“Jesus Brings Us Together” Galatians 3:26-29

Have you ever wondered why we tend to call our group the best?

We live in the greatest nation, the greatest state, the greatest community. Our teams are the best, our school is the best, my music’s the best.

We always have to be sure we are affiliated with the best. By the same token, those who are not with us are inferior, since they are not part of “the best.”

That’s sort of how the world is—us against them. We are always comparing ourselves to others. I find it amusing when an advertisement comes along and says something is “European” in nature, whatever that means. The implication is that European design and/or engineering is superior. Meanwhile, the American flag is waving in the background of the ad.

It’s us and it’s them. And we are better. When’s the last time you heard a group of people shout, “We’re No. 3”?

In this passage, the Bible wants to remind us that Christ takes away those things that divide us and instead brings us together in the family of God.

Background

Paul is continuing his letter to the Galatians, trying to get them to see the error in trying to blend faith in Christ with obedience to the law. He continued his story of his how God called him and used him in the early days of his ministry. The point he makes is, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing” (Galatians 2:21).

Paul then spends most of chapter 3 using Abraham as an example of faith versus the law. He expresses the reason for the law and the necessity of grace and righteousness through Christ. And that leads us to today’s passage.

Having established that salvation comes by faith and faith only, Paul now wants us to understand the special relationship we have with God by His grace and mercy, culminating in the statement found in v. 28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Central Truth: We are all equal in our relationship with Jesus.

We are Sons of God (26-27)

In light of what Paul is about to write in v. 28, it may seem odd that he expressly states that we are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Wouldn’t it make more sense to say we are all children of God, instead of just sons?

There’s a legal reason for this. In the days when Paul was writing, Roman and Jewish law were very patriarchal. Only sons could inherit from their fathers. Daughters were not generally even considered when it came to inheritance. Since Paul is making the point in these four verses that we are heirs according to the promise made to Abraham, then it is necessary for us to be legally considered sons.

We could easily lose sight of what Paul is trying to say if we allow ourselves to get hung up on old legal issues that no longer apply to our world and our society. Had Paul been writing today, he probably would have used “children of God” instead of “sons of God.” We must move past the phrasing and look at the message. And that is, through our faith and our baptism, we are now clothed with Christ.

What does that mean?

It relates to the idea of baptism. There are a couple of thoughts. One is that the term being clothed with Christ refers to the fact that we have adopted the life of Christ as our own, that we have sought to grow into union with Him. Another thought is that it relates to the old way of doing baptism. In the days of Paul’s writing, it was a part of the baptism rite that a person to be baptized would remove his or her hold clothing before entering the water. Once they were baptized, the person would then come out of the water and, instead of returning to his or her old clothes, would put on a new or clean garment. This would represent the ridding themselves of the old nature and putting on the new nature, becoming a new person.

I like both ideas. I also like the idea of “clothing ourselves with Christ” is sort of like wearing the team uniform. When we watch sports (or at least used to), we could distinguish which team was which by the uniforms they were wearing. By looking at the uniforms, we knew which team to cheer for and which team to root against. By clothing ourselves in Christ we are identifying ourselves with Him and becoming like Him in our lives.

Because of the faith we have received, we are made heirs of God, baptized into union with His Son and transformed by His Spirit into a new creation we are.

We are All One in Christ (28)

The key verse in this short passage is found here, because it speaks directly to the unity or the uniformity we find in Christ. Look at the list of people Paul writes about and we see divisions between them. Jews would never congregate with Greeks or Gentiles. There was a massive chasm between the free and the slave, and it was not uncommon to segregate people based upon their sex. For instance, in the Jewish Temple grounds, there were courts that were set aside for Gentiles, for Jews, for Jewish men and for priests. Even the temple itself was segregated, with only the High Priest being allowed into the Holy of Holies.

