The first concentration camp to be opened in Nazi Germany was Dachau. It was, like all concentration camps, a place of unspeakable horror. Prisoners were worked to exhaustion and many were gassed to death in the camp showers.

I’d like to show you the main gate leading to the entrance of the camp. Here it is:

Inscribed on the gate are the German words “Arbeit Macht Frei.” The words mean “Work Sets You Free.” They were placed at the entrance to Dachau and a number of other concentration camps by SS General Theodore Eicke.

People debate today Eicke’s exact motives for putting these words over the concentration camps: “Work Sets You Free.” Was it a deliberate mockery of the enslaved prisoners? Did he honestly intend to communicate that those prisoners who worked the hardest and served the most faithfully would survive longer and may eventually be freed? Or was he simply calling for conformity and obedience?

Whatever Eicke’s motives were, these words – “Work Sets You Free” – were, in fact, a derisive mockery of all those unfortunate souls who passed through the gates of Dachau and Auschwitz and other camps. They were a mockery because the prisoners were forced to work but most never saw the promised freedom. In fact, they were worked to exhaustion then discarded.

In Dachau, there was a playwright named Jura Soyfer and a composer named Herbert Zipper. They worked in the camp as “horses” and hauled carloads of heavy stone through the camp. All the while, they worked under the shadow of these words: “Work Sets You Free.” They saw the terrible irony of these mocking words, “Work Sets You Free.” They knew that their work was not setting them free. In truth, it was only making their imprisonment worse. So they responded by secretly writing the “Dachau Song” in September 1938. The song spoke sarcastically of the false hope of freedom found in the words on the gate. It was soon learned by other prisoners. It went:

Barbed wire, loaded with death
is drawn around our world.
Above a sky without mercy
sends frost and sunburn.
Far from us are all joys,
far away our homeland, far away our women,
when we march to work in silence
thousands of us at the break of day.
But we have learned the solution of Dachau
and became as hard as steel:
Be a man, comrade,
stay a human being, comrade,
do a good job, get to it, comrade,
for work, work makes you free!

I think we can all sympathize with the bitterness of these words. Not by experience, of course, but in solidarity we surely understand why these men would reject this false promise of freedom. After all, a false freedom is a true slavery. We should distrust false freedoms.

Yet, we can be blinded to false freedoms as well, no? In truth, you might say that our nation in particular is prone to blindness in this area. We like to think of ourselves as free, and, in a sense, we are. We have political freedom, and we should thank God for that great gift. But political freedom is freedom of the soul, is it?  In other ways, we are the most enslaved “free” people in the world, are we not?

In 2009, Greek Orthodox theologian and philosopher, David Bentley Hart, published his astounding book, Atheist Delusions. In it, he argued that modern people have elevated freedom to the place of the ultimate good and ideal. He also argues, though, that our freedom is essentially a kind of nihilism, a belief in nothing. Whereas earlier philosophers spoke of true freedom as the freedom to become what we should become, modern people have defined freedom simply as the freedom to do what we want. But this is an empty freedom. More than that, it is a kind of slavery, for it enslaves us to our own desires. Hart explains:

“It is, at the very least, instructive to realize that our freedom might just as well be seen – from certain more antique perspectives – as a kind of slavery: to untutored impulses, to empty caprice, to triviality, to dehumanizing values. And it can do no harm occasionally to ask where a concept of freedom whose horizon is precisely and necessarily nothing – a concept that is, as I have said, nihilist in the most exact sense – ultimately leads.”[1]

This is a valid point. Like the Jews to whom Christ spoke in our text this morning, we have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are free when, in reality, many of us are slaves. There are men and women in Arkansas who are enslaved to their jobs. They would never say so, of course, but, in truth, many are. There are people all around enslaved to this or that addiction, this or that need, this or that desire. People are enslaved by money, by power, by sex, by religion, by vanity, by their own desires.

We are an enslaved people, if we look at it rightly, but there is freedom to be had, and it can be found in Christ.

The Lord Jesus begins by speaking to those who profess to believe in Him.

^31a So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him,

Now this is a fascinating and troubling verse. It is fascinating because, if you recall, verse 30 revealed to us that many believed on Jesus after He spoke of Himself as the light of the world. So our text last week ended with people believing in Jesus and our text this morning begins with Jesus speaking “to the Jews who had believed in him.”

The trouble comes in the question of whether or not those who believed in verse 30 are the same as those who believe here in verse 31. It is troubling because those to whom Jesus speaks in verse 31 will, in a short period of time, turn on Jesus and want to destroy Him.

Some suggest that the believers in verse 30 are a different group; that they were true believers but that they departed before the episode beginning in verse 31 commenced. Others suggest that this group is the same but it is a mixed bag: there are true believers among them and then others who did not really believe at all but only professed to do so.

