“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 neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:27-28)
This is the verse that our baptismal hymn is taken from, the song that we will sing in just a moment. But notice the following verse connected to it. To be baptized is to put on Christ, to wear Christ, to be marked permanently as belonging to Him. But what does this do? In some ways it makes you different from other people, but here what Paul says is that it unites you to many other people. To put on Christ is to put on what Jews and Greeks have put on, what slaves and freemen have put on, what male and female have put on – to put on Christ is to become one, is to be united. Only a few verses further, Paul says that this is why God sent His Son Jesus, to redeem those who were under the condemnation of the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons (Gal. 4:5). Tony, you told me yesterday how you have never really had a family. How you have never really had a home. But what I want to tell you this morning is that now you do. Because baptism is God’s personal promise to you, that no matter what He will be your Father, that Jesus has taken away your sins, and He promises to give you His Spirit who will teach you how to call God your Father. Tony, baptism means you belong. It means you are accepted. It means you don’t have to do anything to earn God’s favor or our favor or anyone else’s. It means He loves you with an everlasting love, an unbreakable love, and now His people are your family forever.
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