October 19, 2025 | We Belong
We Belong (Galatians Part 10)
Galatians 3:23–29
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 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. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (ESV)
This sermon shows how the ache of not belonging is answered in Christ. Paul pictures the law as an enforcer and jailer that kept sinners at a distance and as a guardian that trained God’s people for a time. With “the faith” revealed in Jesus, the law’s temporary role gives way to grace. We are justified by faith, made sons of God in Christ, and clothed with him so our identity and imitation flow from union with him rather than performance. Baptized into Christ, we “put on” Christ. The gospel also forms a new community where old markers lose their power to divide: Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female are one in Jesus. If we belong to Christ, we are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.
Transcript of We Belong (Galatians Part 10)
The Ache of Not Belonging
Jed Gillis: There's a, a quiet, sometimes not so quiet ache in every human soul. Sometimes we feel it more, sometimes we feel it less. It's the ache of not belonging somewhere. You can feel it maybe at your office. You might feel it with your family. You might feel it at church. There are times when you have that feeling in your soul that you think, I just don't quite fit in. I just don't quite belong.
And it can drive us to all kinds of things. That it can drive us to, to self-protection. So we hide. We withdraw. We blame others.
Or maybe it drives us instead to self-promotion. And we try to prove that we really should belong and we perform really well and we manipulate people around us.
But we long for something to relieve that ache. We long for some kind of grace, favor, that would say, you do belong. You are at home. And Paul, last week we looked and saw Paul speaks of the grace of God and says it's possible to, to strip the power, to think about grace, to interact with grace in a way that it nullifies, that it takes the power out of grace.
So I wanna start today jumping back a minute to that thought and ask this question, how does it look when we strip the power out of grace in our experience?
It could look like many things. I wanna give you one example. I want you to imagine a man named Ted. It's not a real name and I don't think we have any Ted's, so it should be okay.
So imagine a man named Ted. He grew up in Christianity, came to church, did Sunday school, did Awana, whatever. He memorized all the verses. Ted knows all the theological terms. Ted believes that he came to know Christ maybe as a late teenager. The age doesn't really matter. Somewhere in there, and he's mostly a good guy.
If you met him, you'd think he's really pretty moral. He does a lot of the good stuff. I mean, he has his problems, but who doesn't? Right? Nobody's perfect.
But it's been a pretty good while since Ted was a late teenager, he settled into just the patterns of moving. To the next stage of life and then the next stage of life. And as he does, there's this gnawing sense within his soul that he probably can't put words to if Ted is fairly normal. But if he could, he might say something like, I'm just not sure where I really belong. I feel like I'm not really wanted by the people around me.
Maybe that's his family. Maybe that's his wife, or his kids, or his parents. Maybe that's just his friends or, or church members or coworkers. But he feels this ache that says, I'm not really wanted, I just don't really belong. I'm on my own. Do I really matter?
And he pushes some of that aside until the next transition happens in life. He loses his job and he looks for a new career and it all swarms back at him. And there are patterns then that come about in Ted's life that he may not pick up on right away. But because he sits here and says, do I really belong? Do I really matter? Am I wanted? He's driven to things like maybe, maybe self-protection.
So Ted starts to isolate himself. He avoids Christian community because he thinks they'll just remind him that he doesn't really belong. Maybe it's bitterness and he resents the people who seem to always have it all together and always be popular and always fit in. Maybe it's sinful patterns of self pity. And when Ted thinks about his life, he makes. His pain, the central story, rather than God's redemptive work in his pain. Self-protection because he doesn't feel like he really belongs.
Or maybe he goes the other way and it's self-promotion, and Ted instead says, I'm gonna do everything to make sure everybody knows I really do belong. So it's pride. He has to be seen as valuable to feel secure.
Maybe it's hypocrisy. He puts on a mask. This is who I'm gonna pretend to be so that everybody will say that I belong, so I feel better about.
Now when he sees these sins, Ted doesn't like them. Ted doesn't sit there and go. I love being proud and hypocritical. I love isolating myself and being bitter. He doesn't like the sins, but he feels stuck. He feels like he has no power to change these things. Why? Because what Ted has functionally done is removed the power of grace.
