United In Christ

Sometimes a headline represents far more about the world we live in than meets the eye. Such was the case earlier this month on the Christian Post website, in an article titled “Episcopal Seminary to Set Aside $1.7 Million For Slavery Reparations”. In the article, written by Michael Gryboski, we are told,

“An Episcopal seminary in Virginia has announced that its setting aside $1.7 million for an endowment fund aimed at paying reparations for slavery. Virginia Theological Seminary, founded in 1823 and based in Alexandria, announced last Thursday that it was creating the fund largely in response to the institution having direct ties to slavery. Money from the fund is expected to go to projects such as helping emerging congregations linked to the seminary, aiding African-American clergy, and helping to support work by historically African-American congregations. The Rev. Joseph Thompson, director of the seminary’s Office of Multicultural Ministries, which will oversee the fund, said “...Though no amount of money could ever truly compensate for slavery, the commitment of these financial resources means that the institution’s attitude of repentance is being supported by actions of repentance...” [He goes on to say that] “It opens up a moment for us to reflect long and hard on what it will take for our society and institutions to redress slavery and its consequences with integrity and credibility.”

Gryboski, M. (2019, September 10). Episcopal seminary to set aside $1.7 million for slavery reparations fund. Retrieved September 12, 2019, from https://www.christianpost.com/news/episcopal-seminary-set-aside-17-million-slavery-reparations-fund.html

The notion of “reparations”, that is, that the (mostly white) descendents of slave-owners are morally obligated to pay money to the (mostly black) descendents of slaves—is an outgrowth of what has come to be known as “Critical Race Theory”—the notion that “racism is engrained in the fabric and system of the American society” (What is Critical Race Theory? (2009, November 4). Retrieved September 13, 2019, from https://spacrs.wordpress.com/what-is-critical-race-theory/). Insofar as the subject of racism goes, Critical Race Theory inverts the cornerstone of Western justice: “Innocent until proven guilty”. Instead of your accuser having to prove you are a racist, the burden of proof shifts to you to prove you are not a racist!

And this is at the heart of the Rev. Thompson’s comments in the article—that even though “no amount of money could ever truly compensate for slavery”, this is an attempt to demonstrate that they are not a racist institution, and that setting this money aside will help to “redress slavery and its consequences with integrity and credibility”.

Now, there are massive world-view implications coming from this story, but the one that I want us to consider this morning is that

We live in a world of incurable divisiveness.

Consider the divisiveness that this kind of worldview creates—under Critical Race Theory, everyone is either a perpetrator of racism or a victim of racism. But that “institutionalized guilt” is not just characteristic of race relations in our country, is it? We see it in the socio-economic realm as well, don’t we? Remember the “99 percent” rallies from a few years ago? The “evil one percent” of top wage earners are automatically guilty of everything bad that happens to the other 99 percent. The same thing goes for the so-called “Me Too” movement, doesn’t it? To be accused of sexual misconduct is to be guilty of misconduct.

And the second thing to notice about this state of affairs is that there is no cure for that divisiveness— “No amount of money can ever truly compensate for slavery”. The only way a perpetrator can be absolved is if they do enough to satisfy the victim’s demands. But it is never enough, is it? No amount of reparations, no amount of donations to alleviate poverty, no attempts to prove innocence will ever suffice. Your estrangement from those who call you a perpetrator can never be overcome. (And that means your status as a “victim” can never be overcome, either!)

How do we respond to this incurable divisiveness in our world? How do we speak as Christians to the constant accusations, the bitterness and envy and striving that characterizes our every day lives? Should we follow in the footsteps of some of the most powerful and influential evangelical denominations in America and affirm the fundamental truth of an incurable divisiveness regarding race, that Critical Race Theory should be an “analytical [tool] subordinate to Scripture” (Southern Baptist Convention > On Critical Race Theory And Intersectionality. (2019). Retrieved September 13, 2019, from http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/2308/resolution-9--on-critical-race-theory-and-intersectionality) Should we go about our attempts to preach reconciliation from the position of repentant perpetrators, always trying to prove that we are not guilty by our “actions of repentance”? Or is there another way?

This brings us back to the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Remember, he is writing to the Christians in the churches of Galatia who were being told that they were inferior because they were Gentile—there was an incurable divisiveness between Jew and Greek, wasn’t there? They had to become Jews before they could be good enough to be Christians—and even then, they had to continually prove their worth in order to continue to be acceptable to the Jewish Christians!

