A Single Definition

Today we pick up right where we left off in Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia and let’s be honest he’s pulling no punches in how upset he is with what he has heard about what is going on in the church. So what he says here in the opening verses picks up right in his argument about this idea of works versus faith.

So Paul opens this section by making the point that we all received the Spirit by faith and not by working hard at it and being awarded it. We like to award people for hard work. We hand out awards at the end of a sports season in appreciation of the hard work. We give trophies out to the top 3 teams of a tournament. We hold a super bowl every year and the world series. Newspapers even award restaurants, doctors offices, even churches for being the best in a certain class. Paul is correcting the law vs. grace mentality by showing us that grace comes first along with the power of the Spirit. The law helps us to understand our shortcomings in our relationship to one another, but it doesn’t award anything.

To help drive the point home, Paul brings up one of the most important figures in Jewish faith. This might not mean as much for the Gentile believers, but I don’t think it’s meant for them, I think it’s meant to help the Jewish believers understand even further Paul’s point by using the father figure of Abraham. Now we don’t have time to dig real deep into Abraham but in Genesis 12 we see that God calls Abraham and makes a covenant with him and it has nothing to do with anything Abraham did. The Bible says that it was simply reckoned to him as righteousness. He wasn’t even circumcised yet. That came later. But the promise to make all nations blessed through him is made. And I believe whether Paul was reading the Hebrew which I believe says nations or the Greek which can mean nations but also means the word Gentile, we see that Paul clearly understands that God’s love, God’s covenant comes before circumcision and before any law is ever placed on him or any of his descendants.

It was Abraham’s faith that God saw. Because there were no real laws as we come to know later, just a faith and a love of God who created heaven and earth as we hear in creation. And to give thanks to God for that creation and that love. If the promise of everything that created Jewish faith and life came through a promise and not the law then perhaps that is the primary focus we should have.

Now we skip over a lot of conversation that drives the point home about the law and concludes with the next section that we do read. We get a short version of how the law had its purpose and took care of us until the time that Christ came. Then we are reminded what Paul said earlier in his letter that through Christ’s baptism and death we have died and risen through faith.

Now we get the famous passage that I have been alluding to for the last two weeks. If all of what we know and say is true. That this all comes through faith and through Christ’s faithfulness to us as I talked about last week, then we are all truly one in Christ Jesus. That oneness goes beyond the main topic that Paul has been discussing about Jew and Greek. He makes it about more than that. And I think we need to really understand what Paul means by this statement.

For the last several weeks have focused so heavily on not just Paul, but many of the Apostle’s work to get rid of the distinction between Jew and Greek. We’ve gotten rid of the need for circumcision and other laws that would being expected fo them from certain groups, but it does really go beyond that. Which is why I think that Paul’s bringing Abraham into the discussion is so important. The promise was before there was the law, but the promise was also before the word Jew existed and that it has been God’s plan to include the whole world.

Is the reality that the Jews are still nationally Jewish a thing? Yes... and that the Gentiles comes from all places and backgrounds and that there are probably cultural differences that exist? Yes. And that’s ok. Their identity is in Christ Jesus now. Just like people like me who were born and raised in California act differently from those who grew up in the Midwest. But does that mean that those from the West Coast and Midwest can’t come together as one in Christ? No. No it doesn’t. We may have different ways of doing things, but our oneness in Christ is the same.

Next Paul talks about slave and free. Now while parts of our world has done it’s best to outright abolish as many forms of slavery as we can, that is not where Paul is going. Paul is not calling for abolition of slavery in the 1st century. What Paul is advocating for is that faith in Jesus shouldn’t be restricted to a social status in that way. And I believe that he is advocating for fair treatment of all who come to worship Christ. A slave as a part of the community of Christ is no different than a free person.

If we take a look at Ephesians 6 we see this very idea being stated by Paul. Paul encourages children to obey their parents and to follow the command to honor your father and mother. Then it goes to say that a father should be good to their children. Then the next part that slaves should obey their masters and be good all the time not just while being watched and that masters should do the same. That they should always be good to their slaves not just when others’s are looking. That both master and slave have the same father in heaven.

The last example is that of male or female and we know that women’s roles and rights have changed throughout history and that it is still in process. Here, Paul encourages that gender should not be an issue because we are all one in Christ Jesus. He, again, is not trying to do away with social, religious, or cultural norms, but he is saying that there is no distinction in our life with Christ.

I believe what Paul is saying to us today are things that we are very much dealing with in our world and society. I believe that Paul would substitute these things that defined people then with phrases like, there is no longer Republican or Democrat, there is no longer people who wear masks and those who don’t wear masks, there is no longer white, brown or black. And like I said some of these things still apply like male or female. Our gender shouldn’t play a role either. It doesn’t mean those things don’t exist, just like I said Paul wasn’t advocating abolishing slavery or women’s rights, but what he is saying is that our unity should always be in Christ Jesus.

Those things don’t define us like the law doesn’t define us. Not only should those things not define who we are but they shouldn’t divide us either. Our identity…who we are, and whose we are, is based in our unity in Christ Jesus. And that the covenant that was given to Abraham to be children of the promise is for us all. It is for Jew and Gentile, slave and free, it is for male and female. It is for Republican and Democrat. It is for people who wear masks and people who don’t. It is for all cultures, races, and people from any background or identity, because again the only identity that matters is that the one that Christ gave us. You are, I am, a child of God an heir to the promise, and a forgiven and redeemed child of God. That is who we are. That is who we all are. Amen.