RECEIVING YOUR SPIRITUAL PROMOTION
Victory In Jesus – Part 4
Galatians 4
October 17, 2004
Introduction:
So many people spend the entirety of their lives simply trying to get ahead. They try to get ahead financially, relationally and materialistically. Some people will do almost anything it takes to earn more money, get a better job, and acquire a bigger home or a faster car. No matter how much we have we find ourselves in the never-ending pursuit of more.
Now don’t get me wrong here. There is nothing wrong with getting a promotion or a raise at work. There is nothing wrong with getting a better car or a nicer home. The problem comes when the acquisition of those things becomes the driving force in our life.
Paul tells us that there is something much more important for us to be going after in life. He tells us in Galatians chapter 4 about the spiritual promotion that we can receive from God. In keeping with Paul’s emphasis throughout this book we find that this is not the kind of promotion that can be earned through good job performance. Nor is the promotion only available to one person. It is not like everyone here is vying for one position – for one promotions
. This promotion is available to all people who are willing to accept it by faith in Jesus Christ.
Several people passed away at the same time. All were met at the gates by St. Peter. The first was an architect from California. Peter said, "You’ve built beautiful buildings and served men on earth, but before you come in you have to pass one small test, spell God". "G-O-D," replied the architect and St. Peter waved him through.
The second person to approach was a rancher from Texas. Peter looked at him and said, "You’ve served man upon the earth by providing food through the cattle you’ve raised but before you come in there’s just one small test, spell GOD". "G-O-D", said the rancher and Peter waved him through.
The third person was an attractive businesswoman from New York. Peter said, "You’ve served the world of commerce, but before you come in you’ll have to pass one small test." At this the woman interrupted, "Oh come on now Saint," said the woman, "I’ve had to fight for every promotion I’ve ever gotten. I’ve had to take lower pay for the same job as a male colleague, and I’ve been continually harassed by bosses and peers for one reason, my gender. And now here I am and you’re giving me a hard time too; what kind of test? Let’s get it over with."
Peter thought for a moment and said, "Spell Czechoslovakia" (Brian La Croix – Sermon Central)
You don’t have to pass any tests or jump through some impossible hoops to get this promotion. Once again, it is available to everyone in the room this morning through simple faith in Jesus Christ.
Let’s take a closer look at this promotion and what it entails. There are three aspects to your spiritual promotion. You can be promoted …
1. From Childhood to Adulthood.
Take a look at what Paul has to say beginning in verse 1:
1As long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.
Notice in verse 3 Paul says, “when we were children.” It is in the passed tense. He is saying that they were no longer children for they had passed from childhood to adulthood.
This passing from childhood into adulthood was not viewed in antiquity as being only a gradual process. The moment of growing up was a very definite one. In Judaism a boy passed from childhood to adulthood shortly after his twelfth birthday.
In the Greek world the child would come of age later, at about 18. Kind of like we today consider an 18 year old to be old enough to vote and serve in the military.
However Paul probably had the Roman custom in mind as he penned these verses. For the Romans there was not a set age when the child became an adult. The father would have had some discretion in setting the time for his child becoming an adult. There is probably some wisdom in this because not all children mature at the same rate. Some sixteen year olds show more maturity and responsibility than some eighteen year olds. So the father could set the time of officially becoming an adult based on the child’s development. This is why Paul referred to the child as being under the custody of guardians “until the time set by his father.”
Paul is not talking here of the difference between a spiritually mature believer and an immature believer. He is talking about the difference between a believer in Jesus Christ and a nonbeliever. He is using childhood and the experience of being under the authority of a guardian to illustrate that before becoming Christians we were under the authority of the law, which served as our guardian. We saw this last week in chapter 3:
“The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” (Galatians 3:24-25).
Being under the law is compared to childhood because the purpose of the law was to show us that we couldn’t live the life that God wants us to on our own just as a child can’t take care of themselves. Children need help to learn to feed themselves to learn to dress themselves and on and on it goes. But when we learn the lesson of childhood – that we can’t do it by ourselves – then we are ready to pass on to adulthood by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.
