Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary John 8:36

"If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." — John 8:36 (ASV)

A slave has no security, for he can claim no family ties that entail an obligation toward him. The son of a family has permanent status within it. Jesus enlarged this analogy by stating that while a son is rightfully a partaker of family privileges, the Son can confer such privileges. The hope for real freedom does not lie in the ancestry of Abraham but in the action of Christ.