Fifth Sunday after Pentecost June 23, 2013 Galatians 3:23-4:7 Holy Cross Lutheran Church
One in Christ
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” That familiar quote comes from the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The founding fathers believed that all persons, regardless of rank, station, or ability, should have equal rights according to the law. Yet if you know U.S. history, you know that equality under the law hasn’t always extended to all. Even the Constitution counted slaves as only three-fifths of a person until after the Civil War. Women were not allowed to vote until 1919. African Americans could vote as early as 1870 but many, especially in the South, were afraid to do so until 1964. Equality under the laws of the land may be a noble goal, but it’s only imperfectly achieved.
God's Word today speaks to us of a greater equality, a spiritual equality. This equality is not a self-evident or unalienable right. It is a gracious gift, undeserved and unmerited. No one is naturally born into this equality, but all who are in Christ have this equality in all its fullness.
There is only one sense in which we are all born equal. We are all born equally sinful. What David writes in Psalm 51 applies to all whether young or old, rich or poor, male or female, black or white: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). But though we may recognize that equality intellectually, we have a very difficult time admitting that it applies to us as individuals. When we ignore our God, flirt with temptation, worship our money and possessions, live life for the here and now, or claim to have done nothing wrong, we fail to see that inborn equality of sin which condemns you and me to the same eternal punishment as unrepentant adulterers, thieves, rapists, and murders.
This desire to deny the deadliness of our sin is one reason God wrote the law at Mt. Sinai … so that sinners like us are confronted with our denial and see our lost condition … our helplessness … our hopelessness … our deadness. St. Paul writes in our second reading this morning: “What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions (Galatians 3:19). Because our sins … our transgressions … blinded us to our need for the Savior, God wrote the Law at Sinai … the 10 Commandments … in order to see how much we need the promised Deliverer.
Paul goes on to describe the law … as “our pedagogue” (our translation reads “guardian”). In 1st century Palestine, a pedagogue was a servant whose job was to supervise his master’s young children. He enforced strict rules of discipline and correct behavior, because he was charged with making sure the children got to the place they set out for. Paul is saying that the law of Moses was a preparation for Christ, and the Israelites were like minor children being prepared for their promised inheritance.
Think of the best teacher you had in school, the one from whom you learned the most. Most likely that teacher wasn’t a softie. He or she demanded and expected much. And the more you struggled, the more you learned. The Law is like that …a stern and strict schoolmaster. And the Law has but one lesson to teach us: nothing you do can is good enough to please God and cancel out your sinfulness. The apostle writes, “If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing” (Galatians 2:21). If you could get God’s favor and eternal life by what you do and how you live, then Christ died for nothing! Let that soak in for a while!
“But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,” for where faith in Christ is alive, the Law has been silenced. That’s why “Christ is the end of the Law, that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). Christ fulfilled the Law. The Law ends in Christ. It’s that way for all who believe that His death is their death, that His obedience is their obedience, that His life is their life.
So why do we still teach the Ten Commandments to baptized believers? It’s because we are at the same time a saint and a sinner, a believer and an unbeliever. And so the Law still speaks--and still needs to speak--to the sinner in each of us! But where faith in Christ is alive, no condemnation now exists under the Law. That’s the freedom that Christ earned for you when He died on the cross and rose from the grave. It’s freedom from condemnation under the Law. Where there is faith in Christ, the Law cannot hurt you; it cannot accuse you before God, and it cannot condemn you to hell. Christ the Savior has the last Word for all who trust in Him.
In Christ, you are free. And baptism is your declaration of freedom, your emancipation proclamation.
Paul writes, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” When God looks at you, He doesn’t see your sin or what you’ve done in the past … or how you’ve rebelled against Him today … or how you will fail Him in the future. He sees His Son. He sees Jesus covering you. Christ is your clothing. His righteousness is your robe. God doesn’t see your disobedience; He only sees Jesus’ perfect obedience. He doesn’t see your sin; He only sees Jesus’ holiness.
Scripture tells us that in baptism, “there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” All are baptized alike. All are absolved the same way. All commune from the same bread, which is Christ’s body. All commune from the same cup, which is His blood. Now baptism doesn’t wipe out your ethnic identity: a Jew is still Jewish, and a Greek is still Greek. It doesn’t change someone’s place in society: a prince is still a prince, and a pauper is still a pauper. It doesn’t alter someone’s gender: a man is still a man, and a woman is still a woman. But baptism does make us into something new and different …sons of God!
And before you ladies bristle at being called males, consider this: when Paul wrote his Epistle to the Galatians, only the firstborn son inherited his father’s estate, not daughters, not second or third sons, and not slaves. That’s what Paul was getting at: In baptism, you are all firstborn sons because you have been baptized into the death and life of the God’s Son, the Firstborn. You are joined to Jesus by baptism through faith. “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). All of us inherit the blessings of eternal life … equally.
But there’s more! Our text also says: “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” If God had done so, you would not know Him on your own. You would see Him as great and powerful and distant.But God has given you the Spirit of His Son so that now you do know Him … as your kind and loving heavenly Father. You know that He cares for you so you can call on Him with warm familiarity:“Abba! Father!”
In baptism, our Father has already set aside our inheritance … and He has joined us together as His children to form the Church … an ever expanding family … to bear witness to His saving grace and mercy and peace. We reach out to others through the same love He has shown us … no longer out of obligation but out of childlike joy.
On summer, a woman teaching Vacation Bible School had an experience she would never forget. Her class was interrupted on Tuesday when a new student was brought in … a little boy with only one arm. Since the class was well along, she had no opportunity to prepare the other children. She worried they would make some comment on his disability and embarrass him, so she proceeded as carefully as possible.
But as class time drew to a close, she began to relax, and invited the students to sit around her and join in their usual closing ceremony. “Let’s make our churches,” she said. They each folded their hands and began to recite. “Here is the church and here is the steeple, open the doors and there’s...” Then the awful truth of her own actions struck her. The very thing she’d feared from the children … drawing attention to someone who was different … she herself had done. But as she fumbled in silence, a little girl sitting next to the newcomer reached over with her left hand, placed it up to his right hand and said, “Davey, let’s make the church together.”
My friends, that’s what our Father is doing here at Holy Cross … and everywhere around the world … making the Church by joining one redeemed person to another in His Son. For we hold this truth to be Spirit-revealed … that all sinners are re-created equal … through the work and person of our Lord and Savior alone. We all are one in Christ.