Gal 6:15–18 — The Israel of God

And as you can see from the title of the sermon, I’ve taken the title from verse 16, where Paul says, and as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, even upon the Israel of God. And so the title of the sermon is the Israel of God. In this closing appeal, the Apostle Paul is wanting to make an impression upon his audience.

Exposition

And so he takes the pen by himself and he says, I’m writing these last words in my own hand. He’s probably not as gifted at calligraphy as the secretary and so his letters are somewhat bigger and maybe somewhat blocky and not as beautiful as the secretary’s letter. But he is taking it with his own hand in order to make an impression upon the congregation.

These Christians who were recently converted and brought to faith in Christ from Gentile paganism, but who are being pressured by these false teachers, the Judaizers, being pressured to submit to circumcision in order to be right with God. As I pointed out last week when we looked at the first half of this last paragraph, they are trying to force the Galatian Christians to be circumcised. Paul uses that word force in verse 12. They’re trying to force you to be circumcised. And the word force is significant because it shows that they’re not just simply encouraging them to be circumcised and say, hey, it might be a nice thing to do. They’re saying, no, you have to do this in order to be treated as a true member of the people of God.

Acts 15, which is a parallel passage to the Book of Galatians, provides somewhat of the context of the Book of Galatians. Acts 15, verse 1, the very first verse of that chapter, that’s the chapter about the Council of Jerusalem, where the apostles gathered together and said, what do we do about the Gentiles? Do they need to be circumcised? But verse 1 tells us what these false teachers were saying. They were saying, Acts 15, verse 1, unless you’re circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. You see, they were making it a condition of salvation.

They were making it a condition of treating these Gentiles as members of God’s people. They were not saying that Gentiles couldn’t be a part of God’s people. They’re saying, yes, of course, they could be a part of God’s people. There’s no problem with welcoming the Gentiles in. But until they’re circumcised, they’re not truly full members of the people of God.

Having come to believe in Jesus and value the Old Testament writings, they may have resembled God-fearers on the periphery of the synagogue who desired to join God’s people. In the eyes of the Judaizers, however, they could not become full members of God’s people until they were circumcised.

This has been the focus of the entire letter. Paul is writing to the Galatian Christians to tell them that they are already members of the people of God. That they do not need to be circumcised, that they are united to Christ, and that they are a part of God’s people. There’s a key verse earlier in the letter that ties in directly with our text today, and that’s in Galatians 3, verses 28 and 29. In Galatians 3, 28 and 29, actually let’s back up to verse 27. He says, for as many of you as were baptized, into Christ, have put on Christ.

You don’t need to be circumcised. If you’re baptized, you are in Christ, you 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. And then here’s the key statement in verse 29.

And if you are Christ’s, If you have been united to Christ, and baptism is the sign and seal of that, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. The Judaizers were saying, no, you’re not yet Abraham’s offspring. Until you get circumcised, and Paul is saying, no, you already are Abraham’s offspring, and you are heirs according to the promise.

Note that that concept of being the offspring of Abraham is clearly a spiritual and theological concept. It’s not simply a biological concept. Ishmael and Esau were biological descendants of Abraham, but they were not Abraham’s offspring in this spiritual sense of being part of the people of God. That’s why Paul later on in Galatians 4 will talk about Abraham’s two sons, one born according to the flesh, Ishmael, and one born according to the spirit, Isaac.

And he says, so it is now, even today, we see that contrast between those who are biologically descendants of Abraham and those who are part of Abraham’s offspring in the theological sense of being a part of the people of God, and therefore, heirs according to promise. That’s what the people of God is. The people of God is those who are heirs of the promises, who believe in those promises. And who are looking forward to the fulfillment of those promises. So Paul here in his final warning to the Galatian Christians is repeating this basic concept. He’s repeating this basic idea that the Judaizers are teaching you a wrong idea about what it means to be Abraham’s offspring and to be a part of God’s people. Here in Christ, he says, there is neither circumcision or uncircumcision. Circumcision and uncircumcision doesn’t count for anything. What counts is the new creation. Now why does he use that term new creation?

