You Belong to Christ

Scripture Text: Galatians 3:23-29

23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 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. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

 

Sermon Notes:

 

It was the summer after I graduated college that the book of Galatians came alive to me. It is my favorite book that Paul penned. Specifically, it was the encounter between Peter and Paul in Galatians 2 that the Spirit used to alter my way of thinking. Peter’s refusal to accept the free grace that was given to him as he went back and forth between the Jews and the Gentiles at the dinner table. I believe that all of us are more like Peter than we want to admit. Even though we know that it is grace through faith that we have relationship with Jesus, inside all of us is this fleshly, sinful, human desire to think that the good we do will somehow make us in greater standing with God. So we use our good deeds to make us feel better about ourselves and to allow our minds to think that somehow God is NOW satisfied with us. Or we take the grace that God has given us and use it to our advantage as we go about our life living according to the flesh because we know in our minds that God’s grace is sufficient for whatever sin we might commit, and of course, it is. So we have two abuses here. We have the abuse of the law, thinking that as long as we stick to the rules our standing before God is ok. And then we have the abuse of grace, that is, we have a license to sin knowing that God will forgive us in the end. Both abuses are inaccurate and unbiblical. This is the temptation that every human being that has ever tried to follow Christ has experienced. Peter experienced it, Paul experienced, John, and the list goes on and on.

 

The Law was Never the Answer:

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

 

• The law was never intended to be the solution to our sin problem. God in his sovereign plan knew this, but nevertheless, the law still served a purpose.

• Paul uses the Greek term padagogos. In classical times, this was generally a slave whose job it was to take the children to and from school and to watch out for their conduct as well. It’s difficult in the English translations to find a term that encompasses all of the duties and responsibilities of this position. This is why you see “Guardian” in the ESV, NIV says “put in charge”, NASB says “tutor”, and KJV says “Schoolmaster.” This is just one of the problems with trying to find an English equivalent to Greek words.

• Thus, the law had a purpose at a specific time and place. It was designed for us to feel the weight and hopelessness of trying to live a life according to a checklist. There was never going to be any escape from this way of life.

• Paul tried so hard to make this way of life work. He devoted his life to being an expert in the law. He sat under the teaching of some of the finest religious teachers of his day, he was a brilliant man who knew the law inside and out, he desperately thought this was the way that he was going to get to God, but Jesus stopped him in his tracks on his way to Damascus.

• All of us in this room have our own Damascus experience. It was probably not as severe, memorable, or earth shattering as it was for Paul, but nevertheless, we have our own conversion experience.

• Do you remember that moment when you realized that the law was not the answer for you? I remember as a young man realizing that I could never live up to that standard. I remember the great conviction that came over me as I knew that I had a major sin problem and that only Christ could solve that problem for me. The law was never supposed to be the answer. Jesus Christ is your answer. Grace is your answer and it changes everything.

• There was actually a book written in 2007 ago by a man who actually attempted to live out the Bible as literally as possible. The man’s name was A.J. Jacobs and the book is entitled, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. Listen to this excerpt from the book, “As I read, I type into my PowerBook every rule, every guideline, every suggestion, every nugget of advice I find the Bible. When I finish, I have a very long list. It runs seventy-two pages. More than seven hundred rules. The scope is astounding. All aspects of my life will be affected-the way I talk, walk, eat, bathe, dress, and hug my wife.”

• Could you imagine being confined to a list of rules and regulations to make you in right standing with God? Brothers and sisters, this is no way to live your life. Jacobs concludes his book by saying…

 

We are United in 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.

 

• Is there a better verse in all of scripture to help us tear down any preconceived notions we have about gender, race, or socioeconomic status?

• What Paul is saying here is a really big deal. Some statistics say that close to 2/3 of the population in the Roman world were comprised of slaves. When Paul is telling the church at Galatia there is no distinction between slaves or freemen he is making a radical statement. When Paul says there is no male or female, he is saying it to a world where the woman was viewed as second rate. When he says there is no Jew or Greek, Paul is saying the very thing that he was adamantly opposed to before he was converted. He was the Jew of all Jews. He was religiously trained and killing Christians that were in the way of the expansion of Judaism. It is not unlikely that he thanked God that he was not a Gentile, a woman, and a slave and now he freely admits none of those things matter. The complete equality of Jew and Gentile was something that the early church struggled with tremendously. This is a man that was radically changed by the Gospel.

