An Exploration of Galatians: Our Identity is in Christ
Galatians 3:23-29; Exodus 20:15, 17 - We are guarded by the Law and our identity is in Him.
“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 Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with 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 promise.”
Galatians 3:23-29 NASB1995
Paul ends the third chapter of Galatians with some slam dunk precepts about our true identity in Christ Jesus. In the last devotional, he talked about being confined by our sin, like being imprisoned. The warden is Jesus and He is offering us a free pass out of the bars under the impossible Law. Now in these passages, Paul talks about us being kept in custody under the law and being shut up to the faith which was later revealed. The law becomes our tutor to lead us to Christ, so we may be justified by faith. As usual in this series, Enduring Word has been one of my main go-to commentaries:
Before faith came: Before we were saved by faith; before we lived our lives by faith, we were kept under guard by the law. Here, Paul uses a different word and a different idea than when he wrote the Scripture has confined all under sin in the previous verse. The idea behind confined is imprisonment; the idea behind under guard is protective custody. There is a sense in which we were imprisoned by our own sin under the law; but there is also another sense in which it guarded us in protective custody.
How does the law protect us? It protects us by showing us God’s heart. It protects us by showing us the best way to live. It protects us by showing what should be approved and disapproved among men. It protects us by providing a foundation for civil law. In these ways and more, we were kept under guard by the law.
Kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed: The Law of Moses prepared us to come to Jesus by the way it reveals God’s character and the way it exposed our sin. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. The purpose of the Law of Moses is fulfilled when we stop trying to justify ourselves and come to faith in Jesus.
The whole purpose of the law is to bring us to Jesus. Therefore, if someone doesn’t present the Law in a manner that brings people to faith in Jesus, they aren’t presenting the Law properly. The way Jesus presented the Law was to show people that they could not fulfill it, and needed to look outside of their law-keeping to find a righteousness greater than the Scribe and the Pharisees (Matthew 5:17-48).
“Satan would have us prove ourselves holy by the law, which God gave to prove us sinners.” (Andrew Jukes, cited in John Stott)
The first indented paragraph in that commentary above is so essential. The Law protects us by showing us God’s heart. It shows us the best way to live. It protects us by showing what should be approved or disapproved by humans. It protects us by providing a foundation for civil law. The “tutor” of the law comes from the Greek word παιδαγωγός or paidagogos; this has the following definition:
a tutor i.e. a guardian and guide of boys. Among the Greeks and the Romans the name was applied to trustworthy slaves who were charged with the duty of supervising the life and morals of boys belonging to the better class. The boys were not allowed so much as to step out of the house without them before arriving at the age of manhood.
What would our world be like if the post-modernists (“there is no Truth”) ran the show “protecting” our civil laws? Well, they are running the show in more and more places. Laws that protect people from criminal acts have started to disappear, as they have in many cities or states that consider some crimes, like petty theft, to not be crimes at all, but actually reparations for past “injustices”. Businesses are locking up their wares or are moving out of areas that don’t prosecute theft. The Consequences of these actions are staggering in terms of impacts to businesses and consumers.
Another compelling article about this “rogue prosecutor” movement (that is coupled with efforts to remove the police and shut down prisons and jails, regardless of the severity of crimes that have been committed) can be found in this Heritage Foundation article. Note to readers: I make no apologies for referencing a conservative political article with many valid points. I am using it to illustrate that when civil laws based on God’s laws are ignored or revoked, then the result is chaos and rampant crime. Just because something is a crime against property doesn’t make it null and void or acceptable and it hurts people directly (it’s your business) or indirectly (prices of merchandise skyrocket or you must go miles out of your way to buy something). God frowned on many things, including dishonoring Him, worshipping false Gods, dishonoring our parents, committing murder, committing adultery, and committing and bearing false witness. Two of the Ten Commandments address the concern for theft in Exodus 20; theft comes from envy and covetousness.
“You shall not steal.”
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Exodus 20:15, 17 NASB1995
Back to Galatians: We are all sons and daughters of God! Galatians 3:28 is one of those evergreen Paul verses that we should all memorize and pray over and is repeated below:
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.
