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THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD'S GRACE EMBRACES ALL WITHOUT DISTINCTIONGalatians 3:26-29INTRODUCTION In 1988 our family moved from LaCrosse, WI to Champaign, IL where I was given the assignment of being the director of the team of Campus Crusade for Christ staff assigned to work on the campus of the University of Illinois. There were a number of reasons we were excited to make this move. One of the chief reasons was that we already knew and were friends with four of the members of the staff team. Two had been students that we had known and discipled while serving at UW-LaCrosse and two had been on our staff team during the eight years we were in LaCrosse. There was a total of 16 full time staff on the team when we arrived in Champaign who had been together for several years. Shortly after moving to Champaign at the beginning of one of our weekly staff meetings a number of my team members were talking about how much fun they had over the weekend at a party at one of their homes. As the conversation progressed it became apparent that all of the team, including our friends, were at the party. However, we knew nothing about it and had not been invited. How do you think I felt that morning? I felt excluded, unwanted, uncared for and unloved. I began to wonder if there was something wrong with me that made me unacceptable to these people. Nobody had done anything wrong or had excluded us with evil purpose. Yet, that didn’t stop me from feeling rejected. I doubt there is anybody in here that has not felt that way at some time in his or her life. The desire to be accepted, to be included, to be on the inside and not on the outside of certain social groups begins early in life and thus the hurt of not being included also comes early. Whether we are intentionally excluded or not we feel that we are not accepted into certain groups because we lack in some way. We’re not pretty enough, athletic enough, successful enough, cool enough to belong. We recognize that often groups have entrance requirements, usually unspoken, and when we are not permitted or not invited to join we feel inferior, despised, left out. The letter that Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia is a description of who it is that belongs to the family of God. One way to state the central question that Paul is addressing is this, “How do humans become part of God’s family and remain a part of God’s family?” What are the entrance requirements to belong to God’s family? The false teachers who have come to these churches are telling the Galatians that in order to be considered part of God’s family and to remain a part of God’s family you not only have to believe in Jesus but you also have to become Jewish by being circumcised and obeying all the laws God gave to Israel in the OT. In other words, acceptance as a part of God’s family depends upon how well or poorly you perform. Paul has been arguing that no one is made right with God, no one becomes a part of God’s family by obeying laws but simply through faith in Christ. Verses 26-29 are the climax to the argument that Paul began back in 2:16. In these verses God declares that he is completely disinterested in what interests humans. The things that make us different from one another and therefore acceptable or unacceptable to one another have no interest to God. The good news of God’s grace is offered to all equally, without distinction and embraces all without distinction. Your economic standing, your moral performance, your religiosity, your gender, your social standing, your beauty, your intelligence, your race and a myriad of other things that matter to us have absolutely no influence upon whether or not God loves you or will accept you. Belonging to God’s family and remaining a part of God’s family is not based upon any of the things that include or exclude humans from human societies. He is impressed with only one human being and that is his son, Jesus Christ because Jesus is his beloved Son who completely and perfectly obeyed his Father’s will. Therefore he only responds to one thing in humans and that is our faith in Jesus Christ. MAIN POINT The gospel of God’s grace embraces all without distinction because through faith in Christ alone…I. We are all equally sons of God (v. 26) Verse 26 begins with a “for” which the NIV has again left out. That means that v. 26 is giving a reason for why v. 25 is true. Verses 24-25 tell us that the entire OT is about one person, Jesus Christ. Through the millenniums of history recorded in the OT God has been planning on bringing into the world, the descendant of the woman who would destroy Satan and all his works. The entire OT has revealed the nature and work of this Messiah so that men and woman could be declared not guilty of sin but perfectly acceptable to God through faith in him. Now that Christ has come and we are trusting in the real, actual Savior and not in shadows and allusions the OT and its laws are not the main focus of our attention. We don’t sacrifice animals because Christ is the once for all sacrifice for our sins. We don’t depend upon human