This study through Galatians has been such a precious and blessed time for me, and I believe that in the life of our church, it’s been so good for us. Each week, we’ve gathered again and celebrated the reality of the gospel and the glory and beauty of its effects in our lives. And, I have found myself growing more in my delight in the gospel, longing to celebrate corporately the beauty of the gospel week-by-week, and amazed at how simply looking at one more issue in the development of Paul’s argument in the book of Galatians each week has added so much to this longing and delight. And our text this morning has proven to be no exception for me in this.
So, let me first paint a picture for you this morning that I want to rest in our minds and hearts for a bit as we go through this text. This picture has taken place numerous times in my home with all of my children, but I will use one of them and just give you one picture of this. It goes something like this. Luke, my youngest, does something that involves him disobeying what I’ve told him to do and doing something that might even harm him. Therefore, I take him, tell him that I love him, explain to him why he can’t do what he has done, and discipline him by spanking him. That kind of thing happens pretty consistently in our home. But so does the rest of this picture. Then, Luke, starts crying pretty hard and reaches up and hugs me, holding me tighter than he normally does when he hug. He tells me he’s sorry, I tell him he’s forgiven, and then we sit there together hugging each other as I hold him in my lap, telling him again and again that I love him. Finally, after he’s stopped crying, he hops down out of my lap, takes a few steps, and then turns to me smiling and says, “C’mon, Daddy, let’s go play.” And off we go to race cars or swing on the swing-set or play baseball.
And the reason I want this picture in your head is because though many of you can comprehend just what I’ve described, think it makes absolutely perfect sense, and have even walked in that episode with your own children, you walk in a relationship with God that you think looks nothing like that. Therefore, this morning, I want us to think through this text together, praying that the Spirit would reveal to us what it means for Christ to redeem us from the law and what exactly our standing before God is. And it is my prayer that this morning many of us would have our thinking about our relationship with the Lord altered in a good way in light of what we will look at from Galatians 3:26-4:11.
The text begins, “For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God,” and that’s the main thing I want us to see from this text, but the text also walks us through the position we were in before being made sons of God, so I want us to see that first. Specifically, the text tells us that we were all once enslaved to principles that are contrary to the gospel.
We find this multiple times throughout the text, but let’s start with 4:1-2. Paul writes, “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, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.”
Paul starts chapter 4 with an illustration. In a home in that culture, you might have an estate of great value and have slaves laboring within that estate. And the slaves might even have children. Therefore, it would perhaps not be uncommon for there to be some kind of guardian or manager who works for you, who commands, directs, and disciplines the children. So, you could imagine a scene where the child of the owner of the estate and a child of a slave are in a room together playing while a guardian is instructing them, disciplining them, etc. That is, they’re both receiving orders, being told what to do, and even being disciplined when they fail to do them. Now, one of them will always be a slave. But the other will one day inherit the estate. He is set to own everything. However, that day only comes when his father appoints that day to happen. And, until then, you can basically tell no difference between the son of the owner of the estate and the slave child because they’re both being managed and directed and disciplined by guardians and managers put over them. Basically, though one is a son soon to inherit it all, he is treated like a slave.
Paul takes that analogy and says that we were like that. He says in verse 3, “In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.” He takes that analogy and says that like the son enslaved under a guardian, so ultimately we too were to be freed from a guardian, so for a time, we too were enslaved to something. So, I think that analogy makes sense to us. We were always meant to be freed and receive blessing, for a while, we were enslaved to something for a while until a time decreed by our Father.
But to what were we enslaved. Paul says in verse 3 that we were enslaved to “the elementary principles of the world.” Now, there’s not much there in verse 3 to answer exactly what that means, but the text does give us more. If you look down at 4:8, we read that Paul speaks of them formerly being enslaved to something as he writes, “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.” Finally, in 4:9, Paul writes, “How can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”
So, it seems that we can make a few observations. First, the elementary principles of the world mentioned in verse 3 and in verse 9 are paralleled with “those that by nature are not gods” in verse 8, meaning that in each case, Paul is most likely speaking about the same thing. Second, Paul says in verse 3 “In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.” Therefore, Paul includes himself as one who was enslaved to these elementary principles of the world. Third, in saying in verse 8 that the Galatians were enslaved to “those that by nature are not gods” Paul leads us to think of Paul’s first missionary to the southern region of Galatia in Acts 13-14, where the Galatians clearly showed they were worshipers of Zeus and Hermes, no doubt even offering sacrifices to them. So, you could say, “The elementary principles” must be the worship of false gods who are no gods at all.” But we must note two things. One, we must remember that Paul himself was enslaved to these elementary principles of the world. And Paul was not a worshipper of gods like Zeus and Hermes, but followed the Law of Moses. Two, Paul warns the Galatians in verses 9-10 that they will be turning back to these weak and worthless elementary principles of the world if they “observe days and months and seasons and years,” which is no doubt a reference to observing the Law of Moses with its regulations about Sabbath and other holy days and weeks.
