Misapprehension of the disciples corrected.
I. THEIR STRANGE MISCONCEPTION. "They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?"
1. We cannot imagine the speakers to be capable of the absurdity of making a historical misstatement. The facts of Jewish history were universally known at Jerusalem. The Jews could not deny the Egyptian, Babylonian, Syrian, and Roman conquests. They either referred to the civil liberty which they had long enjoyed, or they meant to assert that they had never recognized their conquerors or acquiesced in their dominion.
2. Yet there was a serious misunderstanding springing from their prevailingly carnal tone. They seemed as yet unable to recognize the inner bondage of soul which is dissolved by grace.
II. OUR LORD'S ELUCIDATION OF THE MYSTERY. "Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin."
1. He refers to the habitual sinner, not to the man who commits an individual act of transgression. Such a man gives himself to sin, sells himself to work wickedness, and takes pleasure in sin.
2. Every sinner has a master, who has dominion over him, and gives wages to his servants. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:22), because he obeys it in the lusts thereof.
3. Perfect freedom is only to be enjoyed in perfect harmony with the Divine will, inasmuch as slavery to sin implies a false relationship to God.
4. Mark the contrasted situations of the servant and the Son. "And the servant abideth not in the house forever: the Son abideth ever."
(a) from guilt and condemnation;
(b) from the dominion of sin;
(c) from the accusing voice of the Law;
(d) from the darkness of ignorance and error;
(e) it is freedom of access to God at all times (Ephesians 2:18);
(f) it holds out the expectation of the glorious liberty of sons of God hereafter (Romans 8:21).