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What is the nature of the
freedom which Paul mentions in Galatians, and how is it to be
experienced?
In the world’s thinking,
freedom is conceived almost exclusively as ‘freedom from’
and pursued in terms of ‘a-topic independence’, and
‘unconditioned possibility’. “Freedom is almost invariably freedom from
the other: to ‘realize’ or ‘fulfil’ ourselves, to do ‘our own thing.’” The question of who this ‘self’
is, or ought to be, is considered simply as a restatement of the freedom
question. I am a self-directing
individual – that is my identity.
“In the part [of the conduct of an individual]
which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of course, of right,
absolute. Over himself, over his
own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”
On this line of thinking, ‘my personal
identity’ does not have any positive ontological content. Instead, ‘the person’ is simply a
sphere to protect – to be left to itself, to make of itself whatever it
will. Liberty is therefore a sacred safeguard for the enthronement of the
self as sovereign.
Anyone
who reads Galatians expecting to find this kind of ‘freedom’ will
receive a rude shock. Immediately
we are confronted by Paul – apostolos – definitionally a ‘sent
one’, who happily calls himself a doulos of Christ.
Paul is not his own man, he, along with the Galatians, belong to
Christ and
are led by the Spirit. More than that, they belong to each
other – enslaving themselves to one another (douleuete, 5:13) and
carrying each others’ burdens. In
fact, such servitude is the essence of the ‘law of Christ’,
and this law of Christ is to be fulfilled.
The
‘Apostle of freedom’ clearly has some very un-modern views about what
constitues liberty. In this essay we will explore what Paul means by
freedom in Galatians, and how such freedom is to be
experienced. We will consider the
nature of freedom and our experience of it together since
the freedom which Paul has in mind is not the carte blanche of
modernism to then be used however one feels. Instead, we will see that loving
service is both the meaning and the expression of our Christian
freedom. Thus the nature and
the experience questions coalesce.
Foundations of Freedom
Before
looking at our freedom in Galatians, we first examine three
other freedoms outlined along the way.
If we place our own freedom outside or above these freedoms, we
will quickly fall into error.
The Freedom of the
Trinity
In
Galatians 4:6, Paul describes the Christian as caught up by the Spirit
into the intimacy of the Father-Son relationship. God Himself shares a loving,
other-centred communion which, through the sending of the Son (4:4) and
the Spirit (4:6), is opened up to us also. As we consider the free and sovereign
relations of the Trinity, which are precisely relations of mutual service
and submission,
we must ask, Would we seek to be more ‘free’ than God?
The Freedom of Heaven
In
Galatians 4:26 we are told that the Jerusalem that is above
is free. Yet the saints in glory, surrounding the throne in worship are
not free because they are their own masters. Nor does their freedom consist in having infinite
possibilities for action (including sin!). Would we seek to be more ‘free’ now than when we are
before the throne?
The Freedom of Christ
As
the Son,
Christ is the Beloved One and Heir.
As Lord,
He is uniquely positioned to define freedom for us. Yet how is His freedom expressed? In humble service under the law
and in giving Himself in accursed crucifixion for our sins. If His freedom is expressed in costly,
other-centred service, Would we seek to be more ‘free’ than
Christ?
Whatever
notions of human freedom the Apostle has in mind, they find their context
and their limit in these freedoms.
Thus the freedom of Galatians will not be found in
independence or in maintaining limitless potentialities. Rather, our freedom, grounded in the
divine freedom, comes in mutually constitutive relations of loving
service.
We
will hear more of this shortly.
For now we discuss the particular situation into which Paul
proclaimed his gospel of freedom.
The Situation in Galatia
The
issue in Galatia was not, ‘how shall I – a sinner – be justified
before a holy God’
but ‘how should we – a mixed congregation of Jews and Gentiles – continue
as the people of God.’ Paul, though recognizing that the
Galatians have genuinely begun the Christian life,
fears nonetheless that they will be led into complete apostasy
by ‘the circumcision’.
This group, is
perverting the gospel of Christ, making it no gospel at all. Barrett characterizes their teaching
as a mediating position between law and faith.
