The Way of Grace: Belonging
How God's love makes us the beloved family.
The Way of Grace is a three-part series exploring how God’s grace draws us into God’s family, shapes who we are becoming, and reminds us that our choices matter in the life of faith. Drawing from Paul’s letter to the Galatians—and stories from everyday life—these reflections invite us to walk the path of grace with love and purpose.
This is Part 1 of The Way of Grace.
Part 1: How Grace Weaves Us Into the Family of God
Part 2: How Grace Shapes Who We Become
Part 3: How Our Choices Matter in the Life of Grace
Let me tell you a few things about my wife Joy. She attended a suburban high school in metro Atlanta. At that time and in that place, most young women favored Saddle Oxfords or Mary Janes as their footwear. Joy opted for green high top tennis shoes.
As a member of the Student Government, Joy campaigned to invite Shirley Chisholm as a keynote speaker. Chisholm was the first black woman elected to Congress. Undaunted by the administration’s rejection of that idea, Joy led a small movement to cancel Senior Prom and to use the money for social justice purposes. It was a valiant effort.
Decades later, Joy learned about a practice fairly common among some members of a congregation that I served at the time. Before proposing to a woman, a man would meet with the woman’s father and ask for his permission to have his daughter’s hand in marriage. The man would frequently do so without consulting the woman first.
Joy’s response was predictable. It was something like: “Huh! I didn’t know people did that anymore. That’s not how I see myself or my family. Glad you knew that about me back in the day.”
Nevertheless, Joy did expect me to undergo another sort of ritual before deciding to move to a more serious level in our relationship. I’ve jokingly called it the sister test.
Joy and her three sisters are very close. And she wanted their input as a part of her discernment about our relationship. Initially I worried that they would be sizing me up. “Is he nice enough? Good looking enough? Successful enough?” I was mistaken. The real question at the heart of the sister test was this: Does he want to be a part of this family? Will he accept the invitation to belong?
“Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs.”
To pass this test, I had to say yes to those last two questions. Authentically. I had to say yes to a love that was already being offered, recognizing that my yes would run deep. Who I was and what I would become would be forever transformed by it.
I’m telling you all of this by way of introduction to what will be a three-part series on the power of grace. We’ll be drawing on Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia. The themes of each successive week are:
How grace weaves us into the family of God.
How grace shapes the pattern of our daily lives.
How grace holds us accountable for our actions.
This week we’re discussing how grace weaves us into the family of God.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul gets immediately, almost abruptly to this first point. He writes, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.” (Galatians 1:6) My dear old New Testament professor Chris Bryan preferred to translate Paul’s emotional response this way: “I am shocked!”
As you may know, Paul undertook three missionary journeys. During one of them, he planted several churches in the Roman province of Galatia. The members were mostly Gentiles. That is, they were uncircumcised. After Paul moved on to his next destination, a theological conflict arose among the Galatian believers. At the center of the conflict was whether or not circumcision was necessary for salvation.
Traditional commentators like Augustine, Luther, the Reformers, and their intellectual descendants read insistence upon circumcision as a sign of commitment to salvation by works. Paul, by contrast, had taught that salvation comes by grace through faith. Let me be clear, these commentators underscored that each camp believed deeply in Christ. But the circumcision faction had argued that God would judge us on the basis of both belief and acts.
More recently, commentators like F. Watson, J.D.G. Dunn, K. Stendahl, and E.P. Sanders invite us to see the Galatian debate around circumcision from a different perspective. The Galatians were wrestling with what makes us part of the family of God. For the pro-circumcision crowd, belonging came with following the Law. Paul, by contrast, said that Jesus’ love for us—revealed and expressed in his death on the cross—is the source of our belonging.
Accepting Christ’s freely given love opens us to the power of the Spirit in our daily lives. The Spirit weaves us into the family of God. We are all “children of God through faith.” (Galatians 3:26) That is why Paul argues that circumcision is beside the point.
For that matter, all sorts of distinctions that we’ve made between ourselves have been made irrelevant. We are braided together by the one Christ and the one Spirit. As Paul famously writes: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)
There’s an anonymous quote often mistakenly attributed to Maya Angelou. It goes like this: “Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs.” Jesus wants us as part of his family. His desire for us is what makes us family. We’re invited to the table. There’s already a place for us. All we have to do is pull up a chair.
As we’ll see next week, pulling up that chair will change who we are and how we navigate this world forever.
Next in The Way of Grace: How Grace Shapes Who We Become
Scheduling Speaking Events
My 2025 calendar is now full. My colleague Holly Davis is scheduling 2026 events. Would love to hear from you! Here’s how to reach out to Holly:
Check Out Jake’s Books
Click the image:
Yep, that's the Joy that I know!
You got me thinking of a guy who used to work with my first husband; His wife was a co-worker and friend. When I divorced, he showed up for ME. When I needed support (and remembered to ask), he's been available. He's Family without being blood family. I've reconnected with them since joining Good Shepherd's Family!
Your wife sounds like an amazing woman, just saying, this whole post really touched me and had me thinking about acceptance and feeling like you belong which of course made me think of Sam my transgender grandchild.