Galatians 4:4-11 – What You Are
Paul has been using the illustration of a Roman son, who’s the heir of everything in the family, but has to wait until a fixed point in time until he can inherit it all. When that day dawns, everything will change. And the spiritual equivalent of that one moment that changes everything is that coming of Jesus Christ. Look at v4. That’s what the fullness of time means. It’s the time that God’s people had been looking forward to since the Garden of Eden, when God had promised to send someone who would crush the head of the serpent. It’s what the ceremonial law had pointed forward to.
Jesus was born of a woman in v4 – so he could be like us. He was born under the law so that he could keep it where we had failed. In v5 he came to redeem us. To redeem something is to buy something back at great cost to yourself. Well we were once God’s children. But we had become slaves to sin and Satan, but God has redeemed us through Christ. And what a price he had to pay. The reason that God redeems us is so that we might receive ADOPTION AS SONS. Salvation is not just forgiveness of sins and Heaven when we die – amazing as that is. It’s being given all the rights and privileges of children of God.
Part of what it is to be adopted by God means that you have his Holy Spirit in your heart. He’s described in v6 as the Spirit of his Son. The fact that you want to pray to him, that when you’re anxious or unsure you turn to him. – that’s all evidence that you’re his child. The definition of a Christian as someone who just believes a set of doctrines or lives a certain way falls far short of what a Christian really is. A Christian is a child of God! This should change the way you think about yourself. Every morning you can wake up and say ‘I’m the king’s son!’ ‘I’m the king’s daughter!’ And one day I’m going to go to my true home and live with him forever. No-one escapes God’s watchful gaze. But God knows you, cares for you and watches over you in a special way.
The Galatians are on the verge of walking away. What a tragedy that would be – to walk away from the privilege of adoption, to turn up their noses at the redemption Jesus had paid for them, to decide that being known by God wasn’t worth it. You’ve been redeemed at a great cost. You’re a child of the king! Don’t go back. Rather keep on moving forward, by the power of his Holy Spirit.
Questions
- What does it mean that we are adopted into God’s family?
- What does redemption mean?
Prayer Points
- Give thanks that we are part of God’s family.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.