Acts 22:28

And the chief captain answered, “With a great sum obtained I this freedom.” And Paul said, “I was free born”.

In Acts chapter 21:27 we have a scene where the Jews saw Paul in the Temple and attacked him creating a very violent scene that drew the attention of the Romans stationed there. As he was being beaten, the Roman chief captain had his soldiers arrest Paul to try to quell what was about to turn into a mad riot and more than likely the murder of Paul. As the Roman soldiers pulled him out of the crowd it appears that the crowd forced them into a corner where the only way out was “up” a flight of stairs. Paul took advantage of that flight of stairs to face down the crowd and with the permission of the Roman chief caption, gave his testimony. His message drew so much ire from the crowd that they openly started to proclaim that Paul must be killed.

Seeing that this was only going to escalate, the Roman chief captain, brought him into a castle to be scourged and beaten. They felt that he was the instigator of this riot and they were going to punish him. As they bound him and prepared to beat him, Paul turns to the centurion in charge and lets him know that they are about to beat a Roman citizen. This was against Roman law.

The fact that the chief captain stated “With a great sum obtained I this freedom” tells us that this Roman paid a large price to reach his rank. While the Bible does not go into detail about what the price actually was, looking into the Roman culture and laws of that time, we can say that it was not a price in gold or money. We can say that this man worked hard and sacrificed quite a bit, all of his life to reach this status and rank. It is possible that this man was not a Roman citizen, and it is possible that he was paying off a form of debt in service of Rome.

When Paul states “I was free born”, it gave him instant status above this Roman captain to a level that the captain was suddenly very afraid, and immediately released him.

Paul’s words “I was free born” are so much more powerful than “With a great sum obtained I this freedom”. Paul is literally saying that there is nothing that can take away his freedom, he was born free. The captain is saying “I paid a large price to get where I am” and his actions could destroy his position.

This is a representation of our Freedom in Christ. We are born free when we are born again.

John 3:3

Jesus answered and said “Verily verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he can not see the Kingdom of God”

There is nothing that can be done against us and nothing that we can do to jeopardize our Freedom.

We are truly Free