Karl Barth, The Gift of Freedom

The Gift of Freedom. Foundation of Evangelical Ethics.

It is my task to discuss the gift of freedom, and to do so with the foundation of evangelical ethics in view. Let me anticipate the solution to the problem inherent in this theme in three summary propositions. The first describes the freedom which God Himself possesses; the second delineates it as the gift bestowed by God upon man; the third relates the consequences of these two to the problem of the foundation of evangelical ethics.

First: God’s freedom is His very own. It is the sovereign grace wherein God chooses to commit Himself to man. Thereby God is Lord as man’s God.

Secondly: Man’s freedom is his as the gift of God. It is the joy wherein man appropriates God’s election. Thereby man is God’s creature, His partner, and His child as God’s man.

Thirdly: Evangelical ethics is the reflection upon the divine call to human action which is implied by the gift of freedom.

–Karl Barth, “The Gift of Freedom: Foundation of Evangelical Ethics,” in The Humanity of God