The Power of Unity

 

Text: Galatians 3:23-29

Focus: Unity in Christ

Function: To help understand the importance of Unity as it relates to racial relations

²³Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be reckoned as righteous by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Happy Father’s Day everyone! My dad has been gone for almost 28 years and I still miss him. I am comforted by a few passages in the scripture. In Luke 16, Jesus tells of a conversation that He recently had with Abraham (in heaven) about Abraham’s concern for his own children, the Jewish people.

It suggests some sort of link between us and those who have already died. And I find comfort in that. In Hebrews, the author says that we have come to the Spirits of righteous people made complete. He is again, speaking of the heavenly and earthly realm’s chance encounters with each other and he says it to comfort us with the knowledge that there are Saints in heaven that can also intercede on our behalf.

Unfortunately, this is not a Protestant doctrine, but I like to think of my father asking God to help me out in difficult situations.

And I love to believe that being in heaven already, he has a better idea of what it means, when we pray: “They will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

And that brings us to the last verse of our passage. If you belong to Christ, then you are also the children of Abraham, that is Children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, and you to are heirs according to the promise of God.

We are heirs to salvation and we are all included.

I like to think of heaven and what it might be like. The bible says that we cannot really imagine what glory will be, but that it will be wonderful. In Ephesians the Apostle declares that in the ages to come God will take the time to demonstrate to us what God’s love is really like.

The Kingdom of Heaven is a wonderful place. He speaks at the beginning of the passage about how we are bound, like kindergartners obedient to their teacher, to the OT law until we believe.

And the requirements for the kingdom of heaven are simple, trust in Jesus’ love for humanity.

I believe that God symbolized it in allowing God’s own self to die in place of our need for vengeance. Through Jesus we learn how to live and to die.

When I was a child, something about unity, and the reality of war, bothered me. My father told me his war stories from WWII, just a few weeks before he died. Let me sum it up to say that there are no atheists in foxholes. The proximity to his own death brought him back to his childhood faith.

So I asked my dad, how could Christians on either side of the conflict take the life of another Christian, or potential Christian? Or even worse, if they are not Christian, how could a Christian send them to hell without giving them a chance?

And dad told me that in heaven, all will be forgiven, and we will get along with one another.

I wondered if that meant would we ask forgiveness of each other in heaven, or what?

Jesus said we would be known by our love for others and it confused me that if we loved them, we certainly would not set out to kill them.

And I often questioned how we could get along in heaven if we hated each other on earth?

I bring that up because the passage has a great emphasis right there in the middle about what the kingdom of God represents. The emphasis is unity.

Verse 28 from the Message: In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ.

I have mentioned on several occasions how important this verse was to the early Church. The translator of the Message takes it out of the recital of a vow and makes the vow that they said when they were baptized personal.

When they were baptized they all were recognizing that God’s kingdom is already here and now and it is completely different from the class system of the culture surrounding it.

When they were baptized they literally said in their baptismal vows: “there is neither Jew nor Greek, Slave nor Free, Male or female, but all are one in Christ.”

I have said it before but it is important to emphasize, there are no race distinctions, class distinctions or gender distinctions in the Kingdom of heaven.

And that, I believe is why Paul the Apostle called both Apollos, a non-Jew, and Priscilla, a woman, “fellow apostles” just like him.

It wasn’t God’s intent for the Christian religion has reverted away from the equality of women that was evident in the first three centuries.

It wasn’t God’s intent that parts of the Christian religion justify warfare and imperialism.

The church was radical, and this concept of loving others was designed to change the culture. It was certainly appealing to all those who were outcast because of their race, gender or class. And that was pretty much everyone. And because of its commitment to the poor and dispossessed the church experienced incredible growth those first three centuries.

The Church was the progressive voice for change.

So, what about today? How do we grow the body of Christ?

We are in the age of Post-Modernity.

Our preaching has to do with a relationship with God’s family through faith in Christ that is proven by the fact that our actions show a genuine care for others.

When I was trained in evangelism and outreach, it was the age of Modernity.

We were taught how to argue for the existence of God.

I have great arguments for a few atheists and a few evolutionists who denied the creative power of God.

In post-modernity, we are defending the faith by arguing for the love of God.

One of the worse things that happened during the age of modernity is that believers got so focused on what they believe and defending it that they forgot to practice it.

For me, it was just a little bit different.

I was raised to believe that all these promises were for the future when we get to heaven.

But those early believers were not talking about breaking down the barriers between the races in heaven, but here on earth.

The Kingdom of heaven is already here and believers live by the standard of conduct of the Kingdom of heaven.

Remember, it is simple. As the passage says, now that we have faith the law is done away with.

That does not mean we get to do whatever we want to whomever we want.

It means that we are constrained by the love of God for others.

We Love Jesus who saved us.

And we show the love of Jesus by loving others.