"No Longer Slaves, but Sons (Galatians 3:23-4:7), Will DuVal | 9/28/25
Galatians 3:23-4:7 | 9/28/25 | Will DuVal
I will never forget the story of how we came to adopt our son Elijah. For starters, we were originally matched with another birth mom who backed OUT of the adoption the day her son was born. At the time, Polly and I felt betrayed, angry, CHEATED, but God had other plans; that boy was NOT our son.
It would be another 4 months before we would meet him. We had our tickets to fly out to Utah for Elijah’s birth on March 18, 2020. And then the WORLD came grinding to a halt. So we DROVE instead, over 20 hours, amidst rumors that the INTERSTATES were all gonna shut down. But NOTHING was gonna keep us from our son.
Those 24 hours after he was born were some of the most anxious of our lives, and not just because Salt Lake City suffered its worst earthquake in over 50 years on the morning Elijah was born… WHILE this deadly VIRUS continued to spread; we truly thought the WORLD was ending: plagues, earthquakes, there were even reports out of Africa of the worst brood of LOCUSTS in over a century; we thought: “This is IT! He’s coming BACK!”
But NONE of that was our greatest source of uncertainty; by law, Elijah’s birth mom had to wait 24 hrs before she could sign over her parental rights. So we held him, changed him, rocked him, kissed him… all without knowing whether or not he would truly be OURS.
Until FINALLY we got the phone call. Waiting anxiously in our cheap motel room, the phone rang, and our adoption consultant said those two beautiful words: “She signed.” And we cried tears of joy.
But there’s more to the story. Because legally, we were supposed to wait for BOTH the state of Utah AND the state of Missouri to sign off on the “Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children” to receive permission to cross state LINES with our new son. But both state governments were completely SHUT DOWN! So after 4 more days of waiting, we called the adoption agency back and they said, “Just GO for it; technically, it’s kidnapping. But WE, the AGENCY, now have parental rights, and WE give you permission.”
But the story doesn’t even end THERE. Because we had to wait another 6 MONTHS before the agency could sign those rights over to US. Typically it’s this HUGE occasion, where you invite all your extended family down to the courthouse, and get all dressed up for the official ceremony… but they were STILL shut down. So they said, “We’ll CALL ya, between 8 and 5.” More waiting. But some time mid-morning, Polly’s phone rang, I rushed in the room, we put the judge on speaker phone, and he asked us:
“Why do you want to adopt this child?”
“You’ve cared for him for 6 months now; are you prepared to do so for the rest of your LIVES?”
“Do you vow, under OATH, to afford this child ALL of the rights and privileges you would give your own biological children?”
“Then by the power invested in me by the state of Missouri…”
And on September 28, 2020, there in our bedroom, still in our pajamas, we officially became Elijah’s parents. And our lives - and even more so: HIS life - was forever changed.
If you want a one sentence SUMMARY of our passage for this morning from the book of Galatians, spanning from the end of ch3 (last 7 verses) thru the beginning of ch4 (FIRST 7 verses), it would be THIS:
“When God ADOPTS us as his CHILDREN, our lives are FOREVER CHANGED.”
-
That’s what this passage is all about: our spiritual ADOPTION into God’s family. It changes EVERYTHING. But SPECIFICALLY, Paul is going to highlight for us four massive implications of our adoption. This morning marks the HALFWAY point in our study through Galatians, and SO far, Paul has focused MOSTLY on HOW it is that we become a part of God’s family: it is through God’s ELECTION and CALLING; ch1: “when he who had set me apart before I was born,[d] and who called me by his grace” (v15); we are brought into God’s family NOT through our own good WORKS, but rather through faith in CHRIST’s work on our behalf; ch2: “a person is not justified [or ‘brought into right relationship with God’] by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (v16); and then Paul really starts to ramp up the familial language in ch3: “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham”, who was the HEIR of God’s covenant PROMISE; “Father ABRAHAM, had many SONS… And I am ONE of them, and so are YOU… not by works but by FAITH”.
But NOW, having explained HOW it is that we enter into God’s family, Paul’s going to turn his attention to WHY it MATTERS so much; “What DIFFERENCE does it make, if we belong to the Lord?” As we’ll see, it makes all the difference in the WORLD. But specifically, in four life-changing ways.
(SCRIPTURE:) Let’s read it together now; Would you STAND with me as you’re able… Galatians 3:23-4:7. [Bibles… Info Bar…] …
“Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 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. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
This is the word of God… Seated…
Four benefits - or if you were expecting an alliteration - ADVANTAGES of our ADOPTION:
#1- When God adopts us into his family, we are no longer INCARCERATED, but LIBERATED. (3:23) [I’m gonna go for a combination of rhymes and alliterations…]
We’re no longer INCARCERATED; Paul says in v23: “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.”
Paul has spent the better part of the last chapter and a HALF now contrasting a life lived still under the LAW with this new life of FAITH in CHRIST. And in the passage we just read, Paul gives us four ANALOGIES or WORD-pictures to ILLUSTRATE the point he’s trying to make. And the FIRST one here is a DOOZY; this is STRONG language: “we were held captive… IMPRISONED under the law”.
You say, “IMPRISONED?! I thought the psalmist, in Psalm 119, told us to “find our delight in [God’s] commandments,”, “My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times”, better than GOLD, sweeter than HONEY is God’s LAW (vv47,20, 127, 103).
So which IS it, God? Are we supposed to REJOICE in the law… or are we IMPRISONED by it?
And the answer is: it depends on how you’re USING it.
If you understand, like the PSALMIST did, and like PAUL clearly does, that “by works of the law, NO ONE will be justified”; that it is only by FAITH - by trusting in God’s PROMISE; not in MY faithfulness to GOD, but in HIS faithfulness to ME - that I can be ADOPTED… and yet, that God loved me SO much, he not only brought me INTO his family, but when He did, he showed me how to LIVE like I’m a part of his family - that’s the Law. And to the extent that I VIEW the Law not as a means of getting INTO the family, but as a guide for living life WITHIN the family, then by all means: REJOICE! DELIGHT!
Paul says elsewhere: “we know that the law is good, if one USES it lawfully” (1 Tim 1:8). As long as you’re USING it in the right WAY, the way God INTENDED it… even in the OLD Testament: which came FIRST? God’s ADOPTION of his people, Israel, or God’s giving them the LAW?
Paul just reminded us LAST week, in v17: God chose ABRAM to be the father of his special nation 430 YEARS before He ever gave his law to MOSES, the family rules.
You know what Polly and I DIDN’T do during those 6 months, while Elijah was in our home, but not yet technically, legally, our son? We didn’t sit him down and explain, “Alright, here are the terms and conditions of belonging in our family: #1- No crying between the hours of 11pm and 6am; “Thou shalt let us SLEEP!” #2- under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are you EVER gonna be allowed to cut your HAIR (I LOVE my son’s hair; he is under a life-long Nazirite vow; “Elijah, if you ever cut your hair, your adoption is null and void…” – that conversation NEVER happened! Why?
Because the family rules come later. And they have absolutely NO bearing on his ADOPTION, his STANDING in our family. Do I ask and expect my kids to say, “Please” and “Thank You”; “Yes Sir” and “No Ma’am” - yes, I do. But they aren’t gonna get BOOTED from the family if they FAIL to.
Back to Paul now: “the law is good, IF we use it lawfully”, as the family rules. But when we start using it as the “terms and conditions” for our ADOPTION… like the GALATIANS had, under the influence of the Judaizers, these false teachers who infiltrated the church with their false gospel of “Jesus plus THE LAW; Christ ALONE isn’t sufficient for salvation, for your ADOPTION; you need Jesus plus CIRCUMCISION, Jesus plus a kosher DIET, Jesus plus the 10 Commandments…” - and what Paul’s saying here in v23 is: when you try and use the law THAT way, as a prerequisite for entrance into God’s family, you’re gonna be IMPRISONED under it. Incarcerated; held CAPTIVE.
613 laws in the OT; 1,054 in the New. Imagine if I gave my son a list of 1,667 laws, and said, “Here; keep these, and you can be a member of our family.” That would be IMPRISONMENT under the law - under FEAR of the law; fear of breaking it, and the ensuing consequences.
But friends, some of you are living that way today. And I use the term “living” very loosely, because it’s really no way to live AT ALL. But you’re using the law “unlawfully”, approaching it unbiblically, as the STANDARD for your STAND-ING before God your heavenly FATHER.
For some of you, it’s the reason you’re NOT actually a child of God yet. You think, “One of these days, I’ll get my act together - I’ll stop binging TV and start binging the BIBLE instead; I’ll stop partying and start praying; I’ll stop living for MYSELF and start living for GOD finally… and THEN, He’ll accept me; God will want a relationship with me. But you’re totally MISSING the part where God says that “while we were yet SINNERS, Christ died for us,” to purchase us, ADOPT us. You’re MISSING the part where JESUS said, “I’m like a DOCTOR, who came not for the HEALTHY but for the SICK”; healthy people don’t NEED doctors. If you were even CAPABLE of “getting your act together”, of healing YOURSELF, of cleaning up your spiritual MESSES that the Bible calls “sin” - if you could do it on your own, then according to Paul back in ch2, “Christ died for NOTHING”.
No, friends: dealing with your sin problem is EXACTLY why Jesus came and DIED in your PLACE on that cross. And if you wait until you’re “better” - “fixed” - to come to him, you will NEVER come. And he wouldn’t want you then anyway; he came for the SICK.
But others of you ARE children of God, and yet you’re STILL prone to treating the law “unlawfully”, like the terms & conditions of your adoption. Every time your life gets messy - you slip up and sin again, or you’re facing some big hardship and you’re scared and anxious, wondering if perhaps God has forgotten about you, or WORSE, that He’s PUNISHING you, you throw yourself back into the LAW - “If I can just get my daily QUIET time CONSISTENT again… get back to CHURCH again every Sunday… get in a LIFE group, and spend more time with CHRISTIAN friends, then…” WHAT? Go ahead and fill in the blank; “...then maybe God will LOVE me more?” It sounds SILLY when you say it out LOUD. And you WOULDN’T. But is it the unspoken answer of your heart?
I coach Elijah’s soccer team. Yesterday he played great - scored two goals. But just before that, he let one in; tried to clear it on defense, but he missed the ball and the kid scored. But he bounced back and scored two goals in a row! Imagine if he had jogged over to me and asked me, “Daddy, do you LOVE me again now? Can I stay ADOPTED, still be your SON?”
That’s not how it WORKS, friends. And LIVING that way will keep you IMPRISONED. Christ wants to set some of you FREE this morning from your captivity to the law… to LIBERATE you with his GRACE! It’s time to leave the jail.
#2- When God adopts us, we are no longer TAUGHT, but BOUGHT. (3:24-26)
Now with this point in particular, we REALLY need to modify our wording to say “we’re no longer MERELY taught”, because as believers we are of COURSE still taught, we’re actually BETTER taught now, by the indwelling Holy Spirit; Jesus promised his disciples “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name… will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (Jn 14:26) So there is still absolutely a role - a NEED - for ongoing instruction in the Christian’s life.
But once upon a time, for thousands of years, that’s pretty much ALL God’s people got: teaching. Rules. Law. The first 5 books of the Bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy - that we hope to finish studying together next spring, they’re collectively referred to as the “Torah”, which is the Hebrew word for “instruction”, because they contain all 613 commandments that Israel was charged with following.
Now, I say the law was “pretty MUCH all they got”, because God of course graciously offered Israel all KINDS of other help, as we’ve seen all throughout our study of the Torah - he fed them with manna from heaven and water from the rock when they were hungry / thirsty out in the desert; he LED them, personally, in the form of a cloud by day and fire by night; God supernaturally split the Red SEA in two so they could escape from slavery Egypt in the first place; he fought BATTLES for them, raised up judges and then kings for them (to lead them IN obedience to God’s law); later God raised up prophets (to call them BACK to God’s law, after generations of DISOBEDIENCE TO IT)... - so to be sure, God was CONSTANTLY at work, in all KINDS of ways, to care for His children. But by far the PRIMARY way that he “parented” them for those 1,500 years from Moses to Jesus, was through the LAW; instructing them.
