We are going to Galatians chapter
three, and I just want to read a few verses from the end of
the chapter, beginning at verse 27. For as many of you as have been
baptised into Christ have put on Christ, There is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. We've previously heard the Apostle
Paul tell the Galatians they all were the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus. The children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. And this identification as children,
and by association and consequence, heirs of God and heirs with Christ
Jesus. It was a precious truth to the
apostle. He mentions it in Romans chapter
eight as well. and it gave him, it gave the
apostle and through him it has given to us a proper and better
perspective on redeemed men and women and the spiritual society
of which we are a part than might usually have prevailed in public
society at any time in any part of the world and certainly more
than prevailed in the religious societies of the Apostles' time. And it gave the Apostle Paul
this concept of us being children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. It gave him a proper estimation
of our common spiritual privileges, of what it meant to be in Christ
and share the common wealth of the true spiritual Israel. And this has been the thrust
of the apostle's argument in Galatians chapter three. And
it is seen here once again in the conclusion of this wonderful
chapter. The apostle speaks of being baptised
into Christ Not so much, I suggest, referring to our outward baptism
with water, but rather the spiritual baptism of being hidden in Christ
in eternal election and the outpouring of grace upon us in Holy Spirit
regeneration. and being cleansed by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, shed on the cross for our sin, according
to the death of the saviour in our place. And these spiritual
realities, I suggest to you, are what the outward ordinance
of baptism symbolise, or is a picture of. And the Apostle goes on to
speak about this, having been baptised into Christ as a putting
on of Christ. That is being united to Him and
covered by Him. That's what this sense is of
putting on Christ. Being united to Him so that in
the same way as you sort of put on a jacket or put on a coat
and it kind of becomes part of you. So putting on Christ speaks
of us being united to Him and of being covered by Him. and
to carry on the baptism analogy, being immersed in him so inwardly
and outwardly that we're identified with Christ. that it's hard to
tell you apart. It's hard to tell us apart. Am
I looking at Christ or am I looking at His people? Am I looking at
His people or am I looking at Christ? And we've put on Christ
and we're joined to Him. And the Father sees us as such. He regards us and considers us
in Christ. So that when He looks at us,
He sees Christ. And when He looks at Christ,
He sees us. and we profess Him as such, we
who belong to Him and desire to follow Him ever more closely
and are enabled to do so to a degree by the Holy Spirit, for us, putting
on Christ is suggestive of putting on that garment, putting on that
coat, and that being the outward, manifestation of the Church of
Jesus Christ and the people of God in this world. Actually, the subject of our sermon for
next Sunday is thy beautiful garments. So even Isaiah was
speaking about the church's beautiful garments, the righteousness of
God, and we'll be thinking about that next Lord's Day. But the
essence, the essence is that we have Christ for a covering.
We're covered with his righteousness. We're represented by his presence
and we're secured under his protection. And Paul has spoken a lot in
this passage of God's gift of righteousness and justification. And we call that, I've used the
phrase in the past few weeks, I'll use it again now, we call
that imputed righteousness. Imputed righteousness, not works
righteousness, but a righteousness that is put on us, imputed to
us, and a righteousness that justifies as a gift from God. And while We contend adamantly
that imputed righteousness is entirely a work of divine grace. Yet in putting Christ on, we
are professing our belief We are testifying to the fact that
we have acceptance with God, not on the ground of our own
work or our own holiness, but upon the merits of the accomplishments
of our Saviour and Deliverer. So there is an imputed righteousness
given as a gift from God and by putting Christ on, we are testifying to our belief,
our faith in the imputed righteousness of Christ. We testify to our
understanding of and our belief in Christ's work of salvation
and reconciliation, making us right with God, making us one
with God. That's what the word atonement
means. At one meant atonement. In putting
on Christ, We confess Christ as the ground of our hope and
acceptance with God. And then the apostle goes on
to talk about the difference that makes, because it does make
a difference. Having that knowledge, having
that understanding, having that hope, having that message delivered
to us and receiving it and embracing it and trusting in it. That makes
a difference in our lives because faith gives us hope and confidence
in the suitableness of Christ's righteousness to enable us to
appear in the presence of God. If we had to be sure of our own
worth, of our own worthiness, We'd never, we'd never as born
again children have the audacity, the temerity, the brazenness
to appear in God's presence. We just wouldn't do it. If we
had to know that we were, you know, here's a thing, you know,
you hear about these people that never feel fit to go forward
to the Lord's table. Why is that? Because they've
got the wrong idea of what it is to be saved. they've got a
wrong idea what it is to have communion with the Lord. They
think it's based on their own efforts, their own works, and
they're not worthy to go forward and have communion at the table.
Well, take away communion at the table and think about our
union with God in heaven. How much less would we be worthy
of entering into the very presence of God and rejoicing in our union
with God, with Christ, if it was based on our own abilities.
