United in Christ

PRAY

At the beginning of chapter two Paul makes his famous statement that we are saved by grace through faith and it’s not about anything we do. He takes that truth to make another argument in the verses we’re looking at tonight.

Paul is writing to Non-Jewish people who are very likely aware of Christianity’s association with Judaism and therefore with Jewish people. This is a somewhat troubled and complicated past…

Paul was sent to the Gentiles by God.

Acts 13:47 ESV

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

Helping the Gentiles understand that they can come to God and be saved just like the Jews can was a big deal to him. So he takes time in the early part of this letter to help them understand that.

read verses 11-22

All people can be united to God in Christ, therefore all Christians are united to one another in Christ!

v11

The Jews, many of them, believed they were better than Gentiles…

I have been an Alabama fan since my senior year of HS…

There is another class of Alabama fan that around 2010 went into Walmart and grabbed a t-shirt off the rack…

I am a better, truer Alabama fan than this person…

This is how the Jews are thinking about themselves, even though they didn’t actually do anything themselves.

Paul almost seems to be mocking “the circumcision”. Think about his past and what it says for him to scoff at that idea…

Philippians 3:4–7 ESV

though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

v15

All Christians are saved by the blood of Christ alone and are united together by that, regardless of anything else about them!

Galatians 3:28 ESV

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

v16

Imagine that there are two people, and they are as opposite by the world’s eyes as they can be…

and they’re both on a plane and the engines have quit working and it’s falling from the sky. What do they both need? (a parachute) They’re both in need of the same thing to be saved and it doesn’t matter how different they are.

Whoever you are, and whoever “they” are, you’re all saved the same way.

Galatians 5:6 ESV

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

v18

Every Christian receives the gift of the Holy Spirit from the Father, no matter who they are or aren’t!

v22

The Bible tells us that the only distinction that matters between people is whether or not they have put their faith in Jesus Christ and called on his name to be reconciled to God!