Galatians 3:26-4:7
We are family
In Christ, We are Family
We are family by Faith Galatians 3:26-27
We are family without Distinction Galatians 3:28
We are family by adoption and heirs
according to the promise Galatians 3:29
The stages of children in the Family Galatians 4:1-7
Child as a Minor Galatians 4:1-3
Child as an Adult Galatians 4:4-6
Child as an Heir Galatians 4:7
Slide 1
Families have changed a lot over the years. A lot of the ways families have changed can be seen in the television shows that portray family life.
Back in the 50’s it was
The “Cleavers” of Leave it to Beaver’ or
Slide 1 The Andersons from “Father Knows Best”
The Nelsons from the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
That is how some people experienced family life.
Nowadays, there are many people who not only don’t experience family life like that, but are experiencing it more like
A different Ozzie as in the Ozzie from “The Osbornes”
A show that shows the life of Ozzie Osborne and his wife and 2 kids. Talk about dysfunctional.
But the reality is there are a great many people today and even back then and even back in Bible times that have grown up in dysfunctional families.
But for most of us, even if we grew up in a dysfunctional family, there are still going to be positive aspects of our family life.
It means something to be part of a family. Even a dysfunctional one.
We are going to be looking at another family today. A family that you can be part of and enjoy
regardless of your upbringing.
Regardless of whatever dysfunctions went on in your Physical family.
And that family is your spiritual family
I want us to see the importance of a spiritual family in our lives and what that means for us.
Slide 2
Slide 2 We are continuing on in our study of Galatians and we are going to be looking at Galatians 3:26-4:7 (p. 825)
To recap were we have been,
Paul has written a letter to the Galatians defending the essential message of the Gospel which is that we are saved by Grace.
There were some Judaizers who had come into the church after Paul had left and said that
Yes Jesus died for your sins, but you also need to first become a Jew and be circumcised if you are going to be saved.
Paul writes the Galatians and tells them that is not the case. And furthermore, we need to continue living in God’s grace to experience the Christian life in its fullness.
The Judaisers were saying that you had to follow the law.
Paul was saying that the purpose of the Law was not to draw us closer to God but show us our need for Christ.
And then he begins talking about how our acceptance of Christ puts us in relationship with the Father by describing it with the family relationship of being a son.
And this is where we pick up in
Galatians 3:26-4:7
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Gal 4:1 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. 4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
The first thing we see is that
We are family by Faith
Slide 3
Galatians 3:26-27
Slide 3 26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Some people will say that every person is a child of God. We are all God’s children.
And in a creative sense that is true. Every person who has ever lived is created by God in His image.
That is why we need to show love for everyone regardless of if they are a Christian or not.
But there is another sense that we are children of God that not all of us meet.
Notice what Paul writes here. He says we are all sons of God through what – “through faith in Christ.”
John says the same thing in
John 1:12
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
We become part of God’s family in a spiritual sense through faith in Christ.
We become family with all of those who have by faith accepted Jesus as their Savior.
Sitting around you today, for those who have put their trust in Christ, are your brothers and sisters.
Being family is important. We view, and rightly so, our relationships with our natural brothers and sisters as important. They are important.
But I can tell you that there are some people within the body of Christ that I have closer bond with and connection to than some of my natural siblings.
It is because we don’t just share a blood connection. We share a spiritual connection.
That spiritual connection will last for an eternity.
The blood connections we have, if that is all that there is, will only last during this lifetime.
So when we accept Jesus as Savior, we become a family of faith with God as our Father and those who have accepted Jesus as Savior as our brothers and sisters.
But in this family we find that
We are family without Distinction
Slide 4 Slide 4
Galatians 3:28
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
In our natural families, there are many times when our distinctions are highlighted.
Anyone who has ever seen the TV show, “Raymond” sees an example of that. The mother on that show likes Raymond better than the other son Robert. While this is never said, it is obvious to everyone.
Raymond and Robert are different and many times those distinctions are highlighted.
While parents love their kids, there is often times a perception of favoritism by some of the kids over the others and often times there is some truth to that.
But not so with God our Father.
When we put our trust in Jesus as our Savior, in a spiritual sense, God no longer sees us, but
He sees the righteousness of His Son, Jesus.
We all have equal standing before the Father when we are in Christ.
Back before Christ, that was not the thinking.
Warren Wiersbe writes
“The Pharisee would pray each morning, ‘I thank Thee, God, that I am a Jew, not a Gentile; a man, not a woman; and a freeman, and not a slave.’”
People viewed certain distinctions that gave a person better standing with God.
What Paul says here is that, spiritually speaking, in God’s eyes, if you are in Christ, you have equality spiritually.
Now there are some who seek to use this verse to take away all social and role distinctions in society as well as the church. This verse does not support that.
What this is saying is that because you are a man, you are not any better than a woman or because you are free, you are not any better than a slave in the eyes of God.
Now will these people still have different roles? Yes.
Just as within the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there are different roles but there is still equality, the same is true for those who are in Christ. We have equal standing before God when we accept Christ by faith. We are equally His children.
