Information Related to "Current Confusion Over Christian Freedom"
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In countering the Galatian heresy, Paul sometimes refers to Christian freedom. But the freedom he describes is very different from the way his words are commonly interpreted today. Paul's reasoning regarding grace, law, justification and freedom has been so twisted out of context that today his meaning is rarely correctly understood.
For example, the popular view of freedom today, especially in Western society, is that individuals should be free to live as they please. People generally read that concept of freedom into Galatians. But such an idea was totally foreign to Paul-and to the authorities and society of Paul's day.
The government of the Roman Empire was a dictatorship under the authority of the emperor. Relatively few people possessed Roman citizenship with its associated legal rights. Most of the population belonged to two other classes of people: free noncitizens and slaves. From these came the majority of Christian converts. Paul contrasts the free (nonenslaved) people with enslaved people to illustrate an important truth.
Those who are justified by the death of Christ are free from the condemnation to death earned by past sins. Those not justified are not free from that condemnation. As unforgiven sinners they remain like criminals sentenced to death and detained in bondage (as on death row) awaiting execution at the time of God's final judgment.
Paul does appeal to Christians to untangle themselves from-live free from-this world's bigoted class distinctions. He does this because, for the Church, "there is neither Jew nor Greek [gentile], there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).
Related Information on UCG Sites:
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