Song Series: Our God Reigns (Free Indeed)

Our God Reigns (Free Indeed)


Read: John 8:34-38

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

We’ve already discussed the chorus of this song in a previous Song Series blog (Our God Reigns: Sing Strong); this time we’ll focus on the bridge.

The bridge for “Our God Reigns” is almost verbatim, John 8:36. Here we see Jesus telling the crowd of mostly Jewish listeners, that He is the seed of Abraham and the true Son of God’s house (Gal. 3:16). In order to understand this reference we need to drop back to verse 36 where Jesus points out the difference between a slave and a son (John 8:35) .

The crowd fully understood the difference between Ishmael, Abraham’s slave son and Isaac the son of promise; heir apparent to all Abraham owned.

Remember the sad story? Ishmael was thrown out of the house along with his slave mom, but Isaac was the son who "belonged" and therefore remained in the house (Gen. 21:8-21). The correlation: without Jesus, the Son, you are in sin and in danger of being cast out.  The question: Were they like Ishmael, or Isaac? The issue was not physical genealogy but spiritual kinship through Jesus.

Now, let’s look at verse 36 in this light. Jesus is the true Son. He remains in the house and is over it (Heb. 3:6). People can become truly free by becoming sons of God by faith in Christ, the Son (Gal. 3:26).

Remember, the issue is not genealogy, or, in our case as Gentiles, how good we are compared to the next person. It doesn’t even matter if we’ve understood the message of Jesus being the Messiah, because it is possible to grasp the message of repentance without actually repenting and coming to Christ (John 8:31-32). So then, how do we know if we’re saved? We know because first, we trust in Him alone, not our good works or anything else for salvation. Second, we have a desire to walk in His word daily, thereby experiencing the freedom of a life lived with not against His will.

Frankly, I see no way to be confident in our position in Him without being consistent in walk with Him (John 8:31-32).

We are free indeed, let's live in the joy of this freedom!