• Dr. Russell Moore, who is the president of our Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission wrote a book entitled, Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel, in the book he mentions a conversation he has with an atheist and how bizarre she found his beliefs regarding sex within the confines of marriage and one partner for life sounded to her. She told him do you realize how strange what you are saying sounds to me. He responded to her, Yes I know it is strange, but you should also know this we believe even stranger things. We believe a previously dead man is going to show up in the sky, on a horse.

• Yes, our beliefs in Jesus are radical and it should change our lives in radical ways. The Gospel tears down the superficial differences between us. Uptown, Mid-City, Kenner, Metairie, 9^th Ward, Lakeview none of those things matter in the least bit. White collar, blue collar, no collar, etc. these things mean nothing anymore.

• Why do we still make distinctions? Because you know we still do. Paul clearly tells us here that there is no longer any difference between us that matters once we are united in Christ. We have to fix this friends. We have to change the mentality in our families, in our churches, in our workplaces, and in the world. This is sin. What are we going to do about this?

 

Enjoy the Inheritance:

And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

 

• Perhaps some of you in this room have received an inheritance from family. Perhaps in the form of cash, an estate, or land. These can be very helpful for the next generation of a family to inherit these things.

• Paul uses a conditional statement here. Notice he says “If…then.” It is conditional upon you being in Christ. The fact that you are an heir according to promise is only because you belong to Christ.

• The question becomes this morning for us in this room, do you belong to Christ? That is the only way you can be an heir. There is no other way. Galatians 4:3 tells us that as children we were enslaved to the ways of this world. We could not become heirs unless Jesus came to redeem us. We would have remained children forever. Jesus’ conquering the law and death is the only thing that makes us heirs.

• We don’t deserve to be heirs, but God chose us to be his heirs. The thing about receiving an inheritance is that the person who is giving you the inheritance determines who gets it. This means that Christ in his great mercy decided that in spite of our sin problem we still deserve to be heirs. This is good news. This is the Gospel. We should inherit nothing from God, but in his grace he allows us to receive his inheritance.

 

You are a Son/Daughter of the King:

to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

 

• One of the richest doctrines in all of Scripture is the doctrine of adoption. Not only has God saved us from a life of destruction enslaved to sin, he has made us a part of his family. It’s one thing to call someone an acquaintance, it’s another thing to call someone a friend, but to call someone family carries a relationship to a whole new level. The family relationships that we have on this earth are the most important relationships that we have, and yet here we see Paul telling us that we are adopted as sons into God’s family.

• It is important to realize that our status as adopted children of God was not fully realized under the old covenant. While there was recognition among the Israelites that God was their father, the full benefits and privileges of membership into God’s family did not come until Christ came and then his spirit was poured into our hearts bearing witness that we were God’s children.

• There are a number of benefits to adoption:

• The relationship we have with God as Father is personal. He loves, has compassion for us, cares about our well-being, and takes care of our needs.

• Another benefit is being led by the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us that the Spirit puts a desire in us to obey God and live according to His will.

• While we don’t always view it as a benefit, the fact that God disciplines us as his children is important. Just as children grow, learn, and develop when earthly parents discipline them, the same is true of us. We grow in righteousness and holiness as God disciplines us. Believe me, you do not want a Heavenly Father that does not instill discipline in you. That would be a sign of apathy, and the God we serve is anything but apathetic when it comes to our needs.

• Because we are adopted into God’s family, that means that all of us in this room that are followers of Christ are family. Thus, everything we do here is family work. That means various people should not be competing with each other or hinders one another in our efforts to share the Gospel. That means when a family member hurts we hurt with them. We care for them and shepherd them. This is what families do. You aren’t just a member of First Baptist New Orleans you are a part of this family, take it seriously and take it personal.

• And lastly, we receive an inheritance that Peter tells us reserved in heaven for you, imperishable, and undefiled.

• When Ashley and I found out we were pregnant with our first child it was around Christmas time, and so we decided that we would go celebrate at a nice restaurant. I called ahead to make reservations, we got all dressed up, we were going to go eat, and then go look at the Christmas lights in the CBD. We gave the hostess our name, Rutland party of 2, I could sense this look on her face, they did not have our reservation. I was thinking to myself this is their problem surely they will find an open table for us and we will be on our way, but NO. They told us that we would have to take a pager and it might be a long wait. We were very surprised that they were not going to accommodate us. You don’t have to worry about your reservation getting lost, or misplaced. You don’t have to worry about the feeling of embarrassment that came over Ashley and I when we realized they didn’t have a spot for us.