I turned thirty-nine this week. I was born in the first hour (just after midnight) on
October 11, 1983. It was then that I surrendered my life to Jesus and was born…again.
Many would say that, at that point in my life I was already a supremely privileged person, and I wouldn’t disagree. I was a twenty-one year old white man, so I was in the most privileged classes of gender and race, plus I was in the prime of my life physically at age twenty-one and, although I didn’t realize it at the time, I was in the days of less responsibility and more freedom than at any time in my life, because I was a full-time college student. But at the moment of my rebirth in Christ, my status jumped to the most privileged ever in the universe. I became a son of the Almighty Creator, Savior, Deliverer and Sovereign Judge.
The original text in certain New Testament passages is often “son”, even though many
English versions use “sons and daughters” or “children” in those cases. Galatians 4:6 is an example of that. Modern translations expand the terms to be sure readers understand that females are as privileged in Christ as males are. I’m glad those versions use more inclusive terminology because nobody needs to feel less or more privileged in Christ than anyone else is. Galatians 3:28 takes care of that point for us by clarifying that neither ethnicity, religious background, social status nor gender means anything in Christ. It was important for those early Christians to understand that because, in their culture, sons, not daughters, were the recipients of their fathers’ inheritances. In Jesus we are all equally and supremely privileged. That doesn’t mean God levels all playing fields for Christians. Just as Jesus didn’t solve the Roman-oppression problem, the slavery issue or the problem of male dominance in first century Palestine culture, we shouldn’t expect Him to relieve all forms of injustice in our culture. What He did in the past, and still does today, is help us navigate our difficulties in a way that evidences His power to personally overcome any challenge.
If you’re a person who’s fed up with unfair classes of privilege, there’s one place – and
only one place – you’ll ever find remedy. You won’t see worldly systems fixed; what you’ll see is inner power to deal with troubles in this age and a complete and perfect culture in all these ways in the age after this one. Eternity with Jesus will be the great equalizer where all have received eternal life because of our faith in Christ. This world can’t handle real equality; only Heaven can contain such goodness. Jesus said you can’t put new wine into old wineskins, and this unfair privilege issue is another in a long list of issues to which that analogy applies. We’ll find the new wineskins in our Spirit-filled hearts and in eternal Heaven. For the latter we need patience and for the former we need to walk in the Spirit.
Finally, please understand that, if you haven’t received the supreme privilege of being a
son of God, like the invited guests to the great banquet of Luke 14, you have only to accept
Jesus’ invitation.
And because we are His sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts,
prompting us to call out, “Abba Father.” – Galatians 4:6
There is no longer Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male and female. For all are one in
Christ Jesus. – Galatians 3:28
A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. – Luke 14:16