The Fetters and the Freedom

 The Fetters and the Freedom

Scripture: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Galatians 5:1)

I. The Diagnosis: The Chains We Carry

Let me tell you about my neighbour in Akasia, a young man named Thabo. Bright eyes, quick smile, a degree in accounting from TUT, and two years of sitting at home because there are no jobs. Last week, I found him standing at his gate at 5am, staring down the street as if expecting a bus that never comes. "I'm not lazy, Pastor," he said. "I'm just... stuck."

Thabo is not alone. In this first quarter of 2026, South Africa's official unemployment rate rose to 32.7 percent, with youth unemployment among those aged 15 to 34 climbing to 45.8 percent. More than eight million South Africans are without work. And while Eskom celebrates 441 days without load shedding a genuine triumph our people are still sitting in the dark of a different kind: the darkness of diminished hope, of dreams deferred, of futures that feel foreclosed.

But Thabo's chains are not merely economic. Walk with me through the streets of Mamelodi, where gangs recruit twelve-year-olds because they offer what schools cannot: belonging, identity, a sense of power. Listen to the mothers of Reiger Park, where two anti-gang officers were ambushed and killed just this past week. Read the statistics: 58 murders every single day in this country. The chains of violence. The chains of fear. The chains of a nation that fought so hard for political freedom only to find itself shackled by economic bondage and moral decay.

And then there are the chains we cannot see. The chains of the heart. The chains of bitterness that we carry from generation to generation. The chains of xenophobia that erupted again this month, with hundreds marching across Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban demanding an end to anti-immigrant violence. We who cried "Amandla!" for our own freedom now turn around and deny freedom to others. We who know what it means to be oppressed have become the oppressors. Is it not true that the most dangerous chains are the ones we do not recognise we are wearing?

Here is the first law of freedom: You cannot break what you refuse to see. Your liberation begins at the point of your honest diagnosis.

II. The Investigation: What Is Freedom, Really?

Let us define our terms with philosophical precision, because confusion about freedom is itself a form of captivity.

The world defines freedom as the absence of external constraint. To be free, in this view, is to have no one telling you what to do, no laws restricting your choices, no barriers to your self-expression. This is the freedom of the empty parking lot you can park anywhere because there are no lines, but chaos is not liberty.

The Scripture defines freedom as the presence of rightful alignment. To be free, in the biblical view, is to be restored to your designed purpose, to function as you were created to function, to be in right relationship with God, with others, and with yourself.

Consider the argument formally:

Premise One: Every created thing has a design, a purpose for which it was made.

Premise Two: A thing is truly free when it functions according to its design, not when it defies it.

Premise Three: Human beings were designed for relationship with God and righteousness in conduct.

Premise Four: Sin disrupts this design, creating bondage.

Conclusion: True human freedom is found in restoration to God's design through Jesus Christ.

Now, a common objection arises: "Doesn't this make freedom just another word for obedience? Isn't that just slavery in disguise?"

This objection fails because it misunderstands the nature of design. A fish is not enslaved by water; it is liberated by it. A bird is not imprisoned by the sky; it is fulfilled by it. The air does not restrict the eagle the air enables the eagle to be what it was made to be. The chains are not the commandments of God; the chains are the corruption that makes us unable to keep them.

Here is the second law of freedom: Freedom is not the absence of restraint but the presence of the right restraint. The question is not whether you will be bound, but to whom or what you will be bound.

III. The Transformative Insight: The Chain-Breaker

Let me tell you about the moment I understood this. I was sitting in my study in Akasia, the afternoon sun slanting through the window, reading Galatians for perhaps the hundredth time. And the words hit me like a tackle from Siya Kolisi himself: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free."

Not to freedom. For freedom.

This is the profound distinction. Christ did not merely open the prison door and say, "Good luck out there." He did not release us into chaos and call it liberty. He set us free for something. He broke our chains to bind us to Himself. He liberated us to love. He rescued us to serve. He saved us to become.

I thought of the Springboks, who just this week ground out a hard-fought 17-10 victory against Argentina. They are not free on the field because there are no rules. They are free because of the rules. The laws of rugby do not constrain their excellence they enable it. Within the framework of the game, they become what they were trained to be. Without the framework, there is no game at all.

