Galatians 3:23-29: WHAT ALL CHRISTIANS HAVE IN COMMON
Have you ever noticed how we spend a lot of time thinking about how different we are from other people? For example, this is an election year, and during these next few months you’re going to hear all the candidates talk about how different they are, and how much better they are, than the other candidates that are running for office.
Do we as Christians ever do that? Do you ever look around on a Sunday morning and think about how different you are from the other people here, and maybe even how better you are? It’s a common thing for people to do. And there is a small amount of truth to that kind of thinking – God has made each one of us different – we look different; our personalities are different. But I wouldn’t say that one person is better than another. In our Scripture lesson for this morning, God spends a lot of time telling us what we all have in common, how we are similar. And so that’s what we’re going to do this morning – we’re going to focus on the things that we all as Christians have in common. You’re probably more similar to the person sitting next to you than you might think.
These words were written to the church in Galatia, and they had their problems. The people there were focusing too much on their differences, and how one person was better than another. The church there was a mixture of Jews and Greeks, slaves and free people, men and women – and all of these people were spending way too much time focusing on their differences. And so here, the Apostle Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, helps them to see all the things they have in common.
The first thing Christians have in common, is that they all have gone to the same spiritual school. Now what does that mean? Look at verse 23, where Paul says, “Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.” Paul here talks about the law – the Ten Commandments, and, back in those times, all the other different rules and regulations about worshiping God and offering sacrifices. The purpose of all of those laws was to teach those people from Galatia something. Look at verse 24: “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ.” That was the purpose of all of those commandments, all of those rules and regulations. They weren’t there so that the Galatian Christians could try to earn their way to heaven, or compare themselves to other people. Why did God give his law to them? “The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ.” The purpose of the law was to teach the people something, and that is that they couldn’t earn eternal life by following all those commands. The purpose of the law was to teach the people that only through faith in Christ could a person be saved.
Each one of us has attended God’s “school of law.” Before we go to God’s school, we know a few things about God. We know that he exists, and that someday we’ll meet him. Before we go to God’s school, we think that it’s up to us to earn God’s favor. “It’s up to me to be a good person. If I’m good enough, then God will love me and let me into his heaven. I gotta depend on myself. It’s up to me.” Before a person attends God’s school of law, that’s how they are. That’s how we were. But then we spend some time in the Word, the Bible, and the more you study the Bible, the more you realize that that’s not how it works. Here God tells us to keep his commandments perfectly, and no one can do that. Here God tells us to love him, and to love our neighbors, perfectly. No one can do that either. The more you study God’s law, the more you realize that you’re sinful, that you can’t earn God’s favor by being a good person, because you can never be good enough. There must be another way to be right with God. And there is. And that is the purpose of the law, verse 24: “The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” The purpose of the law is to teach us to trust in Jesus, and not in ourselves. Instead of trusting in how good we are, we learn to trust in Christ, and how good he is. That’s one thing that we all have in common here at Beautiful Savior – we’ve all attended God’s “school of law,” and we’ve all learned this imporant lesson.
And we’ve all taken the same path to become members of God’s family. No one here can say that they earned their way into God’s family with their exemplary life. Instead, look at verse 26: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” That’s how each of us has become a part of God’s family – through faith. And what is faith? Faith is like the blind girl, trapped in a burning building in New York City. She was perched on the fourth floor window, and flames and smoke were pouring out of the window behind her. The firefighters below were becoming desperate, because they couldn’t get a ladder up to that girl because the streets were too narrow. And they couldn’t get her to jump into the net that they had set up below.
Finally her father arrived and shouted through the bullhorn that there was a net, and that she was to jump on his command. When he gave the word, the girl jumped and was so completely relaxed that she didn’t break a bone or even strain a muscle in the four-story fall. She couldn’t see the net, but she trusted her father completely, and jumped when she heard her father’s voice.
That’s a picture of faith. We’re like that blind girl – we’re trapped with all of our sins, trapped in a world that has all kinds of fake ways to make you feel like you’re OK with God. And we’re blind - we can’t see heaven. We can’t see Jesus. None of us has ever seen him die on the cross of rise from the dead. But God has called out to us through his Word, and through his Spirit he has convinced us to take that leap of faith. Faith is trusting in God’s voice, God’s Word. In a sense, we’ve all “jumped” into Christianity, and have become members of God’s family through faith in Jesus Christ, trusting in him and what he has done. We can’t see him with our eyes, but we trust him with our hearts, and that is something that we all have in common.
As members of God’s family, we have something else in common. Look at verse 27: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” When you were baptized, God put some special kinds of clothes on you. It says here that all of you who were baptized have “clothed yourselves with Christ.” What does that mean?
Lately at our house we’ve been watching some videos on how to take care of babies. I learned a little about “swaddling” the other week. Do you know what that is? That’s when you tightly wrap the baby in a blanket – it’s supposed to help stop the baby from crying. (My sister, who recently had a baby, says that it doesn’t work – I guess we shall see.) Do you realize that when you were baptized, God wrapped you up in something? When you were baptized, you were spiritually naked. But then God took the righteousness of Christ – all those good things that Jesus ever did – and he wrapped those good things around you. Then he took Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross – his death for the sins of the world – and wrapped that sacrifice around you. Then he took Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and wrapped that around you too. The life and death and resurrection of Jesus – they’re all yours. And all the blessings that come with those things are yours. That’s what it means when the Bible says that in baptism, you clothed yourselves with Christ.
When you look around the church today, you see that everyone is wearing different clothing. You’d probably be surprised to walk in here and find someone wearing the exact same outfit as you. But spiritually, everyone here is wearing the same outfit, for “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” This is one of the great things that all of us as Christians have in common.
When the Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Galatians, he told them these things to remind them that they were more similar than they thought. Look at what Paul says in verse 28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” From an earthly point of view, they were all different. Some of them were slaves, and some were free. But from a spiritual point of view, they were all one in Christ Jesus. And that’s what God wanted those Galatian Christians to think about.
Finally, Paul told them to think about their future inheritance. Verse 29: “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Many of those Christians weren’t Jewish, and yet Paul here tells them that they were Abraham’s seed, and his heirs. The same inheritance God promised to Abraham in the Old Testament was theirs. All of them would inherit the gift of eternal life when they died, not because they lived a certain way or followed certain rules. But, as Paul says here, “according to the promise.”
And the same is true for you. Probably very few of you, if any of you, have Jewish roots. And yet, the Bible here describes you as Abraham’s seed. Spiritually, you are one of his descendants – he was the father of all believers. And that means that you will inherit the same blessings that God gave to him. Each of you will inherit eternal life, the gift of being in the presence of God in heaven forever, not because of yourself, but because of God’s promises of grace and forgiveness.
These are just some of the many blessings we all have in common as Christians. There will always be a tendency for us to focus on our differences. But may we never forget all the good things that make us the same. Amen.
