The Gospel Alone Does What No Other Theory, Ideology, or Law Can Do For Ethnic Unity
A biblical plea for us to repent of other worldviews and adhere to the gospel of grace
“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham…Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith…Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ…for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
Galatians 3:7,13-14,16,26-29
We Must Start Here Before Getting To The Application
The Gospel is indicative or “done” language. The Law is imperative or “do” language. This necessary and crucial distinction is at the heart of understanding the Bible, the gospel, and how to live the Christian life.
The language is best understood in light of the covenants that God makes with Man. A covenant is a legal relationship with God that has promises, obligations, punishments, and blessings based on if the conditions of the covenant are met. A covenant is not mere “legal paperwork”. It is a type of relationship that is either one of intimacy and communion with God or condemnation and estrangement from God (Rom. 5:6-21).
What Different Covenants Are There?
There are only two covenants and everyone who has ever lived or will ever live is in one of these two covenants. They are the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace. The Covenant of Works, as can be seen in the word “Works”, is one that focuses on our doing in order to be saved or stay saved.
All of us are born into and under that covenant (Rom. 5:12-21). That Covenant was made with Adam (Gen. 2:15-17) but then broken by Adam (Gen. 3). The ramifications of it are that all of us born of natural generation1 from Adam would be born into a broken covenant, under the curse of The Fall, Original Sin perverting our nature, and living out actual sins (Rom. 1:18-3:20). All those in the Covenant of Works need saving by Christ—the Second Adam.
How Does Christ Bring Us Into A New Covenant?
Christ was “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5). How did He do this? He did so by taking on our flesh—becoming like us in every way yet without sin (Phil. 2:5-11; Heb. 4:15)—to fulfill the Covenant of Works through His perfect obedience and by His making atonement. He does this for all the elect. Jesus gives us the double cure by making propitiation to God (1 Jn. 2:1-2) and by imputing to us a perfect righteousness (Rom. 3:21-26). This fulfills the requirements of the Covenant of Works so that we might be transferred into the Covenant of Grace.
By accomplishing this redemption, Christ brings all His elect into a Covenant of Grace where we no longer relate to God and He no longer relates to us based on our works but the works of Christ.
This good news (i.e. “gospel”) was foreshadowed and preached to Abraham (Gal. 3:8). This means we need to go back and look at the Covenant of Grace that God made with Abraham. This was not the first time God made the Covenant of Grace (Gen. 3:15; 6:1-9:17) but it was a significant installment and further redemptive revelation of the Covenant of Grace that controls much of the narrative of the New Testament. It is this Abrahamic Covenant that is fulfilled in Christ and is what we receive through receiving Christ.
The Abrahamic Covenant
In Genesis 12:1-3, God calls Abram out of his idolatry and homeland to come to a far off place that is yet to be revealed. Abram is childless at 75 years old but God promises that He will make Abram have so many descendants that he will be the father of a great nation.
Several years pass and Abram still doesn’t have children. In Genesis 15, Abram is struggling to believe that God is going to fulfill that promise. Can God fulfill that promise when Abram’s prospects for having a son are “as good as dead” (Rom. 4:19)? In response, God furthers the covenant that He made with Abram in Genesis 12. He tells Abram to look up into the night sky at the stars and “number the stars, if you are able to” (Gen. 15:5). It was a rhetorical command because the stars couldn’t be numbered by the naked eye. Yet, God says to Abram, “So shall your offspring be.”
What does Abram do in response? He simply takes God at His Word. He believes God despite his clear inability to have children. God responds to Abram in an astounding way. Not because of Abram’s act of believing nor because of anything God produces in Abram. It is not because of anything Abram has done nor will do in the future—not at all having to do with Abram but solely on the basis of the future Messiah to come. It says in Genesis 15:6, “And [Abram] believed the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” This is what we call “justification”.
Faith alone in Christ alone is the only condition for entering into the Covenant of Grace. Even then, that condition is sovereignly, graciously, freely, monergistically given to all the elect by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:8-10). In that Covenant of Grace, through union with Christ, we receive Christ and all His benefits (think of justification, adoption, and sanctification to name a few).