I thought of amapiano, which has racked up more than 10 billion TikTok views and logged a streaming surge of more than 5,600 percent since 2018. The artists are not free because they ignore musical structure. They are free within structure. The beat, the rhythm, the key—these are not prisons; they are the architecture of creativity.

And I thought of the Cross. Picture it: Jesus Christ, nailed to wood, seemingly the most imprisoned man who ever lived. Could not move His hands. Could not free Himself. And yet and this is the mystery that shatters all our categories in that moment of utter physical bondage, He was more free than any human being has ever been. Free from the need to save Himself. Free from the fear of death. Free from the tyranny of sin. Free to love His enemies. Free to forgive His murderers. Free to cry, "It is finished!"

Here is the third law of freedom: The Chain-Breaker became chained so that the chained could become free. His captivity purchased your liberty. His submission secured your sovereignty.

IV. The Practical Embodiment: Walking in Freedom

So what does this freedom look like on the streets of Akasia, in the townships of Khayelitsha, in the suburbs of Sandton?

First, freedom is fidelity. The one who is truly free is free to be faithful. Free to keep promises. Free to stay when leaving would be easier. Free to love when hatred is justified. The world says freedom is options; the Bible says freedom is obligation rightly ordered. Your freedom is not measured by how many doors are open to you but by how firmly you stand in the one door that matters: Jesus Christ.

Second, freedom is service. The paradox of the Gospel is that the freest people are the ones who serve the most. They do not serve because they are compelled; they serve because they are free not to, and they choose to anyway. When Thabo finally finds a job, his freedom will not be in his salary but in his service. When the gangs of Mamelodi are broken, it will not be by more police alone but by men and women who are free enough to love the gangsters. When xenophobia ends, it will be because South Africans have discovered that our freedom is bound up with the freedom of our brothers and sisters from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Nigeria, the DRC. We are not free until they are free.

Third, freedom is worship. This is the ultimate destination of all true liberty. You were made to worship. Something will have your heart. Something will command your allegiance. Something will receive your devotion. The question is not whether you will worship but what you will worship. Freedom is not the rejection of worship; freedom is the redirection of worship to the only One worthy of it.

I see young people in our churches, hungry for the real Jesus. The research confirms what we pastors already know: Gen Z and Gen Alpha are "spiritually open" but "religiously cautious". They have seen leadership failures. They have witnessed hypocrisy. They have been burned by the prosperity gospel that promised wealth and delivered debt. But their hunger remains. And that hunger, rightly directed, is the beginning of freedom.

Here is the fourth law of freedom: You will never be free until you find something worth being bound to. The chains of Christ are the only chains that set you free.

V. The Call: Choose Your Chains

I close with a question that demands an answer.

Every person in this room, every person in this city, every person in this nation is wearing chains. The question is not whether you will wear chains. The question is whose chains you will wear.

You can wear the chains of sin and they will chafe and cut and destroy. You can wear the chains of self and they will isolate and exhaust and disappoint. You can wear the chains of the world—and they will promise freedom and deliver addiction.

Or you can wear the chains of Jesus Christ. And here is the miracle: His chains are not chains at all. They are wings. They are the wind beneath the eagle. They are the water to the fish. They are the sky to the bird. They are the freedom you were always searching for but could never find.

My neighbour Thabo is still looking for a job. But last Sunday, he came to church. And after the service, he said to me: "Pastor, I still don't have money. I still don't have work. But for the first time, I don't feel stuck. I feel... free."

That is what Christ does. He does not always change your circumstances. But He changes you in your circumstances. He does not always remove the chains of your situation. But He breaks the chains of your soul.

Christ did not die to release you into chaos, but into calling. Walk, then, unshackled not to wander, but to worship. Not to drift, but to disciple. Not to escape, but to engage. Not to be free from, but to be free for.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, You broke my chains to bind me to Yourself. You loosened my fetters to fasten me to Your feet. You liberated my legs to lead me in Your paths.

I confess that I have loved my chains. I have found comfort in my captivity. I have made peace with my prison. Forgive me. Break every bond that binds me to sin, self, and the world. And bind me instead to Your love, Your will, Your purposes.

Let my freedom be fidelity. Let my liberty be love. Let my independence be devotion.

In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, the Chain-Breaker, the Freedom-Giver, the King who was bound so that I could be unbound.

Amen.

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1, KJV)

Harold Mawela

Akasia, Pretoria

11 August 2026