The 1995 film Braveheart is a fictionalized account of the life of William Wallace, a leader of Scottish forces in what is now known as the First War of Scottish Independence, the long struggle in the late 13th and early 14th centuries to end the tyrannical reign of the English King Edward (I) Longshanks. Wallace’s numerous military successes and attacks on nobles loyal to the English make him a wanted man. Near the end of the film he is captured and taken to London for trial (1305). He is found guilty of high treason and condemned to public torture and execution. In front of a large crowd, Wallace is hanged, drawn and quartered. So grisly is the scene and so valiant is Wallace in the face of indescribable pain and inevitable death, that some in the crowd begin to cry out for mercy. The magistrate, trying to avoid making Wallace a martyr, leans forward and promises him an end to suffering and a quick death if he will just utter the word “Mercy.” Just ask for mercy and it will all be over. Wallace, in agony, struggles to find the breath to speak. The magistrate looks on eagerly, anticipating Wallace’s capitulation. But, instead, the word “Freedom!” suddenly explodes from the dying man’s lips and redounds off the walls of the castle courtyard.
It was a stirring climax, for freedom is a stirring concept.
It is a concept that we in the United States hold dear. Yet, freedom has many connotations; it brings to mind many things. There is political freedom, something that we will soon celebrate on the Fourth of July: we are free to elect our representatives, part of a Constitution and 250 tradition of democratic norms that are meant to keep us free from the tyranny that so many people have lived under throughout history. Among our constitutionally protected freedoms as the freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
Of course, freedom also has other, less political connotations. We speak of what we will do with our free time. A teenager looks forward to moving out of her parent’s home as a type of freedom. The person who has recently left a hated job or a bad relationship experiences a kind of freedom.
A lot of talk of freedom in our society seems to be based on the notion that freedom means that I can do what I want, when I want, how I want, often with little concern for other people or the consequences. Much of our talk about freedom seems to be about “me.” And of course, advertisers constantly encourage us to exercise our freedom of choice to choose their products, as if the very essence of freedom is found in being a consumer.
Paul declares, “For freedom, Christ has set us free.” But the freedom which he has in mind is different from all of our common understandings. This freedom is neither political nor social, though it does have very real ramifications for all spheres of life. It is not about doing what we want or having a range of product choices. It is not about being on our own, quite the opposite actually. It is not something that can be won through the exercise of power or earned through meritorious behavior.
This freedom is a gift, freely given by God. It is a gift that frees us to be what we were created to be [J. Paul Sampley, “Galatians,” New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI, 78). Through Christ, we are liberated from sin and death. Sin is defeated and we are set free so that we are able to enter into new and loving relationships. We are forgiven so that our broken relationship with God and each other may be restored. Death too is defeated so that these relationships become eternal in character.
It is important to remember that this freedom is a gift. It is offered out of God’s grace and it is received by grace, by trusting that God in Christ has in fact set us free. Paul reminds the Galatians that they had received the Spirit not by doing religious works, but by believing the Gospel (3.1-2). “The one who is righteous,” he says, “shall live by faith (3.11).” So freedom is not earned, but given to us by God.
As a young man, Martin Luther struggled with an acute sense of his own sin and a deep, almost exaggerated guilt. By his own admission, he tried to do everything possible to make himself pleasing to God and thus earn his salvation. “I was a good monk,” he wrote, “and I kept the rule of my order so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery it was I…. If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading and other work.” Now, the monastic rule was intended to remove distractions and focus the attention of the monks so that they might truly be devoted to God and develop the very fruits of the Spirit Paul writes about. But Luther turned the rule into a form of works righteousness. He went above and beyond the requirements performing extra prayers and 3-day fasts. He was particularly fastidious in his confessions, making sure to mention even the most minute errors or omissions. He was so nit-picky that his confessor, Johan von Staupitz, declared in exasperation that he did not want to see Luther in the confessional again till he had committed murder or adultery or some other sin worth confessing! But nothing Luther did could bring him comfort. He thought of God as a harsh, vengeful judge and could find no way to make himself good enough.
Luther finally experienced a breakthrough. It came after von Staupitz assigned him the task of preparing to teach scripture at the local university. At some point in the course of his studies, the exact time is debated, Luther received an epiphany. He discovered exactly what Paul emphasizes in his letters: salvation comes by grace. It is a free gift from God which we accept through faith. It is not earned; it can only be received. This epiphany freed Luther from sin and guilt and the need to earn God’s favor. His life was transformed. He declared, “I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.” He summarized his new understanding by saying, “If you have a true faith that Christ is your Savior, then at once you have a gracious God, for faith leads you in and opens God’s heart and will, that you should see pure grace and overflowing love. This it is to behold God in faith that you should look upon [God’s] fatherly, friendly heart, in which there is no anger or ungraciousness. He who sees God as angry does not see [God] rightly but looks only on a curtain, as if a dark cloud had been drawn across his face.” [quoted in Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, 49 & 50]
It is important to understand God’s graciousness, for it frees us of the tendency toward “Check-list Christianity.” You know, “if I can only do a, b and c, then God will love me” or “I have done x, y, and z and so I know that I am right with God.” Such an approach is exactly what caused Luther such despair and exactly what Paul is combating in Galatians.