Regardless, this much is certain from what follows: there are those who profess to be believers, who claim to have trusted in Christ, but who have never truly believed and who have no real intention of following Jesus. There are people who will say, “I believe!” but who will then turn around, when they get a real look at who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him, and will hate Jesus and want to destroy Him.

These people in verse 31 claim to believe, and Jesus immediately responds with a conditional statement:

^31b “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

“If…” That is crucial. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.”

To be a believer is to (a) abide in Christ and (b) become a disciple.

This is no mere shallow, surface belief. This is no mere assent of the mind to an idea. This, on the contrary, is a giving of the entire self to Christ Jesus, a laying of one’s life at the feet of Jesus, and the resignation of one’s will to the purposes of Jesus.

They believe, but not really.

They believe, but they do not abide.

I used to meet with a group of men for a time of prayer each week. We would meet, give voice to our requests, praises, and concerns, then pray together. One young man was particularly earnest in his prayers. He consistently prayed with great passion and seriousness in the name of Jesus Christ.

Sometime later I noticed that this man began to be increasingly absent from church. I emailed him to inquire as to his whereabouts. He responded by telling me that he had been spending a good bit of time studying a particular brand of Judaism with a man on the internet. He later shared with me that he no longer believed in Jesus Christ. When I asked him to clarify exactly what he meant, he shared with me that he no longer believed in the deity of Christ, Christ’s atonement on the cross, or the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He told me that he now rejected, with no hesitation, the content of the Christian message. When I informed him that I wanted to talk face-to-face, he refused. When I told him that I intended to show up at his house to talk, he informed me that he was more than capable of handling himself and that I had best not step foot on his property.

It was a heartbreaking and bewildering thing, and one I think about often. When this became increasingly public, people would ask about how to understand what had happened. The bottom-line question seemed to be, “What does this mean? Was he a believer or not?”

Of course, the easy thing to say is that, no, he had never believed. I think, though, that that answer was problematic for those of us who had prayed with him on numerous occasions. True, it could be that he never believed. But it also could be that he had a kind of belief that never developed into genuine conviction and discipleship.

How about you? Are you abiding in Christ, walking with Him as a disciple of His daily? Are you abiding in His word, taking nourishment from His will and His glory? Or have you merely said at some point, many years ago, “Yeah, I believe in that”?

^31b “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

It is not until we believe in such a way that we abide that we are truly disciples. Only then, Jesus says, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

True freedom is given to those who truly follow Jesus. True freedom is found in enacted faith. “Faith alone saves,” someone has said, “but faith that saves is not alone.”

You might be here this morning and you might say, “It doesn’t work. Christianity doesn’t work. I asked Jesus into my heart. I go to church. I put money in the plate. But it doesn’t work. I don’t feel free. I still feel defeated. I still am defeated. It doesn’t work.”

But you must understand that you can do all of those things and not truly be a disciple. Are you daily walking with Jesus? Have you embraced His life as your own? On Monday morning, at work, at school, at home, are you walking with Jesus?

Jesus said that He came to make us free and that, when He does so, He will make us free indeed. Jesus gives perfect freedom, but He gives it to those who abide.

In truth, many are frustrated at their lack of freedom but they do not wish to abide. They wish, instead, to live off the inertia of some prayer they prayed as a child. Some people say, “I have trusted in Jesus but I still don’t feel free.” To some the answer should be, “I expect you don’t. You prayed a prayer when you were eight, but you haven’t prayed earnestly to the Lord in the thirty-five years since. You haven’t opened your Bible to drink from the Word of God in decades. You prayed a prayer, but you are not abiding. How do you expect freedom to come to one who will not follow?”

Jesus sets free all who come to Him in faith, but this is not a faith of mere words. It is an enacted, living, trusting, abiding faith.

The Jews respond to Jesus’ promise of freedom with an astounding audacity.

³³ They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

On the face of it, this is patently absurd! What do they mean, “We…have never been enslaved to anyone”? But of course they have! They have just finished celebrating the Festival of Booths in which they recalled God’s gracious delivery of His people in their wilderness wanderings. They wandered in the wilderness when they were delivered from Egypt…where they had been slaves.

The Jews had indeed been enslaved! They had been enslaved to the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Persians. They were currently enslaved to Rome.

Such is the pride of man that it cannot even see its own enslavement. It was that way two millennia ago. It is that way today. Pride blinds us to slavery

I grew up in South Carolina. I grew up aware of the fact that my home state was the first to secede from the Union and the last to rejoin. The Civil War began off the coast of Charleston when Citadel cadets fired on Union troops in Fort Sumter. I grew up aware of this, but I wasn’t always clear on the fact that we lost.

