A Look at Galatians 3:24-29
A Look at Galatians 3:24-29
Galatians 3:24–29
24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.
25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,
27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (NIV)
Here we see that we were once under the tutelage, or guardianship, of the Law. The Law handed down by Moses showed the whole world its slavery to sin.
Romans 3:19–20 tells us, “…that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” (NIV)
Once exposed to God’s Law, even we as Gentiles can see that it is an impossible standard to keep. It shows us our sin and condemns us for imperfection. This is the reason that Paul, in 2 Corinthians 3:7-9, calls it the ministry of death and condemnation.
But the law was only the rule of life until faith came. Once that happened, we were given the ability to become children of God. According to John 1:12: to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (NIV)
That Jesus gave us the power to become children of God means that He made it possible for us. He has not bestowed some special power upon us. Rather, He has made a way for us to come into relationship with God where there was no way. 2 Corinthians 5:19 tells us that God was in Jesus reconciling the world to Himself and not counting people’s sins against them. No one remains under the Law. That is a central truth of the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ.
Those of us who have believed on Jesus were baptized, or immersed, into Christ and have “put on” Christ. We’re in Him and He’s in us. We can see this in Romans 6:3–4, which says, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (NIV)
In this way we have clothed ourselves in Christ. We have become His children.
As verse 29 of our text in Galatians 3 points out, this makes us heirs of the promise; heirs of the blessing God promised to Abraham; joint heirs with Christ.
Ephesians 4:4-6 shows the unity this brings. There we read, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (NIV)
The point of all this is not that Gentiles were at one point under the Law. Rather it is telling us that since Jesus established the New Covenant in His blood, no one is under the Law of Moses. Not even the Jews who once had been. To we who are Gentiles, it says that we should not be enticed to place ourselves under the Law. Not the Law of Moses, and not any other law designed to result in merit before God.
Whether Jew or Gentile, believers constitute one body and are all given the same Spirit who raised Christ form the dead. We who have believed God are in Christ and He is in us.