“This mediating position claims that Christ alone is sufficient for
salvation, but if you wish to be fully a member of the visible people of
God you must be circumcised and keep the law… Let them by all means
believe in Jesus as the Christ, but let them not seek to avoid their
legal obligation.”
Paul
could not be stronger in his opposition to such teaching
– works and faith; law and gospel; Moses and Christ cannot be
co-ordinated on the same plane of operations. To do so is to lose entirely faith and gospel and Christ.
The essence of Paul’s
argument – Solus
Christus
The
enemies of the Gospel teach that the full rights of sonship are secured
and enjoyed, not simply through Christ, but through obedience to an external
standard (law). By contrast, Paul
will have no ‘Jesus and…’ religion. Any such syncretism denies fundamental
truths:
Firstly,
Christ has been crucified for our sins. Paul’s reasoning is thus: ‘if
righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.’ Christ certainly did not die for
nothing. Therefore, righteousness cannot be
gained through the law.
Secondly,
Christ’s death redeemed us from the Law. The blood of the Son paid for our
release from the supervision of Law. We would esteem His redemption as
worthless if we sold ourselves back into slavery again.
Thirdly,
we have the Spirit now through simply trusting Christ. The Spirit Himself is the true marker
of belonging to God’s family – of belonging to the life of God itself. Therefore, we must not seek our
identity in external markers but walk by Him.
Fourthly,
the pattern of God’s dealings with His people has always been by grace
and through faith in Christ. The
Judaizers cannot claim to be faithful to the Scriptures or to the
traditions of Abraham – Abraham himself was made righteous through faith
in Christ and
not by works.
Thus,
Christ alone is our object of faith.
Christ alone can redeem us from our sins, this age,
the Law with
its curse, the
flesh, even
the world. Christ alone makes us sons of God,
heirs of the promise and members of the one family of believers. There can be no addition to this work,
only grateful acceptance, i.e. faith.
Solus
Christus as Freedom
The
freedom of the Christian is a direct consequence of the doctrine of
‘Christ alone’. This is so since
trust in anything apart from Christ – the Image – is idolatry, a
breaking of the first commandment. All idolatry is enslaving since idols
demand to be served (worshipped). Without Christ, this worship goes to
the elemental spirits, the stoikeia,
which enslave us. Therefore only
Christ can free us, and, as we have seen, Christ will have no partners in
His redemptive role. Thus it is solus
Christus that guarantees our freedom.
Since
this is so, our freedom is an un-mixed freedom. Just as the great ‘alone’ statements of the reformation
refuse to be co-mingled with any counter-balancing factors, so Christian
freedom must be proclaimed without mitigation. In this way, we can never have too much freedom (just as we
can never have too much faith, or Christ, or grace etc.) The answer to the abuses of freedom is
never to curb freedom. We must note that in the face of horrendous
abuses, Paul never tells the Galatians, ‘you are free, but not that free!’ Nor does he say, ‘you’ve abused your
freedom, I’m going to take it away for a bit until you learn!’. Instead Paul insists on
more freedom, better freedom, purer freedom. Thus, freedom is not
balanced by other forces like ‘service’ or ‘responsibility’. It is never a case of ‘Yes we are
free, but we must keep that in check by remembering our …’ Such concepts as service or
responsibility do not stand outside freedom as its referee. Service and responsibility are,
instead, included as integral factors in our unmitigated liberty.
We
will now define more closely what we mean by freedom.
Freedom won
We
first note that freedom is not a status enjoyed by man in himself. The world’s concept of freedom begins
by assuming we have, or ought to have, freedom as a birth-right. Paul will not entertain this
thought. ‘When you did not know
God, you were slaves’
says Paul. Even the Jews ‘were in
slavery’
before they received the Son.
Redemption is therefore a crucial concept in Galatians. A person does not freely decide to
unite themselves to Christ and so be redeemed. Instead, Christ redeems them in order that they may be
free. Thus the ground of our
freedom is not in some abstract liberty of indifference or spontaneity.
The ground of our freedom is in the redeeming activity of the Triune God
who lifts us from slavery and sets us on our feet as free partners with
Him in His own life and history.
Freedom
In
In
what does our freedom consist?
