures to point them to eternal life. Yet, they don't come to Jesus for eternal life. They are missing the point completely.

How often do I miss Jesus when I'm reading the Scriptures. How often do I, when I'm reading one of the "boring" passages in the Old Testament, fail to see that it's pointing to Jesus? At least I can say "not all the time." I do see Jesus in the Old Testament. By God's grace I can. Thank God!.

Dear God, I know that the Old Testament testifies to Jesus. Open my eyes that I might see Him proclaimed in Your Word. Help me to take that and proclaim to others so that they may see Him too. For Your glory, Amen.