All of these things are coming about because Ted says, I don't know that I belong when grace from God through Jesus Christ says, you belong.
That's one example of what it could look like to take the power of grace and still have the same theological words, but strip the power from grace and Ted needs exactly the message that we have at the end of Galatians chapter three, I'm gonna read beginning in verse 23.
Reading Galatians 3:23-29
Jed Gillis: Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. 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. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
Who Is the Law?
Jed Gillis: This is the way Paul wraps up his argument in chapter three. We'll look at two questions to start with. The first is, who is the law?
Now you might say, did you mess up? Did you mean what is the law? No, I meant who, because what Paul does is he gives us these pictures. He personifies the role of the law and in first he's thinking in terms of, of a Jew.
We can know that because we look at verse 23 and he's talking about before faith came, we, a corporate group here was held captive under the law. He's speaking from a Jewish perspective, which will then broaden to a gentile perspective, and he's gonna give you three personifications of what the law did. He's, he will imply them.
The Law is an Enforcer
Jed Gillis: The first is that the law was an enforcer. See that we were held captive under the law. We could say a captor, an enforcer, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. The law, the mosaic law, it in a sense it actually kept you away from God. It said you can come this far, but no further.
If you think about the picture of the temple. And the priests could come to a certain place, but they couldn't go into the holiest place other than the high priest. And he could only go in once a year. And if we back up from the holy place, we'll say there's the outer courtyard that some people could come into, but others couldn't. And if we back up a little further, we say over and over what the law did. Was set up these boundaries that said you can't just have free access to God. It put distance. It was an enforcer.
The Law is a Jailer
Jed Gillis: But not only was it an enforcer, it was a jailer. See that it says we were imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
A jailer locks you in place. A jailer doesn't give you a way out. Like you don't, if you're in jail, you don't ask your jailer, um, how can I get out? Like, that's not your job. The jailer keeps you in. You might chafe under it. You might think, I want to be out. But the jailer makes sure the doors stay closed.
You might think, I really want my best to count for me, but the law says no. You have to keep every point of the law, and if you don't keep every point of the law, then you're imprisoned.
The law was an enforcer and a jailer.
The Law is a Guardian
Jed Gillis: And the third personification is in verse 24. The law was our guardian. Now we don't use this word guardian exactly the same way. The point was that if you had someone who was like a tutor, a trainer, if you will. They came along and especially wealthy children, they would have guardians. That's what this is.
Uh, the Greek word's, the word we get pedagogue from, but it doesn't emphasize teaching. They had another word for that. In other words, he's not emphasizing here, the law teaches you facts you don't know. He could have called it a different word for that. Instead, he's emphasizing that the law is your guardian to take a child who's young and train them up in how to live in a mature way.
The guardian was responsible for discipline. It had custody, if you will, of the children. If the children were running around getting in trouble and the parents were off because they were doing something else, as wealthy parents, they were doing something else. This guardian was supposed to watch them. So if the child got in trouble on the Guardian's Watch, the Guardian was the one who was in trouble.
The Guardian was responsible for training for teaching. Maturity, behavior, all kinds of things. Really, the entire character formation of that child was under the supervision of the Guardian.
The Law is Temporary
Jed Gillis: So what Paul is doing. Is telling you that at that point before Jesus came, the law served certain functions and he says, here's how we experienced it. It felt like a jailer. It felt like an enforcer that kept a certain distance from God. And in hindsight, looking back, it was temporary. It was a guardian. You see the guardian? Doesn't have responsibility over the child when they're an adult. And Paul will go into that a little more as we continue in chapter four, but he draws them to say God did give this law, but he gave it for a temporary purpose.
It did serve as an enforcer. It did serve in a sense, as a jailer. It says that scripture imprisoned everything under sin. It reminded the Israelites that they did not measure up to God's perfect holy standard. It did serve as a guardian. And Paul says that's what the law was. That was the whole premise, the purpose, temporary purpose for the law.