I grew up hearing people say, “Lee surrendered! I didn’t!” Or, “The South’s gonna rise again!”

Such is pride. It was not until later in life that I thought, “You know, we lost. We lost!”

It’s a hard thing to say, isn’t it? Pride blinds us to the truth of things.

Pride had blinded the Jews to their enslavement. They were wrong, politically. They had been enslaved. But Jesus did not even respond to their obvious mistake. He responded, instead, to the deeper issue of their deeper captivity:

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

“You are slaves now,” He seems to say, “for you are slaves to sin.”

Forget their historical gloss for a moment. They were living in the current enslavement of sin. They were enslaved in their sin, their self-righteousness and their flesh. They did not realize their own captivity for their pride blinded them to their chains.

Listen very closely: it is difficult to receive freedom when you refuse to see that you are a slave.

Ours is the land of the tough guy and the true man. We want Jesus to be Lord, but we also want ourselves to be Clint Eastwood. We would like to say, “Jesus saved me…but I could handle things myself either way.” We are a nation of self-starters, pioneers and cowboys.

It is hard for Americans to say, “I am a slave.”

Just try that: “I…am…a…slave.”

We shudder at the very suggestion and protest with declarations of our own strength and power. But let us be clear about this: outside of the grace and mercy and deliverance of Jesus Christ, we are slaves. You have not freed yourself. Jesus is not merely a partner in your freedom. He is freedom!

Jesus says to the Jews, “I can make you free!” They respond, “We already are.”

How do you respond? Do you honestly believe that the only chance you have for freedom is to abide in, live with, and walk with Jesus? Is He your freedom?

Jesus next speaks of the quality of the freedom He gives.

³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Our only hope is the freedom that Jesus gives. Political freedom is temporary. The freedom we think we gain for ourselves is illusory. Economic freedom is transient and unstable.

We need a freedom greater than the freedom we think we have.

The slave has no hope in and of himself. “The slave does not remain in the house forever.”

Outside of Christ, we are slaves to sin. When sin has had its way with us, it will destroy us and cast us aside. But what if the Son of the Master were to give you freedom? What if somebody in the family were to secure your deliverance?

Jesus is the Son who sets the slaves free.

Do you remember when Jesus went home and went to the synagogue? Do you remember when he preached back home? Luke 4 records the story, and it is fascinating indeed.

¹⁶ And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. ¹⁷And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Amazing! Astounding! Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of the prophetic promise of coming freedom. He claimed to fulfill in His person that which Isaiah had said was coming. Isaiah said, “Freedom is coming!” Jesus responded, “It has and you’re looking at it.”

Jesus is freedom.

But how? How is He freedom? How does He set us free?

Here is the scandal of the gospel: He sets us free by becoming a slave Himself. He sets us free by taking our slavery onto and into Himself. He sets us free by paying the price for our freedom. He pays the price for our freedom on the cross. In His crucifixion, He breaks loose the shackles that bind us. His cross is the key that fits the lock of our enslavement and sets us free.

Jesus is free and He makes us free by dying in our place. Christ was the free man, and He was never more free than we He stood in the center of the Father’s will and died in our stead.

This means, amazingly, that our freedom is found in His enslavement. Our liberty is found in His captivity. Our life is found in His death. We find freedom on a hill of curses. We find liberation on the cross where they killed our Savior. And, ultimately, we find life in an empty tomb. When Jesus burst forth on Easter morning, He brought us with Him. The veil was torn in two, but so were the jail cells, the executioners’ blocks, the prisons, the dungeons, the manacles, the handcuffs, the slave markets, the whips, and the fears that enslave us.

Christ’s freedom frees us all. Or, in the words of Pennar Davies:

“Christ is the Free Man. Look at him, my soul, at his nakedness, his blood, his sweat. The Eternal Prisoner! The soldiers beat him, cursing and laughing drunkenly. They feel that they represent a higher civilization than his, a richer culture and an infinitely better race. In each blow there is contempt and greed. Are not the Roman soldiers masters of the world?

            Even in his anguish and shame Christ takes pity on the soldiers in their captivity.

            He is the Free Man. Gaze on him, my soul. Does he have wealth, worldly power, an influential position in the organization of the country? No. He has nothing but a body now and the soldiers treat that body as they please. Flesh, blood, skin, bones, hair – he has only these things now, and the kingdom of Hell wants to take these things from him.

            Look at him my soul. He is a Free Man; the only free man in Jerusalem.

            Pilate’s empire is a prison; Caiaphas’ religion is a prison; Judas’ dream is a prison; Peter’s confusion is a prison; Herod’s ambition is a prison; having been freed from his cell Barabbas’ rebellious movement is a prison. Christ alone is free.

            My soul stands with him. There, by his side, under the lash of soldiers, freedom is to be found.”[2]

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