Introduction
Every organization prohibits harassment and discrimination against people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, socioeconomic status, or gender. At first, protection from harassment and discrimination sounds like a good thing. Yet, there is an implication that someone has harassed or discriminated against another person. These problems occur frequently enough to warrant legal solutions. In the context of Paul's letter to the Galatians, equal opportunity coincides with the theme of legalism. In other words, God lifted the curse of the Law of Moses to save us from the consequences of sin—especially harassment, discrimination, and inequality (see Gal. 3:10-14).
Paul's "protected category" clause is not a new idea but a solution to an age-old problem. In the letter to the Galatians, Paul of Tarsus wrote, "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). This verse is comparable to the anti-harassment and non-discrimination policies we are accustomed to hearing in our time. Paul informed his first-century audience that God does not exclude anyone from salvation through Christ Jesus based on ethnicity, national origin, religion, socioeconomic status, or gender. As Paul wrote elsewhere, there is no favoritism with God (see Rom. 2:11) because he made all of us in his image (see Gen. 1:27). Unfortunately, many people think they can get away with harassment or discrimination while trying to make God a party to their injustice.
Equal Opportunity "in Christ"
As a Jewish man, Paul often heard a prayer common among Jews to this day: "Blessed are you for not having made me a Gentile, a slave, or a woman." This invocation is still present in the synagogue liturgy today, in which the women respond by saying, "Thank you for making me what I am." While the Jewish tradition prioritized separation and distinction, Paul promoted God's new covenant based on unity and mutual respect. Jesus himself responded to a similar type of prayer he connected to the Pharisees, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people . . ." (Luke 18:11). Harassment and discrimination are not unique sins to Jewish people but common to all human beings anywhere and everywhere. The gospel message that Jesus and his servant Paul taught includes all humankind, and it flies in the face of the conventional human desire to make oneself distinguished and superior. In the invocation that Paul corrected, Jewish rabbis believed God only presented the Law of Moses to Jewish men. In other words, they viewed their prayer not as discriminatory arrogance but as grateful praise to God—he did not assign the Law to Gentiles, slaves, or women. However, Paul scolded these Jewish men for assuming the Law to be a blessing when it was, in fact, a curse. In Galatians 3, the apostle expressed how Jesus removed the curse of the Law from all people—not just Jewish men—by accepting it on the cross.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote how no human being is righteous in God's sight and that all have fallen short of his glory (see Rom. 3:10). Nonetheless, he was neither the first nor the only biblical author to proclaim humanity's dreadfulness before God. Psalms 14 and 53 and Ecclesiastes all testify to this unfortunate reality (see Ps. 14:3; 53:3; Eccl. 7:20, 28). The psalmist and the author of Ecclesiastes were Israelites, the predecessors to the Jewish people. They spoke of fellow Israelites as much as they did their pagan neighbors. Not even an Israelite under God's original covenant stood blameless in his sight. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul understood that God's purpose for the old covenant was his own, not something the Jewish people deserved. No human being deserves God's favor and must seek absolution while admitting our unworthiness to receive it. Paul addressed the Galatian church because the Jews and their Judaizing companions believed mere mortals could impress God by their merits. God is not astonished whether someone is Jewish or Greek, slave or free, male or female. Instead, he delights in our faith no matter what our status is.
Paul composed his letter to the Galatians to correct the Judaizers, those who required Christian Gentiles to follow Jewish rites. However, his message applied to all Christians. The Council of Jerusalem resolved the Judaizing schism that alienated pagan converts from the original Jewish followers of Christ around AD 50 (see Acts 15:1-29). Paul had attended this meeting before writing Galatians and successfully debated in favor of the Gentiles before James, brother to Jesus himself. Judaizers assumed that Gentiles had to follow Jewish customs as proselytes did. However, they incorrectly believed Jesus had come to vindicate Judaism in the eyes of the world, especially the Roman Empire. Instead, he came not to justify any religion but to establish a kingdom where all people could worship God in spirit and truth.
The context of Galatians 3:28 includes several immediate concerns for all Christians, regardless of time or place. If the Judaizers wanted to maintain the status quo of ancient Israel, they had to emphasize the roles of Jewish men versus those of Gentiles, slaves, and women. Paul opposed this view because he understood redemption as God's gift for everyone. However, this problem of harassment and discrimination based on claims of divine favor persist. In many churches today, pastors claim that God speaks only to and through men. Everyone else, in their view, including unordained men and all women and children, must approach God through a clergyman acting as mediator.
Conversely, Paul's message to Galatia and the church is that God's salvation is not just a spiritual reality but a socioeconomic one. How can we, as Christians, invite all people to seek Jesus if we follow our invitation by categorizing them? Paul railed against the Galatians for their double-minded attempts to do just that!
Differences "in Christ"
Even Christians cannot ignore differences between people. It is just as unfair to pretend cultural, ethnic, religious, or socioeconomic divisions do not exist as to prioritize them with ignorance. That is just another form of discrimination, mainly because it diminishes the actual hardships and struggles an individual may have experienced. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul never decried the existence of Jew and Greek, slave and free, or male and female. These separations play a crucial role in his letters to other Mediterranean churches. The Romans initially permitted their Judean subjects to practice their traditions in the first century. Even they understood how someone's identity affects their psyche. Yes, there is such a thing as false equality, which happens when one attempts to dismiss actual differences between human beings with their criteria. This person assumes their criteria are objective, but they base them on subjective values. This problem frequently occurs in missionary activities, in which even well-intentioned Christians impose cultural values on foreign proselytes. Likewise, Paul forbade his Jewish companions from setting Jewish traditions on Gentiles.