Now that's what it was for the Jew. Galatians could have said, wait, what about Gentiles? Well, really, the law did the same thing for the Gentiles. They didn't know the Mosaic law in the same way. But Romans talks about this and says, when they, when they follow this, when they feel their conscience, they have a law written on their heart. So while they didn't have the details of the Mosaic law, the gentiles still had this sense of, of conscience.
They still had God's law written on their heart so that they knew there's a kind of distance that keeps me from an absolutely perfect and holy God. They knew, I know this is what I should do and I seem stuck where I can't do it, I'm imprisoned. They knew there was a certain way they should act, a character development that they needed, which they fell short of. Paul does that in Romans one through three. He says The Jews had this law, but the Gentiles, they still knew these things. In fact, he says they're the Gentiles. If, if they judged themselves with the standard they used for others, they would condemn themselves.
You see, he's saying that what they knew and what the Jews had served these same three purposes. It recognized distance between God and them. It imprisoned them. And it was a guardian to train to say, this is what is right, this is what is good, even though it didn't have the power to give life.
What Does "Now That Faith Has Come" Mean?
Jed Gillis: And he continues and says the ultimate purpose then. Verse 24, the law was our guardian until Christ came. There was a temporary purpose in this law in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
Now when he says now that faith has come, he doesn't mean that there was no faith in the Old Testament. We know that because he just used Abraham and as as an example. In verse six of chapter three, he just said, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. So righteousness came through faith for Abraham, not through the law. So he doesn't mean before faith came means there was no faith before what he means, and in fact, we could see if you, if you were to pull up on, on your phone, if you pull up something like blue letter Bible, you can see some of the Greek language and you can understand a little bit of what's there. Even if you don't know Greek. Here. He says, essentially, before the faith came, now that the faith has come.
Right, when he talks about faith coming here, he puts an article there. Down verse or verse 23 is the same thing now before the faith came. So he's not saying before you could believe God, and that was how salvation came. No, salvation always comes by belief in God's promises through grace. That's the only way salvation works.
But what he is saying is that there is a difference that happened when Jesus came. There was a demonstration of grace that the people, the Jews, did not have through the law. God himself became flesh and dwelt among us and lived a perfect life and died for us to demonstrate his grace for us. He didn't have that. So before that, faith came see before Christ. God showed his undeserved favor by giving promises to Abraham. Go out and I'll make you a great nation. I will give you descendants. He made promises and Abraham believed it, and it was counted to him as righteousness. That's how salvation comes. But that grace is, is nothing. It fades in comparison to the grace when God himself dies for us.
That's what Paul is driving to. He says, these false teachers are acting like nothing different has happened. And he said No. When Jesus came, there's a radical difference that has happened. Now. You could see in flesh and blood, God's grace for you. But because Jesus has come, the law is no longer supposed to be our enforcer. And our jailer and our guardian.
So who is the law is a temporary guardian to teach us things about God and how we should live looking forward to. Jesus Christ coming.
Who Are We?
Jed Gillis: So the second question then, if that's who the law is, who are we?
We Are Sons of God Through Faith
Jed Gillis: Verse 26. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. This is like, this is the core of Christian salvation. It's not moral improvement. The core of Christian salvation is that every one of us can be united to Christ and therefore, know God as his children. That's the transformation that can happen here.
And it, there's a, a fascinating change in grammar. You can see it in, in the English here. Notice starting in verse 23. Before faith came, we were held captive under the law. I think he's talking about Jews, but he's at least talking about all the believers. We were held captive. We get down to verse 24. The law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith, but now that faith has come, we are no longer a guardian for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God.
Think about the context there. In Galatia, these false teachers are coming saying. You need to really be children of God. And the way to do that is by keeping the law, by human performance. That's how you'll really be secure. You'll have standing. And these Galatians would say, we've never belonged with the Jews before. Why should it be any different now?
So Paul changes from we, we, we to point directly at them with his words and say, you Galatians, who did not come through the Mosaic law. You in Christ Jesus. You are all sons of God.
