Galatians 3:26-29

This morning we are back to Galatians and to one of my favorite paragraphs in all Scripture.  But before we get there let’s review a bit.  It has been three weeks since we thought about Galatians.  It may take us a bit to get back up to speed.  The theme for the year is from Galatians 5:1.

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

As we have worked our way through Galatians we have been watching for steps in our freedom.  So far we have identified five:

Step one – We Please God. Paul told us that it is all about pleasing God.  We are not out to please humans, we are all about focusing on Jesus.  It is not about you. It is about the freedom that is found in being accountable only to God!  All I have to do is please God!

Step Two – The Faith becomes Your Faith. Paul met with Jesus in the Arabian Desert and embraced the Christ/faith as his own.  Let me take a timeout and explain what I mean when I say Christ/faith.  It is the faithfulness of Christ as he went to the cross AND it is our complete faith response to who Jesus is; belief, anticipation, trust and obedience.  Christ/faith is all that in a package. Freedom is found in Christ/faith and in Christ/faith alone! I must have my own faith.

Step Three (in contrast to steps one and two) – Be in fellowship. Paul traveled to Jerusalem for unity.  The apostles offered him the right hand of fellowship because they all shared the same Christ/faith.  It is Christ/faith that makes us one.  It is a package deal.  Those who have Christ/faith are in fellowship with God and thus in fellowship with each other. Christ/faith makes us family.  Put a pen in that thought and hold the pen there because we are coming back to this thought.  It is where we are focusing this morning.  This fellowship thing between the Jews and the Gentiles is really significant in Galatians. 

The Misstep of Hypocrisy. Peter crawldadded on the Gentiles and broke fellowship with them when he backed off eating with them.  This was a showstopper for Paul.  Peter messed with the family of God by not eating with the Gentiles. This was big for Paul and what Peter did was evidently what was going on in the Galatian churches.  Table fellowship was being withheld from part of the family. This is a big deal and we will see why.

Step Four – Know who you are.  We are Jesus People.  Jesus lives within us.  Our every move is made as Jesus living within us.  We are absorbed into Jesus.  Our will becomes his will.  His will is our will.  Freedom is found in being Jesus.  Week before last, Gerry, told you all about this concept of being clothed with Christ.  We put Jesus on like new skin.  Wow.  We are Jesus! 

Step Five – Remember the Spirit.  The Spirit within us makes us more and more like Jesus. In the weeks ahead we will see Paul return to this step.  I am thinking and working on this Spirit thing.  It is going to be the answer to a lot of what goes on in our lives.

We have found five steps so far, I don’t know, that may be all there is. I am studying this right along with you.  I am excited about this journey of discovery in Galatians.   We may just be coming back to these five steps again and again.  It will be interesting to find out as we keep studying throughout this year.  The plan for 2009 was to do first Galatians and then Romans. I have already given up on going to Romans.  I thought we would be able to do both.  But there is no way.  There is so much good stuff in Galatians that we will be doing great to get through all of it this year.  I want to do a mini-series on: the Spirit, the sin-list of 5:19-21 and we have to focus on the fruit of the Spirit.  Wow!  When we get finished this year we are going to be spectacular Christians… amen? 

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Now we are up to speed. I hope you are remembering or discovering what Freedom in Christ is meaning to you.   Let’s get to these favorite verses of mine at the end of Galatians 3.   Now we stuck a pen in Step Three which was… Be in fellowship.  Step Three may be what Galatians is really all about.  The deeper I have studied into this amazing letter the more I am thinking that Galatians is really about family.  Watch my reasoning for this:

-Why is Paul so upset?  Someone is messing with his family.  What makes you angrier than people messing with your family?  Well… maybe, your family messing up?  The letter is so emotionally charged because it is about family.  Something was going wrong with Paul’s family.  Someone was attacking his family; thus the emotionally charged letter.

-Paul took Titus to Jerusalem and did not circumcise him to force the church there to accept an uncircumcised Gentile into the family.  They gave him the right hand of fellowship, saying he was family.  Paul forced the issue of Gentiles being family without being circumcised. 

-Why was Paul so upset with Peter when Peter stopped eating with the Gentiles?  That was a slap in the face of his family.  It is something like…if I refused to have a meal with Julie?  “I refuse to eat with Julie.”  It would say, “We are not family.  You are not a full-blown Stidham.”  That, I think, is the rub in Galatians.  Paul is mad because those who are messing with his family are saying they can’t eat with them unless they are circumcised and become Jews.  Listen to 2:14.

Galatians 2:12-14    Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.  The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.  14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel…

He confronts Peter.  Why was this a big deal for Paul?  Why does he take Peter to task over missing a couple of meals? It was saying that the Gentiles weren’t really a part of the family.  They were, at best, second class family members; associate members, junior members, not-worthy-to-eat-with members.  To Paul this was not acting in line with the truth of the gospel! This breaking of fellowship was a different Gospel.  It was a perversion of the truth. 