priests to intercede between us and God because Christ is our high priest. We don’t go through ritual cleansing when we have a skin disease or when we’ve touched a dead body or eaten non-kosher food because we are cleansed of all our uncleanness by the blood of Christ. We don’t undergo physical circumcision because Christ has circumcised our hearts by his Spirit. We are no longer under the supervision or direction of the law now that we are trusting in Christ. According to v. 26 the reason all this is true is because all of us who are trusting in Christ are sons of God. The law, the 10 commandments, religious rituals cannot make you a son of God. All the OT law can do is condemn you as a lawbreaker and show you the Son of God who is able to make sons of God by his death, resurrection and ascension. There is no human characteristic that makes one more likely to become a son of God than any other characteristic. Human action, human choices, human work can only create and beget what is human. Only God himself is able to impart divine life. What v. 26 says is what Jesus says in John 3, that God has given divine life to everyone who is trusting in Christ. He has made all who trust in Christ into his sons. Now, when Paul says that we are all “sons of God” and not “daughters of God,” he is not being a sexist, a male chauvinist. He could have said we are all children of God through faith in Jesus but he didn’t. He said we are all sons of God. Why does he say that even women who trust Christ are to think of themselves and be glad they are sons of God? Paul uses this language for two reasons. First, he is communicating with people who live in his culture, which is a highly patriarchal society. In both Roman and Jewish culture, women, daughters had no rights. Daughters were the property of their fathers until they married at which time they became the property of their husbands. They did not receive any portion of the family estate. As is true in many cultures of the world yet today, sons were highly preferred over daughters for economic and social standing reasons. Therefore, Paul, in this context intentionally uses the term “sons of God” because he wants everyone who trusts in Christ to understand we are all in the position of being favored sons in the family of our Father with all the rights and privileges of that position. We cannot, from Paul’s use of this term determine if he approves of the social arrangements within which he lives. He is using language that will be meaningful to the people to whom he writes. The point he is making is that there are no second-class children among us, he is not engaging in social critique. The second reason he says that we are all sons of God through our faith in Jesus Christ is so that we will understand that God feels about us the way he feels about his only begotten Son, Jesus. We are sons of God through our faith in the Son of God and therefore, God loves us the way he loves his own son. He treats us as his beloved sons because we are in His Son by faith. If you have faith in Christ you are in the position of a favored son. It doesn’t matter whether you have strong faith or weak faith. It doesn’t matter if you have been a Christian for 10 years or 10 minutes. It doesn’t matter if you are a pastor or a disabled person who cannot leave your home. There are no daughters of God who have no rights to the family property and no access to the Father’s wealth. God doesn’t have any favorites in his family. He doesn’t love some of his children more than others. He does not withhold himself or his resources from any of his children. This is so important for us to understand. It is so easy when we look around at other Christians and the conditions in which they are living to not believe what I just said. When you observe that other Christians are healthier than you or have more money than you or are more respected than you or appear to have some benefit in this life that you don’t have it is easy to think that God loves them more than you. That is never the reason behind why our lives are different from one another. What you can always know is that God loves you as much as he loves his own Son. Therefore, whatever circumstances the wisdom of God ordains for our lives, we can always know that the motive behind the circumstances is God’s love for us as his beloved sons. If you are in Jesus Christ by faith, then you are fully a favored son in that family and nothing you do or don’t do can change that status. The gospel of God’s grace embraces all without distinction because through faith in Christ alone…