Each of the divisions were to indicate how close a person could get to God. All people were allowed in the court of the Gentiles, but only Jewish people were allowed into the next court. And only Jewish men were allowed into the next court, excluding Jewish women past that point. Then, of course, only the priests were allowed into the area immediately surrounding the temple and inside the temple, excluding all but one tribe of Israel.

The divisions were very real in Paul’s time, and the rules were sometimes very hard and fast. But when Jesus came into our lives, suddenly all the barriers were torn down. No longer did we look at ourselves as society looked at us. Now, because of Jesus, the Jew could fellowship with the Greek, the slave with the free, men and women could fellowship together. In Christ, we are all made one.

This doesn’t mean that we’re all transformed into clones of each other. Far from it. When God saves us through Christ, He enables us to become our full selves. He transforms us into people who can be our best selves as we give ourselves over to Christ as a daily living sacrifice. As we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, we are being made into who God wants us to be, and that is, He wants us to be ourselves as He originally intended it.

By being one in Christ, what the Bible is telling us is that we have a common reason and a common commitment. We have a common savior, and that Savior is Christ our Lord. We have so much more that brings us together in Christ than can ever separate us. As long as a person is clothed in Christ, then that person has much more in common with his brothers and sisters in Christ than he does with anyone else in the world.

This unity in Christ—this oneness—should lay to rest any feelings you and I may have thinking we are not really as good as anyone else in the church. We look at others and see that they have their act together; they’re so calm and serene, while we’re flailing around and taking two steps backward for every step we take forward.

Again, these feelings are a lie, used by Satan to keep us off track and to keep us in the dark about who and what we really are. We are the sons of God, and heirs of the promise. We are one with Christ and with each other. There is no one person in the fellowship of God that is better than anyone else. Jesus taught us that the least in the kingdom of God would be greater than John the Baptist. He also taught us that the least shall be greatest and the greatest shall be least. It would not surprise me in the least bit that when we all stand before the throne of God, there will be someone we never heard of or knew about who stands as the greatest in the kingdom of God.

Because we are a new creation, and because we have been called to a ministry of reconciliation, just as we have been reconciled to God through Christ, we now see things and respond to things differently than we did in our old ways. Because in Christ, we are one.

We are Heirs to Christ’s Promise (29)

To understand the promise we are heirs to, we need to go back to Paul’s earlier message in 3:6-18.

Paul begins by going to the time when God made His covenant with Abraham, found in Genesis 15. Abraham had no heirs, and he was asking God about who would inherit all that God is giving him. God’s response was that Abraham’s inheritance would go to the son that had not yet been born. Genesis 15:6 is what Paul quotes in Galatians 3:6. Paul then relates that all who are born of faith are the true sons of Abraham.

He then contrasts the law with faith. In fact, Paul writes that living under the law is to live under a curse. The curse comes from inevitably falling short of the law. But, we read in a few verses, Jesus removes the curse of the law by becoming a curse Himself. And the promise we have is the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Paul concludes his example of Abraham to demonstrate faith versus the law by saying the promise made to Abraham was delivered over 400 years before the law. The law does not cancel out the promise. The reason for the law was to show us our need for salvation by faith and by grace when Christ came to our world.

That’s why Paul writes, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." The promise is that which was given to Abraham long ago. The promise to you and me is that we shall live by faith in Christ and that the faith we have in Him will be strengthened and encouraged and grown through the work of the Holy Spirit that lives in us.

Conclusion

There are times we feel as if we are all alone. We look around us and see that everyone else seems to be better off than we are. Maybe not in material possessions or stuff like that. But we see ourselves with all our flaws and our shortcomings and we feel that we can’t compare to anyone else.

And that’s a lie. The Bible tells us that by faith we are all sons of God, that we are all clothed with Christ, and that we are all one in Christ. The Bible tells us we are all heirs of the same promise. This is the truth and the reality in which you and I can live and must live. It’s not some fantasy or some distant goal. It is the promise of God for you and me today, right here, right now.

Take the promise of God and take it to heart. Today, right now.