We are living in difficult times. I do not think I need to list all of the difficult things we are living through as a church family. If I have done my job well enough, then I know, and you know that I know at least some of what most of us in this room are trying to endure. The question that I think we are all asking – and that I think Paul may be asking in the subtext of our text today is this: “How do we remain on the highway to eternity?”

My hope is that this message today will encourage you and help you to remain on that highway. One thing I do know is that we will not arrive in eternity based upon our own performance. We will only arrive in eternity based upon the performance of Christ at the cross, the empty tomb, in light of his promise to rescue, vindicate, and glorify us forever.

To that end – the desire to encourage and help us today as we come to the end of Galatians chapter 3 – I think it is important to press pause for a brief moment and think about the overall argument that Paul has been laying out for us all along.

We know from our study that the overall message of Galatians is a “Jesus plus nothing equals salvation” gospel. We know that Paul is emphasizing this basic message all throughout this letter because there was a group of false teachers in the Galatian church who were teaching that “Jesus plus the law equals salvation” and for Paul this was a mountain top worth dying on; this was a fight worth picking because eternity hangs in the balance of what we believe to be true. Only Jesus can save us. His performance – not ours – is the only thing that saves. The law has no power to save whatsoever.

So in chapter three, Paul lays out some of the most beautiful, practical, and sometimes complex theology of how the law and the gospel actually work together; he wants us to see that the law and the promise of salvation work together like a good set of hedge clippers where the blunt edge of the law enables the sharp edge of God’s grace to do its perfecting work of salvation (not as the false teachers envisioned it but as God had set forth from the early days of Abraham). The law simply cannot complete what begins with faith; the law can only turn us to a newfound faith in Christ.

In verses 1 – 5, Paul calls the Galatians to wake up from their slumber, to quit acting like spellbound fools hypnotized by the law, to look to Christ crucified on their behalf, to remember that it is the Spirit of God who saves and sanctifies us, to realize that our suffering is not in vain if we have suffered for Christ, and to take heart in the fact that God gives salvation freely and graciously to those whom he saves. Our performance is not the deciding factor in our salvation; Christ’s performance at the cross of Calvary is the only deciding factor in our salvation.

In verses 6 – 9, Paul outlines what it actually means to be a people of faith instead of being a people of performance. Paul is concerned that we would begin to live our lives like human doings instead of human beings. So, he reminds us that Abraham was a man of faith because he believed God’s promise to make him righteous therefore it was counted to him as righteousness – his righteousness was the product of God’s promise not Abraham’s performance – and everyone who lives by faith in God’s promises are now children of Abraham… people of faith.

In verses 10 – 14, Paul turns his attention to helping people of faith learn how to live by faith. The life of faith is much like a highway with various ups and downs and sharp turns and potholes and deep ditches to be aware of. Paul’s aim in these verses is to help believers get out of the ditch of performance-based religion and back onto the highway of living by God’s grace. To that end, Paul reminds us of the curse of the law, Christ’s work in bearing that curse on our behalf at the bloody cross of Calvary, and the gift of the indwelling Spirit of God who enables us to live in the shadow of that bloody cross on a daily basis. Living the Christian life is not about pulling up our bootstraps and trying to be better people; only Pharisees live this way. The Christian life is all about seeking and living in the presence of our crucified, risen, and returning Savior and as we live in his presence, our lives are transformed into his image.

In verses 15 – 18, Paul reminds us about the promises of God that were given to Abraham long before the Mosaic Law was even a thing. The reality is that the highway of living by the promises of God was built long before the onramp of the law. Therefore, it is the promises of God that we trust in; we trust in God’s perfect promises instead of trusting in our imperfect performance because God’s promises are irreversible, they have been fulfilled in Christ Jesus, and they are completely unaffected by the law. In a world full of broken promises, and failed expectations, it is deeply transforming to rest in the promises of God in Christ Jesus rather than resting in my broken attempts at performing better.

