Redeemed: Galatians 4:4-7
Easter 2020
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
April 12, 2020
I Didn’t Get It
Easter Sunday morning, 1980. Wooddale Church of Christ. I was 12 years old, uncomfortable in my Easter dress clothes, sitting with a couple of friends in the back of the auditorium.
At the end of the message, we sing the hymn, “Just as I Am,” for what seemed like an hour. He kept stopping and saying, “I know there is somewhere here today that needs to be saved.” I didn’t really even know what saved meant. But I knew it would make my mom and dad happy. So I slipped up my hand.
He saw me and locked eyes with me. Pray this prayer. So I repeated a prayer that I didn’t understand word for word. Then I walked down the aisle, signed a card, and in that church, they baptized me right then and there. They gave me a little King James Bible and then he introduced me to the congregation.
Hey, what’s your name, kid? I whispered, “Jeff.” He then introduced me with great fanfare as a brand new Christian and everyone clapped.
There was just one problem. I had no idea what had just happened. I got saved. But I didn’t know what I was getting saved from or what happened to make me need saving in the first place. I was no more a Christian than I would be a NBA basketball player.
I wish that I had understood what I’m going to teach today because it would have changed my life and saved me from a lot of heartache as a teenager.
Don’t get me wrong. I grew up in the south. I knew that Jesus died on the cross for sins. But as I said on Friday night, I didn’t understand that he died for MY sins until I was a senior in college.
I knew that the grave was empty on that first Easter morning. But I didn’t understand what that meant to me and my heart.
Namely, I didn’t understand that I had been REDEEMED and ADOPTED.
It’s my prayer today that you would understand, really understand, what Easter means and that it would change you permanently from the inside out.
Promises
Last week, we looked at six promises from Galatians 3:26-4:2.
In Christ, we get a:
New Identity.
All those who put their faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins gain the right to call God Father.
New Wardrobe.
When God looks at us, he sees us as sons because He sees us clothed in His Son’s righteous robes.
New Acceptance
Paul writes that being a Jew or a Gentile no longer matters. It doesn’t matter what culture you come from, or what color your skin is, or what neighborhood you live in, or what language you speak.
The Gospel looks past all of that. This would have been earth shattering for his hearers. In Christ, those cultural barriers have been broken down.
New Inheritance
Paul writes that the coming of Christ, ushered in the age of grace. While we were under law, we were like a child waiting for the inheritance. The whole estate was theirs but not until the time set by the Father.
“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.” (Gal 3:29-4:2)
That brings us to our verses for today.
Let me remind you that Paul taught the Galatians that Jesus + Nothing = Everything and that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
But the Judaizers came behind him and told these new Christians that they had only heard half the story. Yes, yes, Jesus died for you sins. But you also need to follow the dietary rules, the Mosaic law, and circumcision. In other words, they needed to become Jewish before they could be a Christian.
Paul writes this entire letter to refute this idea.
Remember, those who dance are thought crazy by those who cannot hear the music.
Prayer.
Turn with me to Galatians 4:4
Elementary School
“So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world.” (Gal 4:4)
Paul uses the term “we” to describe the Jewish Christians that had come out from under the law into grace.
The term “elemental” means “in a straight row.” It’s like A,B,C or 1,2,3. Those are the things that we in elementary school. But after 1,300 years, that age was coming to an end. The time had come…
It’s time!
“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” (Gal 4:4-5)
This just might be one of the best Easter verses there are in the entire Bible!
A. When the set time had fully come or in the fullness of time.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn’t come now? Think about it. He could have had a podcast that would be listened to by millions. He could have written books and traveled all over the world, healing and teaching.
But instead, He shows up in first century Palestine.
Palestine was perfectly situated for the Gospel to spread to Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Why was that time “the time?” Obviously because that was God’s plan from the beginning of time. But there were other reasons why the time had come.
Theologically.
After the Jews came back from the Babylonian captivity, they no longer worship idols. There was an expectancy among the Jews. There were over 300 prophecies of a Messiah in the Old Testament, which was complete, and there was a feeling that He could come soon.
Religiously.
The gods of the Romans and Greeks were fading in popularity and even the pagans were spiritual hungry.
Culturally .
The world had a common language that nearly everyone could read - Greek.
Politically
Alexander the Great had conquered the known world and brought a peace called the Pax Romana to the region. There was a network of roads that would critical to taking the Gospel out of Jerusalem and into the outermost parts of the empire.
B. God sent His Son
Notice that God sent forth his Son. This phrase means “sending out from a previous state.”
The Apostle John testified:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made….The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-3;14)
The writer of Hebrews describes Jesus this way:
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:3)
Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, was send forth by the Father on a rescue mission. And He was perfectly qualified for that mission.
He had to be fully Divine to conquer sin.
C. Born of a woman
Jesus was born. We call this the incarnation. He was born of a woman - Mary. Yes He was Divine. He was God. But He was also human. He cried, He got tired, He frustrated. He understands what it means to be human.
He had to be fully human to take our place, to be our representative.
