In yesterday’s podcast entitled, “A Place at the Table,” I shared with you the primary issue in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. And it is not, as many teach, an issue of salvation by grace as opposed to good works. Can the teaching of salvation by faith alone, apart from works, be found in this letter? Yes, but again, the heart of Galatians runs much deeper than that.
This is why, as I shared, I spent so many years feeling like I was missing something in this great letter. And it wasn’t until I served an international church with multiple Christian traditions, cultures, and socio-economic levels that I began to understand the real issue addressed in Galatians. In its historical context, Paul confronts those he calls “false brothers” for trying to force Gentile Christians to become Jews. But in doing this, he sets forth a powerful truth of the gospel, and that is man-made, worldly divisions are abolished in God’s kingdom.
Galatians 3:28 says it all - There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, you are all one in Christ.
Notice the phrase I’ve placed in italics - you are all one in Christ. It is a major theme of the New Testament, especially in the writings of Paul. Consider these passages of Scripture -
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all. (Ephesians 4:3-5)
“For we are all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body - whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (I Corinthians 2:13)
“. . . so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:5)
“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.” (Philippians 1:27)
These are just a few of many.
I think what grieves me most about Christians in our day and through the centuries is how we tend to define ourselves by our differences. I’m Baptist. I’m Methodist. I’m Presbyterian. I’m non-denominational (a category in itself). I’m Calvinist. I’m Armenian. I’m complementarian. I’m egalitarian. The differences go on and on. And tragically, so many Christians define themselves by claiming an identity in something other than Christ.
I’ve heard many teachers of the letter to the Galatians who emphasize the importance of faith alone saying something like this - faith plus nothing is what the gospel teaches. Salvation comes by trusting Christ alone.
I agree. Whole-heartedly, I agree. But what so many seem to miss is that the salvation, or perhaps we should say, deliverance, found in Christ alone, involves deliverance from this broken, sinful world and its ways. Isn’t that what Paul says at the beginning of Galatians -
“Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4)
And a large part of that deliverance comes when we stop labeling ourselves by anything other than one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith.
I served Southern Baptist churches for thirty-eight years. Now I am attending a Methodist church. Why? For one reason only - because that is where God led my wife and me. Did I leave the Baptist church? No! Not any more than I’ve left the Christian faith.
Well, I’ve said enough. Maybe too much. But as I said, this is a real issue for me, and I grieve greatly over how readily we not only divide ourselves as Christians by our differences but at how we seem to relish in those differences identifying ourselves by them.
I long for the Father’s answer to the prayer His Son prayed in his final hours before his great work on Calvary’s cross - “I pray for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one . . . so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:20-21)
In Christ,
Dan
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