Let’s recap.
- Paul has been making clear the covenant, the promise of blessing to all nations is the most important truth to hold on to, v 15-18.
- The Law/the standard of God still convicts us of our sin and that we are not kind enough, not loving enough etc. It continues to point to the need for salvation. It points us to reach out and believe in Jesus for it is only when we tap into the same faith that Abraham had will we be free, v19-22.
- We try to be good because we are now free not to try for the wrong attitude. We have been freed from the place of gaining approval. We have His approval and so we now have this automatic desire to please the One who has saved us. If we fail that’s okay. The Law still exists and it goes hand in hand with grace otherwise if we think we are not all that guilty then the power of grace is diminished. The Law continually points to the Saviour who obeyed the Law, met the demands of the Law so that the promise of Abraham becomes ours, 23-25.
There is more.
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith”, v26. You are. This is a fixed position. There is nothing you can do to make that happen or to jeopardise it.
“for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”, v27. The first Adam came into the world naked. But he turned his back on God and his sin brought humiliation and he sowed fig leaves together and made coverings. The second and last Adam, Jesus, went to the cross, sinless and clothed. They stripped him of his dignity and he died naked.
As a shepherd was tending his sheep, two wolves attacked. One of the wolves killed the mother of one of the youngest lambs; the other wolf killed a small lamb as its mother looked on helplessly. The shepherd finally succeeded in driving the wolves away, but he was left with a dilemma. He had lost one mother and one small lamb. Now he was in danger of losing a second lamb because its mother had been killed and none of the other sheep would nurse the lamb since it was not their own. Then the shepherd came up with a plan. He took the sin of the dead lamb and put it over the live lamb. In doing this, he caused the grieving mother to recognise the orphaned lamb as her own. So the mother accepted the little lamb, nursed it and it became her own.
When Jesus went to the cross He laid His coat of righteousness over our unrighteousness so that we are now clothed in Christ. We are accepted by God because His clothes of righteousness are on us.
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”, v28. There is level ground around the cross. No one is more special or deserving than anyone else. Everyone can love their own kind. But the reason why we try to be good even though we already are is because loving those who have different views to ourselves, being kind to those who are not like us is the real gospel message that we are all one in Christ. The world sits up to that kind of love. It is the greatest evangelistic tool.
“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise,” v29. Paul closes with the promise to a people who have inherited it and that is you and me. We are Abraham’s seed because we belong to Christ. In Christ you are a child of God. In Christ you are connected to all God’s people thousands of years before now, today across the whole world no matter what tribe or language and to everyone in the future. In Christ you discover the love and kindness, the grace and mercy that comes from Him, these and more are your identity. You are good because He made you good but every day you rise in Christ; you stand strong in Christ; and you attempt great things for Christ, not because you are trying to earn anything but because this is who you are! An heir to the promise!
Missions Paul 