A STRIKING FAMILY RESEMBLANCE
Galatians 3:26-4:7
S: Sonship
Th: Grace-Full Living
Pr: WE ARE GOD’S CHILDREN.
?: How? How is it observed?
KW: Characteristics
TS: We will find in our study of Galatians 3:26-4:7, three characteristics that show how we are God’s children.
The _____ characteristic that shows we are a child of God is we are an…
I. ILLUSTRATION (3:27)
II. INDIVISIBLE WHOLE (3:28)
III. INHERITOR (3:29-4:7)
RMBC 7/16/00 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Notebook: Heir (Any more questions?)
Josie Firstbrook and her husband had adopted their son, Eric, from Korea. When he was 5, they were having lunch at a restaurant, and Eric made conversation with a boy at the next table. At one point the boy asked Eric, “Why don’t you look like your mom?” “Cause she’s a girl,” he replied.
1. Who do you look like?
I know that it’s not pretty, I find myself looking more and more like my dad.
Now, he thinks that I am looking better all the time, but I am not so sure that he has the right perspective on the matter.
Dad has always liked to line up the Decker noses as he puts it.
He thinks that they are distinguished.
I think they just cover a lot of space that could be used for other purposes.
Dad also thinks its funny that I have become bald sooner than he did.
I actually fail to see the humor in that.
Well, I must admit it.
There are some striking resemblances between me and my father.
But there is a more important question this morning than “Who do you look like?”
It is…
2. Who do you want to look like?
TRANSITION:
We come back to our study on Galatians today.
You have had a breather for a couple of weeks.
Two weeks ago, Pastor Will did a wonderful job speaking to you about being a member of the family of God.
It was a message that corresponds well to our theme today.
Last week, Pastor Dick Murphy brought a superb admonition to us to be encouragers like Barnabas.
Now we come back to our study to the letter Paul wrote to churches in the region of Galatia.
And here is the context…
1. CONTEXT: Paul is defending the essential message and application of the gospel.
As we have noted before, Paul is defending himself against a group called the Judaizers.
The Judaizers were a group of very conservative so-called “Christians” who had come into the church after Paul had left and contradicted his teaching.
They were taking what Paul said, and twisted it.
In fact, he called their gospel, no gospel at all.
For they were teaching a form of legalism that equates works with faith.
The people in Galatia were told that the way to be right with God was to believe in Jesus and follow the right set of rules.
They were bewitched into thinking that you start the Christian life by faith, but you complete yourself by works.
Paul considered this impossible and ludicrous.
His conclusion was that this nullified grace and dishonored Christ.
This is the background for the text we are studying today.
In today’s text…
2. We are discovering how God puts us in relationship with Him.
The Judaizers agreed that the relationship began through Christ’s work on the cross, but it was also absolutely dependent on what we do.
Their intentions, on the surface, were not so bad.
They did not want to lose the authority of the revelation of God that we find in the Old Testament.
So, they were also requiring circumcision and the dietary laws that the Jews practiced.
But, as Paul points out, this was a misreading of the purpose of the law.
The law’s purpose was to show our sin, not prevent it.
For instead of being a preventative, it aggravated it.
This aggravation was to cause them and us to seek a different way.
It was to get us to see our hopelessness.
Paul has good news for us in all of this.
Our situation is not hopeless.
Because we are in Christ…
3. WE ARE GOD’S CHILDREN.
We are God’s children, period.
It is not dependent on what we do.
It is dependent on who we are in Christ.
There are those that say that we are all God’s children.
And to that I say, yes, God is our Father in that He created us, and yes, all human beings are brothers and sisters in that we share the image of God in man.
But spiritually speaking , we become sons and daughters only by grace and through faith.
Note our text…
(26) You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus…
It comes through faith in Christ Jesus.
There is no other way.
I also want you to note that we are called “sons.”
And although I have chosen the gender-neutral word of children here, the very definite point of the text is that we have been called to be sons, not just children.
In the context of the day, it was still a patriarchal society, and definite advantages prevailed for male children.
Sons were granted a unique position of honor not available to daughters.
If Paul had used the word “children” then, it would have been as powerful a promise, for only sons had the position.
But for the context of today, children will do just fine.
Anyway, this has wonderful implications for each one of us today, for each one of us as this same opportunity, to have the same privileges that come with being a rightful son.
So…
4. We will find in our study of Galatians 3:26-4:7, three characteristics that show how we are God’s children.
(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. (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.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first characteristic that shows we are a child of God is we are an ILLUSTRATION (3:27).
1. The person of faith is baptized…
1.1 by the Spirit
1.2 in water
You will note immediately that I have indicated that there are two kinds of baptism, a spiritual one and a physical one.
People often ask regarding this verse, “Is this water baptism or Spirit baptism?”
And the answer is “Yes.”
