Covenant Equality

Galatians 3:28-29 When I set out to do a series on the Covenant family, I wanted to offer a practical guide for families and their place in kingdom living. That’s why we looked first at Genesis 17 to see how God’s plan of redemption revolved around the family, and the promises of that redemption flowed through families. Then we turned to the covenant relationship between a husband and wife to find that they have different, but complementary roles within that structure that God ordained as a means of maturing in Christ likeness. You’ll have to go back and listen to those sermons for the details. Then we looked at the responsibility of parents in the training of their children to become inheritors of these great promises. (This is an absolutely critical teaching that is often forgotten even in the church today. Too many assume that it is the church’s responsibility to train their children and want to leave a church when they don’t like the way the church is or isn’t doing that. While the church is called to equip families to train their children, it is primarily the parents’ role to train their children.) This morning we turn to look more closely at the differences between men and women within the covenant. I think this is an important topic given the great amount of tension and disagreement that exists within our culture and even within the church on it. That tension is felt within our own denomination and these verses have been at the center of it. The two sides have come to be known as egalitarian and complementarian. The reason this verse is at the center of it is because of the equality now present between men and women with regard to the covenant promises. Egalitarians argue that this equality has implications that extend to who can hold office in the church. Complementarians argue that this equality falls within a particular context central to the larger argument Paul is making. So, who is right? The point Paul is making is this: Because Christ has ushered in the New Covenant, all believers are heirs of the Kingdom! So, why is this so important and how does this help in our understanding of men and women?