36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Here, Jesus first of all directs our attention to the fact that He is the “Son”. By using the title “Son”, He wanted to draw us to the fact that He is the undisputed Heir of all things, who wields the ultimate authority and power concerning all matters, even to free a man from his servitude. So in the preceding verse, He had said, “And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever” (John 8:35). As the only begotten Son of God, Christ enjoys unchallenged, eternal right to exercise the full authority vested in Him by the Father to liberate slaves. Jesus Himself said in John 3:35 - “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.” Only Christ, the Son, has the power and freedom to liberate us from everything that shackles us.
In fact, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah had predicted that when the Messiah, the Son of God, comes, He will liberate those who have been under the repression of Satan, sin and death (cf. Isaiah 61:1-3). Jesus, citing that prophecy, said in Luke 4:18 that He was sent in the power of the Spirit “to set at liberty them that are bruised”.
Christ alone has the right of freedom. Since the Fall of Adam, all men are born slaves to sin, without the power to deliver themselves. Only by the gracious bestowment of freedom by the Son of God could one ever obtain one’s freedom. So our freedom is a benefit conferred by Christ, and we obtain it by faith. By His Spirit, He liberates our souls that we may gain freedom from sin and continue in that freedom. Thus, Paul testified in Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” About the freedom He grants us, Jesus says, “ye shall be free indeed”. An emphasis is placed on the word “indeed”. His freedom is not some unreal, foolish figment of imagination.
Many today are like the Jews whom Jesus rebuked for claiming that they were never in bondage and had always been free. They boastfully say that they are free to do whatever they like to do. They do not acknowledge that they are actually under the wretched bondage of sin.
Nonetheless, we who follow Christ and His truth rejoice to take heed of the admonition of the apostle Paul to “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).