Finally, in verses 19 – 26, Paul unpacks the complexity of how to use the law properly. He says that we need the law to show us right from wrong, to convict us of sin, and to even increase sin within us so that as we become desperate for salvation, we can see the limitless power of the gospel in light of the limited power of the law. The reality according to Paul, is that the law is certainly not contrary to the promise of the gospel because the law does not promise everlasting life, it acts like a babysitter who points us to and releases us into the saving arms of the One who can give everlasting life; namely Christ crucified, risen, and returning. In this way, the law which used to be our babysitter, now becomes our slave – a proper tool, like a good chainsaw – to bring us closer to Jesus! The key here of course is to use the tool properly, which is why we should remind one another not to use the law to shave with (as Spurgeon said)!

As I surveyed those last five sections of Galatians chapter three, I was struck with that fact that I have spent over 50hrs studying, untold hours discussing, and nearly 4 hours preaching those 26 verses; 26 verses that take less than a few minutes to read. And the question that came into my mind is this: “Has it made a difference?”

Has it made a difference in your life and in your relationship with Jesus? Do you have a clearer vision for the intersection of the law and the gospel? Have I given you the tools to drive the car of your life on the highway of gospel centered living? Are you getting behind the wheel of that car and driving down that highway towards your eternal inheritance in Christ Jesus?

Again, I think these are the questions that are looming in Paul’s mind at this point in his letter to the beloved Galatians; the people that Paul so deeply desired to see set free from the curse of performance-based religion. How do you drive the car of your life down that highway of God’s grace towards your eternal inheritance? Paul’s simple answer can be summed up with five words: Faith, Identity, Wardrobe, Community, and Inheritance. These are the wheels that keep the car of our lives on the highway of gospel-centered living as we travel toward our eternal inheritance. Look at the text with me…

25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28There 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. 29And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

#1: WE HAVE A NEWFOUND FAITH (V. 25)

In verse 25, Paul begins to help the Galatians to think about how to drive the vehicle of their lives down the highway of gospel-centered living when he reminds them that they have a newfound faith as he says, “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian” (v. 25). Paul’s point here is that we have a newfound faith. We no longer believe that our performance will save us. We no longer trust in our performance of the law to make us right before our righteous God in Heaven.

The law has done what it should do as it turned us over to Christ crucified, risen, and returning. We are no longer under the babysitter of the law. Instead, the babysitter has now become our slave, our employee, our tool to use as an onramp to the highway of believing and trusting by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to Scriptures alone, for the glory of God alone. We have a newfound faith!

#2: WE HAVE A NEWFOUND IDENTITY (V. 26)

In verse 26, Paul continues to help the Galatians to think about how to drive the vehicle of their lives down the highway of gospel-centered living when he reminds them that because they have a newfound faith, they also have a newfound identity as he says, “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (v. 26). We have a newfound identity. We are no longer identified by our failures or our successes in performing the law.

Previous to our newfound faith, we were identified as dead in our sins, sons of disobedience, children of wrath, enemies of God, alienated from God, and hopeless without God (Eph. 2). But now, we have a newfound identity in Christ Jesus. We are now sons and daughters of the living God, redeemed in Christ Jesus, eternally blessed in Christ Jesus, forgiven in Christ Jesus, lavished with love in Christ Jesus, priceless in Christ Jesus, treasured by God in Christ Jesus, and the list goes on and on (see. Eph. 1 – 2 and Rom. 8).

This newfound identity in Christ Jesus is the direct outcome of our union with Christ in his perfect life, his bloody crucifixion, his victorious resurrection, and his promised return in glory. Our newfound identity which flows out of our newfound faith, is the concrete that paves the highway we travel on towards our eternal inheritance because, our newfound identity is rooted in the perfect work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We have a newfound identity!

#3: WE HAVE A NEWFOUND WARDROBE (V. 27)

In verse 27, Paul continues to help the Galatians to think about how to drive the vehicle of their lives down the highway of gospel-centered living when he reminds them that because of their newfound faith and their newfound identity, they also have a newfound wardrobe as he says, “For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (v. 27). The idea here is that as the Galatians were baptized, they went under the water (symbolically washing away their sins and dying to their old lives) and then they came up out of the water (symbolizing their new lives in Christ) with their new robes of Christ’s perfect righteousness.

