Adopted Sons Of God

Some of the most well-known words to the believer are the first six words of the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Our Father - God is known as our heavenly Father. We pray to God as our Father, speak of Him as our Father, and even sing to Him as our Father.

For example, one well-known hymn says, “God, our Father, we adore Thee! We, Thy children, bless Thy name! Chosen in the Christ before Thee, we are holy, without blame. We adore Thee! We adore Thee! Abba’s praises we proclaim.”(1) This one hymn mentions God as Father in different ways; as Father and Abba.

This evening we are going to learn why we are able to call God our Father, and why we are indeed His children.

We Were Once Slaves of Sin (3:29-4:3)

29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 1 Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, 2 but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

In verse 29, Paul said that those who receive Jesus as Savior are heirs to God’s kingdom. He then entered into a discourse about the state of an heir, applicable in his historical context. He stated how a male heir, while he was still a child, was considered no different than a slave (v. 1). Paul was speaking of sonship in ancient Rome. In Roman law sons were raised under their father’s power which was known as patria potestas, which was the father’s power of absolute possession and control over a family member.(2)

The son was a servant in his father’s household, and was seen as being no greater than a slave until an appointed age, which was about twenty-five-years-old. Therefore, the son was placed under guardians and stewards selected by the father in order to teach him the ways of his father and proper moral conduct.(3) According to F. F. Bruce, one of these guardians was known as a tutor.(4) Back in Galatians 3:24, Paul stated that God’s children, the Jewish people, were all placed under a tutor, which he noted was the law. The law that Paul referred to was the Law of Moses, which included the Ten Commandments and numerous other Levitical rules and regulations.

In Galatians 3:23-25, Paul said that the law was necessary to instruct God’s people in righteousness before Jesus came into the world to bestow the law of the Spirit. When Christ finally arrived, this event was the “coming of age” for all of the Jewish people who chose to follow Him as their Lord and Savior. They were ready to move from childhood into adulthood; or from slavery into true sonship and inheritance in the kingdom by the Spirit of God.

In applying this insight to those who do not know Jesus Christ, they are still trapped under the law and seen as slaves in the eyes of God. Today, we are not held under the Ten Commandments, but under the laws of men and rules of social morality. The laws to which we are subject, that are taught by our earthly parents and government, are necessary to instruct us in morality. But, as Paul said in verse 3, the laws of men are of the elements of this world, and if we still live by these laws then we are held in spiritual bondage and considered to be slaves of sin.

If we do not know Jesus Christ as Savior then the Spirit of God does not live within us. The Spirit is the one who convicts and instructs us in godliness once we have accepted Jesus into our heart. Though the laws of men can teach us to be a good person, we are incomplete and seen as a slave without the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit teaches us the laws of the Spirit; as demonstrated in the fruit of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). If we do not know Jesus then we are still a slave to the laws of men, and we are lacking the freedom found in the Holy Spirit.

We Are Now Adopted by God (4:4-5)

4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Jesus Christ, God’s one and only Son, was born of a woman, meaning that God came down in the form of a man to dwell on this earth for a short time among human beings. He was born under the law to redeem those, or rather liberate those, who were held captive under the law.