St Paul emphasized the freedom of man in many of his letters mainly in Galatians, Corinthians and Romans. He declares that Christians are called to freedom (Gal 5:13) because Christ has set them free (Gal 5:1). He elaborated his notion of freedom chiefly under three aspects.

First of all, in Paul’s mind, what makes man free is baptism as it eliminates all differences between slave and free man in the line of redemption. According to Gal 3:26-29 all who have been baptized have put on Jesus and hence has become one in Jesus. In 1 Cor 12:13 Paul reminds his readers that all have become one body through the baptism in Spirit.

Secondly, Paul introduces freedom as freedom from sin and law (Gal 5:1). Sin is viewed as slavish. Christians have been liberated through dying in Christ’s death and being raised with Him to live as God’s willing servants. Freedom from law is for Paul essential to salvation as it frees man from sin. Law is viewed as the slave-attendant who accompanied the free-born and disciplined him until he came of age. With the acceptance of the gospel, people have no need of a custodian as they enjoy freedom from law. As seen above, this freedom from law does not mean an undisciplined life but get empowered to do the will of God. Freedom from law is not freedom to sin. That would be exchanging one bondage for another. If legalism is one enemy of freedom license is another. St Paul says in Rom 8:4: ‘walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit that the law’s righteous requirements are fulfilled.’

Thirdly, to Paul, freedom that is bestowed by the possession of the Spirit brings Christians into another form of slavery, a slavery of Christ. In Rom 5:16 Paul speaks of Christians as being slaves of righteousness and in 1 Cor 7:22 as slaves of Christ. Rom 6:18-22 clearly states that freedom from sin lawlessness and death makes one a slave under the righteousness. In 1 Cor 6:20 we read, “You were bought with a price” i.e. their belongingness to Jesus is represented as the consequence of being purchased as slaves. Christians are subject to Christ as ‘king of kings and lord of lords’ (Rev 17:14). This means that the fact of being redeemed does not free man from the obligation of moral commandments. Freedom from the sphere of flesh creates in you a vacuum and that is to be filled by loving service of one another (Gal 15:13f).

The Pauline concept of freedom is thus related to Christ, the freedom-giver. To be frank, human persons are not free in many respects. Externally they are dependent upon numerous agencies both for their continued existence and for the efficacy of their actions. They are regulated by the physical and social contexts. Internally they are drained by inner divisions to the extent that they cannot carry out their best intentions. St Paul has strikingly coined it as follows: ‘I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not the good I want, but the evil I do not want’ (Rom 7:18-19). And then he laments, ‘Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ (Rom 7:24). Thus human person is bound by subjection to many forces like law, death, lust and pride (1 Jn 2:16). Therefore man is in desperate need of being liberated from all the external and interior impediments to freedom. There emerges the need for a theological vision of freedom. To the Christians, there can be no adequate liberator except God who has dominion over all created forces, both within us and outside of us. By His obedience on the Cross and His glorious resurrection Christ has been made our needed liberator.