Paul's Message to the Churches of Galatia
In recent months, I have read and listened to several discussions and sermons regarding our identity in Christ. As a reminder of who we are in Christ, many of them have cited Galatians 3:27-28, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave or free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Since I also used this scripture reference in a blog post on whether Christians should call themselves gay, these messages have prompted me to go back and take a deeper look at this scripture and Paul’s message to the churches of Galatia. And what I found was true of all of Paul’s letters. Throughout this letter and particularly in the first three chapters, Paul continually reminds those early disciples of the message of the gospel.
In verse 6 of Galatians 1, Paul tells the church he is surprised that they would so quickly turn from ‘Him who called you in the grace of Christ’. Then Paul goes on to remind them of his credentials and who called him and how he trained and prepared for his ministry. Then in chapter 2:2, Paul tells his followers that he also conferred with ‘those who were of reputation’ to make sure that the gospel message he felt called to preach to the Gentiles agreed with the message Peter was preaching to the Jews.
The Gospel Message
So, what is the gospel message Paul was preaching? The gospel message as worded in various ways throughout the New Testament may be best summarized in Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
The gospel message as Tim Keller so eloquently summarizes in a Twitter post, The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. (twitter.com/timkellernyc/status/1563926886987845637 Aug. 28th, 2022)
As Paul continues to remind the churches in Galatia of the true message of the gospel, Paul goes on in his account of the meeting at Antioch, to tell of an instance in which he had to remind even Peter that ‘man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ…’ Paul reminded Peter that salvation is by grace and not by good deeds, (2, vs. 21). Then he goes on to remind those who may put too much faith in the law that the law, although it is good and defines sin, cannot save them – they cannot be made righteous by following the law (their good deeds) because no one is capable of completely obeying the law.
In the middle of Paul’s discourse on the law, he reminds the churches in Galatia of their unity in Christ. (Chapter 3:28). There is so much to say about this letter to the churches in Galatia, but I think it is important to remember Paul’s emphasis on the message of the gospel. If we keep the gospel message foremost in our hearts and minds, it changes both how we see ourselves and how we see others.
Hello, I'm Sheila and I'm a sinner.
Like Peter, I am often guilty of forgetting how sinful I really am. I want to be seen as righteous because of my good deeds or my strict adherence to the law. While I may say – and even deceive myself to believe – my identity is in Christ, my prideful self-righteousness often reveals my heart and its reliance on my good works as evidence of my righteous status. My identity is based on my deeds.
And… it is this reliance on my own good works that leads me to judge those who do not appear to be as self-controlled or as righteous as I am.
When my youngest son married in 2014, he did not tell us (his family). He knew how I felt about same sex marriage, so he did not share this part of his life with me. For many years after I found out he was married, our relationship was fragile and sometimes disconnected as I tried to maneuver in uncharted territory. I allowed and even invited Jerrod and his spouse to visit, but I did a poor job of making them feel welcome or loved. One day as I was praying about an upcoming visit, I asked, “Lord, how do I welcome them into my home when they are ‘living in sin’?’ Suddenly some of the ‘minor’ sins that I struggled to overcome and just couldn’t seem to completely conquer, came to the forefront of my mind. In that moment, I caught a glimpse of my own depravity and I saw myself as a sinner equally in need of grace. I too, was ‘living in sin’.
It was a pivotal moment in my life, and it forever changed me. All at once, the message of the gospel preached by Tim Keller, and Paul before him, came alive in my heart and I saw both my incurable sinfulness and God’s bountiful grace and love for me. God’s love for me grew my capacity to love others – without judgement. Like the Grinch, I think my heart grew three sizes that day.
All one in Christ
Just as alcoholic needs to be reminded that they are powerless over alcohol, I too needed to be reminded of how powerless I was over my own sin. I believed in Christ as a child and accepted Him as my savior. As an adult, I had been through some difficult journeys that had grown both my faith and my character. However, I still habitually trusted in my own ‘good deeds’ to earn favor with God.
But it was the message of the gospel, God’s great grace offered to me, that changed my heart towards my gay son. It was God’s grace and His love for me that freed my heart to openly love my son and his spouse. It is not our righteousness that unifies us as believers, it is Christ’s righteousness. We are made one in Christ Jesus because of his grace and love for us. And Paul is reminding us that it is the gospel that removes the boundaries between us and unites us in love. We are united by love, not judgmental self-righteousness.
For some it is the gospel message of God’s great love and His boundless grace that draws them to Christ Jesus and brings them to repentance. For others – like me – it is our powerlessness over our own sin that brings us to repentance and opens our heart to the gospel message of His redeeming grace and bountiful love. But for all of us it is the message of the gospel – the message Paul is emphasizing in his letter to the churches in Galatia – that erases boundary lines between genders, races, nationalities, age, and even between those who are straight and those who are gay and makes us all one in Christ.