Therefore, we must conclude that the elementary principles of the world are seen both in offering sacrifices to false gods and in observing the Law of Moses in order to be justified before God. With that said, then, let me offer what I think Paul means by “elementary principles of the world.” I think he means by this phrase that we were all enslaved to an understanding in the world that said, “Do this and live.” That is, the elementary principles of this world in which we live tell us, “If you want to be justified, then you need to do …” and then you can fill in the blank. For the Galatians, they were seeking to be righteous based on obeying what they thought the false gods Zeus and Hermes wanted. For Paul, he was trying to be justified on the basis of obeying all the commands of the Law of Moses. Therefore, though their former lives looked very different, they were remarkably the same in that they were both seeking justification based on their own efforts, on their works. They were attempting to follow the principle of this world that says, “Do this and live.”
As we’ve said before, everyone in the world operates by this principle. They may live it out in a hundred different ways, but everyone is tempted to think that we are justified according to our good works. For some it means they highjack planes and fly them into buildings, for others it means they practice child sacrifice to false gods, and for others it means they work in soup kitchens, feeding the homeless, but in every case they’re operating by the same worldly principle that says, “Do this, do that, and you’ll live. Do this, do that, and you’ll be justified.”
And just as Satan and demons encourage people to offer child sacrifices, so that we look at some remote villages in the world and rightly note that the demonic activity there is strong, so Satan and demons tell people, “Keep giving to charities, keep feeding the homeless, keep doing all of those good works, and you’ll be justified” because they know that regardless of how it is worked out, if you commit to thinking that you can do enough to be justified, you will ultimately wind up in hell, knowing the condemnation of God because no one is justified by their good works, for no one can perfectly keep the law. So, Paul and the Galatians were both at one time enslaved to these elementary principles of the world.
Thus, Paul wants the Galatians to know that they were at one time enslaved to those principles of the world. Yet, just as there’s a time a father sets for his son to be under a guardian or manager no more, so at the perfect time, God sent forth his Son in order to redeem us from the condemnation that comes from living under a principle that says, “You must do this in order to live; you must do this in order to be justified.” He writes in 4:4, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Therefore, God’s law was meant to reveal your sin and condemnation, so that you might look to Christ, who was born under the law, where you were and obeyed it perfectly so that his perfect righteousness might be credited to you, who paid the penalty for your sin, and who was raised from the dead to live forever. And those who simply trust in Christ by faith are redeemed from the law and are justified, declared righteous before God.
We’ve seen that thus far in Galatians, we see it again today, and it is a glorious truth to celebrate having been redeemed from the curse of the law so that we might be justified. But there is more that Paul wants the Galatians to see, and there is more that God wants us to see. It is this: We have been redeemed out of that slavery so that we might be adopted as sons by God.
What I want you to see this morning is that God was not simply intent on freeing you from slavery to the law that condemns you. He wasn’t intent simply on freeing us from the curse of the law so that we might know that we are justified before God, our Judge. He redeemed you from the curse of the law because he wanted to adopt you as his child.
We see this in verses 4-5. Paul writes, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” God did not send his Son to the earth on some kind of impersonal mission to redeem a bunch of people from slavery and condemnation. He sent his Son to redeem us so that he might adopt us as sons. Therefore, being freed from condemnation and justified before God also means that God has made you his son.
Furthermore, you need to realize that you didn’t become God’s child because you were good enough or had finally obeyed his commands well enough. Rather, you became God’s child as you believed the gospel and trusted in Christ. That’s why Paul writes in verses 26-29, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
Paul wants us to know that there is no inside track of being God’s child. The Jew has no advantage over the Gentile. The man has no advantage over the woman. The free man has no advantage over the slave. Rather, when anyone from any of these groups becomes a believer, they are instantly adopted as God’s children, and he is their father.