II. We are all equally clothed with Christ (v. 27) Before we can talk about what it means to be clothed with Christ, I have to address the issue of baptism. I don’t have time to deal with the entire subject of water baptism but will limit myself to a few observations. This is the only mention of baptism that Paul makes in this letter. It seems to come out of nowhere. Why does Paul say “as many as were baptized into Christ put on Christ, like a person putting on a suit of clothes?” First, Paul is not saying that the external act of baptism is the cause of spiritual effects. Baptism, as a physical act does not save anyone. But you might say, “John, v. 27 simply says that all who were baptized into Christ put on Christ. It sounds like its pretty automatic.” Let me show you why it cannot mean that baptism as a religious act does anything to your status before God. First, the structure of vv. 26-27 shows that Paul does not think of baptism as doing anything by itself. These two verses are classic Hebrew parallelism. There are thousands of verses in the OT structured just like this. The two verses say the same thing with different words in order to give a fuller understanding. The two verses begin and end with a declaration of what is true for an entire class of people. “You are all sons of God” and “you all put on Christ, like a set of clothes.” At the end of the first line and at the beginning of the second line the definition of the “you” is given. “All who have faith in Christ” are sons of God and “all who were baptized into Christ” have put on Christ. Therefore, in Paul’s mind everyone who has faith in Christ and all who were baptized into Christ define the same group of people. As far as Paul is concerned, everyone who has faith in Christ is also baptized into Christ. How does Paul understand the relationship between faith in Christ and being water baptized into Christ? The word “faith” or the verb, “to believe” is used 26 times in the letter to the Galatians. Baptism is mentioned once. In 1 Corinthians 1 Paul says to the Corinthian church, “I did not come to baptize but to preach the gospel.” In Romans 1 he says that it is the gospel that is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Therefore, it is very clear that faith is what unites us to Christ and gains for us all the benefits of what Christ has done. Baptism is an external act that all who trust in Christ submit to. It is quite clear that Paul cannot imagine an unbaptized Christian, yet he would not say that the act of baptism is what saves us. Rather our faith unites us to Christ and we are baptized as an expression of that faith. Because all who trust Christ are baptized Paul can use baptism as a summary description of a Christian. All who are baptized are also all who have been born again of the Spirit of God and thus given new hearts that repent of sin and trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. There are two things that I need to say as a result. First, if you profess to have faith in Christ and yet you have not been baptized then you are not living according to the pattern established by Christ and his apostles. In late June or early July we are going to begin the process of preparing people to be baptized and will be having a baptismal service in September. Watch for the details and sign up to be baptized. Second, v. 27 and others like it are the reason why I cannot commend or participate in infant baptism. Paul’s language here is absolute. All who were baptized have put on Christ. We all agree it is not the act of baptism that accomplishes the spiritual act of putting on Christ. It is rather the faith of the one who is baptized that unites us to Christ. Therefore, Paul must believe that everyone who is baptized has faith, which infants cannot ordinarily possess. Paul would never say that a person who is baptized but has no faith in Christ is clothed with Christ or is a son of God and a baby cannot have faith in Christ, therefore babies ought not be baptized. I’m not trying to pick a fight. I am very happy that our church welcomes into full membership those who believe in infant baptism. I know there is a biblical argument to be made for infant baptism. However, I think that argument fails because of this statement and others like it in Paul’s letters. What does Paul mean when he says that all who trust Christ and have been baptized in water as an expression of that faith have put on Christ? It is obviously a figure of speech. It is one that is used on many occasions in the OT. Most likely he is thinking of statements like this one in Isaiah 61:10, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” The imagery is very vivid. In every culture on earth brides and grooms dress in special attire on their wedding day. It would be inappropriate to show up at the altar in your swimsuit or wearing your hunting clothes. Even in our informal culture we know that there are certain kinds of clothing that are necessary for certain kinds of ceremonies or occasions. I know you will find this hard to believe but before I met my wife I regularly showed up at events dressed inappropriately. My entire wardrobe consisted of flannel shirts, blue jeans, white socks and hiking boots. I embarrassed her on several occasions early in our relationship because of how I dressed when we would go out. I have learned from her that certain occasions require certain kinds of dress. What is the occasion that we are all going to go to that requires that we be dressed in Christ? There are several pictures painted in the Scriptures. First, we have been dressed and made ready to come into the palace of the king. We are fit to enter into the royal throne room because we are dressed in Christ. We can attend the inaugural ball