But Paul meets that incurable divisiveness head-on in this passage. And what he goes on to demonstrate in this passage is at the very heart of the Gospel message that we must proclaim to this world:

Nothing that separates us in this world is as powerful as what unites us in Christ.

Paul summarizes his argument against the incurable divisiveness that trapped the Galatians in verse 26:

Galatians 3:26 ESV

for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

In the verses that follow Paul will unpack the meaning of that declaration, that we are “sons of God through faith”. And if we are to be the kind of witness that God calls us to be against the incurable divisiveness of this world, we must plant our flag on Galatians 3:26—that it is what unites us—faith in Jesus Christ—and not the incurable divisiveness of this world—that defines us.

There are two fundamental arguments that Paul follows here. The first is that we are

I. United with one another through baptism into Christ (Gal. 3:27-29)

Look at verses 27-29:

Galatians 3:27–29 ESV

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Paul says that everyone who has been baptized into Christ has put on Christ. When we examine what else Paul says about baptism in the New Testament, we find that he uses it as a sign that we have died to sin.

Romans 6:3–4 ESV

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

In other words, when you are baptized as a Christian, you are making a statement that you have identified with Jesus Christ in His death. You are making the statement that you are a sinner who deserves death under the wrath of God, and your only hope of salvation comes as you put your faith in the death of Jesus Christ to die in your place.

And surely Paul’s point here is that

Everyone who has been baptized has been freed from their guilt.

And that means that no Christian has the right to claim to be any better than any other Christian. There’s an old saying that “the ground is level at the foot of the Cross”. All sin deserves damnation, and all of us have sinned. The truth is that everybody sins—white people sin against black people, and black people sin against white people. Rich people sin against poor people, and poor people sin against rich people. Men sin against women and women sin against men. And Jesus died to deliver all of them from all of their sins.

He died to deliver racists from the detestable sin of racial vainglory—both black and white, Jew and Greek. He died to deliver rich people from their sins of greed and avarice and selfishness, and He died to deliver people from grasping envy and hatred and covetousness. He died to deliver sexual predators from the heinous sin of molestation and mistreatment, and He died to deliver people from sins of false accusations and slander.

And so when anybody comes to Christ at all, they come as sinners who were damned to Hell by their sin except for the grace of God calling them to repentance and faith in Jesus.

And that means that

Everyone who has been baptized has put on Christ.

That means, as Paul goes on to say in verse 28, that the old incurable divisiveness no longer matters! There is no more racial divide between Jew and Greek—you have both put on Christ! There is no more animosity between slave or free (rich or poor)—you have both put on Christ! There is no more suspicion or malice between male and female—you have both put on Christ! When you come to Jesus Christ as a child of God through faith, you are united with each other through your baptism into Christ.

Nothing that separates us in this world is as powerful as what unites us in Christ. We are united with one another through baptism into Christ, and in the first seven verses of Chapter 4 Paul goes on to demonstrate that we are

II. United with God through adoption into Christ (4:1-7)

In verses 1-2 Paul illustrates his point with a reference to the way a son receives an inheritance from his father. Paul makes the point that, before the son reaches his majority, he is no different from the slaves in the household. He is not free to take advantage of his inheritance, but has to abide by the “trust fund manager” instead. Imagine a kid coming up to his guardian: “Hey, Jeeves! Can I have a thousand dollars to buy the new iPhone?” “Sorry, Master Billy, but your father has stipulated that you cannot receive more than fifty dollars a week. And may I remind you that that sum is only payable if you maintain a B plus average in your algebra class this semester?” Billy is going to walk away grumbling about his “slave-master” of a father, isn’t he? He does not see the inheritance—all he sees is the Law that hangs over him.

Paul uses that example to demonstrate the difference between seeing God as a slave-master and seeing Him as a father. Verses 3-5:

Galatians 4:3–5 ESV

In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Apart from Jesus Christ, all you see about God is that He demands that you be perfect.

The elementary principles of this world—the incurable divisiveness of your sin against Him drives you with the lash of guilt and shame. You try everything to feel better about yourself, to explain away your sin, to fight against God’s standard of perfection by pointing to all your good deeds: “I am a good person! Look at everything I’m doing—how can God say I’m guilty??!?!” You don’t want to have anything to do with God, because you cannot escape the certainty that you cannot meet His standard.