Galatians 6:15: A New Creation

At first you might be thinking new creation is referring to the new heavens and the new earth. Revelation 21 at the very end when Christ comes back after the day of judgment there’s going to be a new heavens and a new earth and all sin and evil will be removed from this world and even the physical cosmos itself will be glorified and transformed into a wonderful place for God’s people to dwell in glorified bodies.

That is clearly in the background of Paul’s thought, although it is not yet his explicit focus. He emphasizes Christ’s resurrection as the beginning of the new creation. In the previous verse, he writes, “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only a new creation. The cross presents Christ’s death, while his resurrection inaugurates the new creation. That beginning will one day be fulfilled in the new heavens and new earth, where God’s people will dwell in glorified bodies.

But Paul is focusing here on the new creation that begins in Christ and his resurrection from the dead. And that’s why he is talking about the idea that this people of God, that God is creating through Christ, all who belong to Christ are Abraham’s offspring. That’s why he talks about this in terms of the new creation—in order to show that God is forming a people and the Christ is the nucleus.

And all who are united to Him are new creations in Him as well. Remember that passage in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, where Paul uses the same idea, the same phrase, new creation, but he uses it in the context of conversion. He says, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. It has both an individual and a corporate aspect to it. Each individual person who’s effectually called and brought out of death into life is a new creation. But this new creation life that the individual has through conversion and effectual calling is a participation in this reality that Christ has inaugurated the new creation through his resurrection. And so therefore we see the new creation instantiated in each example of a person who is brought to faith and brought into union with Christ by the Spirit. Another key idea, though, that we have to keep in mind is that he says it’s a new creation.

So right away, we’re thinking about Genesis. We’re thinking about the creation, going back to Genesis 1 and 2. Think about what God originally planned for Adam. Adam was given this dominion mandate. He was told to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and take dominion and to subdue the earth through populating the world with image bearers who are reflecting the glory of God.

Of course, Adam sinned and brought that whole plan to a seeming halt, but God promised, that first promise of the gospel in Genesis 3.15, that he was not going to let that ultimate goal fail, and that he would bring about that glorious goal that God had of populating the world with a new humanity.

He’s going to bring it about through the offspring of the woman. And there’s going to be two offsprings. The offspring of the serpent, all the unbelievers, and the offspring of the woman, that is all who are in Christ. The offspring of the woman has both an individual and a collective aspect, just like we saw with this word new creation. There’s the individual seed, who is Christ, but then there’s all who are united to Christ by faith, who are the offspring of the woman. So Paul here is thinking about not only the resurrection of Christ, when he says there’s a new creation, he’s also thinking about the resurrection of Christ as the second Adam.

And now from his exalted position at the right hand of God, he is calling his people. He is being fruitful and multiplying. Every time a sinner comes to saving faith in Christ and comes into his church, he is creating that new humanity that was the fulfillment of what Adam was supposed to do, but now is being fulfilled in Christ. So now you see what Paul is saying.

Galatians 6:16: The Israel of God

In terms of this context of the Judaizers saying, to be a true member of the people of God, you need to be circumcised and keep the law. Paul is saying that now the reality is in this new creation that has been inaugurated through the resurrection of Christ and as individual sinners are brought into union with Christ by effectual calling and by faith, there we see not only a new creation but a new humanity, a new people that is being formed around Christ who is the head of that new humanity. Then he says in verse 16, as for all who walk by this rule, that is all who follow this principle, that the true definition of the people of God is faith in Christ, not circumcision, all who follow this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, even upon the Israel of God. When he says peace and mercy, in Hebrew that’s shalom and hesed. Shalom and hesed. Hesed is often translated as mercy or loving kindness. And this is an allusion to all the prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the restoration of Israel. Israel had failed to be this people that God was trying to form. They had failed and they were sent into exile.

But God said, just like he said to Adam and Eve after they sinned, I’m not going to let this plan and program fall. I am going to fulfill it. And one day there’s going to be a restoration of Israel, of the people of God, under a new covenant. Of course, we know that’s fulfilled in Christ.

