31  To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you   are really my disciples.

32  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

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Freedom.  People write and sing about it.  They fight and die for it.  Every person wants to be free from slavery, poverty and ignorance.

       Jesus spoke of another kind of freedom.  He referred to a freedom from the power of sin, a freedom to know and serve God.  That freedom isn't found through any religious activity.  Nor is it obtained as a birthright--as some ancient Jews thought.  Instead, true freedom comes through a relationship with the One who is the embodiment of the true path to salvation--Jesus Christ.  When Jesus lives within a person, he liberates that person from enslavement to sin and death.

       If you've struggled with sin, and we all have, you know about its tyrannical hold.  You've felt its tight, vise-like grip on your soul.  In this passage Jesus offers freedom from sin's oppression in our lives.  All we need to do is to "hold to his teaching" through the power of the Holy Spirit and become his true disciples in thought, word and deed.