The new vertical relationship with God results in a new horizontal relationship with one another. All racial, economic and gender barriers and all other inequalities are removed in Christ. The equality and unity of all in Christ are not an addition, a tangent or an optional application of the gospel. They are part of the essence of the gospel.

Equality in Christ is the starting point for all truly biblical social ethics. The church that does not express this equality and unity in Christ in its life and ministry is not faithful to the gospel. Paul's own immediate concern is to make sure that the racial equality of Jews and Gentiles is implemented in the church. Gentiles were being demoted to a second-class status because they were not Jews. This expression of racial superiority was a violation of the essence of the gospel. Similarly, any expression of social class superiority (the free over the slaves) or gender superiority (men over women) violates the truth of the gospel. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (v. 28). All the divisions and prejudices that matter so much in the world are abolished in Christ.

This radical affirmation of unity and equality in Christ is a deliberate rejection of the attitude expressed by the synagogue prayer in which the worshiper thanks God for not making him a Gentile, a slave or a woman. Such an attitude of superiority contradicts the truth of the gospel, the good news that there is equality and unity of all believers in Christ.

When men exclude women from significant participation in the life and ministry of the church, they negate the essence of the gospel. Some will argue that the equality Paul defends here is only in the "spiritual" sphere: equality before God. But Paul's argument responds to a social crisis in the church: Gentiles were being forced to become Jews to be fully accepted by Jewish Christians. Paul's argument is that Gentiles do not have to become Jews to participate fully in the life of the church. Neither do blacks have to become white or females become male for full participation in the life and ministry of the church.

The equality of all believers before God must be demonstrated in social relationships within the church if the truth of the gospel is to be expressed. F. F. Bruce puts it succinctly: "No more restriction is implied in Paul's equalizing of the status of male and female in Christ than in his equalizing of the status of Jew and Gentile, or of slave and free person. If in ordinary life existence in Christ is manifested openly in church fellowship, then, if a Gentile may exercise spiritual leadership in church as freely as a Jew, or a slave as freely as a citizen, why not a woman as freely as a man?" (Bruce 1982:190).

Paul draws the conclusion to his argument in verse 29: If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Since the Galatian Christians belong to Christ, they are directly related to Abraham and recipients of the blessing promised to Abraham. Since full membership in the covenant people of God, "the seed of Abraham," is granted and maintained simply by union with Christ by faith, there is no longer any need for the law as the means to secure or maintain that status. Any attempt by the Galatian Christians to gain status or receive blessing by observing the Mosaic law is foolish, since they have already been included within the realm of full inheritance in which there is no racial, social or gender hierarchy.