In those prophecies of the New Covenant, this language of Shalom and Chesed is used. For example, in Ezekiel 39, 25. Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy, have Chesed on the whole house of Israel. That’s a particularly relevant quote because of our text here where Paul uses that same phrase, upon the Israel of God. I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel.

Or Isaiah 54 verse 10, God speaks of his covenant of shalom, his covenant of peace. That he’s going to make with the people and it will never be removed because it will be fulfilled in Christ. That’s right after Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, the story, the picture of the suffering servant, the Messiah and his work on the cross. He is going to create a new covenant. He’s going to be given as a covenant for the people in order to gather this people, in order to create this new people of God.

Many of our English translations use the word “and” there. “As for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God.” But the word and could also be translated as “even” or “that is.” “As for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, that is upon the Israel of God.” Peace and mercy be upon them, i.e., upon the Israel of God.

So Paul here is defining the Israel of God, not as the Israel according to the flesh, that is the Jewish people, but he’s defining it as this theological concept, the same thing that we already looked at before, back in Galatians 3.29, as the offspring of Abraham.

He is calling us the people of God. He’s calling us the Israel of God. In fulfillment of those prophecies in Ezekiel and Isaiah and Jeremiah, when God is looking ahead and promising to his people that even though it seems as if everything has fallen apart, the temple has been burned to the ground, the people themselves have been whittled down to a small remnant, Yet God is going to restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy and hesed upon the whole house of Israel. And he’s going to do so through Christ and the new covenant, through the work of that suffering servant in Isaiah 53. He is the one who is going to gather again the people of God. And so we are the Israel of God.

Galatians 6:17: The Marks of Jesus

And then just to round out the last few verses here in our text, verse 17, from now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The marks that he’s referring to here on his body is probably referring to the physical scars that he has on his body from all the persecutions that he has endured.

Many of those persecutions were actually at the hands of unbelieving Jews. He mentions that in 2 Corinthians 11. He says, five times he received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes less one. That was the synagogal punishment. Because he used to be a loyal son of Judaism, he used to be a Christian. Perfectly devoted to all of the traditions of Judaism and the oral traditions. But then when Christ called him on the road to Damascus and turned him around and brought him to saving faith in Christ and commissioned him to be an apostle to the Gentiles, he was rejected by his own people. And he received the same kind of persecution that he was trying to mete out against the Christians.

Paul seems to view the physical scars from the persecutions he received as if they were like brand marks of He’s saying, these are the brand marks of my slavery to Christ. Christ is my master, and he has marked me out as belonging to him. Even in his own body, he shows the evidence that he belongs to Christ. His true identity is being part of this new creation, being part of this Israel of God, not the unbelieving Israel according to the flesh.

Galatians 6:18: The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ

And then he concludes with that last benediction of grace in verse 18. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. What is the main point that we should draw from this, especially from this reference there in verse 16 to the church as being the Israel of God? The main point that we need to derive from this text is this key idea that we who believe in Christ, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, we ought to think of ourselves as the Israel of God.

Doctrine

Gentile Christians as the Israel of God

That is what Paul is getting at here. He is trying to inculcate within his audience It’s somewhat shocking, isn’t it? But he’s inculcating within this Gentile audience this sense of belonging, this sense of identity to the people of Israel. Even though they’re Gentiles, and even though they’re not even circumcised, he is wanting to make sure that they can see themselves as being members of the people of God, going all the way back to the foundations of that people of God in the Old Testament.

The Apostle Paul has several key passages in his letters where he talks about this concept of the church being the Israel of God. There’s two big ones in my mind, in addition of course to our text here, but two major passages where Paul speaks about this concept. One is in Romans 11, and the other is in Ephesians 2. These are two key Pauline passages where he really fleshes this out.

