Be A Disciple Galatians 3:26-4:11

Opening

If you have your Bibles and I hope you do, could you please open to Galatians chapter 3.

Almost 50 years before the birth of Christ, Rome threw a parade unlike any other. Julius Caesar was returning in triumph from the battlefield, and all of Rome turned out to celebrate. But during this lavish display of power and glory, something deeply personal was also happening.

Caesar’s teenage grand-nephew and adopted son, Octavius, stood before the people of Rome to take part in a sacred rite of passage. Around the age of 14 or 15, Roman boys would undergo a public ceremony where they laid aside the garments of childhood and put on a new robe — the toga virilis — a symbol that they had come of age.

Now imagine being 15 years old, walking into the public square to put on this robe — not just to say, “I’m growing up,” but to step into your destiny. That’s exactly what Octavius did. That day, the boy became a man. And soon after, that man would be given a new name: Augustus — the first emperor of Rome.

It would be Augustus who, years later, would call for a census — the very one that would send a poor young couple named Joseph and Mary on a journey to Bethlehem. God was already weaving a greater story.

Transition

But while Rome celebrated its emperors with robes and titles, Paul speaks of a far more radical transformation.

He writes

Galatians 3:26–29 NIV

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

In Christ, you’ve received new clothes too — not fabric, but identity. You don’t wear your old shame. You don’t carry your past titles. It doesn’t matter who you are if you’re Jewish or Greek it doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, it is available for everyone because everyone can be clothed with Christ. That’s not just a status change. It’s a soul-deep transformation.

What Paul recognizes is that the Galatians were forgetting who they were. In so doing they were not realizing that they were going back to their rags of childhood. Paul is telling them:

Keep your clothes on.

Last Sunday we were at Bradley’s house. We were all outside sitting on Bradley’s back patio. Peter is running around like a 3 year old, but he is wearing pants. His face is beet red, he is sweating, and getting itchy.

Allison takes him in to change into shorts. a few minutes pass, and peter re emerges from inside with his new outfit on. He looks around the patio at all of his family. Shouts, “I DON’T WANT THESE!” and yanks his pants off.

Peter wanted to go back to his old clothes. The clothes that were hurting him, but he was used to them. Peter did what many of us are tempted to do, return back to the old ways of doing things, our original way of operating.

The Bible tells us:

Proverbs 26:11 “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.”

We are meant to keep our clothes on. Tell your neighbor keep your clothes on.

When you’re tempted to return to the old life... Keep your clothes on.

Paul sees this happening in the churches in Galatia..

Galatians 4:1–11 NIV

What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

Paul sees these men and women that he shared the gospel with, the gospel that he argues over and over again is freedom for them, but they keep returning and returning back. He is calling them childish. You want to return back to the ways of your childhood, that isn’t progress that is regress.

How mistaken can you be? You have moved on, you were given the rite of passage in Christ

John Stott in his commentary on the book of Galatians puts it this way:

His sequence of thought might be summarized thus: ‘Once we were slaves. Now we are sons. How, then, can we turn back to the old slavery?’

He goes on to reflect.

But how can anyone be so foolish as to say: ‘You have made me your son; but I would rather be a slave’? It is one thing to say ‘I do not deserve it’; it is quite another to say ‘I do not desire it; I prefer slavery to sonship’. Yet that was the folly of the Galatians, under the influence of their false teachers.

Keep your clothes on!

Why do we keep doing this? The Galatians were doing it, we do it. We receive insight, we hear Jesus’ teachings. For a moment this may stick, but our hearts are like rocky or thorny soil and that lasts only temporarily. Why do we do that? Isn’t that so frustrating to you! I can get so fed up with myself not doing what I know is right.

I think this happens because we forget whose clothes we have on.

It’s like a red carpet interview, “who are you wearing?” Dolce, Tom Ford, Gucci. You notice no one shows up wearing Gildan, Hanes, Amazon Basic.

Paul is trying to remind the Christians caught in the snare of the Judaizers that they have forgotten who they are wearing. It isn’t Moses, David, Samuel, Elijah. They are wearing the Son of God, who came to redeem those under the law that they may be adopted. Let us not forget that Moses, David, Samuel, Elijah all of them were pointing toward the Messiah, which is Christ.

And if we all of them were directing toward Christ then when we clothe ourselves with him something special, holy begins.

John Chrysostom, who died in the 400’s put it this way:

Chrysostom: “If Christ is Son of God, and thou hast put him on, having the Son in thyself and being made like unto him, thou hast been brought into one family and one nature.” And again: “He who is clothed appears to be that with which he is clothed.”

to rephrase that:

“If Christ is the Son of God, and you’ve put Him on—if He lives in you and you’ve become like Him—then you’ve been brought into His family and share in His nature.

And again: When someone is clothed in something, they take on the appearance and identity of what they’re wearing.”

