“For to be free is not merely cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”- Nelson Mandela, July 13, 2013.

In the New Testament, 54 verses mention freedom, or being free. Most are written by the apostle Paul, known as Saul before his conversion. For Paul this was one of the most important consequences of the Gospel: freedom as children of God, no matter where one comes from. In the Letter to the Galatians it’s about how this freedom is under threat.

Paul knew what he was talking about. He had been a strict law-abiding Pharisee. He tried to keep the Mosaic Law to the dot. But then something had happened to him.

He had been on the way to Damascus in Syria (chapter 9 of Acts) to arrest any Christians he could find and bring them to Jerusalem to court. On this way he had an unusual experience, an epiphany. The risen Christ appeared to him in a vision and challenged him: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” After the vision he lost his sight completely.

In Damascus, he became a Christian, was baptised and regained his sight. He immediately began preaching about Jesus as the Messiah. He then had to flee from Damascus and went on preaching Christ to the gentiles.

Through his new faith Paul recognised the tremendous power of salvation by grace alone. He came to understand that all his efforts to be a good person fulfilling the law were in vain. No man can be good in God’s eyes. All are fallen and continue to sin. Jesus had taught the same notion, for example in the Sermon on the Mountain (Matthew 5-7) where Jesus basically said: “If you think you can get saved by the law, think again. Already your thoughts and motivation count.”

No one can become righteous through works or deeds by fulfilling the law. By grace alone man can be justified before God. Not because of any accomplishment of the person, but only as a free gift from God. Thus, a Christian is free from the demands of the law. The past is wiped away, one is a new creation and it changes us from the inside out.

In Galatians, the danger Paul saw was that “false” teachers wanted to persuade the new Christians in Galatia they needed to fulfil the law in addition to grace. They basically said, you are saved-by-grace-and-something-else. It was a “different Gospel”.

Paul was very upset about this “different Gospel”. Right at the beginning of his letter he says twice: if someone teaches that anything else is necessary to get saved (teaching a different Gospel) that person may be cursed. Even if it would be Paul himself or an angel from Heaven claiming they have a different Gospel, they may be cursed. (Gal 1:6-10)

Throughout church history, again and again, some had tried to add their view of tradition or opinion to the Good News of Salvation by Grace alone. They insisted a Christian needs to fulfil something else to be saved, whether it is giving all (or a significant part) of one’s money to the church or the poor, go on pilgrimages, wear special clothing, keep certain dietary habits, don’t drink alcohol, coffee, tea, observe special days, be married or be celibate, have children, follow the instructions of the priests or head of the church, become a missionary, and a long list of dos and don’ts.

Paul said, even if some of those requests are actually good for you or noble to follow, they are not conditions for the grace of God. His blessings are free and His love is unconditional. Your religious works will not make you righteous, so that you could stand in front of God and brag or demand anything. You actually would call Jesus a liar if you said you did not need his grace to be justified.

This grace and freedom is the greatest difference of the Christian faith to other religions. Religion is the attempt of man to become acceptable before God by fulfilling certain demands, rituals, and rules. Christian faith is trusting that God’s love and forgiveness (grace) do not depend on our worthiness, choices, or works, but only on God’s worthiness, choice, and work.

We live in a culture that loves justification by works though. Our economy is built on a reward system. If you work hard, you get rewarded, if not, you will feel the consequences (though in actual fact, the system is not that fair to all). It is hard to accept then that the most important reward is given freely to all who accept it: eternal life.

The point is, God’s grace is given to all who come to him, even if they come towards the end of their life and with little to show for it.

However, this is not easy to understand. It appears to be counter-cultural. For many of us it seems important to get what we deserve. We like to work for what we have, it comforts the conscience. If I get what I deserve, it is mine. I can spend my money as I feel fit. Our human nature likes a balance-sheet approach to salvation, the positive on one side, the negative on the other. Heaven or Hell, one gets what one deserves.

But the Gospel is different. The Gospel tells us that “...God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17, NIV)

For Paul this opened up a space of freedom. On the one side freedom from something: freedom from the law, freedom from the past, freedom from condemnation, freedom from social pressure, class, or any other man-made distinction. There is nothing that separates us or puts us in different classes: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28, NRSV)

On the other side, it is freedom to do something: freedom to love, to care, to do what is right. Abraham Lincoln said: “Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose.” Because now, once we are confident about our salvation, our motivation changes.

Paul argues in Galatians that once we are saved by grace, we will obey the law out of gratitude and love. Once God’s love is working in us, we will gladly do good and avoid evil. We are free to help the poor, comfort the sad, and we will not abuse the newly gained freedom because we are no longer slaves, neither to the law nor to our desires. We won’t fall back in bad habits.

This type of Christian freedom might take some practice and time, and some failure on the way to remind us that it is not us and our strength, and that we continue to depend on God’s grace. But we don’t rely on fulfilling any law to be loved by God.

In Ephesians, 3:12, Paul writes: “In him [Jesus Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”

• Karsten Decker is a German theologian with a double degree equivalent to an MTheol and MDiv. He studied in Marburg (Germany), Knoxville (USA), and Toronto (Canada) and comes from a united church of Lutheran and Reformed Churches. He was the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Bermuda from 2010 to 2017, and after returning from Germany is now the temporary pulpit supply at Centenary Untied Methodist Church in Smith’s