Student Study Guide
Lesson 23
Made Free
Section 1 - Building on the Foundation
The Continuation
This lesson continues building on the revelation of the previous two lessons. The foundational truth remains: what is written on the heart is the nature, and the nature determines what a person does by nature. God never intended for the believer to struggle through the Christian life in perpetual internal warfare. He always intended to rewrite the heart - to replace the lies and the carnal conditioning written there by the world with His own Word, so that the believer would by nature do the things of God.
1. This does not discount the ever-continual attack of outside forces or the polluting influences of living in a fallen world. Those things are always present, but how you to them, and how you overcome has been changed.
2. Now we begin the journey: God's own prescribed for getting the Word written on the heart.
Your Reflection
Section 2 - Abiding: The Difference Between Set Free and Made Free
John 8:31-32
The precision of Jesus' language here matters enormously. He does not say, "If you hear My word." He does not say, "If you agree with My word," or even "If you believe My word." He says, "If you abide in My word."
3. The word "abide" means to remain, to , to make one's permanent . It is not the language of a visit but of .
4. The distinction between being "set free" and being "made free" is not a translation technicality - it is a description of two entirely different conditions.
Set Free
An animal caught in a trap can be set free. The trap is opened, the animal walks out. But nothing about the animal has changed. The same habits that led it to the bait will lead it back to that trap.
Made Free
Describes an internal change of nature. The person who has been made free does not keep returning to bondage because the desire for what bondage offered has been genuinely replaced by something better.
5. They are free not because they are exercising superior but because the truth has been written on the heart and their has actually changed.
6. The Word of God, abided in, is the agent. It is what produces the being-made-free. Abiding in the Word is not an occasional . It is the ongoing orientation of the whole life.
Your Reflection
Section 3 - The Covenant Promise: God Will Write His Word on the Heart
Old Testament Roots of a New Covenant Reality
The intention of God to write His Word on the hearts of His people is not a New Testament innovation. It was written into the covenant long before the cross, as a divine commitment that God made and that the blood of Jesus has sealed and guaranteed.
7. This is language, and covenants sealed with blood are not broken. In Psalm 89:34, God declared: "My covenant I will not , nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips."
8. He is not merely offering guidance or instruction. He is taking for the rewriting. He will do it - not through human effort or religious discipline alone, but through His own active work in those who themselves to receive it.
Key Insight: "They shall all know Me" (Jer. 31:33). Not know about Me. Know Me. The writing of the Word and the knowing of God are not two separate processes. They are the same process described from two angles.
9. God speaking through Ezekiel adds what is perhaps the most liberating truth in this entire series: "I will you to walk in My statutes." Not: "I will require you to walk in My statutes and expect you to manage it."
10. The obedience will be the product of what has been , not the product of sustained -effort.
11. The Law was righteous, but it was powerless to produce righteousness in people whose had not been changed. Jesus accomplished what the Law could not - not by removing the but by changing the nature of those who receive Him.
Your Reflection
Section 4 - The Four God-Ordained Strategies
Deuteronomy 6: The Pathway Is Given With the Command
God did not simply declare His intention to write His Word on the heart and leave His people with no practical pathway. In Deuteronomy 6, in the context of the Shema - the foundational declaration of the covenant - He laid out specific, practical, God-ordained strategies by which the Word is written.
12. God does not say: "My Word shall be in your heart, now figure out how." He is saying: "Here is how it . This is the ." The strategies are embedded in the same breath as the command.
The Four Strategies from Deuteronomy 6:
1. Teach the Word - v.7a: "You shall teach them diligently to your children…"
2. Talk of the Word - v.7b: "…talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up"
3. Bind the Word - v.8: "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand…"
4. Write the Word - v.9: "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates"
Three more strategies remain in Deuteronomy 6 and will be developed in the next lesson. This lesson focuses on Strategy One.
Your Reflection
Section 5 - Strategy One: Teach the Word
The First and Foundational Strategy
The first strategy is to teach the Word. "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up" (Deut. 6:7). The teaching is not reserved for formal occasions. It is woven into the fabric of daily life.
