You're In the Will: What Saving Faith Really Connects You To

Meta Description: Saving faith doesn't just connect you to Christ—it connects you to every other believer. Discover what it means to be in God's family and in His will. URL Slug: saving-faith-connects-you-to-christ-and-one-another Featured Image: A warm, diverse group of people in a church setting, hands joined or arms around one another, with soft natural light — conveying unity, family, and belonging across racial and generational lines.

What if everything you thought defined you — your race, your social status, your gender — suddenly became secondary to something far greater? That's exactly what the Apostle Paul declares in Galatians 3, and it's the message I want to carry into your week.

This past Sunday, I shared from Galatians 3:26–29, and I want to tell you plainly: saving faith connects us to Christ and to one another. That's the main idea. That's the headline. And I believe if we really grasp it, it will change how we see ourselves, how we treat each other, and how we live as the church.

We Are All Sons of God

Paul writes in Galatians 3:26, "For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith."

In the ancient world, daughters were not placed in a father's will to receive an inheritance. They were not considered legal heirs to an estate. So when Paul says you are all sons of God — men, women, boys, girls — he's making a radical declaration. Every believer, regardless of background, is an adopted child of God and a legal heir to everything the Father has promised.

I want you to sit with that. If you are saved, you are in the will.

And how do we get there? The same verse tells us: in Christ Jesus and through faith. Not through circumcision. Not through church membership. Not through moral effort or religious ritual. Paul spent this entire letter fighting for this truth — that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. As he writes in Ephesians 2:8–9, "By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

Christ plus nothing. Christ minus nothing.

We Are All Baptized Into Christ

Galatians 3:27 says, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."

Paul gives us two powerful images here. First, our union with Christ — we have been baptized into Christ. This isn't primarily about water; it's about the spiritual reality that in Christ, we have been brought into complete union with him. As 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, "In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and all were made to drink of one Spirit."

Second, our identity in Christ — we have put on Christ. In biblical times, converts were baptized and then clothed in new garments to symbolize their new life. But Paul says Christians don't just put on new clothes. We put on Christ himself.

Here's what struck me in preparing this message: the grammar shifts in that verse. Baptized is something done to you by another. Put on is something you do yourself. No one can put on Christ for you. You have to do that for yourself.

Have you put on Christ?

We Are All One in Christ

Here's where Paul gets bold. Galatians 3:28 says, "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."

Paul draws on three of the most entrenched divisions of the ancient world — race, class, and sex — and declares that in Christ, none of these categories should divide us. This doesn't mean those distinctions disappear from existence. Paul elsewhere affirms the distinct roles God has ordained for the home and the church. But it does mean that in Christ, our differences should never determine how we value or treat one another.

I challenged our congregation on Sunday, and I want to challenge you now: strive to build relationships in the church that won't make sense without Jesus. Don't only spend time with people who look like you, who are in your stage of life, or who fit neatly into your social circle. The more our young people invest in our senior saints, and the more our wealthy members show genuine love to those with less, the more our church will look like Jesus.

That's not a program. That's the gospel lived out.

We Are All Abraham's Offspring — and Heirs

Galatians 3:29 brings it all home: "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise."

I love what this verse does not say. It does not say we are heirs according to our performance. And I am so grateful for that — because if my inheritance depended on how consistently I acted like I was in the will, I'd be in trouble. But it says we are heirs according to promise. And God always keeps his promises.

As 1 Peter 1:3–4 puts it, God "has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you."

Imperishable. Undefiled. Unfading. Kept in heaven for you. And the fact that it's being kept in heaven means God will keep you until you get to it.

I closed Sunday's message with a story my father used to tell — about an old woman who cared for a wealthy man and his son. After they both died, she attended the estate auction with very little money, only enough to buy one small thing: a dusty portrait of the man's son. That evening, while cleaning the frame, she found an envelope hidden inside. It turned out to be the man's last will and testament. And it read: "Whoever loves my son enough to buy his picture — to him I leave all of my wealth."

That is what God has done for us in Jesus. Whoever loves the Son receives every blessing in the heavenly places.

My soul is still happy about that.

If you are reading this and you have never trusted Christ as your Savior and Lord, today is a great day to make a U-turn and run to the cross. Put on Christ. Step into the family. Get in the will.

And if you're already part of this family, I want to encourage you to watch the full sermon and share it with someone who needs to hear that they are more than their circumstances, more than their background — that in Christ, they are an heir of God.

Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): What if I told you that no matter your race, your background, or your bank account — if you belong to Christ, you are in the will? This week's message from Galatians 3 is one I haven't been able to stop thinking about. You have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading — and God himself is keeping it for you. Read the full post and share it with someone who needs this reminder today.

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