Identity in Christ

Dear DJAN Friends,

This brief reading, taken from Paul's Letter to the Galatians, is a favorite of many Christians who long for the church to be an ever-more-inclusive community.

For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves [or "have been clothed"] 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

(Galatians 3:26-29).

It is likely that these verses contain words from an early Christian baptismal ceremony, during which new believers took off their clothes, indications of their gender and social status, and put on a simple garment, signifying that their primary identity was now "in Christ." It was a way of showing that in the new community of the baptized divisions of race, class, and sex that characterized the old social order no longer held sway. Notice the implications of this radical claim for Paul himself. He was free-born at a time when many were slaves; he was male in a society where women were subordinate; and he was a Jew in a religious culture that regarded Gentiles as unclean. In this breathtaking passage from Galatians, the apostle is disavowing all the markers that made him privileged, because of the identity he now shares with others–all of them equal before God. Let's acknowledge that Paul didn't always live up to the demands of his baptism (see 1 Corinthians 11:2-16)! But many times he did, treating Gentiles, slaves, and women as equal partners in the Christian mission. Earlier in Galatians (2:1-5), Paul treats the struggle of Gentiles such as Titus as his own. Whatever happens to Titus, happens to him–a claim with great implications for us.

May God grant us understanding and commitment.

—Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon