Look inside this book.Where the Bush is Burning: A Daily Devotional by [Thomas Tice]
Slave Or Free?

Slave Or Free?

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Jesus answered them, Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.  

John 8:34-36 

Are we slaves or are we free? In ancient society people were either slaves or free. It was one of the great divisions that existed at the time. When Christ spoke with the people before Him in the passage from which our text derives, He said, ‘You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ To that, they responded with, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, You will be made free?’ Our text is His response to that question. He is speaking of the spiritual enslavement of sin, which has physical, mental, social and spiritual ramifications. Sin is a practical outplay of extreme selfishness. It is the polar opposite of the selfless life. If we steal, we selfishly appropriate for ourselves what belongs to someone else. We do damage to them to satisfy ourselves. Other sins are similar. They damage someone else to satisfy us. If we live life like this, we serve whatever activity feeds those selfish desires. Christ says that the only way to become free from that is to know the truth. He is the embodiment of truth. To know Christ is to know the truth and knowing Him is what makes us genuinely free. 

Our Great God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You deliver us from ourselves and from our sin. 
We praise You that You  
bring us out of slavery unto freedom.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Walking In Freedom

Walking In Freedom

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

John 8:32 

And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.  

Psalm 119:45

If knowing the truth makes us free, how does that freedom look? The second portion of our text connects it with the precepts of the word of God. If we begin that discussion, we must include the role of Christ and of the Holy Spirit in how they lead us to exercise our freedom in relation to God’s word. The reason we must include Christ is that to exclude Him, or even merely pay lip service to Him will land us in a morass of letter-of-the-law performance devoid of true spirituality. Barren conformity to a checklist of religious exercises is the way of the Pharisee. Christ gives freedom from the slavery of sin but does not then place us into the bondage of letter-of-the-law obedience. The Holy Spirit renews us in the whole person after the image of Christ and enables us to die more and more unto sin. The pursuit of the precepts of God, yield likeness to Christ, which is true freedom. Christ is the answer to the question of how we shall live.  

Our Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice that You are the Living Word of God. 
We praise You that the written Word 
always brings us to You.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Free Indeed

Free Indeed

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

John 8:32  

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. 

John 8:36

How does knowing the truth make us free? The second portion of our text answers that question. As Christ is speaking to the Jews who believed in Him, He says. ‘You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.’ After that, He explains that to commit sin is to be a slave to it and that such a person is not a member of the household of God as a son of the family would be. He follows that explanation with the second portion of our text. Thus He ties knowledge of the truth and freedom to Himself. In the most straightforward manner He links these things together. If we want to know truth, we must know Christ. If we know Christ, Who is the embodiment of truth, we will be free. This is true freedom, and not some delusion. Many people believe that freedom means being able to indulge in what satisfies our natural desires. Christ frees us from the addictive dependency we have on those things. We become no longer slaves to those things. Instead, He makes us free with our knowledge of Him which He equates with our knowledge of the truth. We are then free indeed.  

Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. 
We praise You that, as we know You, 
You make us truly free.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Into All Truth

Into All Truth

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However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  

John 16:13-14 

How can we know truth?  The context of our text is Christ’s discourse to His disciples at the last supper. In that discourse He reveals many things about the work of the Holy Spirit. Our text is one of those revelations. We have begun to consider truth, knowing truth, and the freedom that comes with that knowledge. Our text ties into that discussion because it tells us how God reveals truth to us. He does so through the work of the Holy Spirit. According to Christ, the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. How does He do it? The second portion of our text makes it clear by saying that the Holy Spirit will glorify Christ and take what is Christ’s and show it to us. Thus our knowing the truth is inextricably tied to Christ. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to guide us into that truth. He does not magnify Himself, but Christ. This is an exciting prospect. The Holy Spirit will show us what we could never know by the most diligent effort we could muster without Him. He is our never-failing Guide to reveal Christ to us. 

Our Wise and Gracious God,  
we rejoice that You have given us the Holy Spirit. 
We praise You that He brings us 
to know the truth that is in Christ.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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