ガラテヤの信徒への手紙3:26-29 Galatians 3:26-29,

洗礼を受けてキリストに結ばれたあなたがたは皆、キリストを着ているからです。そこではもはや、ユダヤ人もギリシア人もなく、奴隷も自由な身分の者もなく、男も女もありません。あなたがたは皆、キリスト・イエスにおいて一つだからです。

（ガラテヤ3:27-28）

信仰による神様との親しい交わりは、ただ人の心の中にだけある主観的なものではありません。洗礼という教会の聖なる礼典によって客観的に確かなものとして認められた交わりです。聖書の研究者たちは、この27節と28節が新約聖書の時代の教会の洗礼式で用いられた式文の言葉に基づいているのではないか、と推察しています。それは、新約聖書のパウロの手紙の中に、この箇所とよく似た言葉がほかにもあるからです。たとえば、コリントの信徒への手紙一の12章13節には「つまり、一つの霊によって、わたしたちは、ユダヤ人であろうとギリシア人であろうと、奴隷であろうと自由な身分の者であろうと、皆一つの体となるために洗礼を受け、皆一つの霊をのませてもらったのです」とあります。「ユダヤ人であろうとギリシア人であろうと、奴隷であろうと自由な身分の者であろうと」というところが本日の箇所と似ています。そして、「キリストを着る」という本日の箇所の表現は「一つの霊をのむ」という別の表現で置き換えられています。そうすると、「キリストを着る」とは、キリストの霊である聖霊を受けて、聖霊におおわれて生きることであるのがわかります。私たちの古い自我は、キリストを信じた後も罪に染まっています。ですから、そのままでは父なる神様の前に出て神様と親しく交わることができません。しかし、キリストの霊である聖霊におおわれてキリストと一体となることによって、父なる神様に向き合って親しく交わることができるようになるのです。

また、コロサイの信徒への手紙の3章9節から11節には次のように記されています。「古い人をその行いと共に脱ぎ捨て、造り主の姿に倣う新しい人を身に着け、日々新たにされて、真の知識に達するのです。そこには、もはや、ギリシア人とユダヤ人、割礼を受けた者と受けていない者、未開人、スキタイ人、奴隷、自由な身分の者の区別はありません。キリストがすべてであり、すべてのもののうちにおられるのです。」この箇所の「造り主の姿に倣う新しい人を身に着け」という教えは、本日の箇所の「キリストを着ている」という教えと同じ意味です。そして、「ギリシア人とユダヤ人……奴隷、自由な身分の者の区別はありません」という教えもよく似ています。キリストと結ばれてキリストを身に着けて生きる人は、旧約聖書の律法や人間の制度による区別を克服して生きることができるということです。　　　　　　　　（11月12日の説教より）

Nowadays, the widening disparity in Japanese society has become an issue. Various disparities have arisen, such as disparity in family environment, disparity in education that arise from different families, disparity in wages from work, and disparity in consumer lifestyles from income. And widening inequality is not just a problem in Japan. According to the United Nations’ Global Report on Sustainable Development 2019, “there has been an unprecedented increase in wealth and income disparities in many countries, primarily driven by concentration at the top, with the share of the richest 1 per cent of the world population reaching about 33 per cent of total wealth on the planet, in 2017.” In other words, inequality is widening across the world, making it difficult for people in difficult circumstances to have hope that their lives will eventually improve if they work hard enough. And it is this lack of hope that is behind the indiscriminate killings and terrorism that often occur today.

What creates hope in a difficult situation is fellowship with others. Having people who know about your difficult situation gives you hope. And if it is the Almighty God who knows your difficult situation, then that hope is sure. In Old Testament times, the Israelites, who were in a difficult situation as slaves in the land of Egypt, were able to have hope through their fellowship with God. They prayed to God about their suffering and had the hope that God would hear their cries and save them. In response to their prayers, God sent Moses to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. In Exodus 2:23-25, it is recorded that God heard the cries of the Israelites in their suffering, as follows.

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

It was because of God’s covenant with Abraham, the ancestor of the Israelites, that God delivered the Israelites. In other words, it was because of the covenant God gave to their ancestor Abraham that the Israelites were able to persevere in the hope of salvation. In Genesis 15:13-14, we read that God spoke to Abraham as follows.

 “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”

And in verses 18-21 of the same chapter 15 we read:

On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Thus, the Israelites were able to persevere and wait for God’s deliverance in difficult circumstances because God had promised their ancestor Abraham that he would deliver them from Egypt and give them the land of Canaan.

This promise given to Abraham was, in the context of the Old Testament, the promise that Abraham’s descendants would acquire and inherit the land of Canaan. This meant that the Jews, who were Abraham’s descendants, would be given literally the land of Canaan by God to possess. However, Paul has a unique interpretation of the promise given to Abraham. Namely, in verse 16, shortly before today’s passages, Paul says, “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.” Indeed, the “offspring” of the promise in Genesis 15:18, “To your offspring I give this land” is, as in Genesis 12:7, the singular form of the word zera (זֶרַע) in Hebrew and sperma (σπέρμα) in Greek. However, this singular form is usually said to be a “collective noun” and is understood to denote a group of people in the singular form. For example, in English “people” is sometimes used in the plural sense of a group of people even though the form is singular. In the same way, it is common to think of “offspring” as having the plural meaning of descendants when it says, “To your offspring I will give this land.” Paul, however, takes “offspring” literally in the singular and understands it to refer to a single person who is a descendant of Abraham. He then interprets this “offspring” “is Christ.”

