First Christian Church
May 15, 2022 1st Service
      • Bible Trivia
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  • Revive Us Again

      • Galatians 6:9CSB

  • We Have Come Into His House (#224)
  • Soon And Very Soon
  • All Hail King Jesus
  • Enough
  • INTRODUCTION
    Today I want us to think about the concept of adoption.
    Families adopt children and pets.
    The three cats I have adopted were adopted from the Tombstone Small Animal Shelter.
    Children are put up for adoption for many reasons.
    Animals are put up for adoption for many of the same reasons.
    Some are they are abandoned, as was the case with one of my cats, other times, they were not wanted.
    Sometimes, it is in the pet's best interest of the child to be given a chance at a better life with a new family.
    Whatever the reason a child or an animal is put up for adoption, the life of the adopted one will change forever.
    The classic novel Ben-Hur illustrates how adoption worked in the Roman culture.
    In the classic novel Ben-Hur, Lew Wallace tells the sprawling tale of a wealthy Jewish merchant who becomes a prisoner on a Roman slave ship.
    While on the ship, Judah Ben-Hur saves the ship’s captain, Arrius (AIR RE US), who happens to be a very powerful Roman.
    The scene and what follows illustrates what it meant within a Roman culture to adopt someone.
    Arrius gives Ben-Hur his ring and tells him, “Show my ring to my freedman, who hath control in my absence; you will find him in a villa near Misenum (MY SEE NUM).
    Ask anything, or all he may have, and he will not refuse the demand. But, if I live, I will do thee better” (Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ [New York: Harper Brothers, 1880], 167).
    Today we will build on the framework from last week as we continue in our series, Standing On Grace.
    After showing how our failure to obey the law points us to Jesus, Paul moves on in chapter 4 to discuss the concept of adoption.
    When Jesus came into the world, those who were living under the law were redeemed.
    The word redeem is a legal term related to slavery.
    The slave was set free by someone paying the slave’s owner the total price for the slave.
    Commenting on this passage, Theologian Tim Keller explains, “Here, the slave master is the law. Jesus pays our full price to the law. He completely fulfills all the law’s demands on us. And so He is able to free us from it” (Tim Keller, Galatians for You [Purcellville, VA: The Good Book Company, 2013], 98).
    In our world today, we do not have Judaizers who are trying to convince you to abandon your position in Christ.
    However, in our world today, we have many things that seek to influence us to either abandon Jesus or, at the very least, minimize Him in our life.
    Big Idea of the Message: God has brought us into his household.
    We need to grasp the significance of what it means to be adopted into God’s family.
    As we grasp this concept, it can change how we live and see life.
    Let’s begin with Galatians 4:1-3
    Galatians 4:1–3 (NET 2nd ed.)
    1 Now I mean that the heir, as long as he is a minor, 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 So also we, when we were minors, were enslaved under the basic forces of the world.
    SERMON