Now, some of you may be asking, “Did Paul forget that he was talking to women because he keeps mentioning ‘sons’ and not ‘sons and daughters’?” Well, I think the answer is, “No, Paul didn’t forget women were in Galatia nor that women were becoming Christians.” But I also think that he was using the language of “son” intentionally. You see, in this culture at this time, you might have a number of children, but it was the son who received the inheritance. So, you could have five girls and then have one boy, and guess who got to receive the family inheritance? It wasn’t any of the girls, even though all of them were older than the boy. It was the son. Now, yes, the girls were loved as children. They were a man’s daughters, and their fathers loved them. They simply were not sons, and therefore did not receive the inheritance.
Therefore, I think Paul is showing us that when we become Christians, there’s no category for someone being a child of God and yet not receiving the inheritance that he promised to Christ. Rather, in Christ, we all get to be sons. Even women who believe in Christ get to have the status as “sons.” Therefore, it’s not some way for Paul to say men are superior. He’s already said in verse 28 the exact opposite. What he’s saying is that even women get to receive the inheritance as children of God. In that sense, before God we are all sons. That’s why Paul mentions in verse 29 that we are all “heirs according to promise” and why he writes in verse 7, “So you are no longer a slaved but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
Over these last couple of years, Lili and I have come to believe that God is calling us to adopt a child out of an orphanage in Russia. I’ve heard Russ Moore describe the scene that he faced when he went to get his sons from such an orphanage. He said that the most horrifying thing as they walked into this orphanage full of babies and toddlers was not the horrid stench that filled the facility but the complete silence. These children had been abandoned. And they learned quickly that there was no one who would respond to their cries. So they had learned to do something so unnatural; they had stopped crying altogether. So, Russ Moore said that he and his wife walked through the rooms to their little boys, who were lying in their own vomit, had never been held and rocked or hugged and kissed, and eventually brought them into their home. Russ Moore mentioned to us in class one day that that was not only the worst orphanage he’d ever been in, it was the worst place he’d ever been in.
And, over the last couple of years, God has moved our hearts to rescue a child out of that setting. He’s called us to pay the money necessary and take the trips, and show up at the court settings and do everything necessary in order to redeem our child out of that place. But we believe that he has not simply called us to do everything necessary to redeem the child out of that orphanage setting; we believe that he is calling us to adopt that child as our own. So, we’re not getting the child simply to bring him or her out of a bad place in which they are confined. We’re going to get our child, one we are adopting as our own. We’re going to get a baby out of that orphanage so that he can be our son just like Michael and Luke are or so that she can be our daughter just like Marie is. Now, from where we stand in the process, we don’t know everything that will require, but we know our goal – we’re going to adopt a child as our own.
Well, in the same way, God has not redeemed you from the curse of the law simply so that you might be freed from the slavery of condemnation, but he has redeemed you because he was intent on adopting you as his child. And if you’ve placed your faith in Jesus Christ and have been justified, then you have indeed been adopted by God, and you are his child.
But the news gets even better. Paul shows us in this text that God was not simply intent on adopting us legally as his children, but he wants us to know in our inner being that we are his children.
Paul writes in verse 6, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba! Father!”
Something that Michael, Marie, and Luke have all done at one point in their lives is had some kind of dream that has scared them and woke them up at night so that they have woken up in their fear and desperation and screamed, “Momma!” or “Daddy!” (About 98% of the time it’s “Momma!” because they’ve been conditioned to the reality that their daddy can sleep through a tornado.) And, honestly, it’s something I dread. I mean, you go to sleep at night, exhausted, hoping for a good night’s rest, and a scream of “Momma” or “Daddy” coming from your child’s bedroom is not something you’re hoping happens at three o’clock in the morning.