of the President of the universe because we are dressed in Christ. Second, we are fit to come to the wedding feast that the Father has prepared for his Son’s marriage to his bride, the church because we have been clothed with Christ. Christ is our wedding garment. He is the garment of salvation. He is the robe of righteousness. Third, the OT was full of regulations about the kinds of garments that had to be worn by the priests when they entered into the temple, into God’s presence. We are dressed in Christ so that we can enter into God’s very presence, into the most Holy Place. All of us who are trusting in Christ and have thus been baptized into Christ are dressed in God’s best suit of clothes, the Lord Jesus Christ himself and are thus ready to participate in all the functions and ceremonies of God’s kingdom. We are dressed for success in the kingdom of God. We are fit to show up in God’s kingdom because we are dressed in Christ. The gospel of God’s grace embraces all without distinction because through faith in Christ alone…
III. We are all equally one in Christ (v. 28) First notice the structure of the verse. There are six categories of human beings mentioned and they are grouped in three sets of two. Each of the sets is a pair of opposites or an expression of a deep division in humanity. Paul says that these three divisions no longer exist in some way because we are all one in Christ. The fact that all who trust Christ are one in Christ is the reason that these distinctions no longer exist. There are two questions that we must answer if we are going to understand what God is telling us in this verse and what he is not telling us. First, in what sense does he mean that these distinctions no longer exist? Second, what does he mean that we are “one” in Christ Jesus? Or to say it another way, “One what?” First, in what sense does he mean that these three distinctions in humanity have ceased to exist? He cannot mean that there is no such thing in the world or in the church as Jew/Gentile, slave/free and male/female. He is not teaching that we are to ignore and treat as completely irrelevant and unimportant one another’s sex or race or vocation or education or marital status or age or whatever other distinction you can think of. Paul’s letters are full of specific instructions to men, women, married, single, slave, master, citizen, Jew, Gentile, children, parents, the old, the young, husbands, wives, kings, governors, etc. He is not promoting some sort of utopian vision of a classless, unsegregated society. This verse is not primarily about the sociology of the church or of the broader culture. I think it has profound implications for how we relate to one another but it is not primarily about the social interaction of Christians. Rather, the point is that when it comes to being justified, declared not guilty before God, being sons of God, being clothed with Christ, being an heir of God’s promises, then your race, economic position, legal standing, gender do not matter. This points us in the direction of what he means by saying that we are all one in Christ Jesus. This does not mean we all have the same roles or functions in the church. It does not mean that we are to treat children as if they are adults or adults as though they are children. It does not mean we are to pay no attention to gifts and abilities when we organize the church or society. It does not mean we are to treat men like women or women like men or both as if they are some kind of sexless, genderless being. We are one in the equality of our access to God and to all the benefits Christ has won for us. God does not prefer the prayers of Jewish Christians to the prayers of non-Jewish Christians or of white Christians to the prayers of black Christians. God does not delight in the worship of the wealthy more than he delights in the worship of the poor. He does not give more spiritual insight to men than he does to women. Race or class or sex or education or physical beauty will not divide Heaven. God takes no notice of these things that matter so much to human beings when he determines whom he will save or when he distributes his gifts to his church. There are no second class Christians. Everyone who is in Christ is baptized by the Holy Spirit, given full access to God by Christ’s death, destined for eternal life, loved by God, endowed with spiritual gifts. This does not mean that there are no distinctions of role and function among us. This does not mean that there will be no distinctions in role and function in heaven. The simplest way to understand this is to consider the nature of God, himself. God is a trinity. That is, there is only one God who has eternally existed as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each member of the Trinity is fully God and yet there is only one God. Jesus in John 10:30 uses very similar language to that of Paul here when he says, “The Father and I are one.” What does that mean? It means that both the Father and the Son are fully God. They both possess the fullness of deity. They both possess all the attributes and glory of the divine being. They both are worthy of worship. They both can be