With this unique interpretation, Paul interprets the promise given to Abraham “To your offspring I will give this land” in a very broad sense. Firstly, by interpreting “offspring” as Christ, the blessing given to Abraham is also a blessing given to Christ. Then, secondly, the promised “land” is not just an earthly “land,” but refers to the heavenly estate where we are justified and receive eternal life. Thirdly, it means that those who believe in Christ and are united with him are also promised to inherit the same heavenly estate of being justified and receiving eternal life as Christ. Thus, according to Paul’s interpretation, the promise given to Abraham “To your offspring I will give this land” no longer means giving the land of Canaan to the Jews, but to those who believe in Christ the heavenly estate of “being justified and receiving eternal life.” This is the case of the Galatians.

In the verse 26 of today’s passages, Paul says: “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” Paul is a man who has been transformed from a life of strict adherence to the teachings of the Old Testament law to a life of believing in Christ and being led by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he taught the importance of faith, saying that a person is saved by believing in Christ. However, the evangelists who came to the Galatian churches after Paul downplayed Paul’s authority and taught that “one cannot be fully saved unless he not only believes in Christ but also undergoes the ritual of circumcision as required by the Old Testament law.” This greatly upset the religious life of the believers in the churches in Galatia.

The later evangelists based their teaching on the life of Abraham, the ancestor of the Jews. The reason is that at the time of Abraham, the law was given that Abraham’s descendants had to undergo the ritual of circumcision. Therefore, in chapter 3, verses 7-9, Paul stated that Abraham had already been counted as righteous by God through faith and given the promise of blessing before he underwent the ritual of circumcision. In verses 15-18, he also elaborated that the law that the Israelites were given through Moses after they departed from Egypt, that they had to undergo the ritual of circumcision, did not nullify the promise given to Abraham. Just as Abraham was justified by God through faith and walked in close fellowship with God, so those who are united to Christ through faith can walk in close fellowship with God as “sons of God.” That fellowship is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, who intimately calls God “Abba,” or “Father,” as in chapter 4:6 a little later.

Such close fellowship is described by Paul in verses 27 and 28 as follows.

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.

Intimate communion with God by faith is not a subjective thing that only exists in the hearts of human beings. It is a communion objectively confirmed by the church’s sacrament of baptism. Biblical scholars have speculated that verses 27-28 may be based on the words of the formula used in baptism of the churches in New Testament times. This is because there are other words in Paul’s letters in the New Testament that are very similar to these verses. For example, in 1 Corinthians 12:13, we read: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” “Jews or Greeks, slaves or free” is similar to verse 28 of today’s passages. And the expression “put on Christ” in today’s passages is replaced by another expression “drink of one Spirit.” Then we see that to “put on Christ” is to receive the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, and to live covered by the Holy Spirit. Our old ego is still steeped in sin even after we have believed in Christ. Therefore, as it is, we cannot come into the presence of God the Father and have intimate communion with him. However, by being covered by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, and becoming one with Christ, we can face God the Father and commune with him intimately.

Also, in Colossians 3:9-11 we read as follows.

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

The teaching, “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator,” is the same as the teaching in today’s passages, “put on Christ.” And the teaching that “there is not Greek and Jew, …… slave, free” is also very similar. It means that those who are united to Christ and live clothed with Christ can overcome the distinctions made by Old Testament law and human institutions.

Interestingly, in verse 28 of today’s passages, Paul includes the words “there is no male and female,” which are not found in 1 Corinthians 12:13 or Colossians 3:9-11, which I quoted earlier. Biblical scholars have speculated that Paul probably has in mind the words of the Jewish prayer when he says, “there is no male and female.” That is, the Jewish daily morning prayer included the following words. After they pray, “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast not made me a heathen,” and “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast not made me a slave,” men pray, “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast not made me a woman.” When women today hear the words of this prayer, they cannot help but be angry: “What a rude prayer!” and would be outraged. Remarkably, the prayer is also found verbatim in a Jewish prayer book published some 60 years ago, in 1962 (The Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth of Nations, tr S. Singer, 2nd rev. ed [London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1962] 6-7). Perhaps with the intention of opposing such Judaism’s male-centredness, Paul writes that “there is no male and female” in those united to Christ.

In the verse 29 of today’s passages, Paul concludes his argument by stating that if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” This means that those who believe in Christ and are baptised are those who belong to Christ, Abraham’s offspring and heirs to the heavenly estate of being “justified and receiving eternal life.” Therefore, even in difficult circumstances, Christians can walk in hope on the basis that they are children of God who inherit heavenly estate. And because Christians share the hope of inheriting heavenly estate, “Jews and Greeks,” “slaves and free,” “men and women” can unite in solidarity as children of God, transcending nationality, social status and gender. In today’s society, where disparities and divisions are widening and it is difficult to live with hope, we want to live, sharing the hope that the Bible teaches with various kinds of people.