Chapter 18
“All the Children of God
“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus. For as many of you
as have been baptized 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.” (Galatians
3:26-29)
Under the legal Mosaic dispensation there were many distinctions. The Jews were
distinguished above all nation of the world, as God’s chosen people, to whom
alone he had given the revelation of his Word. Masters were more highly favored
than servants. And men were more greatly honored than women, even in the
worship of God. But with the coming of this new, gospel dispensation, all these
things were changed.
This change was very
difficult for many in the early church to accept, just as it is difficult for
many of our day to accept. For many it is very difficult to realize that
God no longer blesses the nation of
For others, it is extremely difficult
to accept the fact that all of God’s children are equally his sons and
daughters. Some suppose that the Christians of the gospel age will have a
peculiar advantage over the believers of the Old Testament. Others are of the
opinion that some Christians will have greater blessings in heaven than their
redeemed brethren.
These erroneous opinions
arise because of a failure to understand that all the blessings of God in
Christ Jesus are free grace gifts procured for all of the elect by the blood of
the Savior. Our standing before God is not one of merit, but of grace. Our
rewards are not because of our efforts, but by Christ’s obedience unto death as
our Substitute. They are things earned and bought for us by our Redeemer. This
is true of saints in the Old Testament as well as those of the New. The reward
of Abraham’s faith is Jesus Christ, and he alone is the reward of our faith.
The
In this age of “political correctness” and “multiculturalism”
almost everyone gives lip-service to the notion that all men are one and
pretends that he is free of prejudice. But it is nothing more than lip-service.
Every nation in the Western world has tried, for the past fifty years, to legislate social oneness, abolishing racial and social
barriers between men. But it has not worked. Though most everyone pretends
otherwise, the barriers are bigger and the racial and social prejudices in
society are worse than ever.
There is only one place in the universe where the color of a
person’s skin, the measure of his wealth or poverty, the amount of his
education or lack of education, is absolutely irrelevant. That place is the
church and
All God’s elect are one with Christ and one in Christ. All are
equal before God in him. All are accepted in the Beloved, only in the Beloved,
fully in the Beloved, and equally in the Beloved. And
all have an equal inheritance in him, secured by the blood with which he
obtained eternal redemption for us.
“The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water
and the Word.
From Heaven he came and
sought her
To be his holy bride;
With his own blood he bought
her,
And for her life he died.
Elect from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one
birth;
One holy name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses
With every
grace endued.”
In this third chapter of Galatians, Paul is showing us the
advantages of this gospel dispensation over the Mosaic age. Under the gospel
dispensation, we enjoy a clearer revelation of divine grace and mercy than the
Jews did under the Old Testament economy. More than this, we are also freed
from the state of bondage under the law and the terror it imposed. In the
gospel age we are no longer treated as children who are minors, but as
full-grown sons. And being sons of full age, we are granted greater freedoms
and privileges than those of the old dispensation. In the verses before us this
Paul shows us our privileges as the children of God.
“Ye are all the children of God.” ― All believers are the children
of God. We all have one heavenly Father. We are all redeemed by one great
Redeemer. We all have one Elder Brother ― Christ. We are all born again,
sealed and indwelt by one Holy Spirit, our blessed Comforter. All who are taught
of God live by “one faith.”
We are all married to one Husband ― the Lord Jesus Christ. All believers
make up one singular body of Christ, “the fulness of him that filleth all in
all.”. We are one church universal (John
Paul tells us that we are “the children of God.” We are God’s children by
adoption (Gal. 4:6-7; Eph. 1:5; 1 John 3:1). Every believer possesses all the
rights and privileges of full-grown sons. We were adopted as sons in eternity,
in electing love, by the free and sovereign grace of our God, and brought into
the enjoyment of adoption when God the Holy Spirit gave us faith in Christ.
We are “the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus.” Here
Paul’s emphasis does not lie in the eternal act of God, but in our receiving
God’s gracious gift by faith. Faith does not make us God’s children, it simply
receives the gift of sonship (John
Faith in Christ does not make us the children of God. That is
God’s work alone. God the Father predestinated his elect to the adoption of
children, giving us all the blessings of adoption in the covenant of grace
before the world began. God the Son, our all-glorious Christ made a way for us
to receive and enjoy this incalculable boon of grace by redeeming us at
Paul compares the Jews of the Mosaic age to children still
under a schoolmaster and believers in this gospel age to children who have reached
the age of maturity. We are no longer children under the law as our
schoolmaster, but full grown children, led and taught by the Spirit of God. Our
Lord Jesus said, quoting Isaiah 54:13, “they shall be all taught of God”
(John
We read in verse 27 ―
“For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Paul is not teaching that we get to be in Christ
by the act of water baptism, or that God’s elect are mysteriously baptized into
Christ by the Holy Spirit. The Word of God nowhere teaches either of those
things. The simple meaning of this statement is that all who are rightly
baptized, that is baptized as believers, looking to Christ alone for all grace
and salvation were baptized into Christ and have put on Christ symbolically,
professing themselves to be his. All who are immersed in the waters of baptism
as believers thereby publicly confess that they are his and that they are one
with him.
Believer’s baptism is
that which our Lord Jesus commands of all his disciples. It is “the answer
of a good conscience toward God” (1 Pet.
There
are certain duties to be performed in the body of Christ. Because of this there
are some distinctions in performance. Pastors are given to be spiritual teachers and
rulers in the church (Eph.
“And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and
heirs according to the promise” (v. 29). ― Since we are Christ’s, the
Father’s gift to him, the purchase of his own blood, his by the power of his
grace, making us willing to give up ourselves to him, since Christ dwells in our
hearts by faith, all who are born of God are “Abraham’s seed.”
Obviously, faith in Christ does not make us Abraham’s natural seed. Rather, we
are Abraham’s spiritual seed, the seed that should come, to whom the promises
were made, (
Being Abraham’s seed, we are “heirs according to the promise.”
All who are born of God are the children of the promise, which are counted for
the seed. All who are born of God are the promised seed, the redeemed seed (Ps.
The foundation of this union
of believers is the blood of Christ (1 Cor. 3; Eph. 2). If we are one in
reality, let us demonstrate oneness in Spirit (Phil. 2:1-4). May God our Father
give us grace to “walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith (we) are
called, With all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as
ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all”
(Eph. 4:1-6).
Our hearts in Christian love!
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.
Before our Father’s throne
We pour our ardent payers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
Our comforts and our cares.
We share our mutual woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.
When we asunder part
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.”
John
Fawcett