D. Born under the Law
Jesus was a Jewish man who lived under the Law of Moses. But, unlike us, He kept it perfectly. He never sinned. Not once.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.” (Romans 8:1-3)
This is what we call Christ’s active obedience. Because He lived a perfect life under the law, His righteousness is made available to us:
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)
E. To REDEEM those under law
To redeem means to “buy back.”
There’s a beautiful book in the Bible named Hosea. Hosea is told to marry a prostitute named Gomer. They have several children, a couple that doesn’t look much like him. And then Gomer takes off. She ends up being sold into slavery.
Hosea finds himself standing in the slave market bidding on his own wife in order to buy her back out of bondage.
This is a picture of the Father sending His Son to buy us back from our bondage to sin.
Jesus lived a perfect life and through that perfect life we get His righteousness for our sins.
But Jesus also died the perfect death - in our place, for our sins, to take the wrath of God against sins, in order to redeem you from our hopeless and helpless state.
But wait, there’s more! He didn’t stay dead! The tomb was empty! On the cross, Jesus wrote a check for your soul and early that Sunday morning, He rose again proving the check cleared!
Have you been redeemed? Are you still in your sins? Jesus loves you so much that He would rather die than be without you!
On that Easter Sunday morning all those years ago when I was jumping through the religious hoops, I wish someone would have explained that God’s heart desire was to REDEEM me, to buy me back from the bondage of slavery to sin simply because of extravagant love.
F. That we might receive ADOPTION to sonship.
That brings us to our second Easter word this morning - ADOPTION.
About five years ago, I was adopted into the Stepro family. I don’t have any living grandparents, so Gma and Gpa Stepro became my adopted Grandparents. In fact, when I did Gpa Stepro’s funeral, I was introduced as one of the cousins!
If you are a Christian, you have an adoption story. It’s why He redeemed us in the first place, to adopt us into His forever family.
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13)
Matt Merker, a pastor and father of two adopted children, gives several reasons we should celebrate the fact that God has chosen to adopt us.
Adoption rescues us.
We were enslaved to sin and were by nature objects of God’s wrath. But adoption changes all of that.
Adoption was God’s foreordained plan. Remember, when the fullness of time had come.
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” (Ephesians 1:3-6)
Adoption is God’s initiative. God sent forth His Son
Adoption is costly. Salvation is free to us but it cost Jesus His life.
Adoption brings a new legal status. We are no longer slaves, but sons.
Adoption brings a whole new spiritual state.
“Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:6)
God not only sent his Son He also sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. We are changed from the inside out. So much so that we called God “Daddy.”
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (I John 3:1)
Adoption brings a whole new inheritance.
“So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Gal 4:7)
No longer slaves, but now we are sons. And we are heirs to the promises made to Abraham. We are heirs of the most high King. We will get what we most want - eternal life with our Father and our new family.
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:14-17)
We are no longer slaves under the law but sons living in the love of God.
Have you been redeemed? Have you been adopted into God’s forever family?
Do you truly understand Easter? I didn’t until I was a senior in college.
At that time, I was like the thief on the cross that mocked Jesus. Honestly, I was just mad at the God I didn’t believe in.
I was 21 years old, completely overwhelmed with shame, questioning my sexuality, my sanity, and thought of suicide were never far off. I had a gun put to my head when I walked into a armed robbery in progress so I great anxiety about dying. When I drank, it was way too much and after four years of striving to get into my #1 choice grad school, I didn’t get the scholarship. I was addicted to porn, depressed, lonely, and angry.
I was a pretty bad person. Not Carol Baskins feeding her husband to a tiger bad, but bad enough.
In other words, I was a train wreck. If you had asked me to define myself I would have said, “At the very core of who I am, I’m a total screw up.” I was irredeemable.
Maybe you feel the same way today.
But at a retreat in Moscow Tennessee, I understood for the first time that Jesus died on the cross… for me. That I wasn’t irredeemable. That somehow, God looked past my train wreck of a life, and saw someone who needed rescue. And so He redeemed me. To buy me back from my bondage to sin.
Why? Did I deserve it? Not at all. Could I have earned it? Nope. It blew me away that He did it simply because He loved me.
But that wasn’t all I understood for the first time. Jesus didn’t stay dead! He rose from the grave, defeating death once and for all, and making a way for me to be adopted into God’s forever family.
That brings me to the second Easter word - Adoption.
The idea of God being my Father was not a very welcoming idea. While I have a good relationship with my dad now, at 21 I felt distant and not accepted by him.
He was a civil engineer and my brother was a math whiz so they bonded over that. I wanted to be on broadway…you do the math.
I’m sure there are many listening to me that have similar issues with your father.
But at that retreat, the pastor taught on the story of the prodigal son who asked his dad for the share of the estate, went off into a far country, wasted it all, was starving and decided to return home. The thing about that story that overwhelmed me was that the father was looking for him. Standing on tiptoe as it were, scanning the horizon, waiting for his son to come home.
If God was like that, count me in. I discovered that God really is a good, good Father and I truly am loved by Him. He calls me His son and He proud of me.
That was overwhelmingly good news! It changed my life. And on December 31, 1990, I was redeemed and adopted into God’s forever family.
Are you 100% sure you will go to heaven when you die? Have you been REDEEMED and ADOPTED?
It is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone that we can be redeemed from our sin and adopted.
