Prison Break (Part III)

Galatians 3:27-29 New Creation and Freedom in Christ

Paul finishes this section of Galatians with, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”  This idea of “putting on” Christ is an interesting one. How does it happen? “To put on Christ according to the Gospel is a matter, not of imitation, but of a new birth and a new creation, namely, that I put on Christ Himself, that is, His innocence, righteousness, wisdom, power, salvation, life, and Spirit” (Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians).  We are new creations — whether or not we feel like one — because of and by faith. Becoming a new creation is not done by Law or works — we can’t change the outside to make the whole person new — we must be reborn by faith.

What a conversion: “Dead men walking” have now put on the clothes of righteousness and are alive, pardoned, and set free.  “To put on Christ according to the Gospel, therefore, is to put on, not the works of the Law or works but an inestimable gift, namely forgiveness of sins, righteousness, peace, comfort, joy in the Holy spirit, salvation, life, and Christ Himself” (Luther).  In putting on Christ, the Law plays no role at all; it cannot divide on ethnic, social, or gender lines. Therefore, Paul writes, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female.”  All social distinctions amount to nothing in Christ.  All are equal in Christ by faith; more than that, all are one in Christ by faith.

My husband and I stand, by faith in Christ, in equal receipt of all that is Christ’s. As a gentile, I receive the full inheritance promised to the Israelites by faith—because by faith I am the daughter of God in Christ.  Faith is the sole unifying, qualifying, thing; there are no works to perform to make me a better woman than I am by faith in Christ; there are no works to perform to make you a better man in Christ than you are by faith. “Christ, granting grace and righteousness, comes absolutely without the Law or any demands of works” (Luther).

Therefore, there is nothing now to “do” to be “more Christian” or more faithful apart from merely believing. Faith is now the sole distinguishing mark of God’s children.  All of the works that I do as a woman, that are mine as a woman, and that demonstrate that I am a woman within the world, are relegated to the world and to the realm of the Law. The same is true for my husband and his works as a man. These works have no place in defining us in Christ. These works play no role in what we are given (grace) and what we inherit (eternal life).

“As many as are justified, therefore, are justified, not on account of their observance of human or divine Law but on account of Christ, who has [ended] all laws everywhere. The Gospel sets Him forth to us as the only One who placated the wrath of God by His own blood, as the Savior; without faith in Him, the Jews will not be saved through the Law, nor the monk through his religious order, nor the Gentile through his wisdom, nor the magistrate through political righteousness, nor the householder through domestic righteousness, or the servant and maid through obedience” (Luther).

This equality in Christ based on faith is also new unity, and a new creation—we are one in Christ (J. Louis Martyn, Commentary on Galatians). “Members of the church are not one thing; they are one person, having been taken into the corpus of the One New Man” (Martyn). The old things (the Law, and specifically the laws of religious and ethnic differentiation) have passed away and the new things — the new creation — have come. Being one in Christ, having put on Christ, and having been made sons and daughters of God, the very promises of Abraham are ours.  The blessings promised to him are transferred to us by Christ and through faith in Christ (Luther). In fact, “the glory of the whole kingdom of Christ has been transferred to us” (Luther). We are utterly and truly free in Christ by faith. Our death sentences have been revoked, our prison walls have been demolished, and our bonds and shackles have been shattered. We are now heirs, united to and one in Christ, legitimate sons and daughters of God.