So who are you wearing? Don’t forget who you are wearing, and don’t take off those clothes and return to the rags of your former way of being. When you start to believe the lie that you aren’t enough... Keep your clothes on.

When religion tries to drag you back into performance and rule-keeping... Keep your clothes on.

You’ve been clothed with Christ. Don’t trade that in for the rags of slavery.

Look at your neighbor and tell them to keep your clothes on.

How do you keep your clothes on?

Remember Who You Are

Transition into Lion King Illustration:

You know, sometimes we need a moment that shakes us out of our forgetfulness. A voice that cuts through the fog. A reminder of who we really are—not based on our performance or our past, but on the name we bear and the identity we’ve been given.

There’s this powerful scene in The Lion King—you might remember it. Simba has been running from who he is. He’s haunted by shame and failure. He’s forgotten his place in the kingdom. And in that moment of identity crisis, his father, Mufasa, appears to him in a vision and says, “You have forgotten who you are, and so have forgotten me. Remember who you are.”

He tells Simba:

“You are my son, and the one true king.”

That moment cracks something open in Simba. He’d been believing lies about who he was. But hearing the truth—that he was still his father’s son—reclaimed his future.

[Optional: play the clip here]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5tMSEyuUWOU

That’s what Paul is doing in Galatians. He’s standing in front of believers who’ve started living like slaves again, and he’s saying, “You’ve forgotten who you are.” You are clothed with Christ. You are sons and daughters of the king. You don’t need to earn it. You don’t need to prove it. You just need to put on the clothes the King has given you. You are Abraham’s seed, you are. That is who you are.

when you feel the pressure to go back... When shame whispers that you’ll never measure up... When religion starts pulling you toward rule-keeping and performance...

Keep your clothes on. Remember who you are.

But maybe you’re here today, and you’re not sure if any of that applies to you. Maybe you’re visiting. Maybe you wouldn’t call yourself a Christian. Maybe you’ve been around church, but this idea of being clothed in Christ—being adopted into God’s family—feels distant.

If that’s you, I want to be very clear: You are invited. The King of Kings is extending an open invitation to you—not to try harder, not to clean yourself up first, but simply to come. To be adopted. To belong. To be clothed—not in guilt or performance, but in grace.

As Tim Keller once said,

“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”

That invitation is for you. That is the clothing you can take, and step into the destiny and new self that God has for you.

You can become a son or daughter of the Most High King—not by religious achievement, but by trusting in what Jesus has already done. And when you do, everything changes. Your identity. Your future. Even your clothes—because you're no longer dressed in shame, but in Christ.

Then as you continue in that new identity you must return over and over to the wardrobe of prayer and remember who’s clothes you are wearing.

If you are confused about who you are, or whose you are put those clothes on and step in front of the mirror of scripture and let it tell you who you are.

All of us need to remember to not stay away to long from that wardrobe of prayer, and the mirror of scripture. It is in those two that we are reminded, returned back to the real truth.

So why do we keep doing this? Maybe you are like me. You have felt a conviction to start a spiritual practice, begin serving, giving out of love not compulsion. You do that for a little while and then you slink back into the previous habit.

If that is where you are, I would encourage you to not let the inner voice dictate, but instead return to the wardrobe of prayer, and the mirror of scripture. Put back on the Clothes of the child of the king.

And maybe the best picture Jesus gave us of this is the story of a young man who forgot. He forgot who he was. He left home, chasing freedom on his own terms. He wasted everything. And when he finally came to the end of himself, covered in shame and mud and regret—he remembered.

He said, “I will go back to my father.”

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20)

And do you remember the first thing the father did?

“Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him.” (Luke 15:22)

He didn’t tell him to clean up first. He didn’t shame him. He covered him. He clothed him with dignity and honor—because he wasn’t just a runaway. He was a son. And the father wanted everyone to see that.

Henri Nouwen, who wrote so deeply about this parable, said:

“The robe, the ring, and the sandals are only outward signs of the inward reality of his restored sonship… The father doesn’t ask questions or demand explanations. He is simply glad to have his son back.”

The prodigal son was given a new covering that night. He was brought back with open arms. His father brought the son close welcomed him and didn’t hold back. The son returned not as a servant in his father’s house, but as a son, restored and celebrated, clothed in his father’s robes and marked by his father’s signate.

That’s the invitation of the gospel. That’s the Father’s heart. That’s the grace you’ve been clothed with in Christ.

Maybe you’ve been performing, trying to earn your place. Maybe you’ve been living in shame, convinced you’re too far gone. Maybe you’re just tired—burned out from trying to hold it all together.

Whatever it is... Keep your clothes on. Come home. Come to the Father who runs to meet you and robes you in His love.

Remember Who you are, Remember Whose you are, Remember who you are wearing.