If, like a young Luther, we try in some way to earn God’s favor, it will only keep us from seeing that God is offering us all we need as a free, unmerited gift. If, like the Galatians, we think that we have to observe certain religious rituals and do certain deeds to be included among God’s children, then we are nullifying the liberating work of Christ, rendering it pointless, and taking the initiative away from God and claiming it for ourselves. We are turning the work of the Spirit into a human work.
To be free in Christ is to live as one who has been forgiven, as one who is a child of God and an heir of God’s kingdom (4.7). It is to live as one who no longer sees God as a wrathful judge but instead knows God’s abundant mercy and parental care. It is to live as one who is open to the transforming guidance of the Holy Spirit. To be free in Christ is to live as one who has entered into relationship with the loving God and is thus empowered to return and share that love in word, deed and thought.
And that brings me to the second important point we should take away from this scripture this morning. Though we are free from the need to do good to win God’s favor, we are not free from doing good. Good works should flow from us in response to what God has done for us.
So, we should not think of our freedom in Christ as primarily freedom from something: freedom from good works, freedom from guilt, freedom from religious obligation, or the like. Instead, we must realize that our freedom is “freedom for.” It is freedom for love of God and neighbor. It is freedom for service to God and neighbor. It is freedom to grow in virtue, to replace the works of the flesh with the fruits of the Spirit. It is freedom to be in relationship and community. Paul tells the Galatians, “13For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. 14For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”” Freedom is the essential precondition for Christian living. Freedom creates the space in which we may live virtuously with one another, the space in which human beings may thrive as individuals living in community—I believe this is true whether we are talking about freedom theologically or politically: freedom makes human thriving, true community, possible.
On a mission trip to South Africa, LaDonna Sanders Nkosi encountered these words of the great freedom fighter and President Nelson Mandela: “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” [https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2016-05/june-19-12th-sunday-ordinary-time] In a sermon on our scripture, Joanna Adams expresses the same truth: “To be free really means to be liberated from the prison of "me, myself, and I". To be truly free is to be able to move beyond the self and, as one who is wise has put it, to move into the risk of love and to give oneself to the demand of service. To be free is to be free for responsibility, not from responsibility.” [“The Predicament of Freedom,” Day 1, July 1, 2017; http://day1.org/1049-the_predicament_of_freedom; emphasis added] Freedom brings with it a responsibility to others: a responsibility to love, to struggle for justice, to show mutual care, to seek the good and the thriving of others.
That is why Paul launches into ethical instruction in today’s reading. Freedom is not the license to do anything. Indeed, greed, in-fighting, gossip, jealousy, adultery, the worship of money and status, our need to be right—such things are sign of the old bondage to the Flesh, bondage to the old lie of autonomy: the lie that we are self-sufficient, that we need no one and have no responsibilities to anyone but ourselves; the lie that we should look out for number one and do whatever feels good. This attitude and the accompanying works of the flesh are the products of the state separation that is sin.
Christ has freed us from this slavery, but not so that we can continue with business as usual, for that would actually be a return to bondage. To paraphrase Lord Acton, “True freedom is not the ability to do whatever we want, but rather having the power to do what we ought.” We are set free to become virtuous; to grow in love; to do good; to become good. And this is possible because the Holy Spirit has been given to us to empower us to do what we ought, to lead us in new paths and to nurture us that we might bear good fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. As Timothy C. Downs has observed, these fruits of the Spirit “are not laws for behavior, but [they] are the characteristics of those who in their freedom are open and responsive to the creative Spirit of God. There is no law but freedom. But that freedom is framed by a context, by a covenant of mutuality and of love.” We have been set free to enter into the beloved community where we bear one another’s burdens and work for the good of all people, thus fulfilling the law of Christ (6.2, 10).
Through Christ, God wants to set us free from all that binds us and to unite us into a community in which we love and serve one another and the world. Through the Holy Spirit, God wants to guide us so that our lives bear good fruit. God offers each of us freedom:
Freedom to be what we were created to be;
Freedom to enter into new, transformed relationships with God and each other;
Freedom to be God’s children and heirs;
Freedom for lives of love and service;
Freedom to live by God’s life-giving, liberating Spirit.
All this is offered to us in Jesus Christ.
It is for such freedom, that Christ has set us free. Amen.