How God’s Grace Breaks Every Chain and Sets You Free

True freedom, or “liberated living,” is achieved through the amazing grace of God. Jesus Christ came specifically to set believers free, and nothing is more wonderful or liberating than a life defined by grace. The gospel of grace is characterized as God’s emancipation proclamation. This freedom is the ability to “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage,” as admonished in Galatians 5:1.

While many people are free, they may not be “free indeed”. One is not truly free if they “drag their chain with them”. Ironically, Satan seeks to turn his converts into slaves. Those who boast about worldly “liberty” (such as “reproductive freedom” or “freedom of the press”) often promise freedom while they themselves are “the slaves of corruption,” according to 2 Peter 2:19.

A life of true liberty means freedom from three major types of spiritual bondage: legalism, criticism, and fatalism.

1. Freedom from the Bondage of Legalism

The grace of God delivers believers from the bondage of legalism, which is one of the greatest forms of bondage. Legalism attempts to earn salvation or acceptance through adherence to rules and works, rather than resting in Christ’s finished work.

The Apostle Paul strongly opposed those who deserted or perverted the true gospel of grace. He marveled that believers were “so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel”. The devil achieves the desertion of the gospel by perverting it, leading people to accept a synthetic salvation instead of a real one.

Paul, acting as a freedom fighter, stated there can be no compromise with gospel truth. He declared that if any person—even an angel from heaven—preaches a gospel different from the one received, “let him be accursed”. This means they should be given over to destruction or “damned”. Paul’s emphasis shows that the truth of the gospel is of paramount importance; compromising it is worse than saying “two plus two is five”. Believers do not need a new, modern gospel, as the one true gospel is irrevocable and can never be changed.

The Three Marks of the True Gospel

The true gospel of grace is fundamentally different from counterfeit gospels. It is not the messenger who validates the message, but the message that validates the messenger. The true gospel has three supernatural characteristics:

1. Supernatural Origin: The gospel is not man’s invention, but God’s revelation. Paul certified that he neither received it of man nor was he taught it, but received it “by the revelation of Jesus Christ”. If a gospel is new, it is not true, because truth never changes.
2. Supernatural Operation: The true gospel is rooted in the grace of Christ. Salvation is solely “in Christ alone by the cross alone by grace alone through faith alone”. It is not of works; salvation cannot be earned, bought, borrowed, stolen, or inherited. The work of Christ on the cross was completed, and it will never be repeated or depleted.
3. Supernatural Object: The gospel centers exclusively in Christ. The core message is that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised again the third day. Salvation involves a personal confrontation with Jesus Christ, not merely adherence to a creed, code, cause, or church. Christ claimed to be the only way to heaven: “I am the way the truth and the life and no man cometh unto the father but by me”.

Servant vs. Son: Unconditional Acceptance

Understanding grace frees the believer from the “Performance Trap” of legalism. The difference between trying to be saved by the law (servant) and being saved by grace (son) is essential:

• A servant (slave) is accepted based on what he does (workmanship, productivity). He begins each day anxious to please his master.
• A son is accepted based on who he is (relationship, position). He begins the day resting secure, knowing he is loved. If a son fails, he is lovingly corrected, but he is not afraid of being thrown out of the family.

Crucially, God’s love is unconditional. God simply says, “I love you,” without any prerequisite (not “I love you because,” or “I love you when,” or “I love you if”). God’s love flows from His nature; it is His action toward us, not a reaction to us. Believers are valuable because God loves them, and He loves them so He can change them.

2. Freedom from the Bondage of Criticism

If the devil cannot impose the bondage of legalism (which we put on ourselves), he tries to impose the bondage of criticism (which other people put on us). This criticism often comes from “false brethren” or “sham Christians” within the church who are legalists and cannot tolerate salvation by grace.

While the Law came by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Legalists often supplement God’s holy law with their own man-made lists of rules, rituals, and regulations (the Pharisees developed 613 of them) and use these lists to judge everyone else.

These “grace busters” try to spy out the liberty that believers have in Christ Jesus to bring them into bondage. Paul refused to submit to the opinions of these legalists. He even publicly rebuked the Apostle Peter when Peter, fearing those promoting circumcision, withdrew from fellowshipping with the Gentiles.

Believers must guard against being put under bondage by the superficial, man-made preferences of others. While one should avoid wounding a weaker brother’s conscience, one must also beware of “professional weaker brothers” who use their preferences to try and bring others into subjection. When a person is right with God, they are free from having to worry about what someone else says about them.

3. Freedom from the Bondage of Fatalism

The grace of God also frees believers from the bondage of fatalism. This involves the worry that one is under the “elements of the world,” which refers to elemental forces of nature, such as the stars and planets.

Specifically, this includes the concept of astrology. Paul referred to observing “days and months and times and years” (the zodiac) as turning back to “weak and beggarly elements”. Consulting horoscopes is characterized as occult, “out of hell,” and of the devil. Astrology, meaning astral logos or “the word of the stars,” is unnecessary because believers have the Word of God.

When believers understand the grace of God, they do not feel they are victims of circumstance or objects of fate, because they are what they are “by the grace of God”. In God’s purpose, all things work together for good to those who love Him.

How God’s Grace Works: The Cross-Centered Life

The mechanism for this complete liberation is found entirely in the cross. If righteousness were achievable by the law, “then Christ is dead in vain”—meaning Calvary would have been a blunder.

The Christian life is an expression of what happened on the cross, detailed in Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”.

The result of grace through the cross is a threefold life:

1. An Executed Life: “I am crucified with Christ”. When Christ died as the substitute, He died not just to take away the believer’s sins, but to take away the believer (“you”)—who was the real problem. Because the debt has been paid in full, the believer is spiritually executed and raised, thus avoiding “double jeopardy”.
2. An Exchanged Life: “Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”. The believer died with Christ and rose with Him. This new life is the resurrected life of Christ Himself.
3. An Energized Life: “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God”. This means the believer lives by the faith of Christ, whose life and faith are resident within them. The one who gave Himself for the believer is the one who gave Himself to the believer.

This truth highlights that true liberty is not about human capability; it is the grace of God. Just as the burning bush Moses saw was not consumed because it was “God in the bush,” the effectiveness of the believer is not due to the person, but due to Christ living within them. This divine grace secures liberty from legalism, criticism, and fatalism.