I think all of us, it's good for us to pause. If I could say every one of your names, I'd probably try it, but I can't. It's good for you to pause and say it. The teaching of scripture is not that Berean Bible Church generically can be children of God.
It's that you can.
In Christ Jesus, you can all be sons of God. How? Through faith. Not just by being human, but through resting in the promise of God through Jesus Christ. By faith, you are all children of God.
The Galatians could easily have said. It. God has like a plus level favor for the Jews, and he showed favor to us, but it's more like he tolerated us. He's shown c plus level favor to us, and the false teachers are coming saying, live the right way, do human performance, you can work your way up to a plus favor.
Paul says, no, in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith, and he continues. As many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek slave, nor free male, nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, you Gentiles.
He's drawing them to remember the same thing that Ted needed to remember. Okay, you belong. You are not on the outside looking in. If you have faith in Jesus Christ, you are a child of God, not a spiritual cripple. Limp limping along that God tolerates, but a son. You. Are a child of God.
God's Greatness, Not Ours
Jed Gillis: That means when he says Sons of God here, that means the best thing about us comes from his greatness, not ours. He labels us in terms of him. I'm a son of God. The reason you label it that way. Is because God is greater.
Right? If you think about figures in history, you take the one everybody knows and you label other people like that. So if I were to talk about George Washington's father, will you say George Washington is the famous one, and here's who his father was, right? So the one you label is the one you're ascribing more greatness to. If you talk about George Washington's son, you probably call him the son of George Washington.
When he says, son of God here, what he's doing is saying the great thing about you is not you. It's that you're a child of the great God. So the best thing about us comes from our identity through our permanent connection to the Father.
I say permanent because. Sons children are permanently children. You don't stop being a child. You don't stop being a son or daughter. You might not like your parents, but you still are their child. Well, permanent connection, that's our identity.
Think of the prodigal son. We looked at this several weeks ago. We keep coming back to it because it illustrates grace so well. The prodigal's sonship, the fact that he's a son isn't something he boasts in for himself. I'm so great, my father wanted me back, right? We think that's crazy. That's not how you should do it. Instead, we think he should go back and say, my father is so great that the best thing I could have is to live as his son.
The best thing about us is his greatness. My father is so great that I get to live like his child.
We Get to Imitate God
Jed Gillis: That also means we get to be like him. Now we have to be careful here because we could easily swing back into performance and say, so salvation is about being a son of God and being a son of God is about trying to be like him. That that's not the point. In fact, if we had the greatest imitator in the world. Come up, stand right there and imitate me.
I'm sure he could probably do a wonderful job that doesn't make him my son, right? Imitation doesn't make you a child by itself, but if you hang around with my two sons for long enough, you will see them do things that remind you of me. Right?
Imitation doesn't make you a child, but children have the privilege and sometimes the challenge in human relationships, but the privilege of imitating their father, we get to be like God in some ways. We get to imitate him. That doesn't make me a child, but that does mean it is one of the privileges that I have.
So when he says, in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God. He's saying the best thing about you comes from his greatness. You get to imitate him. You get to be like him.
In God, We Belong
Jed Gillis: Also, the phrase from the prodigal son is the father says, all that I have is yours. When he says, your sons of God, your children of God. That's what he's doing. He's saying all that the father has is for you.
And really the big picture is he saying, you belong. You don't need to feel alienated. You don't need to have this self-protective, because I don't belong. I have to hide, I have to blame. I have to do all that. You don't need that. You don't need to have this. I've gotta perform in all the right way, so I prove I belong. Everybody has to see my value so that I know I belong and I'm part of the group.
No. We already belong in Christ Jesus.
Now, it's not saying that every human in the world belongs just because they're human. We know that's not how groups work, right? If you say, I want to be part of the group, I want to belong in the group of people who live in Knoxville, Tennessee. Say, well, great. So you need to move here and live here. And if somebody were to say, I really wanna belong in the group of Knoxville residents, but I don't wanna live there, you'd be like, that's not how it works. Like you, there are certain requirements to belong in certain things.
