A CHURCH GOING ASTRAY
Warsaw Christian Church, Richard Bowman, Pastor
Text: Galatians 4:1-7 (see also 7-20): 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. 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. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
The Galatian Church was beginning to go astray. False teachers had brought confusion into the church. There was confusion, particularly about the difference between the law and the gospel. Throughout this epistle, Paul is laboring to bring the Galatians back to the truth. Paul distinguishes between what the Galatians had been and what they are through faith in Jesus Christ. Before Christ, they were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world. After Christ, they became the adopted children of God. Let’s take a closer look at these two concepts.
On the negative side, the Galatians before Christ are described as enslaved to the world’s elemental spirits. What does Paul mean? The subject under discussion is access to God through Jesus Christ; elementary things no doubt refers to all the religious ideas which predate Jesus Christ. The Galatians were returning to relying on the law as a means of salvation. The law served a purpose in the plan of God, but it was never meant to be the source of salvation. The Galatians were becoming once again enslaved to the law.
Sometimes, Christians today fall into the same trap. We say we believe in Jesus but then dabble in astrology, Ouija boards, fortune tellers, or the notion that if we are just good enough, we have earned salvation. I understand that psychic hotlines are booming because people are hungry to know the future. All of this comes under the heading of “Elementary.” Christians who have come to faith should trust Christ completely, avoiding all elementary religious ideas. Such ideas can destroy faith if they become common. This is Paul’s concern for the Galatians. They are turning away from Christ and returning to rudimentary religious beliefs that do nothing but enslave the soul.
We must ask ourselves a fundamental question to help us grasp this idea of enslavement to things elementary. What things in this world are of supreme importance to you? If the answer is anything other than the Triune God, then you are enslaved to that which is elementary. The created order and the institutions that are part of human life are all elementary things. They are given to us by God for our use, but when they begin to take God’s place in our hearts, we have a problem. The gifts of God have replaced God. God is the only ultimately real entity in the universe. Everything else came from him and will finally be disposed of by him. God is the “Sunum Bonum,” the Supreme Good of the universe. Everything else is elementary. Until God and the things of God conquer our hearts, we are enslaved to the elementary principles of this world.
Paul’s main concern was that the Judaizers claimed that one must keep the Old Testament law to be saved. The Galatians were Gentiles, reared in the ancient religious ideas of Greece and Rome. The false teachers told them that to be saved, they must embrace and practice Jewish law. God’s law revealed in the Old Testament has a place in the life of the Christian. However, its place is not to bring salvation to us. In Galatians 6:11, we learned that the false teachers were compelling circumcision. They said you must keep the law, particularly the law of circumcision, to be saved. That is an idea that contradicts the gospel, which assures us that it is faith in Christ alone which saves us.
The law of God in the Old Testament served two primary purposes. First, it revealed the will of God. It told the people of Israel what they must do to please God. It continues to serve that purpose today. However, the law’s primary purpose was to bring us to Christ. When we examine the law closely, we understand how much we fail to obey the law of God. We need another way to please God. The scripture says, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24). The law has served its purpose in pointing us to Christ. We realize that we have utterly failed to keep the law and must be justified by faith.
That is the negative side of Paul’s argument. Return now to the positive side. Whether you live in Galatia or Warsaw, MO, you are in one of two camps. Either you are immersed in elementary things, or you are an adopted son or daughter of God through faith in Jesus Christ. There is no third option. Paul reminds the Galatians that they had entered the camp of Jesus through faith. But now they were being led astray by the false teachers. They were using the law of God as the means of salvation. They were teaching that it is not enough to trust in Jesus. One must also obey the 10 Commandments and the rest of God’s Law to be saved.
The Law of God revealed in the Old Testament is an elementary thing in a different way. It came from God, but the purpose of the Old Testament is to prepare the world for the coming of Jesus. Once Jesus has fulfilled his mission, you don’t tell people they must live under the old covenant. Doing so is a return to that which was elementary.
Paul uses the word adoption to describe our relationship to God through Jesus Christ. In verse five of our text, he says that Jesus’ first act was to redeem us from the judgment of the law and adopt us as God’s children. In my research on this verse, I found it interesting that adoption was unknown in Jewish culture. There is no Hebrew word for adoption. However, adoption was common in the Roman world, and it is to the Roman practice of adoption that Paul alludes. There are two aspects of Roman adoption.
First, the adopted person lost all rights in his old family and gained all the rights of being a son or daughter in the new family. Legally, and in a very binding way, the adopted child received a new father and cut all ties with his old father and family. Any debts related to the old family were canceled. The adopted child literally became a new person.