    I. Adopted and free.

    Paul makes a subtle shift from the previous chapter to contrast the readers' spiritual immaturity (while living under the Law) to their coming of age when they are in Christ.
    Chapter three told us that the Jewish people under the Law were under a tutor.
    Now he shifts to them being under guardians and managers.
    To further illustrate the folly of those seeking to get people to follow the Law before they could be fully in Christ, Paul used an example from Roman law and custom.
    In chapter four, the analogy changes slightly.
    The law has been depicted as a prison warden (3:23) and a slave attendant; now, the law is viewed as a guardian-trustee who is responsible for a little child until the child comes of age.
    The Greek word translated CHILD here speaks of an infant, totally incapable of taking care of himself.
    When a boy was an infant, in the eyes of the law, he might be the owner of a great deal of property; however, he could make no legal decisions; he was not in control of his own life; everything was done and directed for him.
    Therefore, he had no more freedom for all practical purposes than if he were a slave, but he entered into his entire inheritance when he became a man. (Barclay Commentary on Galatians)
    The child is not old enough to enter into possession of his inheritance.
    The inheritance is reserved for him, yet he has not come into his rights yet.
    The minor child is now under the control of guardians and managers.
    The child may be the heir of the estate, but as long as he is legally a minor, he is under the control and direction of others.
    The word UNDER denotes being subject to their control or direction.
    The manager would have been appointed to manage the household and property of the heir.
    Managers were often trusted slaves and were of lower social standing than the guardians, but they had considerable financial and administrative power to manage the master’s property.
    The illustration shows that the Jewish people were in their spiritual childhood.
    The previous chapter told us that when we are baptized into Christ, we are now part of God’s family, one of Abraham’s descendants, children of the Promise!
    DATE SET is a legal term referring to a day appointed beforehand.
    By Roman law, until the heir came of age at fourteen, he was under a tutor or guardian named by the deceased father in his will.
    Then until the heir became twenty-five, he was under a curator or manager appointed by the city leader.
    In verse three, Paul argues in the childhood of the world; the law was in control.
    But the law was only elementary knowledge.
    To describe it, Paul uses the word translated BASIC FORCES that initially denoted a line of things; for instance, it can mean a line of soldiers.
    But it came to mean any elementary knowledge, like teaching the alphabet to children.
    This passage section speaks of Moses in the law of Moses being the religious ABC's.
    Before one is adopted into God’s family, they are not free; the ABCs are enslaved to the power of sin.
    Paul introduces the tremendous spiritual truth he has just illustrated by utilizing the minor heir.
    Until Jesus came, at the right time appointed by the Father, the Jewish people (we) were like minor children, under the guardianship of the principles of the world.
    So going back to something like the law is foolish, as is going with any system of theology in which Jesus is at the center.
    Manufactured rules and religious systems do nothing but enslave you!
    Let’s look at verses 4-5.
    Galatians 4:4–5 (NET 2nd ed.)
    4 But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
    5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights.

    II. Adopted and redeemed.

    The phrase APPROPRIATE TIME in verse 4 corresponds to the date set by the Father in verse 2.
    The appropriate time is when the minor son comes of age.
    In the illustration, the minor has guardians and managers only until he reaches maturity.
    Verse four refers to those who were under the Law until Christ came, the Jewish people.
    This period was a temporary arrangement only to last until the fixed date by the father.
    After many centuries under the Law there came a time that God had set the time when Abraham’s children might receive the full blessing promised to Abraham.
    In, His infinite wisdom, God knew that the proper time for the Son of God's appearance had come, the appropriate time for people’s spiritual childhood to shift to spiritual maturity.
    When the time was right, the seed was sent forth by God to make it possible for the blessings of Abraham to come to all believers. See Galatians 3:16.
    The passage implies the preexistence of Jesus.
    The Son’s purpose in coming into the world was to give people the opportunity to be adopted as children of God.
    Jesus’s perfect humanity is emphasized in words born of a woman, yet it's implied that He has another nature, which was not derived from the woman.
    God sending forth His Son on a mission is something that became visible to human eyes when Jesus became a man.
    Born under the Law tells us that Jesus was born into the world when the Law of Moses was still in force, at least for the children of Israel, though He was destined to put an end to that dispensation.
    The phrase also points to the Jewish lineage of Jesus.
    Why does Paul point out that Jesus was born of a woman?
    Perhaps this goes back to the promise God made at the fall of humanity in Genesis 3:15 where God was giving out punishment to the serpent.
    Genesis 3:15 (NET 2nd ed.)
    15 And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
    Verse 5 tells us that Jesus came to redeem lost humanity!
    People were in bondage, but Christ died on the cross and rose and set men free.
    This is why God sent his son.
    Jesus purchased us, and reed us, not to enslave us but to make us sons.
    If you cancel his deity and consider that Jesus was just a mere human, there can be no redemption.
    Cancel His subjection to the Law, and he is no longer a Redeemer, for redemption required a sinless, perfect sacrifice. (Gareth Reese Commentary on Galatians)
    If Jesus, by his death, redeemed Israelites from their bondage under the law, it should be evident that the gentiles who had never been under the Law of Moses would certainly not be obligated to that law now!
    We speak to the Jews, the same people identified in the previous clauses, who were under the law.
    Redemption or freedom is followed by adoption.
    Adoption is something that must be received; that is, it is conditional; humanity must respond by faith in Jesus Christ according to Galatians chapter 3 verses 26 and 27.
    The New Testament word for adoption is the legal term for adoption in the Greco-roman world, which means to place as an adult son.
    This verse deals with our standing in the family of God; the Jews who have become Christians are no longer little children; they're no longer minors, but there are adult sons with the privileges of sonship.
    The Judaizers were wrong in their teaching, and anyone who would try to add or take away anything from God’s Word or those who would minimize the work of Jesus, who He is, and why He came!
    Let’s move to verses 6-7.
    Galatians 4:6–7 (NET 2nd ed.)
    6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls “Abba! Father!”
    7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son, then you are also an heir through God.

