THE NEW WAY
THE NEW WAY
GALATIANS 3:23-29
When we believe in Christ, we discover that all kinds of things happen. Find out more in this passage.
One more observation about the law is to be made. Paul had earlier stressed that its function was a provisional one “till the offspring should come” (3:19), who is Christ and his reign of grace. The discussion now considers a further task of the old way. The law played the part of a guardian, keeping people as wards in the role of stern disciplinarian (3:23-24). But the guardian’s job lasted only until the child reached the age of maturity; then his responsibility came to an end. So “faith has come,” and we are called to live as mature members of God’s family (3:25).
Mention of God’s family leads to some vital statements whose relevance is as important today as in the time the letter was originally written.
3:26. We become God’s children in the fullest sense, that is, “in Christ Jesus,” through faith. His fatherhood extends to all in the limited sense that he created all people (Acts 17:28) and sustains the world by his providence and care (James 1:17). But entrance into his family is by adoption and grace, and on its human side by faith in the Son of God (John 1:12) who is the firstborn of many brothers and sisters (Romans 8:29).
3:27. Entrance upon the experience of adoption is by faith expressed in confession (Romans 10:9). So baptism became for the early church the rite of initiation into a new society of those who shared a common parentage—with a family likeness (Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 15:49; 2 Corinthians 3:18).
3:28. In that new society the old barriers which kept the ancient world apart are overcome. Divisions of race, social position and sex are all transcended in Christ who unites all men and women in his church into an unbroken fellowship.