The entire emphasis on the Abrahamic Covenant is that God saves sinners by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—whether before Christ came or after Christ has come.
What Changes For Us Now That We Are In This Covenant of Grace?
In the Covenant of Grace, God explicitly reveals that one is justified not by works of any kind but by grace alone (Gal. 2:16). This is also the same way that all the true children of Abram are called to relate to God. Their lives are full of sin and they will never be saved by their own works of any kind. They are to enter into the Covenant of Grace through justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
This is vitally important because we learn that Abram is not merely going to be the father of one nation—one ethnicity—but of many nations and many peoples (Gen. 17:4). The New Testament will boldly declare that it is all those of faith who become to true sons of Abram regardless of what their ethnicity is (Gal. 3:26-29).
But, how do we see this in the Covenant of Grace with Abram/Abraham.2 In Genesis 17, which is a further revelation and explanation of what this Covenant of Grace entails, God gives the promise that this Covenant will be to Abraham and his offspring. “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Gen. 17:7). Paul can firmly say in Galatians 3:7, “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.”
Who Is The Offspring Of Abraham?
In Genesis 17, “you and your offspring” in the original Hebrew language has a twofold sense. “Offspring” is singular in the Hebrew usage of the word. But, a singular use of a word can have a twofold explanation. Let me provide an example. A “team” is singular but the word means a plurality of people on the one singular team. To say the two “teams” played against each other is to say that a plural amount of teams are competing against each other. When one “team” wins that one singular group possesses the victorious outcome.
Paul picks up on this use of “offspring” in Genesis 17. In Galatians 3:16, he says, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many [or the plural use of offspring] but referring to one, ‘And to offspring,’ who is Christ.”
It is helpful to remember the context of the letter to the Galatians. People crept into the church to distort the preaching of the gospel. They attempted to bring the churches back under Law (i.e. legalism). How did they try to do it? By commanding circumcision as the condition to be saved (Gal. 5:1-6) and by commanding people to obey the Law as a condition to be saved or stay saved (Gal. 3:15-29). This resulted (as it did with the Roman churches) in ethnic separation and division (Gal. 2:1-14).
Notice the connection: Legalism gives fruit to ethnic division. The Gospel produces ethnic unity amidst diversity.
But, Paul must prove his point as to why circumcision and the Law aren’t conditions to be saved for those who trust in Christ. This is what he argues in 3:15-29. It’s as if he is saying, “The Mosaic Law came 430 years after the Abrahamic Covenant. The Mosaic Law doesn’t erase the Abrahamic Covenant, it builds upon it. It doesn’t build on it in the sense of adding conditions to being saved. That would utterly contradict Genesis 15:6. Therefore, the Ten Commandments don’t erase God saving people by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The Ten Commandments as a Covenant of Works are fulfilled by Christ. Now—in the Covenant of Grace—we obey them out of love for God, not out of slavish fear.”
We can also summarize Paul from Romans 4:1-25 as saying, “Plus, Abraham was justified by faith alone in Christ alone even before he was circumcised. So, you can’t make the argument that circumcision is the condition for which people are saved.”
Here is the summary: Paul is pointing out the fact that Genesis 17 “you and your offspring” is referring first to Christ (singular) and then to all who are united to Christ (plural). This means that no obedience nor circumcision changes the condition of entering into the Covenant of Grace.
The implication is that salvation—a saving covenant relationship with God—is on the basis of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It is not because of our works. Our works flow from the fact that we are in this covenant of grace through union with Christ.
In other words, if you want to receive the promises made to Abraham and be an offspring or child of Abraham then you must have faith in the True Offspring of Abraham.
So, What? What Does This Have To Do With Unity & Diversity?
In the Abrahamic Covenant, which we enter into through union with Christ, God promises there to be a people, place, possessions, and a personal relationship with Him. In Galatians 3:26-29, Paul is pointing out how this Covenant brings true unity through a greater identity we have as united to Christ.