    III. Adopted to a new family.

    We aren’t merely set free; we are adopted into God’s household.
    We are made a child of God through faith in the work of Christ.
    The orphan has been adopted; the lost has been found!
    Verse six explains one of the consequences of being an adult son; God sent the Spirit.
    Paul goes from “we” in verses 3 and 5 to “you” in verse 6.
    By changing to “you,” Paul applies what he's been teaching in the earlier verses of chapter 4 to the Galatian Christians; whether Jew or Gentile, every Christian believer has the position of an adopted adult son in God's family.
    The Aramaic word Paul uses here, “Abba,” is a term of endearment.
    The word refers to our new, loving relationship with God.
    He is not the distant God who appears in a cloud, whom we need to follow a lot of rules to stay in his presence; He reveals himself as a loving Father whom we can approach without fear.
    The word Abba signifies a confidence of love and assurance of welcome.
    The Jewish Christians may say ABBA when they call on God to listen to their prayers.
    The Gentile Christians may say Father when they speak to God using the Greek language.
    Whether we speak Greek or Aramaic, the indwelling Spirit prompts us, sons of God, to show address God as our Father.
    Into our hearts seems to refer to the time of our baptism, when believers receive the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38.
    When a believer is immersed, his spirit is born again; he receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, and he's adopted into the family of God.
    Sonship and receiving the Spirit are intimately related.
    The primary function of the Spirit in one’s life is not so the causal believer in Jesus can become spiritual or a charismatic person as is so often improperly assumed but to witness to the fatherly relationship between the believer with God that the works of Christ have established.
    Verse 7 offers a great blessing!
    As if God’s love and security were not enough, some additional rights and privileges come with being a child of God.
    As Arrius explained to his newly adopted son Ben-Hur, Ben-Hur could ask anything from the household of Arrius in his name, and no one would refuse his request.
    Ben-Hur is an outsider: he’s from a different country, a different ethnicity, a different political class, and is a prisoner serving a life sentence—but he is suddenly made all-powerful within the Roman world simply by the act of a Roman father saying, “This man is my son.”
    Later in the novel, Ben-Hur will return home, and even his enemies can do nothing against him because it is as though he has been “born again” and is an entirely new person!
    HALLELUJAH!
    Everything changes for you in Christ!
    CONCLUSION
    “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:6).
    In just a few lines, Paul draws on an illustration that the Gentiles and Jews of his day would have understood: God has changed everything for us in the act of adopting us, just as Arrius changed everything for Ben-Hur.
    In John 14:18Jesus makes this promise: “I will not leave you as orphans.”
    How many believers in the church today live like God has left them as orphans?
    How many of us live as orphans when we have a loving Father who has adopted us into his home and has told us, “Ask me anything; you are my child”?
    Are you living this new life of faith (Galatians 2:20) as a child of God—or as an orphan?
    Our challenge to take home with you today is:
    You are a son or daughter of God, and everything is okay between you two! Are you living your daily life like that is true? Live your life embracing this truth!
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      • Galatians 4.1-3NETBIBLE2ED

      • Galatians 4.4-5NETBIBLE2ED

      • Genesis 3.15NETBIBLE2ED

      • Galatians 4.6-7NETBIBLE2ED

  • Open Our Eyes, Lord (#633)
  • I Need Thee Every Hour (#638)
  • Behold What Manner Of Love (#708)
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