Age Before Beauty Series

Five days later, Chuck Colson & Kathy Troccoli were in Chicago, more than 1,000 miles from Oregon. They were in a prison there, & Kathy sang that same song, "My Life is in Your Hands."

Afterwards, a woman came up to Kathy & said, "I really want to thank you for singing that song. My soul has been so dry." Almost the same exact words. Again Kathy asked, "Why?" She said, "Well, my husband is in prison, too, & I felt like I couldn’t put up with it anymore. So I wrote him last week & asked for a divorce. But I’m not at peace about it."

Her husband was the man they had met back in Salem, OR. Kathy was able to minister to her, & now God is healing the marriage & bringing them back together again.

Born under the Law. Jesus was born under the Law so that He might fulfill the requirements of the Law through His sinless life.

5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Hebrews 10:11-14: “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest [Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”

Jesus met the requirements of the law and then paid our debt through His death because He did not owe that debt Himself due to His righteous life.

Verse 5 "redeem them that were under the law". The word "redeem" means "to buy in the slave market through the payment of the redemption price. To buy for oneself and to forever remove from the sale." Jesus Christ came to this world for one purpose: to die for the sins of humanity! He came "to give His life a ransom for many", Mark 10:45)

He made our adoption possible

Under ROMAN LAW you were not in the family until you were adopted. A father could raise a child and never choose to adopt them. They would never be an heir.

We are born again and given new life by God but we are not in His family unless He chooses to adopt us. God choose to adopt us as His children.

I would have felt amazingly blessed just to be saved from the consequences of my sin and given eternal life. God did not stop there but choose to adopt me as well.

In Roman law, adoption was very difficult. A long, involved and expensive legal procedure, once enacted adoption afforded several special rights and privileges.

1. all debts were cancelled

2. all criminal charges were dropped

3. they could not be legally put to death by their new father

4. they could not be disinherited by their new father

In legal terms, they were a completely new person.

Paul was alluding to the believers’ security in Christ by using this Roman legal procedure. When a father publicly adopted a son, he officially and permanently became his heir.

In Christ we are made full adopted adults in God’s family. We are responsible to act as we should. We are responsible to make sure we are fed, to make sure we are protected from the enemy, to make sure we are in the shelter of God’s family.