Union or Unity Galatians 3:28

For as many of you as were baptized in to Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, neither is there make or female for all are one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.




"Heirs according to the promise" what a wonderful promise! This ought to be the primary goal of our lives for this is God's primary goal. The desire of God's heart is that you and I become heirs according to His promises. This meets our need to day as well as for all of eternity.

This promise removes all barriers that we have in our world today. The ethnic barriers come down for in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. God does not look at the color of our skin or the country where we were born for in Christ Jesus we are all one.

Not only are the ethnic barriers brought down, do are the socio-economic barriers brought down for there is neither "slave nor free" in Christ Jesus. Rich and poor alike are all one in the Lord. God does not look at the balance in our savings account when He looks to save us. God does not really care about the amount on the check that we write on Sunday; if He looks at all, He looks to see what the balance is in the account after the check is written, for the Bible tells us that God loves a cheerful giver! We are all mere paupers before God and all that we have belongs to Him anyway!

Not only are there no ethnic or socio-economic barriers, there are no gender barriers either; for there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus. God does not look at our gender when it comes to our salvation and our worth in His eyes. We are all His children and we are all infinitely valuable to Him no matter who we are or what we have accomplished, good or bad! There is no one who is so good that he does not need the Lord's mercy and His grace nor is there anyone who is so bad that God cannot save him.

We are all "one in Christ Jesus." Unity is a wonderful thing. Unity brings us together and it draws others to us. Unity gives us a sense of family. Unity is the product of love for one another. When we have unity and there are no barriers between us, we will have union. However there is a difference between unity and union. Union can exist without unity but unity cannot exist without union. Let me explain.

Union exists when two cats are tied together at the tail but it would be fair to say there would be little unity! We need to understand that the real goal of the Lord in our lives is not that we just come together, but that we come together in love for one another because God has first loved us and He has forgiven us. Because of what He has done for us, we can love and accept others as He sees them not as we see them. Let's strive to practice unity as opposed to union. There is a world out there that is dying and headed for an eternity in Hell because we who are in Christ Jesus are not willing to see others as Christ sees them. We need to change that and we need to do it today.