Jesus does not reply to their boast as He well could; instead He cuts right to the meat of the matter. His answer is prefaced by “verily, verily” or “truly, truly” which indicates the importance of that which follows.

“sins” = is a present, active participle which indicates continuing action. This is not a one time action. It could be translated as “keeps on sinning.”

Jesus is saying that the man who sins is a slave to that sin, whether he realizes it or not. Even ungodly Socrates had come to this conclusion as pointed out by his question of “How can you call a man free when his pleasures rule over him?” Perhaps the greatest irony of this power of sin is that the independence which men desire in doing their own thing and being their own boss culminates in their not doing what they want, but instead, what sin wants. The sinner becomes so entrenched in the habit of sin that he can’t break out. He is a slave to the self-indulgences and the wrong pleasures which have taken dominion over him. (Rom 6:16, 20, 2 Peter 2:19)

Romans 6:16  Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey— whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Romans 6:20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.

2 Peter 2:19  They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

In Exodus we find a type of sin and the slavery it inflicts on its victims. As with all such types, God placed them in our Bibles so that we could glean from their example. Egypt was a type of this world, Pharaoh a type of Satan, and the bondage of the Israelites was a type of the bondage of all men to sin. Note especially (Ex 1:11-14). Do the terms “oppress,” “forced labor,” “ruthlessly” (Hebrew is “perek” which means harshness, cruelty, severity), and “bitter” paint a picture of what it was like to be a slave in Egypt? How does this compare to the slavery of sinners to sin? What kind of taskmaster is sin?

Ex 1:11-14 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labour, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard labour in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labour the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.

Attributes of a slave:

• unquestioned obedience to his master
• no rights
• no security
• no hope

Augustine contends that slavery to sin is worse than other forms of slavery. He points out that, “at times a man’s slave, worn out by the commands of an unfeeling master, finds rest in flight. Whither can the servant of sin flee? Himself he carries with him wherever he flees. An evil conscience flees not from itself; it has no place to go to; it follows itself. Yea, he cannot withdraw from himself, for the sin he commits is within. He has committed sin to obtain some bodily pleasure. The pleasure passes away; the sin remains. What delighted is gone; the sting has remained behind. Evil bondage!” (qt’d in Morris 458)