Sermon 'Unity in Christ'

'Unity in Christ' sermon preached at Bedok Church of Christ, Singapore on 20th Jun 2010


I shall begin my sermon today with 2 typical prayers from the Jewish-Greco-Roman world in the early centuries - both by non-Christians:

- prayer by RabbI Judah (second century AD): Thank God I am a Jew and not a Gentile, a free man not a slave, a man and not a woman.

- prayer by Diogenes Laertius (Greek philosopher 3rd century AD): I thank the gods that I am a Greek and not a barbarian, a man and not a woman, a human and not a beast.

These prayers indicate that in the ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman world, the sense of racial and male superiority and the practice of slavery are universal. Your lot in life is more or less determined by birth.

Paul ministers in such a world and sees the gospel as God's solution to the divided and segregated human condition. Gal 3:28 is the focus of our sermon this morning and has been hailed as the magna carta of the new humanity.

I would focus on the theme of 'unity in Christ' in this verse but let's first look at the context that begins from v 15.

Paul paints 2000 years of ancient Jewish history through 3 key historical figures: Abraham , Moses and Christ. This takes us through three pivotal historical moments of human history: the promise, the law (Torah) and the fulfilment in Christ.

God has promised to bless Abraham and his descendants (seed) and through them the world - Paul emphasises the singular 'seed' indicating the unity of the people who will be constituted around the Messiah. God intends to form one people/family out of the broken, divided world.

But the law that came 430 years after Abraham seemed to contradict the promise by appearing to create barriers and segregations through its boundary marker laws - circumcision, food laws, Sabbath. These laws reinforce Israel's covenant identity with is inseparably bound with her ethnic identity, and virtually keep the Gentiles out.

while the law provides for the care and protection of women and slaves, they are generally considered second and third-class members in the Jewish society.


Paul explains that the law serves in the intervening period a temporal custodian role 'because of transgressions' until Christ is born.
- it keeps Israel safe from the surrounding immoral and idolatrous cultures
- it exposes sins as transgressions ie. an offense against God
- it leads us to Christ by making us hungry for grace (cos the law declares the whole world prisoners to sin and powerless to be righteous before God)

2 images of the law: prison and guardian - the law plays a temporal protective and disciplinary role until Christ is born.

In Christ, all of God 's promises find their fulfilment. In Christ, all the walls are torn down, and it's time to live as one family!

'By faith you are sons of God in Christ, for all of you who were baptised have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slaves nor free, man nor woman for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise.'

IOW, in Christ there are no second-class, third-class memberships; all who are in Christ are first class citizens in God's family on the basis of faith. It is a society of equals.

Lessons for today:

Today the church continues to face the challenges of disunity. The church divides along many other lines besides birth distinctions - doctrinal differences, denominational distinctives, generation gaps, worship styles, etc. To date, there are 38 000 denominations. The figure can be depressing. What is the way forward?

Allow me to make 3 suggestions: we need to -

1. recognise that unity is a gift of God, not a human achievement. While we may see 38000 denoms, God sees one Church. Peace/reconciliation/unity has been secured on the cross. The burden of unity is not ours to bear but ultimately God's. Christ has born the burden at Calvary and finished his work of atonement! The Spirit of Truth will guide us into complete unity. Our task is to keep putting on the virtues of Christ in humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and love and to walk in the Spirit and allow him to lead us to full maturity.

2. recognise that the sole basis of christian unity is 'faith in Christ'. The British bible scholar NT Wright calls 'justification by faith' the great ecumenical doctrine. There is no foundation that has been laid for the church other than Christ. It is our confession of Christ as Lord that is the Rock on which Christ will build his church and the gates of hades will not overpower it! let's not exchange that foundation for some other things or add to it other tests of fellowship. there are many important doctrines no doubt that Christians may disagree about but they should not compromise the one foundation upon which we stand together in Christ. However important our distinctives are, they should not be elevated to the test of fellowship as our faith in Christ is. Hence, we can imagine Paul saying, 'there is neither catholics nor protestants, calvinists nor arminians, acapella nor instrumental groups, complementarians nor egalitarians for we are all one in Christ.'

3. reclaim our baptismal identity as the deepest identity over all our other loyalties and distinctives - ethnic, kinship, professional ties! To the question: 'who are you?' the Church through the ages has consistently answered: 'we are baptised.' Note not 'we were' baptized but ' we are' - in other words, baptism is not simply a ritual we got over and done with in the distant past. rather, it *is* our badge of covenant identity. Baptism marks us out as God's people and is an eternal seal of our belonging to Christ. It is also the basic pattern for Christian living that is characterized by daily dying to the old self and rising to our new life/identity in Christ, that is, in God's family.