May 19, 2023
The Evidence is On Your Face
“They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, You will become free?' Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.’”
John 8:33-34 (NASB)
I can remember years ago catching our daughter lying to my wife and I about a box of Oreo cookies. She was about three years old at the time. One morning, we got up and noticed Oreo crumbs on the floor in the kitchen. We called the kids down from their rooms to find out what happened. When my daughter Sara came down, we knew who the culprit was. It was written all over her face. She had a ring of Oreo cookies all around her mouth. As we asked her if she knew what happened to the cookies, she replied, “I don’t know.” The truth was written on her face. In spite of being caught red handed, she still said she didn’t know what happened. I couldn’t help but laugh and sent her on her way. I asked her to look in the mirror first though. The Jews needed to look into their own mirror and see what was written, not on their faces, but within their own history. And every Jew knew it…
“We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone;” The word, “enslaved,” is the word douleuō, meaning to be a slave, or to serve.[1] The root word is doulos, which is a slave, or bond-servant. The slave or bond-servant serves the needs of his master or ruler. The Jews didn’t understand this statement again by Jesus, or knowingly lied to Him. Robertson clears the air when he says: “This was a palpable untruth uttered in the heat of controversy. At that very moment the Jews wore the Roman yoke as they had worn that of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Alexander, the Ptolemies, the Syrian (Seleucid) kings. They had liberty for a while under the Maccabees.”[2] If we look at their argument in a biological context, we see they might be correct, however there was still a problem. While free most of the time, they still fell under the Roman ultimate authority. So, biologically, they were still under enslavement, but this is not what Jesus was talking about. In all Jesus discussed with the Jews, they still had a hard-wired externalist view. Jesus made it clear they needed to look to God for the freedom, through His Son because they were still in chains of sin. “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.’” This is the clarification they needed, “everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” Before these words comes, “Truly, truly.” They mean “Amen, and amen.” The double “amen” is the seal of truth. It meant they should probably listen to what He was about to say, but they were still slaves to their own motives in sin. We are all slaves to sin from biological birth. This is why spiritual rebirth is needed. It’s found in Jesus.
If we each look at our lives today, we often don’t see how bad we are at recognizing our lies. This is why we all have a need for God’s Word daily to penetrate our heart. It reveals the cookie crumbs on our face, even when we don’t see them. The Word of God allows us to look in the mirror and take a hard look to see where we went wrong. Remember, don’t try to pull the wool over God’s eyes. He sees it just like I saw the cookie crumbs on Sara’s face, even when she denied it.
[1] Robert L. Thomas, New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries : Updated Edition (Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc., 1998).
[2] A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Jn 8:33.