WHAT ARE YOU?

When I walked into the ice cream shop with my five-year-old biracial son, the man behind the counter glanced at me and stared at my child. “What are you?”

His question and harsh tone triggered the all-too-familiar anger and heartache I’d experienced growing up as a Mexican-American who didn’t fit stereotypes. Pulling Xavier closer, I turned toward my Black husband as he entered the store. With eyes narrowed, the store clerk completed our order in silence.

I prayed silently for the man as my son listed the flavors of ice cream he wanted to try. Repenting of my bitterness, I asked God to give me a spirit of forgiveness. With my light-but-not-white complexion, I’d been the target of similar glares accompanying that same question over the years. I’d struggled with insecurities and feelings of worthlessness until I began learning how to embrace my identity as God’s beloved daughter.

The apostle Paul declares that believers in Jesus are “all children of God through faith,” equally valued and beautifully diverse. We’re intimately connected and intentionally designed to work together (Galatians 3:26–29). When God sent His Son to redeem us, we became family through His blood shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins (4:4–7). As God’s image-bearers, our worth cannot be determined by the opinions, expectations, or biases of others.

What are we? We’re children of God.

Read: Galatians 3:26-4:7 (NIV)

3 26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God^m through faith, 

27 for all of you who were baptized into Christⁿ have clothed yourselves with Christ.^o 

28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free,^p nor is there male and female,^q for you are all one in Christ Jesus.^r 

29 If you belong to Christ,^s then you are Abraham’s seed,^t and heirs^u according to the promise.^v

41 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 

2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 

3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery^w under the elemental spiritual forces^a of the world.^x 

4 But when the set time had fully come,^y God sent his Son,^z born of a woman,^a born under the law,^b 

5 to redeem^c those under the law, that we might receive adoption^d to sonship.^b e 

6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son^f into our hearts,^g the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,^c Father.”^h 

7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.ⁱ

INSIGHT

1. When have you doubted your value as a person due to the opinions, expectations, or biases of others?
2. How does knowing all God’s children are His image-bearers help you love those who are different from you?

Paul isn’t abolishing all ethnic, economic, or gender distinctions in the church (Galatians 3:28). Rather, in speaking of our salvation, Paul says God treats everyone on the same basis: All have sinned—“we are all prisoners of sin” (3:22 nlt; see Romans 3:23). Everyone needs to repent (Acts 2:38; 3:19). We’re all saved in the same way—by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9). “In Christ Jesus [we] are all children of God through faith” (Galatians 3:26). In Jesus, God embraces us equally (1 Corinthians 12:13; Colossians 3:11). While we enter God’s family by being “born again” (John 3:3; 1 Peter 1:3, 23), Paul uses the concept of adoption to describe our standing in the family so we can immediately claim our status and enjoy our full privileges as His children—“God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:7). We’re “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).

PRAYER

Father God, please help me to see myself and others through Your eyes. Help me love with Your heart as I come into contact with people who are different from me. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen!!

Read: Galatians 3:26-4:7 (NIV)  | Bible in a Year: Amos 4-6; Revelation 7