Now I know that you find that extremely unhelpful, but the truth of the matter is that Paul uses them interchangeably.
It is both, for the Spirit’s baptism of the believer into the body of Christ at the moment of faith is followed by water baptism, and in the New Testament, it followed immediately.
Note this, there is no such thing as an unbaptized believer in the New Testament.
Baptism by the Spirit was immediately followed by baptism in water.
It was the initial and necessary response of faith.
But in this modern day, we hold it off, for we feel the need to hold baptismal classes (actually, that was meant to be sarcastic).
Now, I want you to realize there is a paradox here.
I have two passions here that intersect.
For on the one hand, I believe passionately that water baptism is not necessary for salvation, otherwise it becomes a work.
On the other hand, I believe just as passionately that faith without baptism is not really faith at all.
It is a natural, even supernatural, response to the Spirit in us to desire water baptism.
For the apostle Paul, this is certain, an unbaptized believer is a contradiction in terms.
Now the significance of baptism comes here, for…
2. When people see us, they are to see Christ.
We are to be clothed in Christ.
So much so, that when we are seen, Christ is seen.
The context of this comes from Roman culture.
For when the Roman child came of age, he took off the garments of a child and put on the toga of the adult citizen.
In the same way, in baptism the believer in Christ removes the garments of the old life–its habits, its addictions, its attitudes–and replaces those garments by putting on His attitudes, His love, His service.
We proclaim our new status as sons and daughters of God through baptism and we exhibit it through changes in our lives.
So baptism is a drama.
The old is gone; the new has come.
The old clothes are gone; the new ones are put on.
And now, we are true children of God that everyone can see.
II. The second characteristic that shows we are a child of God is we are an INDIVISIBLE WHOLE (3:28).
When we come to verse 28, Paul makes a powerful point about the nature of those that belong to the kingdom of God.
The Judaizers had restricted God’s acceptance to those who are Jews or who would join Judaism by following the works of the law.
Again, according to Paul, all human distinctions are done away with in Christ.
The gospel is not for the select.
Rather, it is for all.
There can be no doubt that Paul had in mind the typical prayer of a rabbi at the beginning of everyday.
For a typical rabbi would pray:
“Blessed be God that he did not make me a Gentile; blessed be God that he did not make me ignorant or a slave; blessed be God that he did not make me a woman.”
As answer to this, Paul makes the point that…
1. Cultural divisions are to have no part in the church.
Paul set himself against anything that demanded a cultural or national conversion to Judaism to become a Christian.
No one had to become a Jew to become a Christian.
The gospel was for everyone.
It was available to the Jew or the Gentile (who was everybody that was not a Jew).
Neither one has superiority over the other.
That division was gone.
Also…
2. One’s social status was irrelevant to acceptance in the church.
Though Paul never seems to deliberately condemn slavery, he begins the fight here.
Interestingly, in the Roman world, it is estimated that thirty-three per cent of the population may have been slaves.
Some believe that many of the early church leaders would have been slaves.
This means that some of the owners would have been put in the position that they were to submit to the people they owned in the context of the church.
Paul makes the point strongly here…whatever social divisions apply in the culture, they do not within the church.
The slave and the free were equals in the church.
ILL Notebook: Sex (Every Dot & Tittle Counts)
An English professor wrote the words, “Woman without her man is a savage” on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly. Most of the men wrote is this way, “Woman, without her man, is a savage.” Most of the women, however, did it this way, “Woman! Without her, man is a savage.”
Well, the gender wars continue.
You will remember that I mentioned earlier that this was a patriarchal society.
This is why the next phrase in the text was especially powerful.
For…
3. The concept of the inferiority of women and practice of sexual prejudice were to be eliminated from the church.
In this culture, women were considered inferior.
They were talked about in rude and condescending ways.
According to Jewish law, they could not receive instruction about the Torah.
They also were not considered to be reliable witnesses in court.
Simply, they were to tend to their children, and that’s it.
But Paul begins to put aside that kind of thought when he places men and women on equal status when it comes to salvation.
Paul is saying that differences in race, socio-economic status and gender are not valid indicators of one’s spiritual standing before God.
While we all are not identical, we are equal.
And together, we make a unified whole.
III. The third characteristic that shows we are a child of God is we are an INHERITOR (3:29-4:7).
1. We are receivers of the promise to Abraham.
When we are in Christ, we receive the promise given to Abraham.
We are the blessed ones, for we have become Abraham’s inheritance.
We become sons.
The time of slavery is done.
The time of Christ is the time of freedom.
But Paul notes that…
2. We were slaves under the law.
Paul picks up on the leveling effect of childhood and talks about the rich kid who owns an entire estate, perhaps by means of a trust his father has set up.
He can be worth millions, but so long as he’s a minor, the power and influence of his wealth are of no advantage to him over the kid who doesn’t have a dime to his name.
