“Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.”
Galatians 3:23-29 NLT
The essential unity of the body of Christ was always of utmost importance to the apostle Paul. In his previous days, he was a propagate of station and rank, but after Damascus, he had come to see that those things couldn’t be a proper metric for success or love. The law of Moses, while good, was only a shadow of the truth. The truth was that in Jesus, men could return to worshipping God in spirit rather than by deed. This wasn’t a dismissal of law, but rather a reversal of its polarity. Men had to know that the Law and the many ranks in its success was never to be the end result. This knowledge, would open doors previously locked. All people and classes could finally approach God freely. For a zealot who genuinely wished for people to know God, this was the ultimate good news. With Jesus, the Law became a valuable thing that kept people safe for belief while leveling the playing field for Christian unity. Without this, it became a slave master that kept people apart. Now in faith we can all be heirs with equal blessings and appreciate the law and it’s gift to us.
JOSH McGARY. COM 