Following from our discussion above, we insist that our freedom is
co-ordinated with the freedom of God Himself. We are made partners of the Covenant-God through the
redemption of Christ, raising us to the fellowship which He Himself
enjoys with the Father. We marvel at the truth that, just as
Christ is the Seed of Abraham,
so we, in Christ, become Abraham’s seed. Our identity could not be more closely
united to Christ and His covenant purposes. In Him, we are sons and we will share in the
promised inheritance. We have
been given divine honours and dignity in the Gospel and our freedom is a
freedom – in, with and through Christ – to live out this identity in
joyful communion with God and His family.
Freedom From
We
note briefly the issue of our freedom from Law. It is the opinion of this
essay that the Christian is entirely free from every aspect of Law
considered as a system of identity or approach to God.
The Christian makes use of Law, as the Apostle does, not as Law,
but as Scripture.
Its time of guardianship (which was never salvific but only intended to
foster hope in the Seed) has passed, and it has now gone into honourable
retirement.
In
all, then, we have received a comprehensive deliverance from the realm of
the world, the flesh and the devil.
This
leads us naturally to our…
Freedom To
Chapter
5 contains two great purpose statements regarding the gift of freedom. In
verse 1 we are reminded that ‘for freedom’ itself have we been set
free. Thus our redemption makes
us free to enjoy our dignity and worth in Christ and to live out our new
creation status even now in this evil age. Such liberty is an end in itself, needing no higher ideal
to justify its lavish enjoyment.
Yet,
someone may counter, ‘what about verse 13? Aren’t we here confronted by a counter-claim on the
Christian, one that holds our freedom in check?’ To answer, the ‘freedom’ which gives
an opportunity for the flesh is not a true freedom which Paul
counter-balances with some other, equally valid, notion called
‘service.’ The contrast is,
rather, between ‘pseudo-freedom’ which works out in license and
‘true-freedom’ which works out in loving service. Therefore, the ‘freedom to…’ of the
Christian is the freedom to serve one another in love. It is to be released from the desires
of our own flesh (which is slavery) and to look to the other.
The
section of Galatians from 5:13-6:10 is not occasioned by Paul
addressing another group (turning now from the legalists to the
licentious). Nor is he attempting
to ‘put the brakes’ on our, potentially, run-away expectations for
liberty. Instead, Paul is expressing the meaning of true freedom for
community living, since our freedom derives from God’s freedom which is a
freedom in community.
Paul’s
exhortation to stand firm in true freedom is therefore accompanied by
exhortations to foster community life.
Enslavement to Law destroys community life (cf 2:11-13) now Paul
will show how true unity is brought.
The answer is, of course already at hand. The freedom of the Spirit, which they
have been given,
is a freedom that serves in love,
that carries burdens, that achieves everything the Law describes
but does not produce. The call to
freedom is therefore the call to sacrificial service of others in the
power of the Spirit.
At
this point, the question is therefore begged: If the Galatians had the
Spirit, and had been set free, why were they not enjoying the fruits of
this freedom?
Freedom distorted
We
must note Paul’s eschatology. Though this present age is evil,
the time has fully come. Though we await righteousness,
we have been declared righteous. Though the harvest is future,
we enjoy new creation now. In the overlap of the ages, flesh and
Spirit co-exist
– and they co-exist in me!
Galatians 2:20 sums it up well:
I have died, and now Christ lives in me. Yet, even though I have died, I now live in the flesh. In one sense my connection to the
realm in which slavery operates is entirely severed – I have died. In another, this realm is very close
at hand – I am living in it. And
yet also Christ is living in me.
In
this context Paul exhorts the Galatians to ‘live by faith in the Son of
God’, to
‘walk by the Spirit’,
to be led by Him
and to sow to please Him. Negatively, he commands them not to
indulge the flesh,
or to gratify its desires,
to remember our crucifixion of the flesh
and never to sow to please it. The Christian is pictured as a
battleground in which the desires of flesh and Spirit wage war
(5:17). Yet, for a Christian to
experience this battle in no way denies the reality of their
freedom. In fact, the reality of
such a battle within is evidence of the Spirit at work. That which perverts our freedom is not
the struggle, it is yielding to the flesh which denies our redeemed
status.
