Skip to content

Dispelling the myth

John 8: 24-36: “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

John 8: 24-36: “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Maybe you have heard of a show on the Discovery Channel called Myth Busters? What they do is take a commonly held myth and see if it holds up to scrutiny.

If it proves to be true, then they acknowledge this, but if it proves to be untrue, then the myth gets labeled “Busted.”

Well, today I would like to analyse a commonly held myth and see if it holds up to scrutiny. Many people think that if they enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, they will lose their freedom and their lives will be miserable.

Well, let’s have a look at this. A good question might be, “What are you doing outside of a relationship with the risen Christ now that is so important?”

Working for the weekend and then hanging out with friends and partying? Keeping up with the Joneses? Climbing the social ladder?

But is that freedom? Bob Dylan wrote a song a few years ago that went “You’ve got to serve somebody. It might be the devil or it might be the Lord, but you’re going to have to serve somebody.”

You see, the devil is an expert fisherman. He knows just the right bait to tempt us. He dangles just the right thing for each of our weaknesses in front of our noses and we look at it longingly.

We nibble at it, we circle around it and, before we know it, we have a hook firmly in our cheek. Just when we thought we were exercising our freedom, we find that we are ensnared and being dragged to our destruction.

But Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”

You see, to live only makes sense if you have something to live for. Psalm 90: 10 tells us, “The length of our days is 70 years or 80 if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass and we fly away.”

When set against the vastness of eternity, our short span of life on this earth isn’t even a tick on the clock. To mortgage eternity for a few cheap thrills now seems a bit shortsighted doesn’t it?

Jesus came to this earth to free us from a hollow meaningless existence. He told Nicodemus in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but receive eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”

He came to set us free! Free from slavery to things that would destroy us; free from going it alone; and most importantly, free from the eternal consequences that we all deserve on account of our sin.

Instead He gives us the daily confidence that our eternal salvation is secure through simple faith in Him on account of His death and resurrection. That is true freedom, and it is found only in Christ!

So does Jesus Christ want to take your freedom away and make your life miserable?

No, just the opposite: “Myth Busted!!”