What is the truth of the Gospel?  Who are we supposed to eat with? How are we supposed to treat members of the family?  That is the question of the morning.  That is the question which Galatians 3:26-29 answers.   How do you treat members of the family?  That is the focus of the morning and that is why these four verses are some of my favorite verses.  We need to hear the answer… amen?

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Before we can process the answer to how do you treat family, you need to learn another Greek word.  “Come on, Tim, not more Greek.”  It is a little word; it won’t be hard to learn.  It is gavr. It is pronounced gar.  It means basically “for, or because,” it points to a reason. In this passage it is used to string an argument together.  Watch for the gavrs as I read this entire section from Young’s Literal Translation. It brings out the “gars” in the way Paul intended the argument to unfold.
 
YLT Galatians 3:23-29  And before the coming of the faith, under law we were being kept, shut up to the faith about to be revealed,  24 so that the law became our child-conductor -- to Christ, that by faith we may be declared righteous,  25 and the faith having come, no more under a child-conductor are we,  26 for ye are all sons of God through the faith in Christ Jesus,  27 for as many as to Christ were baptized did put on Christ;  28 there is not here Jew or Greek, there is not here servant nor freeman, there is not here male and female, for all ye are one in Christ Jesus;  29 and if ye are of Christ then of Abraham ye are seed, and according to promise -- heirs.

We are no longer under the paidagogos, gavr – because we are all sons of God through our Christ/faith gavr – because we have been baptized into Christ consequently there is no racial, financial, or genders in Christ Jesus gavr you are all one in Christ Jesus and Abe’s kids who are going to get the promise! 

Let’s put it in a logical sequence.
1) You are not under the paidagogos of the Law because…
2) You are now full grown sons of faith because…
3) You have Christ/faith because…
4) You have been baptized into Christ…
5) Therefore, there is no Jew/Greek, slave/free, male/female because…
6) You are all one in Christ…
7)  Therefore all of you are Abraham’s kidos! 

Wow.  That is why these verses are some of my favorite.  This is the heart of the Galatian letter.  This is what Galatians is all about.  This is what we are all about.  This is very near the center of Christianity.  This is what makes us family! 

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Now let’s get back to answering our question, “How do you treat the family?”

To Paul salvation and fellowship are a package deal.   If you have Christ/faith and you have been clothed by Christ in baptism, then you are a full-fledge member of the family.  There are no partial members.  All who are in Christ are in Christ.  All who are of Christ are sons of God and full blown family of Abraham entitled to all the rights, privileges and responsibilities hereto granted to all.  The simple answer to how do you treat our family in Christ is; we treat everyone the same; all, who are in Christ, are precious children of God!  Say that with me, “All, who are in Christ, are precious children of God!” (Say repeated with different emphasis.)

Note the “in Christ” words again.  We have to be clear on this point/

Galatians 3:26-29   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, slave nor free, male nor 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.

Because we are all in Christ we are one.  There are no group distinctions anymore.  The worldly divisions have been eradicated.  The barriers, and pigeon holes and categories have all been dissolved in Christ.  How freeing is this.  We are all siblings in the family.  All the distinctions which the world so highly esteems evaporate in Christ.  “I am proud to be Free.  I am proud to be American.  I am proud to be male. I am proud to have a nice house and car and HDTV.” All of that is not in Christ.  I am simply a child of God.  Black/white; rich/poor;  clergy/laity; educated/dropout, male/female, American/undocumented alien; none of those human distinctions are in Christ.  All who have Christ/faith are Abraham’s seed.  Wow.  That is so not the way we normally think. 

Can you imagine how radical a statement this was in 49 AD? It is mind blowing in 2009.  It was way beyond shocking in 49 AD. Historians estimate that 2/3’s  of the population of the Roman Empire were slaves.  Likely, most of the Galatians were slaves, and obliviously all were Gentiles and I’m guessing more than half were women. 

Image if you were a Gentile, female slave and you heard these words of Paul for the first time in 49 AD in the Derbe Church of Christ. What would these words mean to you?  Out in the world, everyday, you are marginalized as a woman, looked down on by the Jews as not good enough to even have a cup of coffee with and you are owned as a piece of property by wealthy arrogant masters.  Your life is not your own.  You make no difference.  You have no opinion.  Your only value is monetarily what you are worth as a slave. 

But in Christ, in the church family, on Sunday mornings, you could go to a place where none of that makes a difference.  On Sunday mornings at church you are an equal. You were a son of God. You were not treated as a 4th class person; Gentile as 2nd, slave as 3rd, and woman as 4th! Talk about freedom!  Church is the one place where you are free and valuable and loved and treated as precious.  These words, from the Apostle Pau,l had to be some of your favorite words!

Galatians 3:26-29   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, slave nor free, male nor 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.

That is amazing freedom! That is how we treat each other!   

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I am proud of our congregation. After being gone for the last two Sundays and visited other Churches of Christ, I am proud to be a part of the family of those who have Christ/faith here in Los Alamos.  I am proud of our family where we are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus!

Los Alamos Church of Christ
May 10, 2009