Paul says now in v24: “the law was our guardian”; some of your translations may say “TUTOR”, or “teacher”, which is closer to this Greek word paidagógos - which transliterates literally into our English word “pedagogue” which is a fancy word for a “TEACHER”, but really means, quite literally and even more holistically, “child CONDUCTOR”. Warren Wiersbe explains for us (562, NT Commentary):
“In many Roman and Greek households [in Paul’s day], well-educated slaves took the [family’s] children to and from school and watched over them during the day. Sometimes they would [personally] teach the children, sometimes they would protect and prohibit, and sometimes they would even discipline… By using this illustration, Paul was saying several things about the Jews and their law. First, he was saying that the Jews were not BORN through the law, but rather were BROUGHT UP by the law [The paidagógos - this slave teacher - wasn’t actually the child’s FATHER; in the same way]… The law did not GIVE life to Israel; it [merely] REGULATED life… But the second thing Paul said is even more important: the work of the guardian was PREPARATION for the child’s MATURITY. Once the child came of age, he no longer needed the guardian. So the law was a preparation for Israel until the coming of the promised [Messiah] Jesus Christ.”
“The law was our paidagógos UNTIL Christ came”, Paul says. “But now that faith has come,” v25, “we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
In just a few verses, in ch4, Paul will actually contrast that word “SONS” (huioi) with the word “child” (népios); he explains that, “the heir, [of the household] as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave,] though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.” That’s how it WORKED in wealthy families back in Paul’s day. When my mom got pregnant with me, my father jokingly informed her that I was “all HERS” until the age of 10 or 12, when I’d outgrown the kid phase and was ready for maturity… which probably explains a LOT about me. (But in actuality, of course, I was born and he fell in LOVE and my dad had to LEARN how to parent me as a BABY and then a TODDLER, and then a CHILD…) But in 1st c. Greco-Roman upper class society, it was no joke; that was the expectation: kids are a PAIN; you let the SLAVES raise them until they’ve gotten most of the “KID” out of ‘em. Then, at a “date set by his father”, that “child” becomes a “SON”, a “young MAN”.
Paul says, “That’s exactly what happened when CHRIST came: you are no longer “CHILDREN” under the “GUARDIAN”; you are now “SONS of God through FAITH” (v26). It’s an interesting, informative analogy when you consider childhood development; think about it:
For the first year or so of a child’s life, they are COMPLETELY helpless. Not a lot of RULES, because they’re not READY for that yet. You just give them all the protection and nourishment and unconditional LOVE and bonding they need as a baby.
That’s essentially what God did for his children, Israel, from Abraham to Moses. He CHOSE Abram, and made a covenant of relationship with him, and what were the TERMS & CONDITIONS of that covenant? “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great” (Gen 12:2)... if WHAT? If NOTHING! There WERE no “terms & conditions” of God’s covenant with Abram; it was a UNILATERAL, unconditional promise. To PROVE it, God RATIFIED the covenant 3 chapters later in a ceremony where traditionally, both parties were supposed to make their vows and then take this ritual WALK together, but in Genesis 15, God knocks Abram UNCONSCIOUS, so he’s ASLEEP for the whole thing, while GOD promises him “To your offspring I give this land” of Canaan (15:18).
Cuz that’s how you parent a 3-month old: they SLEEP through most of it, and you’re just making unilateral promises for their good.
But then they grow UP a little bit. And they’re ready for some instruction, to be “TAUGHT”. What did God announce to Moses, just before he delivered the 10 Commandments, and then the OTHER 603? “Now if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples… These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”” (Ex 19:5) “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” “Thou shalt not MURDER, commit adultery…”
“Israel, you’re not a BABY any more, and it’s time to introduce you to the family RULES, that I expect you to LIVE by in this family…”
“No BITING.” Let’s start there. “You’re 18-months old… two years now, THREE years now - you gotta STOP the BITING.” Of all the issues we’ve had to parent through, NONE of our 3 kids have ever been biters. But then again, we’d never LET them. Some of you are trying to skip straight from Abraham to JESUS with your kids - from “all promise” to “all grace,” without ever implementing any LAW into your parenting, and you wonder why your kids are about one bite AWAY from being excommunicated from the toddler room on Sundays. You need to learn from the greatest parent of all TIME - GOD: the LAW has a ROLE, an IMPORTANT role, in the life and development of a young child.
But it’s a TEMPORARY role; “now that [CHRIST] has come, we are no longer under a guardian”. If your kid’s FIVE… 8… TEN, and they still need a “no biting” rule, something’s gone BADLY wrong. That rule should be IRRELEVANT now. That’s how Paul describes the law; not BAD, just irrelevant now. By bringing us into “a new covenant,” Hebrews 8:13 says, Christ “makes the first one [the LAW] obsolete.” (Heb 8:13) It’s like trying to run MS-DOS on your brand new laptop. Nothing WRONG with MS-Dos… if it’s 1992. I’ve got a warm spot in my HEART for MS-Dos; played a lot of Oregon Trail - I forded a lot of rivers and shot a lot of BUFFALO, WAY more than I needed or could carry, even in the upgraded Conestoga wagon - all with the help of MS-Dos. But now it’s OBSOLETE.
That’s THE LAW, Paul says. It served its purpose in redemptive history. But now we have entered a new era, a new COVENANT: of GRACE.
Go ahead and look with me at ch4, v3; my second and fourth bullet points are essentially the same; Paul’s making the same point: “when we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world”.
“Don’t BITE”. “Don’t MURDER.” “Don’t lie, cheat or steal.” These are like the basic building blocks - the minimum BAR - that is required for a functional society, or a functional HOUSEHOLD, for that matter. Wiersbe puts it this way (564): “For some fifteen centuries, Israel had been in kindergarten and grade school, learning their “spiritual ABCs”, so that they would be ready when Christ would come.” Phillip Ryken adds (Galatians, 158): “By calling the law an ‘elementary principle’, Paul was giving the law teachers from Jerusalem a remedial education. Those Judaizers had been telling the Galatians that the law was a graduate school for the gospel. But Paul insisted that being under the law was actually a sign of spiritual immaturity. For the Galatians to go back to the law would be like a PhD repeating kindergarten to work on his alphabet.”
No, Church, “we are no longer under a tutor, for in Christ Jesus we are all [MATURE] sons [and daughters] of God, through faith” (3:26). Not just TAUGHT, but BOUGHT. We have been PURCHASED by Christ’s BLOOD. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” (1 Cor 6:19-20) The highest price IMAGINABLE! Our adoption wasn’t FREE - far FROM it! It cost God nothing less than the very LIFE of own SON.
But, ch4, v4 now, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son [He did not WITHHOLD Jesus from us, but SENT him], born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
We could just spend a whole Sunday right THERE, unpacking just those two MASSIVE, GLORIOUS verses.
*WHEN did Jesus come? “When the fullness of time had come”; “at just the right time”, as Paul puts it in Romans 5:6. Ryken points out (160): “The Greeks had provided a common language and culture for sharing the gospel. Through the Romans [the pax romana], there was safe transport for spreading the gospel. But most of all, sinners were ready to be released from their bondage. The Gentiles were tired of serving the old pagan gods. The Jews were weary of being held prisoner by the law they had tried (and FAILED) to keep for over a thousand years. So it was at just the right time - not a moment too soon, not a moment too late - that Christ came.”