You are human, so you belong in the human race. If we had a dog in here, we'd say, well, you don't belong in the human race in the same way because you're not human.
If you sign up for an event, you wanna be someone who's on the team. You. You sign up. Now you can be on the team if you say, I don't wanna sign up, but I want to belong. We're like that. It's just not how that works.
In the same way, Christianity doesn't teach that every human belongs as a child of God, like this. What Paul says is, in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. It's not that every human is a child of God. In this sense, it's that if you rest in Jesus Christ, if your faith is in him, it is available to anyone who would rest and believe like that, that you can belong as a child of God. You are sons through faith because you have put on Christ.
What Does "Baptized in Christ" Mean?
Jed Gillis: Now, he uses this phrase in verse 27, as many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. This phrase makes modern evangelicals jumpy sometimes. This phrase about baptized into Christ, like what does that mean?
There's a couple good options. The first thing we have to do is say, the Book of Galatians has been very clear. You don't add something to grace and faith and still have grace and faith. If you add a, an element of human performance to faith, it no longer is faith. If you add human performance to God's grace, you strip the power out of grace.
So Paul can't be here saying. You're going to have a kind of human performance, baptism, which is added to faith in order to secure your standing with God. You can't be saying that.
So let's back up. What could he be saying? I think there's two reasonable options here that you could hold. One, Paul can be referring to what we call spirit baptism, in which case he's talking about the spiritual reality of being connected to Christ. Not water. Water symbolizes that, but it isn't actually what he's referring to. So one Corinthians 12 says, in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body and he means we're connected to this spirit and therefore united. And there he goes on to say the same kind of things. He says Here we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free. And we were all made to drink of one spirit.
If you take what he is done in chapter three, then you could say he's referring to, we are all baptized into Christ means we were connected to Christ through the Spirit. That makes sense of what he says at the beginning of the chapter as well, because he says there, he doesn't say, did you receive Christ by works of the law or by hearing faith? He doesn't say, were you baptized by works of the law or by hearing with faith. Instead, back in verse three, he says, having, or verse two, he says, did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? So throughout this chapter, from the very beginning, he's been talking about how did the spirit of God come into your life?
I think that makes the most sense when you connect it with what he says here, you are all sons of God through faith. So it's faith that connects you to Jesus, and faith in Christ connects you in such a way that you receive the spirit. As many of you as we're baptized into Christ. I think that's probably what he's doing.
He could also be specifically referring to water baptism, and then what he does in the New Testament often is because their normal experience, so connected faith, and conversion, and repentance, and baptism, and church membership, like all of those things were just joined together for them. So sometimes he uses the word baptism as a way of symbolizing that whole process.
One of those two options. I think the spirit baptism one makes the most sense, but you could hold either one without really changing much of what the text says.
But either way, Paul cannot be now saying, here is the human performance, physically going underwater and back up, that you add to grace and faith for salvation, because I would undermine the whole argument of the book.
We Have Put On Christ
Jed Gillis: Instead, Paul is saying that, and don't get hung up on the word baptized. I know. I just spent a couple minutes on that. Don't get hung up on that word. Instead, think of this from verse 26 to 27, in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized, have put on Christ.
Right? That's the, that's actually the, the main point of that clause. He's telling you. You are all sons of God through faith because you've put on Christ. So don't get stuck on the word baptized and miss that connection.
Paul's saying, everyone who has been so we could say baptized, immersed in Christ through resting in the promise of God and the power of the Spirit has been so filled with Jesus that he takes on the the identity of Jesus. He puts him on. The flavor of Jesus, if you will.
There. There's a really interesting, actually the the oldest reference we have that uses the word that's used here for baptize, it actually talks about making pickles. It's a little bit weird.
But I love the picture because the picture is like you make a pickle, you take a cucumber, you put it in, I don't know, vinegar and dill and whatever that process is that some of you could talk about, and then when it's done, you have a pickle, right? Most of us don't pull out a pickle and think, oh, this is really a cucumber. Like we know it is. It came from that. But when you taste a pickle and you taste a cucumber, they don't taste the same, right? Because what you've done is you have taken the cucumber and so immersed it in the flavors of vinegar and dill that no matter which part of the cucumber you slice, no matter which part you bite, if you bite into it, you taste pickle.