prayed to. They share equally in all that it means to be God. However, the Father is always the Father and the Son is always the Son. The Son always submits to the Father and the Father always loves the Son and tells the Son what to do. The Son becomes man and fulfills the law and dies on the cross and rises from the dead. The Father does not do or perform any of these functions. The Father is not the atoning sacrifice for our sins, the Son is. While the Father and the Son are fully God, yet they have different roles, functions and relationships that make them distinct from one another forever. It is the same with us. All who are in Christ are one in their spiritual standing, yet we are distinct in our roles and functions in that spiritual unity. It’s sort of like when a football team wins the Super Bowl. Everyone on the team, including the equipment managers, the assistant trainers, as well as the star quarterback all receive the same ring. They all enjoy the honor and privileges of being Super Bowl champs, yet they all do not do the same thing or serve the same function on the team. All were necessary to the team. The quarterback could not have passed for the winning touchdown if the linemen did not block or the receiver did not get open or if the coach had not put together the play or the equipment guy did not make sure the quarterback had his specially equipped pads. They are all one in their enjoyment of all the benefits of being Super Bowl champs, they all have the same ring, no matter what their function on the team. The gospel of God’s grace embraces all without distinction because through faith in Christ alone…
IV. We are all equally heirs of the promise (v. 29) All the promises God made to Abraham and his descendants in the OT are made to Christ and to all those who belong to Christ. That’s what Paul means by saying all who belong to Christ are Abraham’s seed because Christ is the Seed of Abraham (vv. 16-18) and so all who belong to him or are in him are therefore also, the seed of Abraham. What is that inheritance that belongs to all who belong to Christ? In Romans 4:13 we are told, “It was not through law that Abraham and his seed received the promise to be heir of the world but through the righteousness that comes by faith.” The entire universe belongs to Christ and when he comes again he is going to take full possession of all that is his. At that time, all who trust him, who were baptized into him, who are one in him, who belong to him will also possess the world. Right now, in this life, the world is divided into the “haves” and the “have-nots”. Those who possess the earth do so because of gender, race, legal status, political connections, wealth, access to educational resources, beauty, etc. There is a day coming when the only thing that will matter is simply this, do I belong to Jesus Christ? There is a day coming when Jesus Christ will come and will raise all the dead. Those who belong to him will inherit the earth and those who do not belong to him will suffer eternal destruction in hell. Whether you inherit the earth or not will have nothing to do with your social standing, your looks, your education, your wealth, your profession, your gender, it will have everything to do with whether or not you belong to Christ. The Bible is firmly opposed to racism, sexism, the oppression of the poor by the rich, discrimination, bigotry and prejudice of all kinds. The church is to be an agent in the fight against these evils on earth. However, while we are opposed to these evils here we also know that the fullness of our inheritance is not here but in the future. This world will always be divided by race, economics, sex, beauty, education, etc. However, if we belong to Jesus Christ, we know there is a day coming when access to all the glories and pleasures of God’s creation will be fully enjoyed by all God’s people equally. We may be poor here but one day we will be rich. We may be sick and physically weak now, but one day we will be whole. We may be despised now because of our race or gender but one day we will be free of oppression. We may not be part of the “in crowd” here but the day is coming when we will fully experience what it means to be part of the most “in” crowd forever. We may not be cool now, but one day we will be part of the coolest thing and the coolest people in the universe. We are not a bitter, resentful, violent people because we know that the Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ, to whom all the promises are made and who will fulfill all the promises is coming again to take us to be with him forever. When we don’t get invited to parties we don’t get mad because we know we are heirs of the promise. Therefore while we work for justice for the oppressed, we are patient and content with our lot here because this is not our home. Our inheritance is on the way. One day we will inherit the earth and so we will not fear or chafe under the injustices and deprivations we experience here. The gospel of God’s grace embraces all without distinction because through faith in Christ alone…
© Copyright
2005 John Swanson.
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