Yet we still have different roles. Because of these different roles, however, does not mean we have different value before God.
People with different gifts also have different roles, but I can tell you that we are all valuable as part of the body.
Having a poor nursery ministry or a cleaning ministry that does poorly, can have as negative effect upon church growth as poor preaching.
Each of us is important. And before God,
our distinctions vanish so that all that is left is Christ in us.
In the church, even while we have different roles, we must never allow ourselves to think of ourselves better than someone else or someone else as less than anyone else.
In the church, it does not matter
if you have money or don’t have money
If you are white or black
If you are male or female
You are welcome to be a contributing part of the body here.
So we are family by Faith without Distinction but also
We are Family by Adoption and
Heirs according to the Promise
Slide 5
Slide 5 Galatians 3:29
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
When we trust in Christ a Savior we are become the offspring of Abraham and are adopted into God’s family.
Here is how Paul tells us we are placed in God’s family in Ephesians 1:4-6.
Ephesians 1:4-6
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will- 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
All those who trust Jesus as Savior will be holy and blameless in His sight.
When we are adopted into God’s family, we are not only made a child of God, but we are given an exalted position as heir also.
We have an inheritance waiting for us.
An inheritance as Peter tells us that “can never perish, spoil or fade” (1 Peter 1:4) and as Paul tells us is guaranteed for us by us being sealed with the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 1:14.
Being an heir means different things at different stages of our life, though. And Paul goes on to describe the process of that heirship as we are growing up in God’s family.
We see from the next section that there are
The Stages of Childhood in the Family
Slide 6 Slide 6
Galatians 4:1-7
1 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. 4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
The first stage we see is
The Child as a Minor
Slide 7 Slide 7
Galatians 4:1-3
1 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.
When a person is a child, even if they are a child in a wealthy family, they
do not enjoy all of the privileges of that wealth. In fact often times in wealthy families, the children are
under the guidance and authority of a servant or some one hired by the parents to care for the children.
So in reality, the children are in no better a position at that point than a servant of slave.
Before the time of Christ, God had put the law in charge to supervise his people.
But Just as when children grew and matured, they no longer needed a slave or servant watching over them, now that faith has come, we no longer need the supervision of the law.
And in fact to revert back to that, to go back toward legalism, is not growing in maturity, it is regressing to immaturity.
When we believe in Christ as Savior, we are spiritually reborn into God’s family as a babe,
We are also immediately adopted as adult sons, given the privilege and responsibilities of sonship.
And this is Paul’s next point when he speaks of
The Child as an Adult
Slide 8
Galatians 4:4-6
Slide 8 4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."
We do not need the supervision of a servant, we can have the “full-rights of sons” in Christ.
We can immediately enjoy the relationship of Adult child to Heavenly Father.
As babies, we cannot talk to our parents and have conversation. We just scream and cry.
We however, can experience that adult relationship with the Father immediately as Son in Christ.
We can cry Abba, Father. Abba is more accurately translated Papa or in our meaning today, we could say “Daddy.” That signifies the intimate relationship we immediately come into with the Father.
And we can begin experiencing immediately some of the benefits of our Fathers riches.
We can experience
The riches of His grace (Ephesians 2:7)
7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
The Riches of His glory (Philippians 4:19)
19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
The Riches of His kindness (Romans 2:4)
4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness,
The Riches of His Wisdom ( Romans 11:33)
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
As an adult child we get to experience some of those riches now, but in the final stage of being a child in God’s family, we get to experience it in its fullness. And that is
The Child as an Heir
Slide 9
Slide 9 Galatians 4:7
7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
We are heirs. That means that while we get to experience some of the riches of our heavenly Father now, we can also look forward to when we come into the fullness of our inheritance as and heir.
When that inheritance is final and complete
We will come into that state of perfection and have
Glorified bodies that will never experience pain (Revelation 21:4)
We will be in continual communion with Him (Revelation 21:3)
He will be our light (Revelation 21:23)
We will know the fullness of being His Son (Revelation 21:7)
Read Revelation 21:1-7; 22-27
Rev 21:7
7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
These are the blessings of being in God’s family.
I imagine that there are some out here today that are not yet part of God’s family, whose names are not yet written in the Lamb’s book of life.
My question to you is what are you waiting for?
My encouragement is don’t wait a second longer. Enter into God’s family today, right now.
How do you do that?
Well first, recognize that you are a sinner. I know that is humbling, but it is true.
If you can’t recognize that you have sinned against God, You can’t know your need for God’s salvation.
Next, Believe in Jesus Christ and what He did on the Cross.
That He died on the cross for your sins
That He rose again after 3 days showing He has the power to forgive you of your sins and give you eternal life
And make you part of the family of God
And for you who have believed in Christ as your Savior, but have not grown up into the grace of Christ and are stuck in a legalistic relationship with a bunch of rules instead of the Ruler, Come back into His grace and experience the joys of family life in the Family of God.
Let’s Pray
