And the truth will set you free. John 8:32b

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

The phrase in our title — especially in the days around the 5^th of May, the date of the liberation of the Netherlands in World War II fills my mind with the stories of people who left the fences of the concentration camp behind them at the end of the war. I mostly read these stories in books; how could it be otherwise for someone thirty years old? And when I read these stories, sometimes I let my imagination run:

After being locked away for years, often in very poor conditions, tasting freedom!

After years of forced labour, having a free life again!

That must have been a deeply profound and amazing experience!

Long live freedom! It sounded 56 years ago in the streets, when the Canadian tanks rolled into a village or town. The flags were raised and there were celebrations in the streets. Finally, everybody could move freely and nobody had to hide any longer.

Free and yet not free⤒🔗

Still, the celebration of Liberation Day makes us pause and reflect. We live in a free country, but for how many, elsewhere in the world, is that different? And what to think of the many asylum seekers who live a more or less detained life in a refugee centre, even in our own country? Or farmer families who could not leave their farms, which were under quarantine (for diseases on the farms)? Or all the elderly that can not leave their homes any more because their bodies can not muster the strength?

It is clear that with the liberation of 1945, no matter how amazing, complete freedom has not yet been achieved. People can still be completely spiritually imprisoned! Lives cannot flourish, held captive by greed, addiction to drugs, alcohol, or social media, or anything else that can hold you enslaved. Those who keep their eyes peeled can see a lot of people who are not free, even in a free country.

Liberation by the truth←⤒🔗

The message of the Bible is clear: that as long as God though his Son the Lord Jesus Christ does not intervene in your life, you are not really free! Even though we feel free as the breeze, we must face the fact that the door of the prison cell of our lives is firmly locked! For some, this cell is large, and there seems ample space for a free “game of life.” For others the cell is cramped. Eventually everyone’s cell walls will close in, even if only through the last lock of death! Through the entire Bible, God makes crystal clear that this is the consequence of sin. We no longer have the full space of life, because we did not find God’s space sufficient and felt we had to choose our own freedom, freedom that was not freedom at all, but imprisonment. To celebrate real liberation, something has to be done about the core problem: that our relationship with God needs to be restored. If we can return to him, we will also find space to live in freedom. Jesus says that the truth will set us free. If that truth only tells what our situation is like, it is not really liberating. The truth only shows us how stuck we are.

Liberation by the Son←⤒🔗

But when Jesus Christ connects this later with his redemptive work, a vision of liberation begins to appear. By the way, Jesus does not keep the truth from us. He tells us “but whoever does not believe is condemned already” (John 3:18b). In other words, we are prisoners of the death that will be the verdict of our lives. In the war many people gave their lives in the fight for freedom. But they could not purchase full freedom with it. Jesus paid our debt with his death on the cross. He holds the key that brings us from the dungeon of death into the space of life. We often barely feel the liberation, seeing the power of death all around and the pain of diseases holding us. Yet if our life by faith is bound to him, we can look forward to the great liberation day. Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, paid with his life for my freedom! I may already live in that freedom, no matter how many ties bind me, because I trust in him who holds the key that brings me to complete freedom!

Long live freedom!←⤒🔗

Long live Freedom! This would be a good title for a war story, but it would be an even better title to put on the spine of my Bible. In the Bible God makes the truth of our life clear in a brilliant and surprisingly honest manner, and he makes clear what our situation is! But God also tells us how he wants to be our liberator in the confrontation with that truth in his merciful love. He visits us through his Son in our imprisonment to lead us to freedom, as he once led the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Long live freedom! You can truly say this if the name of Jesus is tied to it. Then the flag can truly be raised. Only the Son sets you truly free! Has he brought you to the freedom of a life in communion with God?