My identity is found in Christ! I am not defined as a person of European descent or an American or a woman or a wife or a homeowner or a retired engineer or a slave of freeloading pets or anything else other than His. I am baptized into Christ and have been clothed in Christ. That’s all that matters. The dividing line between Jew and Greek is erased, as are all of the other dividing lines. More from Enduring Word:
There is neither Jew nor Greek: This was an amazing revolution. The whole problem among the Galatian Christians is that some wanted to still observe the dividing line between Jew and Greek. Paul writes, “In Jesus Christ that line is done away with. When we are in Jesus, 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: The dividing line between Jew and Greek is not the only dividing line erased. Regarding our standing before God in Jesus, every dividing line is erased. Now that Jesus is our identity, that is more important than any prior identity we possessed. We are all one in Christ Jesus.
At that time, some Rabbis quoted a morning prayer that was popular among many Jews of that day. According to William Barclay, in that prayer the Jewish man would thank God that he was not born a Gentile, a slave, or a woman. Paul takes each of these categories and shows them to be equal in Jesus.
Sadly, some Christians still draw lines today. Some draw lines between denominations, some draw lines between races, some draw lines between nations, some draw lines between political parties, and some draw lines between economic classes. For example, if you feel you have more common ground with an unbeliever who shares your race or your political party than with a genuine Christian from another race or political party, you have drawn a line that Jesus died on the cross to erase.
This doesn’t mean that there are no differences. Paul knew that there was still a difference between Jew and Greek, and his evangelistic approach might differ to each group (1 Corinthians 9:19-21). The slave still had a daily obligation to obey his master, though he might be equal in Jesus (Ephesians 6:5-8). There are still different roles for male and female in the home and in the church (1 Timothy 2:1-15, Ephesians 5:22-33), though they are equal in standing before God. There are differences in role and in function, but none in standing before God through faith in Jesus. “When we say that Christ has abolished these distinctions, we mean not that they do not exist, but that they no longer create any barriers to fellowship.” (John Stott)
“He is not writing about a unity that comes about as a result of human achievement. He is saying that when people are saved by Jesus Christ they are brought into a marvelous unity, a unity between the saved and the Saviour and a unity that binds together all the saved.” (Leon Morris)
You are all one in Christ Jesus: This is amazing. Some would have Paul exclude some of the Christians from a Gentile background because they hadn’t come under the Law of Moses. Paul includes them saying “You are all one in Christ Jesus.” Others might have Paul exclude some of the Christians from a Jewish background, because their theology was wrong on this point and Paul needed to correct them. Paul includes them saying “You are all one in Christ Jesus.”
“Many of God’s children lack a deep understanding of the Christian way, but that does not mean that they are not genuine Christians. Being a Christian is being a believer, not having an intellectual answer to all the problems we meet as we live out our Christian lives.” (Leon Morris)
What an amazing commentary! No racial divides, no social strata, no sexual distinction in His eyes - the ground is level at the foot of the Cross! One other thing to keep in mind - this verse has been used inappropriately by progressive Christians to justify transgenderism and multiple “genders”. As Guzik notes, there are still differences in place in this world for men and women (and God created two genders), but those differences do not create barriers to their fellowship in Christ.
So much to take in and heed as we live our Christian lives. And in our Christian lives, we need to pray for those who are on the path of post-modernism and reject the Truth of our identity in Christ and have worked to set up artificial barriers again between people. They are part of a growing population of lost people and even if they reject belief, they are still His precious beings who need our intercession. The Holy Spirit is a miracle worker!
My next devotional dives into Galatians 4:1-3, Being a child and a slave.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
In place of a prayer today, here are the Lyrics to a favorite old hymn, “In Christ There is No East or West”, written by John Oxenham in 1908:
In Christ there is no East or West,
In Him no South or North;
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth.
In Him shall true hearts everywhere
Their high communion find;
His service is the golden cord,
Close binding humankind.
Join hands, then, members of the faith,
Whatever your race may be!
Who serves my Father as His child
Is surely kin to me.
In Christ now meet both East and West,
In Him meet North and South;
All Christly souls are one in Him
Throughout the whole wide earth.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Commentary in Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 11/29/2023 to review the lexicon for the word “Tutor”.