Our guide

Galatians 3:28-29

“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.”

In the early church it seems some were acting as if they were Jewish Christians, men in higher positions, than the Gentile or women in the Church.  Now the heart of the gospel is to love God, first and foremost, and to love others as you love your self.  Unity is the condition of being one, and when anyone sees himself or herself as superior to another brother or sister in Christ, it is impossible to have oneness.  That was a problem in the churches at Galatia, could it still be a problem today?

The Holy Spirit was sent to guide us in our daily lives to live in a manner that those in and outside of the Church would awake to the love of God the Father, and the redemption of the cross, by the blood of Jesus Christ.  Listen to this request of Jesus to His Father: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:20-23, ESV)
We find the Holy Spirit giving the apostle Paul the understanding to guide the church to unity, this oneness we have in Christ; first, Paul addressed the error of putting faith in being a Jew and living by your works, in Romans 3:27-30.  “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”
But you will see that the Holy Spirit knew that the Church would need to be reminded over and over of the fact it was grace through faith, and nothing else.  That the ground at the cross is level, there is no such thing as a super Christian, there is only obedience or disobedience.  That is made very clear in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit wanted you and I to understand that our faith in Christ has made us one with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and with those who are in Christ.  It makes us Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.  It is so important to grasp the faith of Abraham, for it is saving faith, it is faith God honors.  Go to Hebrews 11:8-10, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”  Each of us must daily be reminded that our flesh cannot be trusted, our flesh wants to be first, it wants to look good, and we have this word from Romans 12:3, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice