The year theme: Law and Liberty
Final exam, Week 14
Review & Overview
This Year
- 1Spring Scriptural approach.
- 2Fall Law and liberty.
The Purpose of the Law
Law sits in the most foundational place: God as law, God as eternal love.
In the Old Testament God gave the law to the people; in the New Testament, the love of God. The purpose of the law is people back to God — union and true fellowship.
Liberty is relational; it begins with our relationship with God. In Genesis, God repeatedly calls His creation “good” — exactly as He intended it. Jesus came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it, restoring what was broken across three dimensions.
Three Dimensions
- 1God – Man Walking with God, face to face.
- 2Man – Man Eve from Adam: “bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh.”
- 3Man – Creation Adam as co-ruler and co-servant, naming all things.
The Rebellion and the Fall
Because of the rebellion, all three unions break:
- 1Adam and Eve hide from God.
- 2They blame each other.
- 3The earth is cursed — thorns and thistles.
The Good News
Fulfilling, Not Abolishing
In Matthew 5, on adultery: not only the act, but the lustful intent of the heart. The law points beyond the rule to God's purpose — how we should treat all people, not only our spouse.
Our reaction is that this is too demanding — a yoke. But the good news is that Jesus carried the burden, not us, and invites us into union with Him.
Justice = Mercy = Love
What Liberty Means
Liberty (in Greek) means belonging to a clan. Through Christ we call God “Abba, Father.” And as promised, the Holy Spirit is sent — interceding for us and dwelling within us.
This Semester
The focus turns to the legal and political sense of liberty, through two theologians:
- 1Augustine of Hippo
- 2Martin Luther
Augustine on Free Will, Sin, and Grace
What is liberty?
Liberty can mean being able to choose. But what if our desires lead us toward things that harm us? This week asks whether freedom also requires a change in the person who chooses.
The course begins with humanity created for fellowship with God, a relationship damaged by rebellion and restored through Christ. Augustine connects this scriptural account to questions about human freedom. His influence on Luther and the Reformation helps us approach the place of the individual in law and political life.
Choosing and being free
Augustine, an early Christian theologian, argues that sin damages our will without destroying our ability to choose. We remain responsible for our actions, yet cannot restore ourselves to a right relationship with God unaided.
Imagine a balance scale. Pelagius, Augustine’s opponent, sees the will as evenly balanced: either side can be chosen without an inherited bias. Augustine sees weights already loading the scale toward evil. The scale still moves, but it is no longer balanced. , God’s freely given help, heals this condition so that we can turn toward God.For Augustine, grace is undeserved help from God that works within us, enabling us to respond to him.
An even balance. The will can choose good or evil without an inherited bias.
A bias toward evil. Sin weighs on the will, but the ability to choose remains.
Where grace comes in: for Augustine, grace heals this bias and liberates the will. It does not take away our choice.
Pelagius and Augustine
| Topic | Pelagius argues | Augustine answers |
|---|---|---|
| The will | We can freely choose good or evil. God’s commands can be fulfilled through our natural abilities. | We still choose, but sin distorts the will. Freedom needs healing through grace. |
| Sin | Sin consists of deliberate wrong acts. We are born without an inherited sinful condition. | We inherit a damaged condition that produces sinful acts. This is .In Augustine’s account, original sin is the damaged human condition inherited from Adam, which gives rise to sinful acts. |
| Grace | God gives us natural abilities, moral teaching, and Christ’s example to guide our choices. | God’s undeserved help works within us, healing and strengthening us to respond to him. |
| Salvation | We attain salvation through moral obedience. Christ shows us the life we must live. | Salvation is God’s gift. Even our good works depend on grace. |
Why grace is needed
If our problem were simply ignorance, better instructions would be enough. Augustine thinks the problem reaches deeper: sin affects both our understanding and our desires. He explains our need for Christ through three images:
- Disease needs healing. Christ is the physician who restores a damaged human nature.
- Captivity needs liberation. Christ frees us from a power we cannot escape alone.