In Romans 11, he uses this analogy of the olive tree. And he speaks of the people of God being an olive tree. Of course, that language of the olive tree is taken from the Old Testament. It’s found in the prophets when God is speaking to his people. Sometimes he’ll speak to his people as a vine, but sometimes as an olive tree that he planted in the land. And Paul says that that olive tree has these roots that go deep, even before the formation of the nation of Israel in the time of the Exodus, going all the way back to the time of the patriarchs, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he speaks of that root, the root of the olive tree, as having this glorious sap and juice that nourishes the whole olive tree. He’s speaking of the root being the Abrahamic promises, the promises that God made to his people.

And then he also speaks about the fact that many of the Jews in Paul’s own day have not believed in Jesus as the Messiah. And He says that they have been removed from that olive tree because of their unbelief. The individual branches of the olive tree that were part of the Old Covenant people of God, part of the nation of Israel, if they did not accept Jesus as the Messiah, if they rejected Him, then those branches were cut out and removed from the olive tree. And then he speaks to the Gentiles and he says, but you Gentiles, even though you’re foreign, you’re not really part of this olive tree, you’re from a different wild olive tree, God has taken you out from that wild olive tree and he’s grafted you in to this true people of God, to this olive tree of faith that goes all the way back to the Abrahamic promises.

He says, remember, it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. He says that to somewhat humble the Gentiles somewhat, because they’re getting somewhat proud. They’re thinking, we’re the ones that believe, and these Jews over here, they don’t, so we’re better than the Jews. And the Apostle Paul says, yes, it’s true. You’ve been grafted in, but you’ve only been grafted in by grace. And remember that you’re supported by that nourishing root of the olive tree, the promises that God made to Abraham. And so don’t think that you are somehow better than others.

God will take you out too if you do not believe, if you fall away from faith in Christ. And he also says, even those Jews that have rejected Christ, God is able to bring them back in. God is able to graft them back in by granting them saving faith in Christ.

The olive tree is referring to Israel, not Israel according to the flesh, not simply the biological descendants of Abraham. The olive tree is referring to this theological, spiritual concept of the people of God. It’s the same thing as saying that if you’re a part of the olive tree, you are the offspring of Abraham. You are the people of God.

And that’s why Paul can then later say in that same passage in Romans 11, that as the Gentiles are being grafted in to the olive tree, in this way, all Israel will be saved. That is the whole olive tree, which contains both Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ, will be saved. The Gentiles have been grafted into the olive tree by faith. Faith itself being a gift of God through effectual calling. Christ is grafting in the Gentiles into the olive tree, so they are part of Israel now. They’re part of the Israel of God.

The other major passage where Paul talks about this same idea, using different terminology, is in Ephesians chapter 2. He says, remember that at one time you Gentiles were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. In other words, that word commonwealth is referring to, it’s the Greek word politeia, which is where we get “polity” in English. It’s the idea of a social organism. We were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. We were not citizens of the people of God. We were strangers to the covenants of promise and had no hope and were without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you Gentiles, who once were far off, who were once part of that wild olive tree, who once were not a part of the people of God, you have now been brought near. You have now been grafted in to the olive tree by the blood of Christ.

And Paul thinks it’s important. It’s important for these Gentile Christians to see themselves as the Israel of God. To see themselves as belonging to the people of God going all the way back to the Old Testament. Not only to the Abrahamic promise, but even before that, to the first promise that was made to Adam and Eve in the garden, concerning the offspring that would come. Paul wants these Gentiles to have this identity, to view themselves as citizens of the people of God, as not aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, but as members, as equal members of the people of God.

Applications

The Modern State of Israel Is Not the Israel of God

There are some who hold to the idea that God has two separate peoples. He has an earthly people of God, which is the biological descendants of Abraham, the Jews, Israel according to the flesh. And then he has another people of God, which is the church, the church of Jesus Christ.

And they accuse us of holding to what’s called replacement theology. Because we say, no, the church is the Israel of God. And the church, they say, in our theology, as they try to represent what we believe, they say, we’re saying that the church replaces Israel. But that’s not at all what Paul is saying.

In Galatians 6.16, in Romans 11, in Ephesians 2, Paul does not hold to replacement theology, but to fulfillment theology. That is, Christ and the new creation is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. We don’t hold to replacement theology, but fulfillment theology. And along with that fulfillment theology, we hold to inclusion.

