Galatians 3:28 Is Not About That

 

Galatians 3:28 is not about gender roles, who can lead and teach in the church, or anything like that. This verse has been so used and abused to justify things like female priests and pastors, to a feminist view of marriage, and other similar errors, that people have forgotten it was a dagger to the heart of the ideology of the Pharisees who wanted to separate God's people into two separate groups, Jew and Gentile.

But there is only one people of God:

"28 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. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Gal. 3:28-29).

All God's promises to Abraham are only fulfilled to those in Jesus, because only those in Jesus are actually of Abraham.

Galatians 3:28 is a death blow to any theology that wants to separate God's people into special ethnic groups. Ethnicity is the matter of nations, and how borders should be structured, it has nothing to do with coming unto to Jesus, or having access to all the promises of God. It says nothing about leadership, or who can preach and teach, or any of those things. It is about access to full membership in Israel, the people of God, and it only comes through Jesus.

Maybe if so many people were not mis-applying this verse, people would realize that Paul knocked down Christian-Zionism when he wrote the book of Galatians. All the arguments made in favour of CZ today are simply rehashes of the arguments of the opponents of Jesus, Peter and Paul.