Our kids are now both teenagers! And with the addition of new variables like driver’s education and the ability to stay home alone, we are once again adjusting expectations and rules. Family “policies” that made sense just a couple of years ago no longer apply. As our children mature, so does our work of parenting them.

In Galatians 3:26–29, Paul addresses his Galatian readers directly (“you”), assuring them of their identity as “children of God” (v. 26) and emphasizing that this new identity is for “all” of them, Gentiles and Jews alike (vv. 26–27). He also reiterates that they received this intimate, familial status with the Lord, not through any mechanism of the law but through faith.

Next, Paul affirms the fact that these Galatian believers had demon- strated their faith outwardly through both baptism and sanctification: “You …have clothed yourself with Christ” (v. 27). They had died to self and their old ways through the act of baptism, and they had risen to live as new creatures (see 2 Cor. 5:17). A new status meant new expectations. The character of Christ covered them and should be evident in their actions. True faith expresses itself in the daily life of the believer—through the decisions we make, the communication we express, the relationships we nurture, the resources we steward, the priorities we value, and so on.

Then, in verse 28, Paul highlights the broader social implications of this intimacy with Christ by renouncing the barriers too often evident in society: gender, social status, and ethnicity (v. 28). For the Galatian believers, Paul’s opponents were pressuring the Gentile Christians to adopt Judaism and put themselves under the law. But Paul here reiterates that all are “one in Christ” (v. 28). We have equal standing before God. And the inheritance promised to Abraham is extended to all who belong to Him (v. 29).

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