GALATIANS 3:26-28 - Putting on Christ in Baptism

Introduction

This is one of the most important, one of the most precious events in the life of a church—seeing believers come forward to make a public profession of their faith in Jesus Christ. So I want to take a moment to walk through the importance of what we are about to do, and the best way to do that is to read what the Bible has to say about baptism. (P. 974)

Galatians 3:26–28 LSB

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

The Apostle Paul wrote the Book of Galatians to counter the false teaching that Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection wasn’t enough to justify you before God—that since Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, you had to become Jewish before you could become Christian, and the way you became Jewish was through following the old Mosaic Law in circumcision.

But Paul makes it clear that we are not justified—made right before God—by our ability to follow rules and keep laws. We do not have to go through Moses first—we are made right before God when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

The words through faith are the key to everything Paul says in Galatians. And as I want us to see here, faith is also key to the meaning of baptism. So just for a few minutes, look with me here at these verses that show us that

Baptism is a sign of PERSONAL, IDENTIFYING, UNIFYING faith in Christ

Let’s look at them one at a time. First,

I. Baptism is a sign of PERSONAL FAITH in Christ (Galatians 3:26)

Verse 26 says

Galatians 3:26 LSB

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

How does someone become a son or daughter of God? Through good deeds or keeping rules? No—it is through faith. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus”.

In Romans 10:9-10, Paul gives us the definition of faith in Jesus Christ that saves us:

Romans 10:9–10 LSB

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation.

Baptism is a sign of the faith of the one being baptized; you will hear this as part of the baptism liturgy as we ask each candidate to affirm their personal faith in Christ—they literally confess Jesus as Lord with their mouth in obedience to the Scriptures’ definition of saving faith.

This, by the way, is one of the reasons that we do not baptize infants at Bethel Baptist Church—because the Scriptures tie baptism in so closely with personal faith—it is a demonstration of the faith of the one being baptized, not their parents’ faith or their godparent’s faith. You become a child of God when you demonstrate faith in Christ—and baptism is an outward sign that you have done so. As The London Baptist Confession states:

Those who do actually profess “repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience, to our Lord Jesus, are the only proper subjects of this ordinance” (LBC, Article XXIX (1), Of Baptism)

We affirm that baptism is a sign of personal faith in Christ—is is a sign of

Believing that Christ DIED and ROSE again for your sins (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 LSB

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Throughout the Old Testament Law (that Paul’s enemies were claiming to follow), God made it clear that (as the writer of Hebrews says),

Hebrews 9:22 LSB

And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Saving faith means believing that the blood Jesus shed on the Cross purchased the forgiveness of your sins. And that personal faith in Christ is also characterized by

Believing that you are CLEANSED from all GUILT in Him (1 Peter 3:21)

The Apostle Peter writes in his first letter:

1 Peter 3:21 LSB

Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal of a good conscience to God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

In other words, baptism represents your freedom from all your guilt before God! Water might clean your body, but baptism is a sign that God has washed away all your guilt, and you have a clean conscience before Him!

Baptism is a sign of personal faith in Christ, and secondly we see in Galatians 3:27 that

II. Baptism is a sign of IDENTIFYING with Christ (Galatians 3:27)

Verse 27 says

Galatians 3:27 LSB

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

To step down into the waters of baptism is to follow the footsteps of Jesus—we read the story of His baptism in passages like Matthew 3 and Luke 3. It’s important to note that after He was baptized, Matthew 3:16 says that “He went up from the water—in other words, He was immersed in the Jordan River—this is why we immerse in the water when we baptize. (And in fact the mural that surrounds the baptistry here is meant to depict the Jordan River flowing past the Garden of Gethsemane and the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem.)

But baptism is much more than just a re-enactment of Jesus’ experience when He went down into the Jordan River to be baptized by John. Romans 6 explains that when we are baptized,

We share in His DEATH (Romans 6:3)

Romans 6:3 LSB

Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

This is another reason why we go under the water when we baptize—because baptism is a symbol of our dying with Jesus. When you go down into the water, if you stay down there long enough, death is there, isn’t it? That’s why we practice baptism by immersion—saving faith in Jesus means that we are dying to our sin. That’s what Paul says in the previous verse— “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Baptism is a statement that you have died to your sin—it no longer has a hold on you, it no longer controls you. Baptism is your statement to your sin, “You’re dead to me! I have died with Christ!”

And the following verses in Romans 6 say

Romans 6:4–5 LSB

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

Baptism is a statement that we share in Christ’s death, and it is a symbol that

We share in His RESURRECTION (Rom. 6:4-5; Galatians 2:20)

When you go down into the water, you are identifying with Jesus’ in His death—so when you come up out of the water, you are identifying with Jesus in His resurrection—it is a symbol that you are free forever from the penalty and power of sin! This is what Paul writes in Galatians 2:20:

Galatians 2:20 LSB

“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Baptism is a statement that you have been crucified with Christ—your old life and the sin you lived in is dead to you and you are dead to it. And coming up out of that water is a picture of the new life you now live by faith in Christ—you look to Him to give you strength and grace and power to live free of guilt and shame and anxiety and bitterness. You lean on Him to give you the power to say no to the sinful and destructive patterns of your old life. Baptism is a sign of identifying with Christ.

