Adoption Series

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)