Sons & Heirs

Perhaps you have been called by people taking surveys. In almost every poll they want to know your identity – age, gender, race, education, etc. Our society tends to divide us up into various interest groups often pitting us against each other.

Under the Old Covenant the Jews were separated from the Gentiles. Many of the terms of the Mosaic Law were given to keep the Israelites from intermingling with the pagan nations which surrounded them. With the coming of Christ, the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles has been broken down (Ephesians 2:11ff). Some Jews (the Judaizers) who had acknowledged Jesus as Messiah were guilty of trying to maintain the old separation from the Gentiles and demanded that Gentile converts to Christ become Jews outwardly by undergoing circumcision.

Paul explains that the Mosaic Law was only meant to be temporary, until the coming of the Messiah, in whom we are all one – regardless of ethnicity, social status or even gender. Your identity is found in your union with Christ by which you have been made a son and heir.

While we don't have many Judiazers in our day, we do have many who do not understand the newness of the New Covenant. Many more fail to appreciate what it means for us to be united with Christ which gives us the status of sons and heirs.

I encourage you to read Galatians 3 before coming to church. Also, you might take note of verse 28 which is used by some feminists to deny gender roles in the home and in the church. How would you answer them?