God always intended the gospel to go to all people groups—no one desires unity amidst diversity more than God (and His church should echo that). But, we must submit to God’s Word and pursue the right means for achieving that end. And that has always been the gospel of grace (Rom. 1:16-17).
The New Testament establishes the fact that anyone of any ethnicity can come to Christ and be saved by grace alone through faith alone in Him alone. That salvation makes us a new Body (Eph. 4:1-5; 1 Pet. 2:1-10) with Christ as the Head (Eph. 1:22-23; 5:23). The governing reality of union with Christ produces a legal union with each other. Whether we live in light of it or not, all Christians of all different ethnicities are united to each other by virtue of their spiritual union with Christ. And that same union with Christ recreates in us by the Holy Spirit a spiritual DNA that loves our brothers and sisters united to Christ regardless of their ethnicity.
In other words, the gospel of grace powerfully transforms us to love both Jew and Gentile. The gospel of grace produces a genuine love for another (Jn. 13:35). It’s true that we don’t always live like it but that never negates the fact the gospel does produce this.
What Should We Do With Other Ideologies, Worldviews, Theories?
This Abrahamic Covenant—fulfilled in Christ—does away with with our obedience to any law as a condition for our justification. All other laws that try to make us do more or be better in order to force people to get along don’t have the power nor produce the fruit that we long to see. We are no longer under law but under grace (Rom. 6:14) and we must hold firm to that freedom (Gal. 5:1).
Yet, by grace we love God which is shown through growing obedience to His Law. The order is crucial: The Gospel produces obedience. The gospel of free grace brings the most true unity amidst all the ethnic diversity through union with Christ. It puts everyone on equal ground. This free love of God given to us empowers us to freely love others.
We should go out and minister to everyone in front of us—whether they are White Southerners or White Eastern Europeans, Black Northerners or Black South Africans, Middle Eastern or East Asian or Native American or South American, or whoever—the gospel of grace is calling Christians to tell anyone and everyone of the only good news that is in Jesus Christ.
What is that good news? That if we believe in Christ the Law is no longer over us as a Covenant of Works because He has fulfilled it for everyone who comes to Him. This means we can lay down our hatred, rivalry, prejudice, and suspicions. We can stop seeking revenge on others for what they have done because Christ died for sinners just like them. We can actually love others for the sake of the love of God for us.
What Other Theories, Ideologies, and Worldviews Can’t Do
There is no Law, no forced mandate, no legalistic peer pressure that can produce a unity like this. Those other systems, theories, ideologies, or worldviews ought to be done away with. Only the gospel is to be the preeminent means for this pursuit. We need to trust it! It is God’s power (Rom. 1:16). So many of the other popular ideas today have only produced further racism, prejudice, bigotry, and division.3
Staying in the Covenant of Works—producing more and more laws to rule over people—only perpetuates the problem of racism and prejudice. Law or laws cannot change hearts. There might be instances of common grace where God allows there to be shadows of unity.4 But, that only goes so deep. Those don’t genuinely change a heart as much as they just give each other a common goal.
What we desperately need is for people to be born again by the Holy Spirit, united to Christ, justified by grace alone through faith alone, and pursue genuine sanctification. What we need is genuine revival. What we need is for the gospel of free grace to be unashamedly preached to all. It needs to be unashamedly preached in all its fullness and unashamedly trusted to produce what only God can produce. And we need to trust that no law of any kind can do what only the gospel can do. We trust the gospel to empower us to obey God’s Law as a guide for our love for God.
Therefore, O preachers, teachers, and laymen, proclaim Christ! Don’t waiver. Don’t change up the message nor the emphasis. Don’t bring in false teaching and don’t entertain it. God’s Word is sure. He has said He will transform us into these types of people. But, He has said He would do so through the means of grace as the gospel is ministered.
This means that while Christ was born under the Law as a Covenant, He was not born with a sinful nature as we are because He was born supernaturally by conception in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit.
It is important to remember that Abram is renamed to Abraham (meaning “father of a multitude) in Genesis 17:5.
One can certainly think of how this happens on sports teams.