Sons of God Through Faith

Galatians 3:26-29

This morning we’re coming down to the last few verses of Galatians chapter three; and these verses have profound implications for the way we understand what it means to be sons of God and clothed in Christ. Believe it or not, these are battleground verses in the world of theology.

I clearly remember sitting in a church a number of years ago when the pastor made the statement: “Since everyone on earth is a child of God, we should do everything in our power to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless in our city.” And people nodded their heads in agreement all over the room.

Now there’s nothing wrong with feeding the hungry or giving shelter to the homeless, but the reason for doing these things is not because everyone is a child of God. If a pastor is asking the church to do these deeds, then the reason is because WE are the children of God, regardless of what the unsaved world believes. We owe the world to live like God’s children. But what does this really mean?

Our text this morning tells us what it means to be called a son of God. Let’s turn in our Bibles to Galatians 3:26-29. Paul is still talking about what it means to be justified by faith alone. This right relationship with God is granted without regard to race, or social status, or gender—faith alone (sola fide) is the only standard He requires and the only standard He accepts.

In honor of God and His Word, please stand for the reading of these verses.

26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

[Invocation] The world says Christianity is too narrow; yet it transcends all the barriers the world says are most divisive: like race, and social status, and gender. But the only exclusive mark of Christianity exists between those who have faith and those who don’t. The external call to both is the same: “All who are willing may come.” All the children of God eventually hear this call by faith and respond by faith. But if everyone is not a son of God, who then can rightly be called a son of God. Paul answers this question in verses 26 and 27. His point is clear:

I.          Only those who have faith in Jesus Christ are rightly called sons of God (26-27).

Like the minister I quoted who said everyone is a child of God, this lie has been adopted into the language of many mainline churches. It sounds so inviting and ecumenical. In fact, this message has become one of the most popular theological lies of the 20th and now 21st century. One of the great (and diabolical) pillars of theological liberalism was and is: “the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.” This heresy omits the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ and says we’re all God’s children simply because God created us; and if we’re all God’s children, then every person is therefore a “brother” regardless of his spiritual condition. This heresy has gained strength as a motive for world peace. And those of us who say what the Bible says about becoming a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ, are called divisive and hate mongers. But the truth, even when it’s a hard truth, is still kinder than the most flattering lie. It’s better to be called cruel for telling the truth than to be called kind for telling a lie. The message is urgent for our day. Many people are deceived and are merrily on their way to judgment.

At a certain well-known liberal church in Los Angeles, they have taken all the religions of the world and homogenized them into the Christian format to be marketed as Christianity. They sponsor all kinds of social outreach programs where they live and work, but the message of the gospel is absent at that church. It’s as absent as the contents of Mother Hubbard’s cupboard.

In the vestibule they have paintings of all the great religious teachers of the world: There’s a picture of Gautama Buddha on one of the walls; there’s a picture of Mahatma Gandhi, there’s a picture of Mohammed, One of Confucius, and yes, there’s even one of Jesus. They believe He’s one among many. And above this panoply of religious teachers are these words: “And you are all children of God…” (dot, dot, dot) And the ellipsis deletes the definitive mark that separates the children of God from the children of the devil, namely, faith in Jesus Christ.

Only those who have faith in Jesus Christ are rightly called sons of God. In fact, the rest of the world doesn’t even recognize Him. The gospel of John makes this very clear right in the prologue.

9 There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. [Jn. 1:9-13; NASB]

This passage tells us some important things about being a child of God, and it goes right along with Galatians 3:26-27. First, the people of the world will not automatically recognize Jesus as the light of the world; Second, becoming a child of God is a right that only God can grant and that right is based upon belief, which is faith; And third, this right has nothing to do with natural birth, or natural desire, or human will. No person has ever been saved by free will; free grace is the only thing that has ever saved a soul. Ever since the fall, human will has been enslaved to sin and bound in darkness; we were born dead in trespasses and sins. The natural will takes its own path… and that path (without God’s intervention) always leads to Hell. Being a child of God has everything to do with the grace of God.

Therefore Paul told the Galatians: “26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Baptism is a mark of identification that follows faith; notice the progression here—all who were baptized have clothed themselves with Christ. When we are clothed with Christ, we are covered by His righteo-usness. Those who are justified are those who have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ. And once a person has been so justified and so clothed, that one may then receive the mark of identification known as baptism, which is a particular mark limited by God to those who come to Him through faith. They are washed and identified because they are sons. Second…

II.        All of God’s chosen people are equally justified through faith in Jesus Christ (28).

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Having addressed the exclusiveness of justification through faith alone, Paul now makes it clear that all other barriers in the natural world are no impediment to the grace of God. You can receive God’s grace whether you’re a Jew or a non-Jew, whether you’re slave or free, whether you’re male or female—the only thing you must have is faith—and even that is a gift from God.