The Old Testament Is about God’s Covenant People

The inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God. Remember the olive tree? We’re grafted in. Now we are part of the people of God. And all the wonderful promises in the Old Testament. In fact, most of the Old Testament is about this. All the promises in the Old Testament about how God is going to make this wonderful people. All those promises. Are referring to us, referring to all who believe in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, who are now a part of this glorious people of God that God is creating in himself.

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is full of surprises. It has layers to it. If you think about it from a distance, it is about how we’re justified by faith alone and not by works, and how circumcision is fulfilled through baptism. It’s about salvation. It’s about soteriology, how we can be right with God. But Galatians has layers to it, has more depth to it than just simply that. We already saw this in our basic outline of the book.

Galatians one and two is the apostle of gospel liberty, where Paul talks about his story, how God called him and converted him and entrusted him with the gospel. Then chapters three and four is the doctrine of gospel liberty, that’s the key core section about how we’re justified by faith alone, not by the works of the law.

And also in that section where Paul addresses the question of why then did God give the law? If we’re not justified by keeping the law, why did he give it in the first place? And the answer is, the reason is to shut us up under sin so that we put our faith in Christ as our only hope, as the fulfillment of the law. But then in chapters five and six, we have the third major section of the letter, which is the life of gospel liberty. And in Galatians five and six, as we’ve been looking at over the past few weeks, going through that whole section, we see that Paul is not only interested in the doctrine of justification, he’s also interested in the doctrine of sanctification. How God is transforming us. And the key to understand that is that the Spirit is the reward of Christ’s merit. Christ has fulfilled the law, he has borne the curse of the law, he has accomplished our salvation, and then he has received the gift of the Spirit as the reward for his obedience to God. And he has poured out that Spirit upon us in order to transform us and to help us to grow in Christ.

And so we see then that our sanctification is really not up to us, is it? It’s not our work. We’re not striving to sanctify ourselves by keeping the law better. The sanctification is Christ’s own reward. He is getting His people. And He’s going to present His people to Himself one day as a glorious bride without spot or wrinkle. And He’s working in us by His Spirit to sanctify us and to make us more like Himself.

But in that third section, on the life of gospel liberty, Paul not only talks about sanctification in the individual sense of our own struggles with sin, and the need to fight against the flesh and to walk in the spirit. He also talks about the corporate dimension of sanctification. Remember in those works of the flesh, when he lists off what the works of the flesh are, he uses the most obvious ones, breaking of the first commandment, idolatry, breaking of the sixth commandment, murder, breaking of the seventh commandment, sexual immorality, but then he zones in, somewhat hones in upon the idea of the Sixth Commandment having to do with our relationships within the body of Christ. And in this section in Galatians 5 and 6, about sanctification, the reward of Christ, fulfillment of the law for us, he talks about the corporate dimension of sanctification. For example, Galatians 5 verse 14.

The whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. He’s talking about life within the body of Christ, life as the people of God. We have to be careful that we don’t bite and consume one another with envy and division and strife. And then in the list of the sins of the flesh, the works of the flesh, he brings up some of those specific sins that have to do with our life within the body of Christ. He talks about enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions.

These are all expressions of the works of the flesh. But on the other hand, the fruits of the Spirit are not only that we are full of joy and peace, which you could think of as a more individual sense of our own relationship with God, our own walk with God, but he then immediately begins to broaden that out into the way the fruits of the Spirit work out in our relationships within the body of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things. There is no law.

And then he goes on to talk about how we need to bear one another’s burdens and live together as the household of God. He even mentions that in verse 10. He says, let’s do good to everyone as we have opportunity, but especially to those who are of the household of faith. My point is that Paul is also talking about the church. He is talking about the gospel and how we can be right with God and have our sins forgiven and know that we are going to heaven. It’s only because of Christ and his work, and we receive that work by faith alone. But he’s also fleshing out this important doctrine of the church as the body of Christ, or, to use the language of our text, as the Israel of God, as this people that God is creating through Christ and through faith in Christ.

