Sonship in Christ

25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. – Galatians 3:25-29

At the Paris peace talks at the end of World War One, Arab leaders noticed the faucets gave a never-ending supply of fresh water. They removed them and stole them away in their luggage. Lawrence of Arabia explained the faucets were useless without being connected to the pipes that brought the water to the faucets.

The Law is a tutor or pedagogue to prepare one to Christ. Without Christ the Law is just as useless as a faucet is without being attached to a source of water. Previously, Paul explained that since Christ has come, there is no more a need of a pedagogue or prison guard. The Law is no longer of necessity or of force.

Sonship is NOT Through…

Having shown the purpose of the law as schoolmaster or tutor to bring the Jews to the point of faith in Christ, Paul continued the illustration showing that in Christ there are now as full-grown sons and no longer children in need of the Law as a tutor. The Law’s purpose has been accomplished. No need to have a tutor once one has finished the course. No need to stay on the school bus once you arrived at school. No need for a principle and teachers once you graduated. All animal sacrifices, tithing, separate priesthood, feasts, Sabbaths, etc. were abrogated with the Law. Sonship is not found by staying under the Law of Moses.

The Pharisee would pray each morning, “I thank Thee, God, that I am a Jew, not a Gentile; a man, not a woman; and a freeman, and not a slave.” Paul shows that sonship is not based on one’s ancestry: “There is neither Jew nor Greek,” (3:28a). They were no longer two distinct peoples. But when they are in Christ such divisions do not exist. Sonship is for both Jews and Greeks. “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him” (Rom. 10:12).

Spiritual sonship is not based on one’s social status, “there is neither slave nor free,” (3:28b). Paul is not saying slaves should not exist among Christians. The Bible tells masters and slaves how to behave toward one another in Philemon 15-16: “For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.” After all, all of us go from being slaves to sin to being bondservants of Christ.

Additionally, being a son of God is not based on one’s gender, “there is neither male nor female” (3:28c). Some have jerked this verse out of context to prove feminism and transgenderism. Paul discusses the different roles of men and women in the family and church in his epistles. So, he is not saying they do not exist. Paul is not discussing the roles that males and females play in the Church or home. He is addressing the question of “Who has the right to be called a child of God?” Both men and women are entitled to equal spiritual blessings being “joint heirs of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7).

Finally, sonship is not through physical birth. Being of the seed or a descendent of Abraham did not prove one was a son of God. Sonship comes about through Christ involving a new birth from water (John 3:3-5).

Sonship Through Faith

“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (3:26). Being a son in God’s spiritual family is the result of faith in Christ. All racial, economic, and sex distinction finds its great equalizer “in Christ.”

What is “the faith”? Macknight translates this as “for ye are all sons of God through the faith published by Christ Jesus.” This is not the faith an individual has in Christ. But the system of faith or the Faith or the Gospel message.

Paul is not speaking about little boys who are sons, but adult sons. They are like those who go through the Roman coming of age ceremony or the Jewish bar mitzvah. Under the Law, they were mere children in training. By faith in Jesus Christ, they have matured out of childhood into adulthood. When one becomes an adult son by the faith, why insist on needing a baby sitter? What adult son would want to return to sucking on his thumb and led by the hand?

If sonship is in Christ, then there is no sonship outside of Christ. God is the Father of all created creatures, but we only have God as our spiritual Father in Christ. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). The location of sonship has been set. But how does one get into Christ?

Sonship Through Baptism

The manner in which one becomes a son is through baptism. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (3:27). The use of “As many of you …” means that any who might not have been baptized were not in Christ.

At what exact moment does one become a son of God? When he is immersed in the water and arises out of it in a new birth (John 3:3-5; Romans 6:3-5). Faith is in the Source (Christ). The means of putting on Christ is baptism. Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). The works of the Law cannot save. Baptism is not a work of man or of the Law, it is a work of faith. Faith itself is a work of God. “Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (John 6:28-29).

The phrase “put on” describes getting dressed. The baptized man or woman puts on Christ as a garment. The New English Bible translates it as “put on Christ as a garment”. During the Roman coming of age ceremony, the childhood garments are removed, and the toga of an adult is put on. It was like putting on a new set of clothing after washing.

Baptism is indispensable to being in Christ as a son of God. Paul wrote, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). There is no such thing as a Christian not clothed with Christ and no one is clothed without baptism and no one baptized without the faith leading them to Christ.

Sonship Results in Unity

The end result of being in Christ through faith and baptism: “for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (3:28b). This is inclusive of everyone who is baptized. It brings corporate unity between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female. These three couplets show that there are no such divisions in the body, the church. God is our Father making us all children of the same family and brothers and sisters to each other. All ground is level before the cross of Christ. No clergy or caste or class system.

Sonship Results in Belonging to Christ

Being baptized into Christ, and thus at that point sons of God, one henceforth belongs to Christ: “and if you are Christ’s” (3:29a). In what ways does a Christian belong to Christ? He was be purchased or redeemed by Christ’s blood. Our lives are in Christ (2:20). We are bond-servants of Christ. We are the Shepherd’s sheep. “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Romans 14:8).

Sonship Results in Being Abraham’s Seed

Not only do new sons belong to Christ, but they “are Abraham’s seed” (3:29b). This means that Gentiles do not need to depend on genealogy to be sons of Abraham. Many Jews were confident in being right with God, because they were related to Abraham. John the baptist told them “do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones” (Matt. 3:9).

Sonship Results In Being Heirs

Finally, those in Christ and sons of Abraham are “heirs according to the promise” (3:29b). The Law could never make us heirs of God (Gal. 3:29). Paul wrote, “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). As a Christian, you can be like an adult son in God’s family, an heir of God.

Are you drawing on your inheritance?  When the Law of Moses has sent us to Christ, why go back? Once the faith has brought us to Christ why not put Him on in Baptism? Your eternal inheritance awaits.

– Daniel R. Vess