St Paul's gift of freedom to the Maltese

As scattered parts of Malta and Gozo prepare to observe our national feast of St Paul Shipwreck, it's proper to thank God for the apostle's passionate preaching of the Gospel that brought Christianity to the Maltese islands.

For the message of the Gospel is that on Golgotha's hill the Son of God faced the Father's wrath for humanity's sin.

Jesus endured the penalty we justly deserve so that all that turn to Christ alone for their salvation instantly gain complete pardon of sin, past, present and future, and the gift of eternal life. It's as if God not only washes our sins away but also throws the slate away. God will never count sin against us, deliberate sin or not.

This is the wonder of the freedom St Paul extended to our ancestors when shipwrecked on Malta's shores on the way to Rome in chains.