Galatians 3.21-29.
Legalists and libertines alike miss the point of
Both groups have a bad habit of misquoting Paul, James, Hebrews, and Jesus himself to support their positions and justify their behaviors. It might help if we actually read the bible, right? So let’s.
Galatians 3.21-29 KWL - 21 So “the Law versus God’s promises”—never say that!
- If the Law gave living power, righteousness might come from the Law.
- 22 Instead the scripture locks everyone up under sin—
- so the promise of faith in Christ Jesus can be given to believers.
- 23 Before faith came, we were guarded by the Law,
- locked up till the revelation of this faith.
- 24 Thus the Law became our introduction to Christ, so we could be justified by this faith.
- 25 After faith came, we’re no longer in need of an introduction.
- 26 By this faith in Christ Jesus, you’re all God’s children;
- 27 whoever among you was baptized in Christ, now wear Christ.
- 28 There’s no such thing as Judean nor Grecian, no such thing as slave nor free,
- no such thing as masculine nor feminine: All of you are one in Christ Jesus.
- 29 If you’re of Christ, you’re Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
Whenever Paul used the term
Galatians 3.21 NIV - Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.
It also informs us this is a bad idea, but not quite in the way Paul did it. Close enough though.
So we’re meant to reject this idea the Law isn’t part of God’s plan. Or is,
But the Law was never the basis for salvation. It’s how a saved people are meant to live after they’ve been saved. It’s how the Hebrews were to live once they were no longer Egyptian slaves; it’s how Christians oughta live now that we’re no longer sin’s slaves. And what it also did, as Paul explained here, was prepare us for Christ Jesus’s first coming. Because it teaches us what God expects of his people, it exposes us as sinners—and shows us why we need salvation. Why we need to trust God to save us—because we can’t possibly save ourselves!
The coming of faith.
Too many Christians confuse
Galatians 3.22-27 KWL - 22 Instead the scripture locks everyone up under sin—
- so the promise of [a religion based on] Christ Jesus can be given to believers.
- 23 Before [our religion] came, we were guarded by the Law,
- locked up till the revelation of [our religion].
- 24 Thus the Law became our introduction to Christ, so we could be justified by [our religion].
- 25 After [our religion] came, we’re no longer in need of an introduction.
- 26 By [our religion based on] Christ Jesus, you’re all God’s children;
- 27 whoever among you was baptized in Christ, now wear Christ.
And thus good ol’
But that’s just a variant of legalism. It just swaps out the Law’s set of rules for a different set of rules. One put together by men, I should add. (And when I say “men,” I don’t mean “people”; seldom
Nope; we’re not rejecting a religion based on Law because we can only be saved by a religion based on Christ. Religion doesn’t save!
Because y’notice how
But once we put our trust in God—which is properly what faith means in this passage—we no longer need the Law to function as our introduction to God. We know God. We’ve been
Distinctions eliminated in Christ.
When the first Christians declared their trust in Jesus, they were pretty quickly taken to water
Over time—and it didn’t take long—baptism got delayed till everybody in the church was sure these newbies were really dedicated to Jesus.
The result? Confusion. We read passages like this, where baptism is equated with conversion—
Galatians 3.26-27 KWL - 26 By this faith in Christ Jesus, you’re all God’s children;
- 27 whoever among you was baptized in Christ, now wear Christ.
—and think, “Wait, in order to be saved, we gotta first get baptized? I thought we were saved by grace, not works.” No you silly Christian: The writers of the bible assumed you’d’ve been baptized the same day you came to Jesus. If you weren’t, that’s on your church for turning it into something else—either something more, or something less, than a marker of when our new life in Christ begins.
But when that new life in Christ begins, like Paul said, we now wear Christ. We’re God’s children. We’re Abraham’s spiritual descendants,
Christians like to quote verse 28 to emphasize how Christ eliminates racial, economic, and gender barriers:
Galatians 3.28 KWL - There’s no such thing as Judean nor Grecian, no such thing as slave nor free,
- no such thing as masculine nor feminine: All of you are one in Christ Jesus.
The problem is Christians haven’t eliminated racial, caste, and gender barriers. Some of us put ’em front and center in our theology and church practices. Racially segregated churches, where people of color (or no color) aren’t welcome.
As for caste barriers—represented in the Roman Empire by slave versus free, represented in monarchies by nobles versus commoners, represented in classless societies by the wealthy versus the working class—yep, there are definitely different churches for different castes. The comfortable go to one; the needy to another. You know where these churches are in your city.
These differences are supposed to be eliminated and flattened by Christ, but we his followers suck at doing it. Our culture overrules our Lord too often, and our churches are heavily compromised by our concessions to our customs. It’s gonna stun a lot of these people when Jesus returns to sort these things out: The last will become first and vice-versa, and here they thought they were already in the correct places. But egalitarianism is what’s supposed to already be happening, and it’s an embarrassment to both devout Christians and our Lord that it’s not… even in the most legalist or libertine of churches.
When we actually see it happening—when we see people loving one another regardless of caste, color, or gender; when we see people pursuing God’s revealed will instead of guesswork, and enacting it with compassion instead of strictness—we see