- Guilt needs pardon. Christ brings forgiveness for the sin that separates us from God.
Grace therefore does more than show us what is right. It enables a response we could not produce on our own. Good works matter, but they grow from God’s help rather than earn it.
In the vineyard parable (Matthew 20:1–16), some laborers work all day and others only an hour, yet all receive the same wage. Augustine sees the landowner’s generous promise as the key: the late arrivals receive what their hours alone could not earn. Likewise, salvation rests on God’s gracious promise, not the amount of merit we accumulate.
The connection to Luther
Martin Luther struggled with “the righteousness of God” in Romans 1:17. He understood it as the standard by which God judged sinners, and his efforts could not bring him peace. Augustine helped him see righteousness as a gift God gives, received through faith. This is called .Justification means being put right with God; for Luther, it is God’s gift received through faith.
Faith is personal trust, not merely knowing that Gospel events happened. Luther compares it to boarding a ship: believing the ship exists differs from entrusting yourself to it. Through faith, the person is united with Christ. Faith receives God’s gift; it is not another achievement that earns salvation.
This returns us to liberty: freedom involves the restoration of the person’s relationship with God. That understanding prepares the course’s later questions about individual freedom, law, and political authority.
Remember these three ideas
- Having choices does not mean the will is free from sin.
- Grace heals and liberates; it does more than instruct.
- For Luther, righteousness is received through faith rather than achieved.
Discussion questions
- 1How does Augustine’s theological perspective on free will, original sin, and divine grace help us understand the scriptural account of freedom better?
- 2What insight on law and liberty do we gain from studying the Pelagian controversy of the early fifth century?
- 3How did Augustine’s thoughts influence the Reformation-era thinkers, especially Martin Luther?
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) became a bishop in North Africa and a major influence on Western Christianity. His Confessions expresses the relationship at the heart of his theology: “you made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Confessions, Book I, Chapter 1).
His debate with Pelagius in the early fifth century shaped Christian teaching on grace. He also contributed to the doctrine of the Trinity and to teaching about the church and sacraments. Against the Donatists, he argued that a sacrament’s validity rests on Christ’s holiness, rather than the minister’s personal sinlessness.
Based on the September 11 lecture notes and the Week 2 material drawn from Alister E. McGrath’s Christian Theology: An Introduction (2007).
Luther and Calvin on Christian Liberty
Freedom of Religion as Foundational Liberty
As the discussion of law and liberty transitions from the scriptural and theological to the legal and political, this week considers how the idea of religious liberty emerged, and — when it is understood in its historical and conceptual senses — why freedom of religion can be regarded as the most foundational of all civil and political liberties.
Locke, Rousseau, and Kant
Mill on Liberty and the Individual
Week 8 considers John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) on the limits of state power and public opinion over the individual. Assigned readings will be provided in advance on the LMS.
Faculty Talk: Christianity and Public International Law
Faculty Talk: Christianity and Public International Law, given by H. Lee. The syllabus lists this as a talk week; no further lecture notes are in the syllabus.
Liberalism vs. Republicanism
These weeks consider how liberty in relation to law has been understood through major schools of thought, both liberal and republican, or modern and ancient. Week 10 names the contrast as modern liberalism and contractarianism versus republicanism (or liberty before liberalism).
Negative Liberty vs. Positive Liberty
Week 11 takes up two concepts of liberty: negative liberty versus positive liberty. Assigned readings will be provided in advance on the LMS.
Faculty Panel Discussion on Law & Liberty
Faculty Panel Discussion on Law & Liberty. Panelists: H. Lee, Y. Lee, Paik. After this panel, Week 13 finishes the year-long consideration of the theme.
Concluding Reflections
After the faculty panel in Week 12, Week 13 finishes the year-long consideration of the theme, law and liberty, with concluding reflections.
Final Exam
There will be an hour-long final exam using Exam4, administered in the final week of classes — Friday, December 4, Week 14. Students will be asked to write an essay answering one question based on the entire course material for the semester. This exam assesses the lecture portion (pass/fail).