'Neither Male nor Female'

Galatians 3.28 is a revolutionary statement, delivered into the practical worshipping life of the Church. Paul's sensitivity to 'the revolutionary character' of the Lord Jesus' attitude to women, 'is the only possible explanation of the maxim in Galatians 3:28, that in Christ Jesus there is no difference between male and female which is quite extraordinary for one who was born a Jew'. (Joachim Jeremias, New Testament Theology, 227) The point has been well expressed: 'Since the Congregation is withdrawn from the world, this world's distinctions have lost their meaning. Hence Galatians 3:28'.

The case is that, 'To enter the Christian community means to join a community in which male-female roles and valuations based on such roles had been discarded. The community was powerless to alter role valuations in the outside culture, but within the Church, behaviour patterns and interrelationships were based on this affirmation of equality, which reflects the Lord's own attitude and response to women.' (International Bible Dictionary)

Public worship is the decisive moment in the fulfilment of Christ's promised special personal presence with his believing and worshipping people (Matthew 18.20). If the equality in Christ Jesus that Paul insists on is compromised in public worship then little remains with any meaning or value of the claim for 'spiritual equality' between Jew and Gentile, salve or free, and men and women: Paul's radical meaning is lost in a fog of theological ambiguity.

John Brown, in his commentary on Galatians, observes: 'It is neither as a man or a woman but purely and solely as a person "in Christ" that the believer enjoys any spiritual blessings.'

So too John Eadie:

'In the spiritual family of God, the distinctions of race, social position, and even of sex, are lost sight of. Duality is denied: there is no longer a male and female - no longer the two, but only one. The distinction in its ethical consequences ceases to exist: as a member of the spiritual family, the woman is equal to the man; there is not a man and a woman, but simple humanity. Having put on Christ, the woman is a child of God, equal to the man in all filial honour and enjoyment. Some points of difference yet remain, certainly in sexual relations, but these do not undermine Paul's categorical statement.'

The full force of these propositions must be allowed their effect. There can be no substance to the claim that 'there is no longer a male and female - no longer the two, but only one' if that equality is denied within the body of Christ. There can be no credibility to the claim that, 'the woman is a child of God, equal to the man in all filial honour and enjoyment' if that filial honour is denied in the worshipping congregation. A limited equality simply is no equality at all.

On the day of Pentecost Peter proclaimed Joel's prophecy (2:28-32) to be in the process of fulfilment. This fulfilment indicates that the newly affirmed equality extends beyond simply personal relationships, to permeate the corporate life of the Church, not least its worship and ministry (Acts 2:17ff). Joel's prophesy refers to specific spiritual gifts, poured out on the people of God, irrespective of race, class or gender – or rather, repositioning each race, class, and gender in this newly established equality.

Distinctions of ministry in the Church reflect varieties of gift and calling; not of race, status or gender. If equality in Christ is denied in Christian worship and fellowship then effectively it is denied absolutely. 

If it is objected that the Apostle Paul places various clear limitations on the role and activity of women in the congregation (for example 1 Corinthians 14.35; 1 Timothy 2.12), the response is that in every case these restrictions apply to situations where there was some form of disorder in the congregation, some disregard of the principle of love, of the principal of submission in equality, and in no case where the worship of the congregation was expressed 'decently and in order' (1 Corinthians 14.40). It is exegetical vandalism to suppose that any involvement of women in worship would be a case of disorder and indecency.  

Since the Day of Pentecost there is not only equality of status in the Church but also equality of ministry. While equality in Christ does not imply that all in Christ will receive all gifts or the same gifts, what is clear is that the Holy Spirit's distribution of gifts, 'severally as he will',  is not conditional on race, social standing, age or gender. To exclude any person from the exercise of the gifts the Holy Spirit has bestowed on them is an insult to the Holy Spirit and deprives the congregation of ministries given for its growth and blessing.  

When it is remembered that the New Testament describes prophesy as a teaching ministry; that prophets were actively engaged in delivering their message; that the authenticated message conveyed by a prophet was regarded as an authoritative divine message; that both women and men possessed the gift of prophesy and that both men and women held the office of prophet; that the gift of prophesy was freely used by both women and men in public worship; and, that the gift of prophesy is stated to be the most highly esteemed ministry within the Church, nothing could confirm more emphatically the radical nature of this new equality of men and women in Christ that is characteristic of the Church since Pentecost, than the statement 'your daughters will prophesy'! (Acts 2.17)