When we read Galatians 3:28, we must understand Paul's message in his intended original context. Sometimes, modern readers assume the "in Christ" clause allows for removing all ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, and gender categories. Paul meant that God does not favor any of them, but each still plays a role within the church. As for ethnic, national, or religious differences, each can prove destructive as they are complementary. Christians from around the globe worship God in spirit and truth (see John 4:23-24), each in their own musical and artistic offerings. African–American churches remind us of God's deliverance from slavery and oppression, as they have long adopted the Exodus narrative as their history. The underground churches of China give us a feel for how the early believers survived Roman persecution. Even religious differences allow us to reflect on common truths. Theologians have long perceived how Jewish tradition, Roman jurisprudence, and Greek philosophy have influenced how Christians formulate doctrine. Even socioeconomic differences benefit Christians, as wealthy patrons can fund the existence of churches while those who survive with less demonstrate that happiness and success do not require material abundance. Gender reflects both the economic and social models of the Trinity (see Eph. 5:21-33). In summary, we cannot ignore these categories without misrepresenting God himself.
Baptism "in Christ"
Biblical scholars generally consider Galatians 3:28 a first-century baptismal formula Paul incorporated to make a point (see "Baptism: Immersed in Christ"). From the start, these believers learned that salvation is available to everyone. If baptism is a covenant, then Galatians 3:28 conveys how individuals receive God's condition of equality and opportunity to receive salvation. The "in Christ" clause implies that all believers are united with Jesus. To be one with Jesus is to transcend the material world's arbitrary categories of ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, and gender. The baptismal covenant of Galatians 3:28 symbolizes a return to paradisal creation. Before the fateful decision of Adam and Eve to disobey God, there were no such barriers among humankind. They result from the curse, in which God sentenced Adam to hard labor and Eve to painful childbirth and subjugation. Because the resurrection of Jesus makes all things new, he reverses the curse of Adam and Eve in baptism. As a result, we Christians identify ourselves foremost with Christ, not by race, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, or gender.
Galatians is consistent with Paul's messages to other churches, especially Rome. Thus, the baptismal formula of Galatians derives from Paul's view of justification. God does not consider anyone righteous according to their own merits and not their race, status, or gender. Justification happens through Jesus, whose righteousness covers the unrighteousness of humankind. Although race and ethnicity, race, and gender are biological categories, the unequal values that human beings attach make them sinful. Other categories, such as nationality and socioeconomic status, are arbitrary burdens God never intended. Whether natural or unnatural, God loves all people and does not see them for their quality, shameful or otherwise. The righteous are justified by faith through Jesus (see Rom. 5:1).
In Galatians, Paul emphasized how God saves people by blessing them with faith. The Israelites and their Jewish successors trusted the Law of Moses to keep them. In his epistle to the Romans, Paul indicated how the Jews disbelieved God because they assumed they could earn his favor through mere obedience. Often, we take Paul's words to mean the Law itself was insufficient in saving those God held to it. However, his argument in Romans is not about the Law's efficacy but Israel's failure to accept God on his terms rather than theirs (see Rom. 9:30-32). This background encouraged Jewish men to thank God for not making them Gentiles, slaves, or women. They assumed God issued his Law to them based on their works, an entitlement by which to rule over Gentiles, slaves, and women. Conversely, we all may trust God and do not require intercessors or representatives. The baptismal covenant of Galatians 3:28 reflected the reality that God views all of us equally and without favoritism.
Conclusion
Complementarian churches find it convenient to restrict Galatians 3:28 to salvation only. They claim no worldly implications on nationality, socioeconomic status, or gender. However, their interpretation relates to contemporary debates about gender roles read anachronistically into the verse. Paul was not responding to the cultural effects of the women's liberation movement of the twentieth century but to demographic schisms in the early church. While Paul wrote this verse about mutual groups within the church, he never mandated a hierarchy in Galatians. Modern complementarians—those who require strict male-female roles—make the same error as the Jewish men whom Paul addressed. In reality, no one has an equal opportunity for salvation under an oppressor. God had to lead the Israelites from Egypt to save them. Likewise, he must lead us out of the bondage of sin.
Furthermore, "cannot" and "now allowed" imply second-class citizenship. For example, the complementarian position that women must obey their husbands requires two different definitions of salvation and baptism. If God does not base our salvation on works but on faith, then what are gender roles? Are they not works? Paul wrote that all are one in Christ Jesus. God expects the same loyalty from Jews and Gentiles, free and oppressed, men and women.
Prayer
Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the universe; look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion
to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Bibliography
Beck, James R. Two Views on Women in Ministry. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010.
The Book of Common Prayer. Huntington Beach, CA: Anglican Liturgy Press, 2019. p. 659. https://bcp2019.anglicanchurch.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BCP2019.pdf.
Fung, Ronald Y. K. The Epistle to the Galatians. Second ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988.
Gundry, Robert H. A Survey of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012.
Horsley, Richard A., ed. Paul and Empire: Religion and Power in Roman Imperial Society. London: Continuum, 1997.
Pate, C. Marvin. The End of the Age Has Come: The Theology of Paul. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.
Payne, Philip Barton. Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul's Letters. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009.
Wright, N. T. Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2013.
Commentaires