[2026. 3. 29.] The Truth Will Set You Free | John 8:31–36
Sermon by Rev. Jinkook (Danny) Sohn (Hope of Heaven Baptist Chuch)
2026. 3. 29. 주일예배 설교- 요한복음 강해 26
본문: 요한복음 8:31–36
제목: 진리가 너희를 자유롭게 하리라
설교자: 손진국 목사 (하늘소망교회)
Today’s passage contains a very well known statement: “The truth will set you free.” Even before I believed in Jesus, I already knew this verse. Looking back, before I came to faith at the age of 33, I think I knew about three Bible verses. One was Genesis 1:1 (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”). I remember receiving a Bible, opening it to read, but because I didn’t believe in creation, I couldn’t read past that verse and closed the Bible.
The second verse I knew was John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world…”). I knew this because it was always written on the gospel tracts I received. And the last verse I knew was the one in today’s passage: “The truth will set you free.” This was actually the motto of the school I attended. But I didn’t know it came from the Bible until long after I entered the school. And I thought the “truth” mentioned there referred to academic knowledge. So I interpreted it as: if I study hard, I will be able to do what I want and become free.
In fact, aren’t many people today longing for this kind of freedom? “I want to live doing whatever I want.” “I don’t want anyone interfering with me.” “My life is mine to decide.” These statements reveal the modern person’s desire for freedom.
However, paradoxically, the more people shout for freedom, the more bound they seem to be. People work hard at home, at work, or at school hoping to gain freedom, but eventually that desire turns into wanting recognition, popularity, and praise from others. Then they begin comparing themselves with others, checking what others are doing through social media, and without realizing it, feelings of inferiority, anxiety, depression, and fear of failure grow inside them.
Outwardly they may look free, but inwardly many are bound.
In today’s passage, Jesus teaches the way to true freedom. And He declares that this freedom comes from the truth—not academic truth, but from Jesus Himself. Through today’s message, I pray that we may understand God’s will for us.
1. Those who abide in the Word are true disciples.
[John 8:31–32] To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.”
Jesus speaks to “the Jews who had believed him.” In other words, He is speaking to believers. What does He say? “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.”
Here we discover an important truth: believing and becoming a disciple are not the same. Faith is the beginning; discipleship is the process.
The word “abide” (μένω, meno) is frequently used in the Gospel of John. It means more than simply staying in a place; it means remaining continuously in a relationship or state—“to continue,” “to dwell,” “to cling to,” “to not depart,” “to have intimate fellowship.” Thus, to “abide in the Word” is not merely to hear the Word but to live according to it; not to treat the Word as knowledge but as the standard; not as information but as spiritual nourishment. This is the life of a true disciple.
Are you a disciple? Ask yourself: “Am I truly a disciple?” A disciple is not someone who merely believes, but someone who abides in the Word.
And Jesus gives a promise.
[John 8:32] “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The word “know” here is the Greek ginosko (γινώσκω), which refers not to intellectual knowledge but relational and experiential knowledge. In other words, when we meet Jesus personally and experience His Word in our lives, then we truly come to know the truth and experience freedom.
When we abide in the Word, we come to know the truth, and the truth sets us free.
In 2013, a young man named Li Wei, who had been arrested in an underground church in Henan, China, testified about abiding in the Word after he was released. He said, “They confiscated my Bible, and only the verses I had memorized remained. That’s when I realized: if I don’t memorize the Word, even my faith can be taken away.” He confessed that the verses he had memorized in prison protected his heart.
The faith of the underground church in China shows that abiding in the Word is not a religious habit but spiritual survival.
May you hold firmly to the Word and enjoy true freedom in the truth as true disciples of Jesus.
[Application] Do I listen to the Word as “passing information,” or do I cling to it as the “standard of my life”? Do I set aside even ten minutes a day to remain before the Word?
2. True freedom is found only when we are freed from slavery to sin.
[John 8:33–34] They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
When Jesus speaks about freedom, the Jews respond by saying they have “never been slaves.” But Jesus reveals their true spiritual condition: “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
“Slave to sin” means that sin is the master, and we are dragged around by it.
Today, the forms of sin that bind us are many: lust, comparison and inferiority, addiction to approval, smartphone addiction, anger and wounds, repeated guilt… All these things grip our hearts and rob us of freedom.
When Jesus calls people “slaves to sin,” He is showing that sin is not merely moral failure but a spiritual state of bondage. Therefore, human willpower cannot break it; only the grace of Jesus can set us free.
Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist, was taken to Auschwitz during World War II. He personally witnessed what happens to humans in extreme conditions. He wrote, “People betrayed each other for a piece of bread. They sold their conscience to survive. What was more terrifying than the external prison was the ‘inner prison.’” Frankl realized that what binds a person is not iron bars but inner despair, fear, desire, and anger. He said, “A person can be deprived of everything except the last freedom—the freedom to choose one’s attitude. But even that freedom disappears when the inner self is captured by sin and despair.”
Frankl’s experience vividly illustrates Jesus’ teaching: sin dominates, binds the heart, and steals freedom.
I myself was once addicted to alcohol. I drank so much that I couldn’t go a day without finishing a bottle of whiskey. When I saw homeless people carrying alcohol in plastic bags, I understood exactly how they felt. Then one day, after listening to a pastor’s sermon for an hour, I felt overwhelmed and distressed. The passage I heard—Romans 8:5–8—kept confronting me: “Are you a person of the flesh or a person of the Spirit?”
Realizing that I had been living as a person of the flesh—constantly thinking about when, where, and with whom I would drink—I prayed for the first time according to the Word: “I don’t want to be a person dragged by the flesh. I want to live as a person of the Spirit according to God’s Word. I want to quit drinking. Holy Spirit, help me.” And from that day on, I was fine without alcohol, and I no longer even desired it. From that day, I was freed from what had bound me.
What is freedom? Freedom is not doing whatever you want; it is the ability to do what you ought to do and the ability not to do what you should not do.
I once played table tennis with someone who had been a member of the Korean national team. His name was Park Ji Hyun, two years younger than me, who won gold medals in the men’s team event at the 1986 and 1990 Asian Games. He came to New Zealand in 2003 to study English and later became the coach of the Yemen national team as a missionary. Watching him play, I saw him point to where he wanted the ball to go, and he sent it there precisely—and avoided sending it where he shouldn’t. I thought, “That is freedom.” How much practice and training must he have gone through to reach that level? Freedom is not simply given; it requires training.
When I taught table tennis, beginners would swing wildly. They hit however they wanted, but the ball never went where it should—it flew off in random directions.
The Christian life is the same. We are not meant to be dragged around by the power of sin but to cling to Jesus and live freely according to His will.
[Application] What sins are binding me or pulling me down? Am I experiencing true freedom in the Lord?
3. Only the freedom the Son gives is eternal freedom.
[John 8:35–36] “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.”
This passage teaches us where true freedom comes from. The “house” refers to being with God the Father, where true freedom is enjoyed—heaven, the kingdom of God. Jesus declares that the source of freedom is in Himself, the Son. A slave may stay in the house temporarily, but the Son remains forever. Only the Son has the authority to grant true liberation.
Freedom comes not from “appearance” but from “relationship.” Freedom is not a “condition” but an “identity.”
The freedom the world gives is “doing whatever you want,” but the freedom Jesus gives is the power to break free from sin and to please God.
John Newton, who once captured Africans and sold them as slaves as a slave ship captain, cried out to God when he faced death in a storm. His life completely changed afterward. He said, “I once sold slaves, but now the grace of Christ has set me free.” His transformation influenced countless abolitionists. He is the author of the hymn Amazing Grace. Newton once said, “I am a great sinner, but Christ is a greater Savior.”
Remember: freedom is not something we earn by proving “who we are,” but something given based on “whose we are.” Freedom is not something we fight to achieve but something given when we confess Jesus as our Lord.
[Application] What kind of freedom am I pursuing? How is the freedom I desire different from the freedom Jesus gives?
“The truth will set you free”—in this famous statement, truth is not academic knowledge or information but a Person. Jesus did not merely teach the truth; He is the truth. Therefore, freedom is not the result of knowledge but the fruit that flows from a relationship with Jesus.
When we abide in the Word, acknowledge our slavery to sin, and receive the freedom of the Son, then we finally experience true freedom—the deepest liberation God gives.
May all of you enjoy the true freedom that comes only in Jesus.
하늘소망교회(담임 손진국 목사)는 뉴질랜드 오클랜드 북부 실버데일에 세워진 한인교회로 '하나님의 마음으로 사람을 살리는 교회'입니다.
Hope of Heaven Baptist Church (Senior Pastor: Rev. Jinkook Sohn) is a Korean church established in Silverdale, Auckland, New Zealand. It is a church that saves people with the heart of God.