This year, I was blessed to be able to participate in the 2025 Young People’s Convention at Springhill Camp in Evart, Michigan, as an older conventioneer. This year’s motif was “Free to Serve” with the following verses from Galatians 5:13-14: “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Verse 14, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
As per usual, the theme wasn’t very relevant to me. My attention was more absorbed by how much volleyball I would be able to play or how many card games I would win against my friends. The mandatory and more boring part of these trips for me was always the speeches. Then I listened to the first speech by Prof. Cory Griess, titled “Serving in Liberty.”
Professor Griess pushed into the role of Holocaust history and the propaganda that the Nazis painted onto Jewish prisoners. They even forced the prisoners to construct a sign that they would see before they went to work in the camps each day. On that sign stood three bleak German words: “Arbeit macht frei,” which translates to “Work makes you free.” The Nazis hoped to slightly unspoil Jewish minds by telling them that the work they did would soon lead to their freedom. This hope was obviously false, and Prof. used this piece of history to show us the parallel between this and the lies we are told today as Christians.
The devil, the world, and all other religions tell us in some way that we must work for our freedom. We are told that God can’t just save us if we don’t somehow earn it and do good deeds and Christian-like acts of service. How tiring! If that were the case, we would never be saved!
Of course, I knew that viewpoint was wrong already, but did I show it? Do we live as if we were free from sin, or is there something in the back of our minds that tells us we are still under the bondage of the law, and we must work, go to these speeches, go to Church, participate in Christian functions, all so that we can be saved?
My perspective on salvation was secretly going through the list of what I needed to do for God so that He could save me from my sins. It wasn’t that I thought what a blessing it is that the weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and I am now filled with praise and love for the God who saved me entirely through His own power and goodness.
But why do I feel it is such a chore to be a Christian?
Our old man of sin, our earthly flesh, longs to go back into the bondage and chains of Satan, who tells us that it is better to be chained in sin than to be free under God our Savior. But what a blessing it is to be able to show our gratitude and thankfulness by gifts and opportunities to love and praise Him! We are free to go to church with fellow Christians and praise God. To learn of His righteousness and mercy. We are free to speak about God to our neighbors, our colleagues, our children, etc. We are free to experience conventions and retreats, bible-studies and discussions with our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. We are free to serve our God!
By Sarah Moore
Young Calvinists 