Now what Paul's doing is saying, you've been so through faith, by resting in the promise of God through Jesus. You've been so immersed in Jesus that you've put him on to the point that no matter where somebody looks in your life, they should taste Jesus.
No matter what goes on in your life, you say. Life's been difficult, and somebody comes and talks to you, they taste Jesus. Life's been good, and somebody talks to you, they taste Jesus. They've been so immersed in him that they now have put him on in every area of their lives.
So he uses this metaphor and the, the put on, he doesn't actually use the pickles metaphor here, just FYI. He does say baptized, which is the same word, but he doesn't, instead he talks about clothing have put on, it's like putting on a jacket or a robe.
So that metaphor, it communicates a lot of things. It's used throughout scripture, but here's a few to think about your, your identity when people see you. They see what you wear.
If you wear a uniform, people know something about you because of the uniform. Whatever clothes you wear, it makes a, a statement about your identity. To say you have put on Christ means every morning before you get ready, you already wear Jesus. That's already your identity. So he put on Christ.
Now, it does include the idea of imitating him, but notice this logic. He doesn't say Put on Christ so that you can be a son of God, imitate Jesus so that you can be a son of God. That's not the way he describes it.
Instead, what he says is. You are all sons of God through faith because this is what's happened. You've been so immersed in him that you have put him on, not imitate him in order to be a son of God, but you are a son of God and so you've put on Christ so much that now you get to imitate him. Just like we said with sonship. He says, put on like wear Jesus, that's your identity. That's who you imitate. That's a sense of of acceptability.
We all know there's a kind of clothing that is. Acceptable in certain places and a kind of clothing that's not acceptable for different reasons. And we could say, I, if you're in the middle of Miami in the summer, a parka is not really the right option. You know that. And we could say, well, there's certain kind of uniforms that are appropriate in certain places. If you're going cave diving, there's a certain way you dress. That's not the way you would dress to go out for a nice dinner. There's just different things. There's an acceptability.
Scripture uses it that way. It speaks of, of the, the wedding feast and says, if you're going to come in, you have to have the right kind of robe.
So what is our acceptability in heaven determined by? Well, in this sense it's determined by the clothing you wear. Do you wear Christ's righteousness? Do you put on Christ? Is that what God has done for you?
So Paul driving home the point that they belong says to these Galatians. If you have trust, if you have rest in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God. For as many of you as were baptized, you've put on Christ, you wear him. When people look at your life, they see Christ.
Are We United?
Jed Gillis: So we ask two questions. Who is the law? Temporarily a guardian. Who are we through faith in Jesus Christ? We're children of God.
Now, remember Paul's context. There's Judaizers, there's teachers in Galatia, there's new converts in Galatia. There's all these different things. So Paul asked this question, are we united? Are we divided so that this fight needs to happen or are we united?
And he points here in verse 28 to three categories of dividing barriers that are removed by the gospel. It says there's neither Jew nor Greek, so race or culture. So there's neither slave nor free. So there's class barriers. We could think of, of economic status. And then male or female. So gender.
We might think, well, why those three, Paul? There's other things that divide people. Yeah. But those three have been probably three of the biggest throughout history. And there's also a really specific reason I think he does it. It's directly against the tendencies of the Jewish, in this case, the Jewish false teachers who would've come to Galatia.
Interestingly, by the middle of the second century, and certainly before that too, we don't know when it started, but at least the middle of the second century, Jewish males were taught to pray, blessed be he who did not make me a foreigner. Blessed be he who did not make me a slave. And blessed be he who did not make me a woman.
I think Paul knew what he was doing when he said those three. And by the way, just in case you're wondering, women weren't teach, taught to pray that way. They were taught to pray the first two and then pray. Blessed be he who made me according to his will.
