PerryDox – BeJustAChristian

Galatians 3:28 – “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.”
This is a hotly contested verse today and is also unique; maybe if we focus on its uniqueness, it will lessen the heat. While Paul discusses the first two categories elsewhere, the last category – “no male or female” – is stated only here. That distinction should make us wonder why!?
Notice the two contexts:
1) The immediate context is sonship as an heir of Abraham according to promise.
2) The greater context is the law of Moses.
Both of these – promise and law – have something in common not shared by Greeks, Freemen, or women – circumcision. The reason there is no male or female is circumcision is no longer a mark of the covenant. Both male and females receive the mark of the new covenant – baptism.
Wrong uses of this text remove the beauty of Paul’s point. It is about equal status before God. What separated males from females, Jews and Greeks, and slaves and freemen, is no more. Each is equally a “son”. Such language is strange today, but in Jewish and Roman cultures, the norm was sons inherited. To be called a “son” lifted the Jew equal to the Greek, the slave to the free, and the woman to the male.
Sonship comes through faith which is marked by baptism. Read the surrounding verses and see the context:
HCSB Galatians 3:26: “for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
HCSB Galatians 3:29: “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.”

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This entry was posted by PHall on Tuesday, November 13th, 2018 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Galatians. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.