Think of it this way: A couple of weeks ago I spent a day on the road for Penn State, distributing flyers for an upcoming open house on campus. I started in St. Marys, then drove through Ridgway to Brockway, then down 36 to Brookville, and on into Punxsy. It was a beautiful day for a drive, and I enjoyed all but the last thirty miles or so of it—because right as I passed Wendy’s a state cop pulled out of Clark Street right behind me and followed me the whole way through Big Run and Sykesville, up to Brady Street Car Wash!

Now, what happens when you are driving and you have a cop following you? All of a sudden you get real careful about everything you do, right? Don’t cross the center line, brake carefully, don’t cross the berm marker, and for heavens’ sake don’t take a drink of your coffee or take your hand off the wheel! I’m praying that our inspection was current, that I had the right insurance card in the glove box, no tail lights were out---that beautiful drive from Punxsy to DuBois was ruined because I knew that cop demanded perfection, and I had no confidence that I would meet that standard!

Paul says that before we knew Christ, all we could see was God’s demand of perfection. But when Jesus Christ came:

Galatians 4:4–5 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And now

Galatians 4:6–7 ESV

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

In Jesus Christ, all you see about God is that He delights in you as His child.

Take that story about being followed from Punxsy to DuBois by the State Police, but instead of the cop, imagine that it was Dad following me! Changes the story, doesn’t it? I’ve had more than one trip that I’ve taken—in bad conditions, or in a vehicle that was breaking down—when looking in that rear-view mirror and seeing Dad driving behind me was the safest feeling in the world! This is what the Apostle Paul is saying—that when you come to faith in Jesus Christ, His Spirit takes up residence in your life, and so you no longer relate to God as the State Cop behind your back, waiting to pull you over—now you relate to God the way Jesus does—your loving Father in Heaven! And now God says to you the same thing He said to Jesus in Mark 1:11

Mark 1:11 ESV

And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Beloved, when you come to Jesus Christ in faith, then the incurable divisiveness between you and God created by your sin is taken away forever! There is no sin that separated you from God as powerful as the grace of God in Jesus Christ to unite you to Him! He is no longer your Judge, He is your Defense! He is no longer the harsh perfectionist who demands righteousness, He is the gracious and loving Father who gives you His righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ! You are no longer a slave to sin, but a son to God! You are no longer incurably divided from Him, but are now a part of His family forever!

Beloved, there is nothing that separates us in this world as powerful as what unites us in Christ! We are united with one another through baptism into Christ, and we are united to God Himself through our adoption into Christ. And we must stand on the bedrock of this truth—that “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith”—as we pursue

III. Our Life of Unity In Christ

The reality of our unity in Christ must govern the way we address the sins of racial animosity in our culture. The solution is not in “critical race theory” or “reparations for slavery” or any other works-based method of trying to “redress the evils” of racial vainglory or race-based superiority in our society. We must unapologetically proclaim that

The solution to racial animosity in our culture is the blood of Jesus Christ.

The only hope that our country has to be healed of the very real wounds it suffers over the sins of racism is repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation! There are no government programs, no public policies, no sensitivity trainings or micro-aggression seminars or penitential expressions of guilt over “white privilege” that will do anything except inflame the racial hatreds and animosity that cripple us as a nation. The only solution is for everyone in this country—black and white, rich and poor, male and female—to fall on their faces at the level ground at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ! What this nation needs is not for politicians to declare new programs—it needs Christians to declare the ancient Gospel! And when we get serious and begin to do that—in the pulpits and on the streets, around the water coolers and on the doorsteps—then and only then will we see the scourge of racism defeated in this country! There is no salvation without a Savior, and there is no Savior besides Jesus Christ!

And if we are going to proclaim that Gospel out there, we need to live that Gospel in here!

The path to Christian fellowship in our church is our baptism in Jesus Christ.

When you take this mark of baptism as a believer, you are demonstrating that you have been saved from the guilt of your sin the same way everyone else here has been. And that means that there are no divisions that can separate you from another church member here that are as powerful as what unites you to each other in Christ. Pastor Mark Dever tells a beautiful story about the unity in Christ he sees at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. One of their Sunday School classes is taught by an older man who is a bricklayer by trade—lower middle-class, self-employed, the kind of guy that’s likely to spend his week digging in the dirt pouring footers for a few hundred dollars a week. And one of the students in the class is the chief neurosurgeon at a major D.C. hospital—the kind of guy who spends his week digging around in people’s skulls for tens of thousands of dollars a day! And every Sunday that wealthy, powerful doctor eagerly shows up to class to hang on every word that that working-class bricklayer says in his lessons!

