Scripture Daily

Context No. 4146 of 4322 · Galatians

Context · Reflection

Galatians 3:21-29: in context

21Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could make alive, most certainly righteousness would have been of the law. 22But the Scripture imprisoned all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, confined for the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. 27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28There 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. 29If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.

Paul explains the purpose of the law and then declares the great unity that the gospel creates. The law, he says, was a guardian, a guide to lead us to Christ, until faith came; but now that we are justified by faith, we are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And then a sweeping statement that shatters the divisions the world holds dear.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Here is one of the great unifying declarations in all of Scripture. The deep divisions of the ancient world, and of ours, ethnic, social, and gender divisions, are transcended in Christ. Not erased in every earthly sense, but relativized before a deeper unity: all who are in Christ are one, equally children of God, equally heirs of the promise. To be in Christ is to belong to a people where the walls between us have come down; there is neither Jew nor Greek, for we are all one in him.

Do I live out the unity Christ has created, treating all who are in him as one family across every dividing line of race, class, and status, rather than letting the divisions the world prizes fracture the people God has made one?

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