Lifted Up to Size
Galatians 3:27-29 As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
I remember when I entered the Army as a young man, those first six weeks of basic training were incredibly tough. I mean, they were brutal. Quite a few of the guys fell by the wayside in those first few weeks.
Looking back on it, you could see what they were trying to do. These young men had come from all different walks of life. Some from wealthy and privileged families, born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Others from much poorer circumstances. Basic training was about cutting everyone down to the same size. Yep. Those first six weeks were a great leveller.
But where the military wanted to cut us down to size, God wants to do the complete opposite. When we come into the kingdom of God you and I, when we accept Jesus as our Saviour and make Him the Lord of our lives, what God wants to do is … well, to lift us up to size, if that makes sense.
Here’s what I’m talking about:
Galatians 3:27-29: As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
There are some sharp distinctions there. The Jews looked down on the Greeks – in fact, they referred to them as “dogs”. Of course, there was a huge gap between a free person and a slave. And in that patriarchal society, women were pretty much chattels. They couldn’t earn an income or own property. Without a man, they were poor.
But what God’s saying here to you and me, is that our heritage, our circumstances, our past, our socio-economic standing, our ethnicity … none of those matter. They’re completely irrelevant.
Because when we put our trust in Christ, we all become one. We all become heirs – in fact elsewhere, he writes that we become co-heirs, joint heirs, with Christ.
Maybe you look at who you are, where you’ve come from, what you have, what society thinks of you, what other people say about you … and you think to yourself, What can I ever be in the kingdom of God? Who am I to imagine that God would ever think all that much of me.
Hmm. Well today, let me tell you who really you are. You are one of His beloved children. An heir of God’s promises, a joint–heir with Christ, of the riches of His inheritance.
That’s who you really are and He wants you to live in that truth, today … and for the rest of your days on this earth.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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