ELEUTHERIA (Freedom)

WRITTEN BY DREW MATZ

What is the Word?

Freedom is a deceptive concept. Today we think of freedom as having no constraints on our every whim – of doing whatever we please, whenever we want. However, this is a fairly recent concept of freedom. The New Testament has a different take on what it means to be truly free – a concept that is expressed by the Greek word eleutheria. 

How does the Bible use this word?

Eleutheria is a Greek noun that is used to convey the idea of freedom of liberation. Often this is used chiefly to describe being loosened from the bonds of slavery. In the New Testament context, the human person apart from the Gospel is enslaved – enslaved to his passions, to sin, the devil, and to death. Through Christ however, those bonds are broken, setting the sinner free to live according to his created nature – to love God and to love one another. 

Where in the Bible?

Interestingly, it is not only humanity that is enslaved to the corruption of sin and death, but all of creation itself. The New Testament teaches that the fall of man was a cosmic event that impacts all of creation. But through the Gospel, Jesus has reversed all things and set them back on their natural course toward redemption with God:

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom (ἐλευθερίαν)of the glory of the children of God.

Romans 8:20-21

As Paul explains, through Christ’s death and resurrection, we are set free from the law of corruption and are able to receive the glory for which humanity was always intended. 

Peter then tells us how to use this freedom that is won for us on the cross:

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom (ἐλευθερίαν) as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

1 Peter 2:16

Our freedom shouldn’t be used to place ourselves back under the bondage of sin, enslaving ourselves to our base passions and desires. Rather, having been released from sin’s tyranny, we are now free to live and to love without fear of the penalty of the law and without the fear of death.

Whom the Son Sets Free is Free Indeed

Luther once explained the life of the Christian brilliantly: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all.” Thus, the freedom of the Christian is not a freedom to live as if we were still enslaved, but a call to serve God and neighbor in an expression of thanksgiving for all that God has done for us.