“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” -John 8:32

There’s a University in the Midwest that proudly displays these strong words as a motto in its journalism department. This is a famous Bible statement Jesus made. American society enshrines both truth and freedom as stand-alone priority values. And it makes sense. Knowing truth means we can distinguish truth from lies. And there is freedom in that, in having a mind unburdened by what is not true. But let’s unpack around this famous verse and see what else Jesus said that John faithfully recorded.

In John 8:31, we learn that Jesus is speaking to Jews who believed that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples … and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

Jesus goes on to say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

So in one verse, Jesus says that truth will set these folks free. In another verse, he says the Son (himself) sets them free. What?

It makes more sense when we consider what Jesus said to Thomas the disciple in John 14:6. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The truth that Jesus is referring to in John 8 is Himself. And the freedom he’s referencing is freedom from sin. Some in our culture have this notion that truth comes only when a person has thrown off all influences and is truly able to step aside from all ideas and beliefs. Once a person does that, they can find truth. Freedom must come first before truth.

Yet the Bible gives a different view. The Bible says that one must take on the glorious yoke of truth that is the person of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Only then can freedom be found. And that freedom is not autonomous freedom. It is freedom from the penalty of sin through the saving grace of Jesus alone.

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’” -Jeremiah 29:11

Of famous Bible passages, this ranks up there. Without a doubt, these are amazing words, and with the Holy Spirit these words have filled the hearts of countless Christians with hope. Outside of this particular verse, not much else is regularly quoted from the prophet Jeremiah, who brought God’s message of judgment to the nation of Judah about six hundred years before the birth of Christ.

What stands out about this passage from Jeremiah 29 is that it is part of a letter Jeremiah wrote to exiles taken from Jerusalem to Babylon (Jeremiah 29:1). Picture this scene: God’s people, the chosen ones of all the earth, have been routed by a foreign king and are forced to live away from their homeland under the rule of the Babylonians, their sworn enemies. They were taken from the land Yahweh gave to them. And in this Jeremiah writes to them, in the verses that immediately precede verse 11.

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

In other words, they are to make themselves at home, and continue to live their lives. They are to continue to be God’s people regardless of their unwelcome location, and God has a purpose for them being here.

And then verses 10-13.

“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”