Commentators universally agree that the freedom Jesus promises is spiritual, not political or circumstantial. While his audience was concerned with Roman rule, Jesus addressed a deeper slavery: the bondage to sin, evil passions, and Satan. Albert Barnes explains that a sinner is a 'captive or a slave to sin.' The gospel's effect is to break this bondage, offering true freedom from our own corrupt nature, which Matthew Henry calls 'captivity to Satan.'