This doctrine assures us that God will be glorified by a chosen band of ransomed worshipers from every people group on earth, regardless of all other distinctions. Every tongue and tribe and nation and ethnic group will be represented at marriage feast of the Lamb. I think it would be a beautiful witness to the world if the church would begin to look as ethnically diverse as the kingdom of heaven. But when it doesn’t, it just means that we still have learned how to apply Galatians 3:28 where we live. But King Jesus has already declared it so! Jesus has made sure that all of His invited guests will attend; your clothing will be provided; your transportation will be provided as well! Nothing has been left to chance.

Note well the context of verse 28. This equality in Christ refers specifically to being justified by faith in Christ. Some people, even some Christians, have wrongly interpreted this verse to mean that faith in Jesus has automatically removed all cultural and social and gender distinctions between all people. But this verse doesn’t teach anything of the kind. The context here is justification. To apply this verse so broadly is to miss the intention of the verse, namely, that any person can be called by God to be justified—and our message of redeeming grace can therefore be preached broadly to every listening ear.

We don’t have to pick and chose who is worthy to hear the message. God never gave us that authority. The message is its own delimiter. The message of God’s grace it to be preached to everyone without reservation; it is spread like seed and that seed takes root where the soil has been prepared to receive it. This is God’s ordained means of inviting His people to come out from the multitudes who hear but never come. Romans 10:17 makes this process clear: “So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” [NKJV]

So all of God’s chosen people are equally justified through faith in Jesus Christ. And Paul’s third point is in verse 29, where he says:

29 “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” In other words…

III.       Abraham’s heirs according to the promise are distinct from Abraham’s offspring according to the flesh (29).

As before, the distinction between the flesh and the promise is based solely on faith in Christ. All throughout the NT, Jesus and then the apostles kept making a distinction between ethnic Israel and true “spiritual” Israel. Both groups had Abraham’s blood in their veins, but only the faithful remnant had Abraham’s faith in their heart. It is this second group who compose the true children of Abraham, and these are the true sons of God through faith.

All the males of ethnic Israel received the mark of circumcision, but only the faithful remnant within that group would later receive the identifying mark of baptism in the NT. Notice how the distinctions get narrower and narrower as you get closer to Jesus in the Bible. In this movement we can observe a theological progression from the OT to the New. The community of faith in the NT is a fundamentally different community from ethnic Israel in the Old.

Therefore, believer’s baptism (in the NT) is a mark characterized by faith, not ethnicity. To those Jews who didn’t have the kind of faith that Abraham demonstrated, Jesus told them they were not truly children of Abraham; He said they were really children of the devil. There is therefore a major distinction between ethnic Israel and true “spiritual” Israel through faith in Jesus Christ. The NT church is grafted in to this true spiritual root within the remnant of faithful Israel who received the promises. So there’s no replacement, but a grafting in.

That means when we read the OT, we can’t automatically read the church back into the references to ethnic Israel and then say it applies the same way to the church. That would result in a major interpretive error of both the Old and New Testaments. The only analogy to the “church” in the OT is within the faithful remnant, who had faith in God and trusted in His promise to provide a Savior. This faithful remnant is distinguished as sheep are distinguished from goats on the Day of Judgment. Because, as Paul has told the Galatians, Abraham’s heirs according to the promise are distinct from Abraham’s offspring according to the flesh.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached a great sermon from a very short text in Romans. The text consisted of only four words: “If children, then heirs” ( Rom. 8:17 ). The truth and force of those words came through as Spurgeon stripped them of what they did not say.

The words did not say, if creatures, then heirs. Many people think that everyone is in the family of God just because they were created by God; but the Bible does not say that we are heirs just because we are His creation. Neither does the text say, if children of Abraham, then heirs. That is what many Israelites believed. They thought they were automatically children of God because they were children of Abraham. Remember, to some of these offspring of Abraham, Jesus said, “You are of your father, the devil.” ( John 8:44 ). So to Jesus, a person could be created by God and even be a full-blood “offspring of Abraham” and still be a spiritual child of the devil.

29 “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

The great assurance of this verse is for those who can say, “I belong to Christ—I am Abraham’s true spiritual seed—I am an heir according to the promise.” Is this your testimony too? The “if” in this verse is not the “if” of doubt, but of assurance. It could be translated “Since… you belong to Christ.” Through this inspired text, God is telling believers of a truth assuring us that “all in Christ are heirs of promise” because of God’s matchless grace for sinners. Every person isn’t a child of God, but Jesus grants you that right to receive by faith what the flesh could never receive or even desire. Let’s pray.

(c) Charles Kevin Grant

2003