13. The primary application is to . God's design for the transmission of the Word to the next generation runs through the , not primarily through church programs. The children's class and the youth group are secondary institutions at best. The parent is the teacher.
✍ The Decline Dr. Foss Has Observed
Across a generation of ministry, there has been a dramatic and measurable decline in biblical literacy among young people. Youth in the early years of ministry knew substantially more Scripture, engaged more seriously with theological questions, and carried a deeper working knowledge of the Word than those who followed.
The reason is not a mystery. The culture shifted, and parents largely surrendered the teaching of their children to outside forces - to media, social platforms, and peer culture. These were actively writing other things on their hearts.
Every screen, every algorithm, every social environment is writing on the hearts of those immersed in it. The question is not whether something is being written. The question is what.
14. The Great Commission is a commission. This is not a commission given only to professional . It belongs to every believer.
There is a compounding reason why teaching the Word is the first strategy: the one who teaches receives more than those who listen. The process of finding words to explain a truth, of making connections, of searching for the right illustration, of anticipating and answering objections - all of it drives the material deeper into the teacher's own understanding than any amount of passive exposure could.
15. Teaching requires engagement at a level that alone does not. When a person opens their mouth to teach the Word of God, the Word begins to be written more on their own heart in the very act of transmission.
A parent teaching their child at the dinner table is fulfilling the Great Commission. A believer turning a conversation toward what the Word says is acting as a disciple. As you teach the Word, it writes itself on your heart.
Final Reflection
Lesson 23 - Practice Test
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Part A: Multiple Choice (5 questions · 2 pts each)
1. What is the precise distinction Jesus makes in John 8:31-32 by using the word "abide" rather than "hear," "agree," or "believe"?
2. According to the lesson, what is the key difference between being "set free" and being "made free"?
3. What does Jeremiah 31:33 reveal about who is responsible for writing the Word on the heart?
4. What is the most liberating truth found in Ezekiel 36:27, according to this lesson?
5. Why does the lesson identify teaching the Word as the first of the four God-ordained strategies?
Part B: True or False (6 statements · 1 pt each)
1. The promise of John 8:32 ("the truth shall make you free") is available to any person who simply hears or intellectually agrees with the Word of God.
2. God's covenant promise to write His Word on the hearts of His people (Jeremiah 31:33) was a New Testament idea that had no roots in the Old Covenant.
3. The Mosaic Law was flawed in its standards, which is why Jesus came to replace it with lower requirements more suited to human nature.
4. According to this lesson, the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 is fundamentally a teaching commission that belongs to every believer, not only professional ministers.
5. The decline in biblical literacy among young people is primarily due to a failure of church programs and youth groups to teach the Bible effectively.
6. When a person teaches the Word of God, they personally receive a deeper writing of that Word on their own heart through the very act of teaching it to others.
Part C: Fill in the Blank (5 items · 1 pt each)
1. "Set free" describes an external change of . "Made free" describes an internal change of .
2. God's covenant promise in Jeremiah 31:33 is that He will put His law in their minds and it on their hearts.
3. The most liberating truth from Ezekiel 36:27 is that God said "I will you to walk in My statutes."
4. God's design for the transmission of the Word to the next generation runs through the , not primarily through church programs.
5. As you teach the Word, it itself on your heart.
Part D: Short Answer (completion credit)
1. Explain the difference between being "set free" and being "made free" using the illustration from the lesson. What does this teach about the nature of genuine spiritual transformation?
2. What does Ezekiel 36:27 reveal about the nature of obedience under the New Covenant? How is this fundamentally different from Law-based obedience?
3. Why does the lesson argue that teaching the Word benefits the teacher more than, or at least as much as, those who are listening? What does this reveal about how God designed spiritual growth to work?
Part E - Before You Leave
Think of one specific area in your life where you have been "set free" from something but do not yet feel "made free." Based on this lesson, what would it look like to begin abiding in the Word in that area rather than just visiting it occasionally?
Who in your immediate circle of influence - a child, a friend, a coworker - represents an opportunity to implement Strategy One this week? What is one specific conversation, moment, or setting where you could deliberately ask: "What does God say about this?"