We should view ourselves as the people of God, and as those who are in continuity with the Old Covenant people of God. We have the same promises, the same faith in the Messiah. Theirs was a faith in the Messiah to come. Ours is a faith in the Messiah who has come. But it’s the same people of God. We’ve been grafted into the olive tree. And we should view ourselves that way. We should view ourselves as the Israel of God because this is God’s entire purpose. Think of it. It’s an amazing thing.

This is what God is all about. From the very beginning of creation when he made Adam to be this royal king and priest who was going to be fruitful and multiply and create this new humanity that would worship God forever in the glorified creation. Christ has come and he is the second Adam and he is forming his people, the church, the Israel of God. Remember, just to give you an illustration that this is the plan of God from the very beginning, remember when God first called Abraham, Genesis 12. There are many points in the narrative in Genesis 12 and following where God comes to Abraham and appears to him and says different things, makes covenants and so on. But what’s the very, very first thing that God said to Abraham in Genesis 12?

I’m going to make you a great nation. That is God’s purpose, is to create this people of God, this glorious olive tree. What is that great nation? And from Abraham’s point of view, it’s referring literally to, he’s going to have Isaac, Isaac is going to have Jacob, Jacob is going to have the 12 sons that become the 12 tribes of Israel. The great nation is Israel. That’s what God is promising to Abraham. I am going to make you into this great nation that will later be called Israel.

Remember as well that that was Jacob’s name. Jacob was originally called Jacob, but then God changed his name and said, I’m going to call you Israel now. And in one of the places, there are two passages in Genesis where he talks about the change of name. The first one is in Genesis 32, after he wrestles with the angel, and he says, I’m going to call your name Israel because you have striven with God and man and have prevailed. But then in the second one, in Genesis 35, he repeats it again and says, your name will be called Israel. And then he immediately says to him what?

Be fruitful and multiply. And go in and possess the land that I’m going to give you. Echoing all the way back to Genesis and to God’s dominion mandate to Adam. Be fruitful and multiply and become this great nation. That is God’s whole purpose. Paul will later on say in Ephesians chapter three, I mentioned Ephesians chapter two about how the aliens are now part of the people of God, but in the very next chapter in Ephesians three, what does he say? He says that God has given Paul this wonderful privilege of being the one who’s going to preach this doctrine of God’s eternal purpose. He says, Ephesians 3, of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given to me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone What is the plan of the mystery hidden in God? Hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

And then you have this verse here, Ephesians 3.11. Listen to this. This was according to the eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. He doesn’t use the word Israel there or Israel of God, but that’s what He’s talking about. This was God’s eternal purpose before the foundation of the world. God had this purpose to create the Israel of God, to create the church.

He began to progressively reveal that purpose to the patriarchs, giving them little hints and glimpses of this glorious purpose. I’m going to make you into a great nation. And oh, even the Gentiles are going to be blessed in you one day. And he pursues this purpose throughout the history of the Old Testament.

And then now in Christ, we see the fulfillment. This is what God is all about. This is what the whole Bible is all about. This is God’s eternal purpose. He’s not simply electing and saving individual sinners and bringing them to salvation. He is forming and creating this glorious reality of the people of God. Sometimes referred to as Israel, sometimes referred to as the offspring of Abraham, sometimes referred to as the church, but it’s all the same thing. It’s this glorious reality. It’s this new creation that is coming to birth in Christ, who is the head of that new creation through his death and resurrection.

And it’s important for us to think about that and to understand that and to believe that. It affects the way we live. It affects our relationships within the body of Christ. It affects how we view ourselves in this world and how we think about what is God accomplishing in this world? And so often we get bogged down.

We just look at the things that we can see. We look at all the things that are happening in the stage of world history and politics and all kinds of things going on or just in our own lives. We see all the difficulties and struggles of our own lives to make a living or to have our own families and we forget that God is doing something glorious and great. And we get to have the privilege of being a part of that. That is what God is calling us to see, to see ourselves, to truly reflect upon this reality that we are the people of God, we are the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose in Christ Jesus.