That is a picture of the Gospel, isn’t it? That in Christ Jesus there is no bricklayer or neurosurgeon, no rich one-percenter and poor ninety-nine percenter! What matters to those men is not what socio-economic class they belong to, only that they both belong to Jesus Christ!

So, beloved, make it your aim in this fellowship to demonstrate that truth in the relationships you build here at Bethel! Look around this room—how many of these people would you have run into in your day-to-day life if it weren’t for the fact that both of you love Jesus? Nothing that separates you from each other in this world is as powerful as what unites you in Jesus Christ—so make it a habit to speak to people here that you would not normally spend time with. Cross those lines that the world says you can’t ever cross, build relationships with someone with whom you have nothing in common except that you both love Jesus! And I guarantee you, He is enough!

And finally, this morning,

The fuel of true worship in your heart is the Spirit of Jesus Christ

If you have trusted in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, beloved, He is not the cop following you waiting to pinch you for crossing the median--He is a loving Father who follows you with goodness and mercy all the days of your life! When you are baptized into Christ, you are baptized into His death—death to sin, and raised to walk in the New Birth of freedom from sin’s penalty and power! When you fall into sin, He isn’t the angry, sullen slave-master who lashes you with guilt and shame, He is the kind and patient Father who picks you up, dusts you off and gives you grace to start over again, because all of your condemnation has already been taken away by Jesus’ death on the Cross, and there is none left for you! So worship Him as your loving Father, let His Spirit in you lead you to cry out Abba, “Daddy!”

But maybe you are here today and the thought of calling God “Father” is painful for you because of the sins your earthly father committed against you. Instead of thoughts of loving protection and strength and kindness, the word “Father” reminds you of abuse or neglect or violence or abandonment. You can’t see how you can look on God as a Father because of the way your father’s sin has torn you apart.

Or perhaps you bear the scars this morning of the sins of racism, greed, sexual violence, or any other of the thousands of ways this broken, evil world can wound you. And you look on that pain—that abusive father, that hateful bigot, that arrogant rich neighbor, that sexual predator—and you say to yourself, “Never! There is never any way I will ever get past what they did!”

If that’s you this morning, then I want you to see what God is saying to you this morning through His Word—that there is no sin that has torn you, no divisiveness of racism or greed or abuse or violence—that God cannot heal when you come in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ! Right now you believe that the greatest sin in your life is the sin that others have committed against you. But I say to you on the authority of the Word of God that the greatest sin in your life is the sin that you have committed against God, and until you repent of your sin against Him you will never find healing in your life for the sins committed against you!

The ground really is level at the foot of the Cross, because every sin they committed against you was itself a sin against God as well. And on that Cross Jesus Christ bore the full wrath of God against those sins! He was torn because of their racism, He was lacerated because of their violence, He was pierced because of their abuse! As much as you may have been an innocent victim of their sin, He was the Ultimate Innocent Victim, because He had no sin of His own to atone for!

And so that innocent blood that He shed washes away your sin against Him—and also washes away their sin against you! And so, in Jesus Christ you have something that you never thought you could have—a heart of forgiveness for them!

There is nothing that separates us in this world as powerful as what unites us in Jesus Christ—neither our sins against each other or our sins against Him. And He offers you that union today when you come in faith to Him. He will wash away your sins by His blood, He will wash away the pain of the neglect and violence and abuse and bigotry you have suffered, he will take away your slavery to guilt and fear and shame and turn you into His beloved son, His beloved daughter—and so you will be an heir of all of the riches of holiness, peace, reconciliation, joy, wholeness, purity and glory that He purchased for you on the Cross. So come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Jude 24–25 ESV

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

Where do you see the greatest examples of “incurable divisiveness” in the world today? How would those divisions be impacted if people on both sides repented of their sin and came to faith in Jesus Christ? How can you be used of God to speak the Gospel into those divisions?

How does our fellowship as a church demonstrate the power of the Gospel to cross lines of divisiveness that the world says are impossible to cross? What fellowship opportunities are taking place at Bethel this month that you can take advantage of in order to get to know people you might not otherwise meet?

Is it easier for you to see God as a demanding master or a loving Father? What does your heart-attitude toward God reveal about your relationship with Him?

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