*HOW did Jesus come? He was “born of woman, born under the law”. David Platt explains (Galatians, 75):
“Adoption requires someone who possesses the right qualifications… [And Platt and his wife have ALSO adopted, so he describes some of the process - the home studies, the screenings, the application, the interviews with birth moms; but then he notes] What are JESUS’s qualifications? Jesus is fully divine. V4: “God sent His Son”... God did not CREATE His Son; He SENT His Son, the pre-existent, fully divine, Son of God, who alone can [pay for sins]. Jesus is fully human… He was “born of a woman”, according to v4. As Paul explains elsewhere in Philippians 2: “though he was in the form of God, [Jesus] did not count equality with God a thing to be [CLUNG to] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men.” (vv6-7)... [Third,] Jesus is fully righteous. Not only was he “born of a woman”, but He was also “born under the LAW”... He perfectly fulfilled all the demands of the law of God. If Jesus had not been righteous, He would not have been able to redeem unrighteous men.”
So we know WHEN Jesus came (“fullness of time”), and HOW he came (as the fully divine, yet fully human, and fully RIGHTEOUS Son of God). But most importantly, now: WHY did he come?
V5: “to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons.”
To “redeem” means to PURCHASE, or “buy back”, especially out of SLAVERY. Some people make a big FUSS about all the SLAVERY in the Bible - with the exception of the Israelites’ time in EGYPT, most of the slavery was really more like “indentured servitude”. And we’ve actually looked at some of the laws in the Torah that regulated this version of “slavery”, in a radically progressive way for that time, in antiquity, giving unprecedented RIGHTS to slaves. But one of the gracious provisions God made in the law was to allow someone who was POOR the chance to BREAK the otherwise life-long, GENERATIONS-long cycle of poverty, by actually SELLING themself into slavery, indentured servitude. And then either WORKING long enough, and saving up enough money, cuz a servant in that case would be PAID, or more LIKELY, finding a wealthy RELATIVE, a “kinsman redeemer”, who would be willing to “buy back” your FREEDOM; REDEEM you.
Friends, JESUS is our kinsman REDEEMER. He bought us out from under our YOKE of SLAVERY under the law. Trying to EARN your salvation - your right standing with God - by your own good works is like spiritual SLAVERY! Let Jesus break those chains and set you FREE!
He came “to redeem us, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Ryken points out (144): “Adoption shows the contrast between faith and works in the most vivid way, for NO ONE ever WORKS his way into a family… Adoption can be granted ONLY by the will of the father; it can’t be gained by the works of the servant.” – My son did NOTHING to EARN his way into our family. Nor did his brother and sister, for that matter - our BIOLOGICAL children who were BORN into the family; which is ANOTHER way that the Bible talks about us entering into God’s family; Jesus said, “unless you are born again[b] you cannot see the kingdom of God.”” (Jn 3:3) We’ve all been born PHYSICALLY, but only those born AGAIN - SPIRITUALLY - are God’s children. But either WAY - whether by ADOPTION or by spiritual REBIRTH - the fact remains: you did NOTHING to EARN your way in; you ONLY get in the family by the WILL of the FATHER.
And he DOES will it, friends. So much that he sent his only Son to DIE for you, to REDEEM and PURCHASE you. We are not just TAUGHT, but BOUGHT, by the precious blood of Christ.
3) We are no longer SEGREGATED, but INTEGRATED. (3:27-29)
So far Paul’s been focused on the VERTICAL implications of our adoption - our restored relationship with GOD, as our Father. But being brought into God’s family ALSO means you get a whole bunch of new brothers and sisters! From “every nation, tribe and tongue” (Rev 7:9)! And it’s a beautiful thing, to go on overseas missions trips and be reminded… to drive to Love the LOU, or Ambassador City, or Oasis International, or InterVarsity Fellowship - any of our missional partners right here in TOWN, and be REMINDED, that this is not a “white, suburban, American gospel”; Jesus’s gospel is for EVERYONE!
The Galatians were beginning to FORGET that. They had been listening to the Judaizers and their false TEACHING, that “in order to be a CHRISTIAN,” you’ve really gotta be a JEW, be like US, follow the LAW. There’s no PLACE in the family of God for GENTILES. Their 2,000 year old prejudices - RACISM - ran DEEP.
“The (1st c.) Pharisee would pray each morning, “I thank you, God, that I am a Jew, not a Gentile; a man, not a woman; and a freeman, not a slave.”” (Wiersbe, 563).