This applies to us. Our spiritual father is Satan. He enslaves us and seeks to keep his hand on us to do his bidding. He is thrilled when we embrace the elementary principles of religion. He is a father who cares nothing for his children. His interest in us is to drag us into hell to suffer there with him. Satan is also a deceiver who hides his hatred and bids us indulge in every whim in seeking earthly pleasure. Those who live in bondage to Satan have no idea such is the case. They are like the Jews in John 8:44, who assumed they were doing the right thing and holding on to Judaism while rejecting Jesus. Jesus told him bluntly that their spiritual father was the devil. They protested that God was their father, but Jesus said if God were indeed your father, you would believe in me (John 8:42). When we hear the good news that God has acted in Jesus to set us free, and when we believe in Him, God truly becomes our Father and our ties with Satan are broken. We are adopted into the family of God. Satan no longer has any hold on us.
And what could be better than knowing all our old debts have been canceled? Scripture says we are born in sin, and our sin piles up until we come to faith in Jesus. Even as Christians, we continue to commit sins inadvertently. A simple illustration helps us to see the enormity of our sin debt. The James Kennedy Evangelism program speaks of committing three sins per day. Three times daily, you had an evil thought or spoke an evil word, or performed an evil deed, or failed to do a good deed you should have done. Three sins a day would make a very good person, far better than your pastor. Three sins per day is not a high enough number in my case. But suppose you were an extra good person and only sinned three times daily. That would be 1095 transgressions every year, and if you lived to be 70, you would have offended God 76 650 times. What would any human judge do to a criminal with 76,650 violations on his rap sheet? Such a criminal would be locked up with no hope of ever being free.
And how does God react to our long list of violations? He gives us two choices. We can pay the penalty ourselves and spend eternity in that divinely created jail called hell, or we can trust Jesus, become adopted children of God, and have our record cleansed forever. When faith in Jesus is present, nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Of course, we can make the same mistake the Galatians made. We can try to improve on what Christ has done for us. We can try to help Jesus by trying to earn our way into God’s family by obedience to his commandments. The Galatians wanted to earn God’s favor through Jewish law, meaning they would no longer trust Jesus as their Savior. Paul says in Galatians 5:4, “You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ you have fallen from grace.” As long as you trust in Jesus, you have God’s protection. His hand is on you. You are an adopted child of God, and God watches out for his own. If you turn back to the elementary things, such as laws and rules, and try to save yourself through obedience to the law, you cut yourself off from Christ. What we are learning here is of critical importance.
There is another aspect of Roman adoption we need to examine. Adopted sons in Roman culture became instant heirs of their new father’s estate. Even if natural sons or daughters were born later, the adopted child could not lose his right as an heir. He was equal to the natural-born children, an equal heir. Legally he could not be cast aside by the natural children.
The application is obvious. When we trusted Jesus, we became legitimate heirs of all the blessings God promised his children. We received the most significant inheritance of all, even eternal life. Satan can rant, rave, and refer to our sinful behavior. He can demand that he is our rightful father. Once God adopts us, we are the heirs of the Father. Satan has absolutely no claim on us. Jesus expressed this truth again in John’s Gospel when he referred to his people as his sheep. He stated that no one can pluck us from his loving grasp when he gets his hands on us. I love these words from John 10:27, 28. “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” Trust Jesus, dear people, and you have an inheritance that makes winning Powerball seem penny ante.
Paul emphasizes our status as sons and daughters of God by pointing out that when we turn to Jesus in faith, the Holy Spirit is sent to us. He enters our hearts, causing us to cry out, “Abba Father.” This manner in which to address God is found only in the Christian faith. Abba is in Aramaic. It is a term for intimacy between a son and his father. We can be intimate with God, calling him dad or papa or whatever intimate term you may have used for your father. This is a stunning revelation. The Christian is not to grovel on his face before an almighty deity but is to address God as “Abba, my Father.” God is undoubtedly Almighty; with power we can scarcely imagine. He spoke this grand universe into existence. This is a power we cannot comprehend. And yet, instead of encouraging us to refer to God as “Almighty” or the Grand Pubah or the highly exalted one, when the Holy Spirit enters our hearts, we cry out to God as my Abba, my Father. God invites us to address him with intimacy because we are his children.
Are you one of God's adopted children? Anyone may enter into that status. You can have all your sins, past, present, and future forgiven. God offers you forgiveness and eternal life as a gift. All He asks of us is that we believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be, and that Jesus did what he claimed to do, suffered vicariously on the cross for us. The test we can give ourselves is simple. When you think of God, what is in your heart? Is it fear? Anxiety about judgment? Confusion? Uncertainty? Or when you think of God, do the intimate words “Abba, Father” come to mind?
The Galatians had taken that step of faith and came to know God as their heavenly Father, but now they are backing away. They were about to reject grace and exchange it for the law, thinking they would find favor with God if they worked hard and performed the proper rituals. May our heavenly father deliver us from making the same error. Jesus has done all that is necessary to secure our salvation. Believe it, and you are a child of God. You will have eternity to enjoy all the wonderful blessings as an heir of God.