He has no appreciation for the benefits of his status.
He couldn’t make important legal decisions about his estate even if he wanted to.
He’s not in control of his own life.
He is told what to do and what not to do in the same way as a slave child.
The Jews were like rich kids who were still minors.
God never intended for His people to treat these Laws as a means of salvation.
The period of childhood was intended to make them yearn for freedom through Messiah and to enjoy that freedom once they reached adulthood.
Unfortunately, many that grew up under the Law seemed to end up in bondage to it.
But God didn’t leave His people in this condition.
Rather . . .
3. But when the time was right, God sent His Son to adopt us as “sons.”
The reference to the fullness of time means that it happened at just the right moment.
It was no accident that Christ was born when he was.
For the first time since Babel there was a relatively universal trade language–Greek.
The Pax Romana, or Roman peace, enabled extensive travel on excellent Roman roads.
The vast network of Jewish synagogues provided the perfect vehicle for the eventual spread of Christianity.
All of these things made the time ripe for the coming of God’s Son.
God sent his Son, and this Son lived under the law (though not under sin) so that he could absorb the curse of the law, exhaust the fury of God’s wrath, and redeem those under the law.
Once the Son had done this, the barrier was knocked down between God and people.
When you put all these ideas together they explain redemption in a unique way.
If Christ had not been human, He could not have redeemed humans.
If He had not been a law-keeper, He could not have redeemed law-breakers.
And if He Himself had not been God’s Son, He could not have made us sons and daughters of God.
So, now we possess a special intimacy with the Father and we call Him, “Abba” (Daddy).
And…
4. To confirm our inheritance, we have been given the Spirit!
He sent His Son that we might have the position of sonship.
And He sent His Spirit that we might experience it.
APPLICATION:
There are benefits that come with being a “son.”
There are benefits that come with not being a slave.
The first is…
1. You have been given the same nature as the Father.
We share in His nature.
Just as you share the gene make-up of your parents, so do you share in the spiritual nature of your heavenly Father.
This is something that the slave does not have.
2. You have been given equal status.
The slave is not an equal.
But when we come into the body of Christ, we all stand at the same level at the foot of the cross.
We all have equal standing.
Also…
3. You have been given an inheritance.
While the slave is left destitute, we have been given an inheritance.
We belong to the heavenly realms.
And our Father’s resources are unlimited and eternal.
Also, as a “son…”
4. You can respond out of love.
The slave does not respond in this way.
He responds out of fear.
Finally…
5. You possess a bright hope and future.
The slave has no future.
But that is not true of you who are God’s children.
So…
6. Rejoice that you are God’s child!
ILL Notebook: Child of God (Ben Hooper)
Fred Craddock, while lecturing at Yale Univer-sity told of going back one summer to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, to take a short vacation with his wife. One night they found a quiet little restaurant where they looked forward to a private meal - just the two of them.
While they were waiting for their meal they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting guests. Craddock whispered to his wife, "I hope he doesn’t come over here." He didn’t want the man to intrude on their privacy. But the man did come by his table.
"Where you folks from?" he asked amicably.
"Oklahoma."
"Splendid state, I hear, although I’ve never been there. What do you do for a living?”
"I teach homiletics at the graduate seminary of Phillips University."
"Oh, so you teach preachers, do you. Well, I’ve got a story I want to tell you." And with that he pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with Craddock and his wife.
Dr. Craddock said he groaned inwardly: Oh no, here comes another preacher story. It seems everyone has one.
The man stuck out his hand. “I’m Ben Hooper. I was born not far from here across the mountains. My mother wasn’t married when I was born so I had a hard time. When I started to school my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn’t a very nice name. I used to go off by myself at recess and during lunchtime because the taunts of my playmates cut so deeply.
"What was worse was going downtown on Saturday afternoon and feeling every eye burning a hole through you. They were all wondering just who my real father was.
"When I was about 12 years old a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in church on me. Just about the time I got to the door I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and the preacher was looking right at me.
"Who are you, son? Whose boy are you?’
I felt the old weight come on me. It was like a big black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down.
But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition. "Wait a minute," he said, "I know who you are. I see the family resemblance. You are a son of God."
With that he slapped me across the rump and said, "Boy you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it."
The old man looked across the table at Fred Craddock and said, "That was the most important single sentence ever said to me." With that he smiled, shook the hands of Craddock and his wife, and moved on to another table to greet old friends.
Suddenly, Fred Craddock remembered. On two occasions the people of Tennessee had elected an illegitimate son to be their governor. One of them was Ben Hooper...a man with a great inheritance.
And so it is with you!
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Live as God’s child…for when people see you, they are to see Christ;
Live as God’s child…and recognize that together we are a unified whole, regardless of your race, your rank in society, or your gender;
Live as God’s child…and rejoice that you have received a great inheritance when you are in Christ.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