Baptism is a very important part of following Jesus because it is the outward expression of an inward change of heart; it is the public declaration that you and I have taken off our robes of filthy sin and have put on the new robes of Christ’s perfection; effectively putting Christ on like a new set of clothes. Every believer – especially new believers and older believers who have resisted getting baptized – should think long and hard about being baptized by submersion in water just as Jesus was, just as every disciple was, and just as Paul was after coming to faith in Christ.

Being baptized by submersion in water is not only part of the biblical pattern we see in the book of Acts, and it is not only part of the discipleship process, but it is also a visual reminder that the way we drive our lives down the highway of gospel-centered living towards our eternal inheritance, is by putting on our new wardrobe which is Christ Jesus himself through baptism!

#4: WE HAVE A NEWFOUND COMMUNITY (V. 28)

In verse 28, Paul continues to help the Galatians think about how to drive the vehicle of their lives down the highway of gospel-centered living when he reminds them that because they have a newfound faith, they also have a new identity, they have a new wardrobe, and because of all that, they now have a newfound community as he says, “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” (v. 28).

One commentator says that our newfound faith establishes our newfound identity, which establishes our newfound wardrobe, which is all bound up in our union with Christ and it is our “union with Christ [which] establishes our communion with one another”.2Without our union with Christ there can be no eternal communion or community with other believers.

The reality that Paul is getting at here is that we have a newfound community in Christ with Christ’s people. This newfound community is not to be divided around the lines of race, money, or sex. Since we are all one in Christ Jesus, the greatest barriers to the harmony of humanity – ethnic pride, economic greed, and sexual lust and perversion – have all been destroyed and therefore have no place in the Christian community.3

The beauty of the newfound community we have in Christ is that it is a community of all tribes, all tongues, and all nations. What separates the rest of society in this world we live in has been abolished at the cross of Christ therefore, it is this newfound community that helps us to ride the highway of gospel-centered living towards our eternal inheritance!

#5: WE HAVE A NEWFOUND INHERITANCE (V. 29)

The last thing Paul has to say about driving down that highway of gospel centered living is that we have a newfound inheritance. Notice how he says that “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (v. 29). As just like that, Paul ties up his entire argument regarding the law and the gospel with a neat little bow regarding our final destination that we will certainly arrive at if we belong to Jesus.

If you and I have truly trusted in Christ by grace through faith, then we have become sons and daughters of God with a newfound identity, with a whole new set of Christlike clothing, with a brand new desegregated/unified community, and together we are destined to receive the promise of eternity in the presence of God as heirs to the riches of Christ who was crucified on our behalf, rose in victory from the tomb on the third day, and is returning in glory one day to take us home to our eternal promised land where there is no more tears, no more sin, no more suffering, no more pain, no more temptation, and no more brokenness.

Once we were headed towards an eternal inheritance of damnation apart from God but now, in Christ, we are headed towards the eternal inheritance of God’s perfect presence!

CONCLUSION…

In conclusion, it is not our performance that keeps us on the highway of gospel centered living just hoping that God will reward us for our good deeds by letting us into his perfect kingdom (this is what the false teachers in Galatia believed). Paul would scream this from the mountain tops: Your good deeds do not finish what begins with faith.

On the contrary, the eternal inheritance that awaits us up ahead at the final stop known as the eternal promised land or heaven, that eternal inheritance is obtained:

  1. By possessing a newfound faith in Christ.
  2. By possessing a newfound identity in Christ as a son or daughter of God.
  3. By putting on the newfound wardrobe of Christlikeness as we rest more fully in our union with Christ.
  4. By being brought into a newfound community of diverse brothers and sisters without the separating walls of ethnic, social, or sexual status.
  5. By keeping our eyes locked on our eternal inheritance which is the perfect presence of Christ.

Paul’s point all throughout this entire section of scripture is that the highway to an eternal inheritance is traveled by faith in Christ, as a son or daughter of God, who wears the clothing of Christ, as we live in community with one another, looking forward to the promise of Heaven, which was made possible by the shed blood, the broken body, and the empty tomb of Jesus. – Amen!!!

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 Philip, Graham, Ryken, Galatians, Reformed Expository Commentary, (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing Company, 2005), 148.

3 Ibid., 149 – 150.