| | All One In Christ Jesus"But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise." - Galatians 3:23-29 (NASB) One of the things that sociologists have noted about Christianity is the way that it has transcended culture. Whereas Judaism is particular to ethnic Jews, Islam is tied to the Arabic-speaking cultures, and Eastern religions are based on Eastern culture and thought, Christianity is not tied to a particular culture or race. Not only that, but the message of the gospel is easily adaptable to just about any culture. Sociologists point to this as one of the primary reasons that Christianity has spread worldwide so quickly relative to other religions. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus commands his disciples to "go make disciples of all nations," and that is what Christians have been doing for centuries. There were those in Paul's time, though, who wanted to keep Christianity culturally tied. In the book of Romans, Paul has to correct those who would require the Jewish ritual of circumcision on the new Christian converts. Paul says, "For he is not a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit" (Rom. 2:29). That is, the ethnic Jewish nation and their circumcision points towards the spiritual reality of the new birth by the Holy Spirit, whether or not you are an ethnic Jew. This was foretold back in Genesis, when God tells Abraham that "all the nations will be blessed through you" (Gal. 3:8, cf. Gen. 12:1-3). But many did not want to hear this message. In fact, the apostle Peter at one time caved in to pressure to eat only with the circumcised, and forsaking full fellowship with the Gentiles. Paul tells how he had to rebuke Peter for this in Galatians 2:11ff. The reason Paul had to do this was not just that what Peter was doing was disrespectful. The reason is that it compromised the message of the gospel itself: Jesus Christ came to die for sinners of all nations, tribes and tongues and to bring them all into fellowship with him. In the same way we ought to love and have fellowship with all Christians, regardless of color, race, nationality, socioeconomic group, or any distinction we can possibly make. How can we as Christians refuse to love and accept those that God has loved and accepted? And how can we refuse to love those to whom God desires us to spread the gospel? Racism is inherently against the gospel. This brings us to our main passage in Galatians. Paul clearly has in mind the promise to made Abraham to bless all nations, and his rebuke of Peter, both of which he has previously discussed in the letter. He says that as Christians, we are all "sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." Now, this doesn't mean that if you're a Christian woman, hey, congratulations! God thinks of you as a man now. Yet, we should also be careful not to change the words of scripture, whether in translation or perception, to "children of God" (although that is also true because it is found in other parts of scripture) as some modern translations do. No, the word in Greek is sons, but not because it is male. The word not only means that we are his children, but that as sons, we are inheritors. Paul says we are "heirs according to the promise" in this passage. We all inherit God's blessings, whether we are Jew or Gentile, male or female, Black or White, American or European. God has no ethic preferences as far as salvation and fellowship is concerned. Unfortunately, what is a beautiful passage of the unity of the body of Christ and the love of God for all tribes and nations is often used by liberals to say that women ought to be ordained as pastors, that there ought not to be role distinctions between males and females in marriage, or open homosexuals ought to be allowed to marry, or be ordained. I think it's fair to say that those sorts of assertions take this scripture out of its context and take a certain amount of eisegesis (reading your own interpretations into scripture). Paul clearly denounces the homosexual lifestyle in Romans 1, and addresses marriage roles and church governance much more specifically in the Pastoral Epistles. Let us not be like Peter when he caved in to social pressure to segregate himself from others in the Christian body. Let us make a conscious effort to love our fellow heirs, no matter their gender, race, color, or nationality. Let us seek to make disciples of all peoples and nations for Christ. |