So,
just as the Gospel can be perverted by misuse such that it becomes no
longer Gospel, so freedom can be perverted into
no-freedom. Whilever the harvest
is future, whilever there is flesh
to be sown to, the Christian can deny her own identity as new creation
and invest in the realm from which she has been redeemed. Yet when such painfully inconsistent living
continues, Christ is not really ‘formed’ in a person. Paul desperately feels the incongruity
of such living and wishes that the Galatians would walk in step with the
Spirit. Yet, ‘out-of-step’ living remains the impossible possibility this
side of resurrection.
Freedom and our experience
Freedom
is ours in Christ, apart from any moral worth or effort and apart from
any reference to an external code, be it Moses’ or the world’s. It is the freedom to be our true selves
and to act in accordance with our God-given identity. This identity is as heirs of the
promise, members of the covenant community and participants in the very
life of God. As Luther says “The worth of
our Christian liberty cannot be exaggerated.”
Our
freedom is experienced in the overlap of the ages in which the
self-contradictory and self-contradicting possibility exists for
enslaving ourselves again to the desires of the flesh, to this world and
to the Law. Freedom is
experienced, not by entertaining these possibilities,
but by living out our new creation identity. We are thus most truly free when, through love, we enslave
ourselves to Christ and one another.
APPENDIX
Paul’s Argument
1:1
– 2:10 Paul establishes his own
credentials as against the ‘certain men
key
verse from James’. Both Paul and his message are not from
men but
(1:8-9) from God.
2:11
– 21 This divine message and its
messenger respect no human
key
verse authority – even Peter’s. In
Paul’s opposition to Peter we get
(2:15-16) the summary sentence for the next two chapters (2:15-16): a
person is, was, and ever shall be constituted a Christian (justified)
not by law but through faith in Christ.
3:1
– 4:31 In these two chapters, Paul is corroborating the claim of
2:15-16
key
verse which will need to be proved from the Hebrew Scriptures if it is
(3:26) to have any validity. Paul
reminds us of the pre-Law
righteousness which Abraham had by faith. He is not a random
example for Paul but ‘the man of faith’ – the definitional believer
and
the one to whom the covenant promises were spoken.
These promises, pre-dating the Law by 430 years, concerned the Seed
and were never annulled by the Law.
Instead the Law itself spoke
against ‘works of Law’ and pronounced a curse which is only
taken away in Christ. As the
Law points away from itself it acts as our
‘guardian’ leading us to Christ and His coming. At this point Paul has
proved the claim of 2:15-16 that membership of the people of God has
always been through faith in Christ.
He therefore summarizes with the
key verse: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ
Jesus.”
The implications of this for Gentiles is that they are equal
co-inheritors
with the Jews. They can call
Abraham their earthly father and God,
their heavenly Father.
Christ, through His death, has made them all
unimprovably united to God and His promises. Going back to Law
is therefore not just anachronistic, it is a denial of the work of
Christ.
5:1
– 6:18 Paul applies all these truths to the Galatians with the
key verse
key
verse for this section. They are
free (indicative) and must continue
(5:1) free (imperative) in Gospel grace, rejecting Law as any kind of means
to define their Christian standing. Instead their communal life
(guaranteed through faith in Christ, but put
in jeopardy by the Judaizers)
ought to be marked by unity in loving
service. To live in such a way is
to live the life which the Law described but
could never produce.
Instead it is the Spirit-empowered new
creation who can and does
live above the Law, the flesh and even the
world.
Bibliography
Martin
Luther, The Epistle to the Galatians
Martin
Luther, The Freedom of the Christian, 1520
J.D.G. Dunn, Christian Liberty, Paternoster, 1993
J.D.G.
Dunn, The Epistle to the Galatians, A&C Black, 1993
C.K.
Barrett, Freedom and Obligation, SPCK, 1985
Timothy
George, Galatians – New American Commentary, Broadman &
Holman, 1994
Ben
Witherington, Grace in Galatia, T&T Clark, 1998
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Fung, The Epistle to the Galatians, Eerdmans, 1988
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Guthrie, Galatians, Thomas Nelson, 1969
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Walter Hansen, Galatians, IVP, 1994
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last checked 16
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