And in Verse 28 of Galatians 3 we see one more element of baptism:

III. Baptism is a sign of UNITY in Christ (Galatians 3:28)

Look at verse 28:

Galatians 3:28 LSB

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

Baptism is a demonstration of personal faith in Jesus for salvation, and baptism is an act of identifying with Jesus in His death and resurrection. And Paul goes on to say here in this verse that, when you have put on Christ’s identity, that is the only identity that matters!

In this day and age of “identity politics”, we really cannot emphasize this enough. There is an absolutely oppressive attitude that weighs down our current cultural moment that says that everyone needs to separate into their own “tribes”—divisions between ethnic groups, socio-economic status, gender (or “gender identity” in more advanced cases of rot) have never been more pronounced in our country in particular.

Identity politics is destructive, wicked and hopeless—and it needs to be explicitly confronted and in fact defeated by the truth of the Gospel. And I submit to you this morning that baptism is at the heart of that battle.

Because when you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ and identify with Him, your identity in Christ is the only identity that matters! This is exactly what Paul is saying here in this verse—the church in Galatia was going through a First Century version of “identity politics”—the Jewish believers said they were better than the Gentile believers—but Paul writes that when your identity is in Christ

RACEdoesn’t matter

“There is no Jew nor Greek” in Christ—there are only Christians! Here is where we find one of the hottest spots on the current battle-line: Where previous generations may have said that what is important was not the color of your skin but the content of your character, this has been utterly inverted in this present hour: Now the color of your skin dictates the content of your character! Depending on where you go or who you talk to , being black is to be noble, wise, capable and honorable and to be white is to be selfish, lazy and oppressive. Or else to be white is to be the noble keepers of Western civilization and Christianity, while being black is to be lazy, selfish, uneducated and devious.

And let’s not even get started on the way so many so-called “Christians” have utterly embraced the wicked and ugly hatred of the Jewish people and Israel with all kinds of coy “I’m just noticing...” slanders and warmed-over justifications for hatred of Jews straight out of Joseph Goebbels’ playbook.

Here is the truth from God’s Word that shatters all pretentions to racial pride and vainglory; here is the message of the Kingdom of the Rock not shaped with human hands that smashes all other kingdoms:

The only color that matters to the Christian is the red blood of Christ shed to wash away the sins of every color. To claim that your particular percentage of melanin is superior to someone else’s or to claim that your blood is somehow “purer” than someone else’s is to utterly ignore the waters of baptism. There is no place for racial pride or vainglory in a Christian’s heart. None. If it festers there, nurtured by your envy and creeping malice, it is a genuine warning sign that you do not even know Jesus Christ at all.

The waters of baptism are a powerful sign of the Christian’s unity with Christ. In baptism you make the statement that race does not matter; Verse 28 also says that in Christ “there is neither slave nor free”--in other words

Economics doesn’t matter

Listen carefully during the midterms in November and you will hear the same old worn-out play being run again—the promise that “we will make the rich pay their fair share!” The old standby of class-envy, of making people hate and despise others for their wealth, that someone who has money is automatically evil, and so they should give up their money (preferably to me) in order to atone for their sin of having money—that has no place in the fellowship of believers!

When you pass through the waters of baptism all those sins of envy, greed, bitterness and covetousness are washed away. One pastor tells the story of seeing one of his church members, a wealthy and prominent neurosurgeon, who couldn’t wait to get to his Sunday School class because he loved sitting under the teacher and learning from his wisdom—the class was taught by a bricklayer who only had a high-school education! That simply doesn’t happen in the world outside, but when you belong to Jesus Christ, what socio-economic class you belong to doesn’t matter—all that matters is that you belong to Jesus Christ!

Baptism is a sign of unity with Christ—race doesn’t matter, economics doesn’t matter, and

Gender doesn’t matter

There is no “male and female” in Christ—be careful not to hear this verse the way the world around us wants to say it, that there is no distinction between male and female, or that God has not given different roles to men and women in the Body of Christ. This is a statement that all of the identity politics of “women’s rights” or “men’s rights” has no place in the Body of Christ, demanding that men submit to women’s demands or women submit to men’s demands. Paul writes in Ephesians 5:21-24 that we are to be

Ephesians 5:21–24 ESV

submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Stepping down into the waters of baptism is to step into unity with Christ, where you are not bound to the world’s sick and twisted attitudes towards gender, where women are blameless and men are blamed, where women are superior in every way but a man who gets surgery to look like a woman can be declared woman of the year. You are free to love your wife as Christ loved the church, to obey your husband in love as he obeys Christ in faith.

Baptism is a sign of unity with Christ—and in that unity there is real fellowship. The identity politics of the world has no place in the body of Christ—the only identity that matters, Christian, is the identity that you put on in Christ, the identity that He gives you when you die to sin and live to Him, the identity that says you are washed and forgiven and reborn and free of all condemnation! That is what baptism means, and that is what we are here to do today.

And if you hear these words today and see these baptisms take place and you realize that you do not possess this personal faith in Christ, that you have not been washed clean from your guilt and shame, that you are trapped in the identity politics of this world, then come and talk to us after the service this morning—come and let us help you be sure that you are a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 ESV

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

We observe the practice of believer’s baptism here at Bethel, meaning that we give the sign of baptism to people who have made a personal declaration of faith in Christ. What are the elements of that personal faith, according to the Bible verses we see here?

What does it mean to “identify with Christ” in baptism? Why is it important to demonstrate going down into the water? What does it mean when we are raised back up out of the water in baptism?

What three types of “identity politics” does Galatians 3:28 refer to? What does the world tell you about your identity, and why it matters? Why does your identity in Christ matter more than any of these other things?