And that's exactly, so that belief in the imputed righteousness
of God, of Christ, gives a believer boldness in the presence of God. And that's exactly what these
troublers amongst the Galatians were attacking. they were suggesting that there
was more required. And so Paul in this chapter,
he has been telling his friends, the Galatians, that these Judaizers,
the garment that the Judaizers were trying to sell to the Galatians
was a quote, too small. It was too small to fit their
need. And faith puts off its own righteousness. and it makes use of Christ's
righteousness as the most suitable wedding garment in which to appear
before the Most High God. We have, by grace, put off the
old man and put on the new. And this conversion, this transformation
affects the people we are. And it affects the values that
we profess. Our outward walk, Our affections,
our conversations, they're not ruled by the old nature anymore. We grieve for our sin in the
flesh and we desire to live for Christ. That's just the reality. The devil might tempt us into
thinking that that's not so, that we're not up to it, we can't
live like that, but the reality is that in the new man that's
our desire. Following after him as our example,
desiring to walk as he walked, live as he lived, serve as he
served his father. And if we are not yet able to
long for the day when we'll lay down this body of flesh, yet
we anticipate that day with a sense of peace, knowing that we shall
be completely rid of sin and able to experience perfect holiness
with Christ. So now the apostle, is going
on in these last couple of verses to apply this doctrine that he
has been preaching and teaching, writing about. And he says, there's
neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's
neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Back again to that theme, that
idea of the children of God. As children of God accepted in
Christ, no believer has any more or any less standing before God
than another, dare I say, than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In Christ Jesus, we are one. The Father looks upon us as one
body. There's no one better than another
in God's sight or in God's estimation. No one is more holy, no one is
more blessed, no one is more highly regarded or dearly loved than another. And switch that
around, look at it from the other side. No one is less so. Not
for all the failures, not for all the troubles, not for all
the problems, not for all the sinning. Not one of us is less
highly esteemed or loved of God for our pluses or our minuses. The Lord does not regard Jews
better than Gentiles or the Greeks. He doesn't regard free men above
slaves or men above women. What a wonderful, refreshing,
energising, inspirational message that must have been for the Galatians.
especially given their present problems with these Judaizers.
And of course, that doesn't deny that there are differences in
our society. But in God's eyes, there are
no races. in the context of eternal election. There are no preferences when
it comes to strength or intellect. There's no discrimination in
matters of sex. All God's dealings with his people
is founded upon grace and God is no respecter of persons. and nor should we be in the church. There's no place for prejudices
and biases and bigotries amongst believers. These discriminatory
practices have characterised much of history and man's dealings
with man. But what a wonderful society
the new heaven and the new earth will be when there's no more
sin and men and women shall live in harmony with their saviour
and with each other. In God's great wisdom, we are
all equally chosen in Christ. all united to Christ and all
heirs with Christ. And that's one of the main reasons
why we don't have any time for this notion of degrees of reward
in heaven. Having Christ we have everything.
We are all redeemed by the same blood, justified with the same
righteousness, regenerated by the same quickening spirit, recipients
of the same faith, heirs of the same grace and glory. We are
one new man in Christ, one body of which Christ is the head,
one bride, one family, one church, one spiritual people. So Paul
says to the Galatians here, if ye be Christ's, if we belong
to him, we are his possession. Not only by creation, he made
us, he has a right to us, but by the father's gift in eternal
election. He gifted us to the son. By the
son's own purchase, he bought us with his blood. and by the
Holy Spirit's converting grace by which we gladly give ourselves
to Christ. So we are Christ's by so many
criteria. We belong to Jesus Christ and
he will never give up his people. He calls us his jewels. And he's coming to collect his
jewels, his precious possession. And these Galatians, they were
under pressure from the Judaizers who claimed priority for Abraham's
seed and for Moses' law. But Paul says he's having none
of it. He says, the true spiritual seed of Abraham are men and women
of faith, not men and women of some genetic descent. Abraham
obtained righteousness by God's grace. It was a gift. He was
an heir of God's blessing by promise, not by works, not by
merit, not by nationality. And so were the Galatians. And
so are we. The Judaizers were telling the
Galatians, what you've got is good so far as it goes, but you
need more. And Paul says, no, if you have
Christ, you have everything. If you are a child of God, you
have everything. If you are done trusting in your
own works, your own strength and your own righteousness, you
have everything that you will ever need for time and eternity. You've got Christ and Christ
is all. And I know that some of you struggle
and are tried and are full of doubt and fear about what is
lying ahead. And that is a feeling that is
the same as these Judaizers were trying to put on the Galatians.
It's the same temptation that says, what if simple trust isn't
enough? What if I'm missing out? What
if there's more and I'm an imposter? And Paul knew how devious the
flesh is and how prone we all are to such feelings. And he
knew that the Galatians had been deceived by that spirit, bewitched
by that foolish notion, but he also knew that these saints belonged
to Christ and that they were sinners saved by grace and that's
why he calls them his brethren. The devil will tell you that
what you have isn't sufficient, that there's more and that you've
no right to imagine that you can merely rest in Christ. Well,
I tell you, in the words of the Apostle Paul, ye are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus and if ye be Christ's then
ye are heirs according to the promise. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us today.