Paul's like that is absolutely wrong. The gospel of Jesus Christ says that those kinds of differences do not divide us. The Gospels gospel of Jesus Christ says that you can't look at your race, your class, or your gender and say, well, I don't really belong.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ, in fact says if you teach that, one of those is better than the other, you have stripped the power out of grace, just like we talked about last week. Paul doesn't mean these differences no longer exist at all. Right? Was Paul sitting there going? No, I just, I mean, there's no Jews or Greeks anywhere in the world in in the church. No, of course. No, of course not. The whole book is talking about the interaction of Jews and Greeks. Paul's not saying that there are no Jews and Greeks in that sense, or there's not a slave and a free man or a male and a female. He's not removing those things as true facts. What he's saying is, your primary identity, your worth, your acceptance, your belonging cannot be based on those things.
Instead, only the grace of Christ builds a community where these things, where true differences don't divide us. If you think about what the Church of God is, is people who are radically different. In at least these three ways and many more in race, in class, in gender and culture. The Church of God forms a community where those differences exist, but they don't divide. Instead, those differences display the varied colors of God's wisdom so that different members of the body are put together exactly the right way.
Paul drives them to say, this is what unites us. Only the truths he's talked about before can create and maintain that kind of unity.
The "Bad News" of the Gospel
Jed Gillis: Because the things he said so far, the bad news of the gospel, if you will, the law was a jailer, but it was a jailer that didn't just jail Greeks or Jews. It didn't just say human performance doesn't work for slaves, but free men can handle it. It didn't say human performance can save men, but not women. Or women, but not men. No. The bad news of the gospel creates unity because we all sit under the same bad news. Human performance cannot satisfy our souls.
It's not just the mosaic law, it's whatever standard we live by of performance. It is a jailer for all of us. We're reminded that our performance is never good enough. We are reminded that it can never give us ultimate rest because I have to perform tomorrow and the next day. And the next day.
Our performance may teach us here's some good things to do. But it can never satisfy our soul. And we all, whether a Jew, a Greek, a slave, a free, a rich, a poor male, female, whatever we are in those differences. The bad news of the gospel creates unity because it says, none of us measure up to the perfect standard of God, and none of us can find rest and belonging by performing well enough.
The Good News of the Gospel
Jed Gillis: But the good news of the gospel also creates unity. Every blessing you have, every promise you have, every inheritance from God, everything that God gives you, every privilege comes through resting in the promise of grace that was purchased by Jesus. Every promise for all of us.
God calls you to say that you can belong because Jesus poured out favor for you. So rest in it. Trust in it.
Our example earlier, Ted, he needed that truth. Ted needed to know. That his internal fear that he didn't belong, which drove him to isolation and bitterness and self-pity and pride and hypocrisy and all of those things, he needed the grace of God, not the stripped down version, the full power version of the gospel of God's undeserved favor.
He needed it to work by the spirit in his heart to remember that favor is so great that he could say. I belong as a child of the God of the universe. What can man do to me?
He needed to know that he belongs to Jesus Christ. And if you belong to Jesus Christ, then you don't need anything else to connect you to the deepest promises of God. Not only do you not need it, nothing else could get any closer. If our faith, our trust is in Jesus, then we are, as he describes here, heirs according to promise. We don't need anything else to receive the promise because Jesus did what your performance could never do.
The law could confine you. Jesus frees you. The law could expose your sin. Jesus erases your sin. The law showed you your distance from God. Your performance can show you your distance from God, but Jesus brings you home.
If, if you have trust in Jesus, you need nothing else to have the favor and promises of God. And now in Christ. You individually, you belong fully, freely, and forever because the gospel doesn't just make you forgiven, it makes you family. We're children of God. And that grace of God unites us. As our souls rest in the approval of God, because he poured out undeserved favor, it unites us. And that's really what Paul means when he says justification by grace through faith, the approval of God by his undeserved favor as you rest, as your soul rests in it is the message of God's gospel.
May we rest in it today, I'll invite you to close your eyes and respond to the truth of God's word, and then I'll pray and we'll sing to close.