Freedom Is Coming
Freedom is coming, freedom is coming, freedom is coming, O yes I know.
"Freedom Is Coming" makes a profound theological claim through its very simplicity: that freedom and Jesus are coordinate realities, each heralding the other. The two central verses — 'Freedom is coming' and 'Jesus is coming' — are not sequential or substitutionary but mutually interpreting. The coming of Jesus is the coming of freedom; the coming of freedom participates in the arrival of Christ. This is thoroughly consonant with Lutheran Christology, which understands Christ as the one in whom captive humanity is set free — freed from sin, death, and the power of the devil (cf. Luther's 'A Mighty Fortress') and freed for life in community. The song sings the gospel as liberation, consistent with Luke 4:18 and the Pauline declaration that 'for freedom Christ has set us free' (Galatians 5:1). From a Law/Gospel hermeneutic, the song functions primarily on the Gospel side: it is announcement, proclamation, and anticipation of gift rather than command or indictment. The repeated 'O yes I know' functions as a confessional response — a first-person affirmation of trust in the promise being proclaimed. This is the language of faith receiving the word, analogous to Luther's understanding of faith as the open hand that receives what Christ gives. At the same time, the song's origins in apartheid South Africa carry an implicit prophetic dimension: freedom is coming precisely because it has not yet fully arrived, and the singing community knows both the promise and the absence. This eschatological tension — 'already' and 'not yet' — is central to Lutheran theology of the cross. For Lutheran ecumenical worship, the song invites congregations into a global fellowship of hope and resistance. It witnesses to the church's calling to proclaim Christ's liberation in contexts of real oppression while maintaining eschatological perspective that Christ's coming consummates all freedom. It is appropriately sung at Easter, where resurrection is the ultimate freedom song, as well as in ordinary time when congregations need grounding in the promise that undergirds their witness. The song also serves as a powerful ecumenical bridge, reminding predominantly White Western congregations that global Christianity has been shaped by communities who sang the gospel as freedom in conditions of great suffering — a witness that enriches and challenges comfortable liturgical contexts.
History & Background
"Freedom Is Coming" emerged from the crucible of South African apartheid-era worship, where it circulated orally among Black South African Christians in the early 1980s before being collected and published in written form. The song was notated and brought to broader international attention through the 1984 collection 'Freedom Is Coming: Songs of Protest and Praise from South Africa,' edited by Anders Nyberg and published by the Walton Music Corporation / Utryck (Sweden) in 1984, with subsequent editions circulating widely by 1985. The song functioned simultaneously as an act of theological confession and political resistance — its layered, repetitive structure characteristic of African communal song, where meaning deepens through sustained repetition rather than progressive narrative stanzas. The text is rooted in the antiphonal and call-and-response traditions of southern African choral singing, drawing on the heritage of freedom songs (amakwaito and protest hymns) that sustained communities under apartheid. The equation of 'freedom' with the coming of Jesus was not metaphorical evasion but a direct theological claim: that Christ's reign and human liberation are inseparable realities. This dual register — eschatological hope and present political urgency — made the song immediately resonant across global church contexts. It was taken up rapidly by the ecumenical movement, appearing in World Council of Churches worship and spreading through the Iona Community, which included it in its collections in the late 1980s and 1990s. By the 1990s the song had achieved remarkable ecumenical breadth, appearing in Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Anglican, and Roman Catholic hymnals across North America, Europe, and Australia. Its reception in post-apartheid contexts has shifted its primary register from protest to eschatological celebration, though its origins are regularly recalled in responsible liturgical use. The song continues to be performed in three-part or four-part a cappella harmony as well as in accompanied arrangements, and its simplicity of text belies the profound sophistication of its harmonic and rhythmic structure when performed in the South African choral tradition.
Hymnal Appearances
- Evangelical Lutheran Worship — 368
- Glory to God — 359
- Lift Up Your Hearts — 762
Bulletin Note
"Freedom Is Coming" arose among South African Christian communities in the early 1980s and was collected by Anders Nyberg (Utryck, 1984). It was sung as both worship and witness during the apartheid era, equating the coming of Jesus with the coming of true freedom.
Preaching Connection
Where the world offers only the freedom of autonomy and self-determination, this song dares to announce a freedom that comes — a freedom given, not achieved, arriving with Jesus himself. Preachers can use this text to explore the difference between liberation that we secure and the freedom that the gospel announces as already on its way.
Themes
freedom liberation eschatology coming of Christ hope resistance proclamation global church justice Easter confessional testimony