Read: John 8:31-36

You are probably familiar with the children’s game that invites the contestants to guess how many pieces of candy are in a jar.  It’s a fun game.  There are always a lot of guesses.  But there is only one right answer.   Still, no one has to guess the right answer to win, so this is one of those situations in life where close really can count. 

Sometimes, though, we’re engaged in something more consequential than guessing the number of pieces of candy in a jar, and so it is vitally important that we get the answer exactly right.  Jesus speaks about just such a situation in today’s Gospel reading when he tells us: "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

The truth that Jesus speaks about is more than just a close guess, so it pays us to explore what it is that Jesus means when he speaks about the truth that will set us free.

Look again at how he says it: “The truth will set you free.”  Truth for Jesus isn’t just something that we know, like the number of pieces of candy in a jar.  It is something that acts in our lives.  It does something to us.  It isn’t just something that we use.  Instead, it uses us.

In his book Beyond Belief to Conviction, Josh McDowell helps us to understand how this works.  Josh says that at the foundation of a person’s life we find that person’s beliefs.  In turn, our beliefs shape our values, and our values drive our actions, until eventually our beliefs become our behavior.  If we do not allow the truth to act in our lives, then something less desirable will take its place, and that will be what shapes our values, actions and behaviors.

If we hold to his teaching, then, and only then, does the truth that Jesus preached really set us free.  Because then, and only then, do we truly enter into his words, encounter his person, receive the life-giving power of the gospel, and transcend the power of death.

The truth that Jesus proclaims is an active truth, and it challenges us to act accordingly.  It’s a compelling truth.  If you truly hear it, you cannot help but be affected.

Jesus was sometimes almost ruthlessly clear about this.  Whenever people confronted him, he was not afraid to confront them with the truth.  Some of those individuals ran from the truth. Others were staggered by it.  A precious few embraced it, difficult as it was.  Difficult because they had to face the truth about themselves, and the reality of who Christ really was, someone who spoke truth in a very different way than they had ever heard it before.  He was actually referring to himself as the truth, a very real truth that is not a matter of guesswork or of personal opinion.

That kind of truth is eternal; it existed before the world began.  When we come up against that kind of truth, then each of us must ask ourselves this question: How do I handle the truth?

There’s an old hymn that asks the question: “What will you do with Jesus?” The chorus goes like this:

“What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?’"

Let me suggest three things that you should do with this truth called Jesus.  First, meet the truth - don’t be afraid to face up to it.  Second, know the truth.  Hold to his teaching and abide in him.  Third, live the truth.  Be an authentic Christian.  Put your trust in God’s grace made known in Jesus Christ, because the grace that helps us to stay in God’s word also teaches us the truth, and ultimately sets us free.