And you will know the truth...

So Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, “If you are faithful to what I have said, you are truly my disciples. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free!” John 8:31,32 

These well-known words are packed with so much goodness! The first phrase - "If you are faithful to what I have said, you are truly my disciples" - actually reads, in the Greek, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples." If you ABIDE in my word. Sound familiar?

Seven chapters from now, He'll say it to us this way:  "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples."

My friends, do you live in His words - not just the Scriptures generally - but His actual, chosen, stated-while-in-the-flesh words from the four Gospels? Have you walked around in them and allowed them to house your heart, even as He desires to have them enter your heart?

Then the second phrase: "And you will know the truth (future tense) and the truth will set you free (future tense)!" Our abiding in His words, our being truly His disciples, has an ongoingness that is never meant to end. We are today and tomorrow meant to be learning the truth and today and tomorrow meant to be set free by it. Consider John's words in 1 John 2: 

Yet I know that the touch of his Spirit never leaves you, and you don’t really need a human teacher. You know that his Spirit teaches you about all things, always telling you the truth and never telling you a lie. So, as he has taught you, live continually in him. Yes, now, little children remember to live continually in him. So that if he were suddenly to reveal himself we should still know exactly where we stand, and should not have to shrink away from his presence.

Oh, to Abide in His words, to be His disciples, to know the truth and to be really set free! All of John 8:31 and 32 is not only possible but available ​ to us through the finished work of Jesus. Do you believe it?