BUT, says Paul, “in CHRIST… There is no Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave[g] nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all ONE in Christ Jesus.”
There is no Republican or Democrat…
No blacks or whites… Americans or Internationals…
No “haves” and “have NOTS”...
No Baptists or Presbyterians…
No Cardinals or CUBS!
“...for we are all ONE in Christ Jesus”.
A truer and BETTER “e pluribus unum” - “out of many, ONE”.
And how does it HAPPEN? v27: “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” The imagery Paul uses NOW is that of changing CLOTHES. The believer has taken OFF the filthy rags of sin (Isa 64:4) and put ON the righteous robe of CHRIST. And brother, sister, when you’re wearing CHRIST, what’s UNDERNEATH is suddenly a WHOLE lot LESS important.
Soldiers will sometimes talk about having their differences within the battalion - racially, politically, religiously… - but the minute the UNIFORM goes on, and the BULLETS start FLYING, how much do you care about who the guy NEXT to you in the bunker VOTED for? – Paul’s saying THIS, the CHURCH, is like THAT, only INFINITELY more significant, and PARAMOUNT in terms of defining who you now are, your new identity: it’s in CHRIST. All your other identity markers now PALE in comparison.
We “are Christ's… Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise” (v29).
Which means, LASTLY, #4 - We are no longer SLAVES, but SONS & DAUGHTERS. (4:1-7)
Now tellingly, PAUL doesn’t mention the “daughters”; v6 just says, “because you are sons”; was Paul being SEXIST? Chauvinistic?
No, in THAT day, only SONS received the father’s inheritance. And that is Paul’s POINT here; v7: “if [you’re] a son, then [you’re] an heir ” You stand to inherit all your father’s FORTUNE.
And Church: we DO. “All the rights and privileges of CHRIST, God’s BIOLOGICAL Son, we might say, now belong to US as well, because we have been ADOPTED by faith, “baptized INTO Christ,” and we are no LONGER slaves of the law; we are now SONS of GOD. “Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are!” (1 Jn 3:1)
If, and ONLY if, we have been ADOPTED, which ONLY happens through FAITH. “To all who did receive him (receive JESUS), who believed in hi[m], he gave the right to become the children of God” (Jn 1:12).”
Has he adopted YOU, friend? One way to know, Paul says in v6, is if Christ’s SPIRIT is in your HEART, crying out, “Abba! Father!” Platt explains (81): “This word Abba is sometimes misunderstood and over-sentimentalized as a word that… is almost like baby talk. But… this is a groaning, a longing for a father… It’s my son, when he’s scared, and he grabs on tight to my neck, and cries out, “DADDY!” – Is that how YOU cry out for YOUR heavenly Father? Are you SELF-reliant, or GOD-reliant?
Only those who cry out for the doctor get the medicine. And only those who cry out for the SAVIOR get SAVED.
It is by grace that we are saved through… FAITH!
And why’d God DO it? SAVE us? ADOPT us? Platt shares the story, and I’ll end with this; I could share SIMILAR stories of conversations I’ve had with Elijah, but I just loved the way Platt put it:
“The other day I was playing with my son whom we adopted from Kazakhstan, and his favorite question now is “WHY?” When I told him I loved him, he asked, “Why?” I said, “Cause you’re my SON.” And, of course, he asked, “Why?”
How do you ANSWER that? Out of all the children in all the world, why is HE my son? …I looked at this precious little boy and I said, “Because we WANTED you, buddy. And we came to get you. That’s why you’re my son.”
Friends, do you know that while you were yet a SINNER, living in open, active REBELLION AGAINST his loving fatherhood toward you, God WANTED you SO badly, that He sent his own Son to DIE for you?
J.I. Packer said (Knowing God, 201): “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and indeed his whole OUTLOOK on LIFE, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.”
How much do YOU make of being God’s child? Is it EVERYTHING to you? Know this, friend: it was everything to GOD; that’s why he GAVE everything to make it POSSIBLE, your ADOPTION.