Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary John 8:32

"and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." — John 8:32 (ASV)

The freedom Jesus spoke of was spiritual freedom from sin and its effects, as the following context shows. The Jews’ response indicates that they were thinking of political freedom, since they spoke of being enslaved to persons (v.33). Their protest was ill-founded, for they were forgetting the slavery of Egypt, the oppressions at the time of the Judges, the Exile in Babylon, and the current Roman domination of their land. Because they were descendants of Abraham, with whom God had established a permanent covenant (Genesis 12:1–3; Genesis 15:1–21; 17:1–14, 19; Genesis 22:15–18), they considered themselves exempt from any spiritual danger.