But, having heard of Russ Moore speak of the silence of these children who have been abandoned to an orphanage, I have grown to look forward to the day when our fourth child cries out in the middle of the night, having been frightened in a dream and desperate for comfort, “Momma!” or “Daddy!” And the reason I long for it is because that’ll be a sign that though they might have been legally our child for a long time, this will signal that at least in that one moment, they’re instant reaction was to know and feel that they belong to us. They would have declared in that moment of fear, “I know my momma or daddy is there and that I belong to them.” Now, our child might not even be able to make that statement with their mouths that they now are beginning to feel that they belong to us, but that cry will say more than a thousand words could articulate. It will say that they know that I am their daddy and that Lili is their momma, and we’re there (and will not abandon them). It will say that they’ve come to realize that there is finally someone who loves them.
Well, in the same way, God was not intent simply on legally adopting us as his sons so that there is no doubt that we belong to him. He wanted us to know that we are his sons. Therefore, Paul says that God sent the Spirit of his Sons into our hearts so that we might cry out to him as our Father. In other words, God sent his Spirit into our lives so that in our desperation we might feel and know that we have a Father to cry out to “Abba! Father!”
When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, he cried out with loud cries and tears, “Abba, Father.” He knew there was one who loved him, who cared for him, one to whom he could entrust himself – his heavenly Father. That’s why Jesus cried out to him despite facing agony and pain. And God wants us to know the same thing. That’s why he has sent the Spirit into our hearts. It is so that we might know and feel that we can cry out the same. He wants us to know that we belong to him.
One of the reasons I like Luke’s reaction after he’s been disciplined by me is that he has already gotten to the point of knowing that I love him, that I’m his “Daddy,” and that nothing is going to change that. I love it that when I spank him, he wants to cry to me and hug me. Even if he can’t articulate it, he knows that even in my discipline, my love for him is the same. In fact, I discipline him because I love him. And I love that he will get down out of my lap after that time of holding me tightly, hugging me, and crying, and after his tears are wiped away, he will look at me, smile, and say, “C’mon Daddy, let’s go play.” And the reason I love it is because he is showing that he believes my love for him and my commitment for him. He doesn’t get down after we’ve dealt with his discipline and avoid me, fearing that my displeasure over his disobedience is still lingering or fear coming around me because I’m mad at him.
But it’s also a convicting scene for me because there have been numerous times that my heavenly Father has disciplined me because he loves me. He has pointed out my sin so that I might confess it. He has made clear that as I confess it, he is faithful and just to forgive me of my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. And he has made clear that the reality of that forgiveness isn’t cheap, but rather he has done everything necessary in order to extend to me love and forgiveness and acceptance even as he did not spare his own Son. And I leave those settings sometimes thinking that I need to do something else in order to know I’m in good standing with him. I feel that I need to avoid him until I can bring him some good works or eliminate some bad works. That is, I leave that setting, and I enslave myself to the elementary principles of the world that says that God only accepts me if I can do this or do that, and I forget that he has adopted me and that I am his son.
And I don’t think I’m the only one who falls into that kind of slavery that seeks to evaluate my standing before the Lord always on how much good I’ve done or how little bad I’ve done. But what I want to say to me and you, if you struggle with the same thing, is that when we go back to operating by a kind of thinking that says that God will only accept us when we can these things right or think that his scowl at us will only be removed when we can avoid sin for a certain number of days, we miss that he has already made us his child. We miss that he has done everything necessary to eliminate the thought that there is still something demanded of us in order to be justified before him, in order to be loved by him, and in order to walk as his child in whom he delights.
So, don’t go back to the elementary principles in which you once lived. Don’t become slaves to that once more. Paul tells the Galatians in verses 9-10 that if they go back and live on those principles that in order to be justified and accepted before God they have to observe certain commands, then he fears that they he may have labored in vain and that they never truly believed the gospel. So, do not turn to those things, but believe that he has redeemed you from the curse that says, “You’ll be justified only if you do …” Believe that you are accepted before him. Believe that when he disciplines you, it is not to drive you away from him but simply to bring you to repent of your sin as a loving father disciplines his children whom he loves. Believe that when you confess your sins, you really are perfectly forgiven and that there is no scowl on the face of our God that remains until you finally get these things corrected. Believe that our God has done everything necessary to make you his son, and that he desperately wants us to know that and to walk in that freedom and joy of knowing that he is our Father, who chose us to be his children when we were doing everything to show we were his enemies. That sounds like news to good to be true, but that is the gospel. So, believe it, and do not turn back again to slavery but walk in the delightful freedom that God wants us to know and delight in. Amen.