As long as we still think that we can do it ourselves we will never grow up spiritually though we may have grown old physically. We do try hard to grow up because it seems that there is a desire imbedded within children to grow up. They can’t wait until they can take that next step toward maturity and independence. Listen to the story of one sixteen year old.
On his sixteenth birthday a son approached his father and said, "Dad, I’m sixteen now. When I get my license, can I drive the family car?" His dad looked at him and said, "Son, driving the car takes maturity, and first, you must prove that you are responsible enough. And one way you must do that is to bring up your grades. They are not acceptable. Second, you must read the Bible every day. And finally, you must get that hair cut; it looks outrageous." The son began the task of fulfilling his father’s requirements, knowing that the last might be impossible.
When his grades came out he went to his dad with a big smile. "Look, Dad, all A’s and B’s on my report card. Now can I drive the family car?" "Very good, son. You are one-third of the way there, but have you been reading the Bible?" the father replied. "Yes, Dad, every day," said the son. "Very good son. You are two-thirds of the way there. Now when are you going to get that hair cut?"
The son, thinking that he could out smart the father, responded, "Well, I don’t see why I should get my hair cut to drive the car. Jesus had long hair, didn’t he?" The father looked at his boy and said, "That’s right, son and Jesus walked everywhere he went." (Jim Kane – Sermon Central)
We don’t get to enjoy the freedom of adulthood until we have met the condition for adulthood. And spiritual adulthood is not conditioned upon how much money you give or how many Bible studies you attend. It has only one condition. You have to admit that you can’t do it on your own and put your faith in Jesus Christ.
Some of you here today may have been trying really hard to grow up spiritually. You have been trying really hard to be a good person. You have been trying really hard to do all the right things. But what you need to do is to stop trying and start trusting – start trusting in Jesus to make you what and who you ought to be. That’s the only way to get promoted from childhood to adulthood.
You also get promoted …
2. From Slavery to Sonship.
When a child was still a minor in the eyes of the Roman law he was in effect no different than a slave even though he may have been the future owner of a vast estate. As a child he could make no decisions. He could not choose to buy or sell. In fact the Roman child was in a matter of speaking a slave of slaves. He was subject to guardians and trustees who were slaves themselves given the job of raising their master’s children.
But Paul says that when we become Christians we pass from slavery to sonship.
4But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
Before we go any further let me first state that all of this talk about sonship has nothing to do with sexism. Paul was very clear that women were not being left out nor were they considered to be second class citizens in the church. Back in chapter three he said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)
What Paul was doing was quite incredible in its historical context. He was placing women along side of men as having equal standing before God. If Paul had talked about sons and daughters of God in the first century context, it would have been a put down to women because daughters were second class citizens and couldn’t be heirs. But by saying that both men and women could achieve the status of sonship with God he wasn’t leaving them out, but lifting them up. Both men and women can be promoted to the status of sonship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Just as Roman children were in a slavery of sorts to their guardians so before coming to Christ people are in slavery to the basic principles of this world. The Greek phrase used here would be the equivalent of saying “the ABC’s of religion.” Any religion, even the Jewish religion, was seen as the ABC’s of the world. And later in verse 9 we learn why these basic principles are so ineffective.
“Now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?” (Galatians 4:9)
These basic principles are “weak and miserable” or more literally “weak and poor.” They are weak because they do not have the power to enable us to become the sons of God. But if we turn away from the ABC’s of religion to a relationship with Jesus we find that very power. The apostle John said, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12, RSV).
Although this power is made available to everyone through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ it is not automatically applied to everyone. You have to become aware of your need to be saved. Then you have to come to know that Jesus died for you. Only then can you act on that knowledge and by faith be set free from slavery.
Let me give you an example to what I’m saying by sharing with you a story from history. On July 3l, 1838 on the Island of Jamaica, a man named William Knibbs, gathered 10,000 slaves for a great praise gathering. They were celebrating the New Emancipation Proclamation Act that would abolish slavery on the island. They had built an immense coffin and into it were placed whips, branding irons, chains, fetters of all kinds, slave garments and all the things that represented the terrible slavery system that was now coming to a welcome end.
At the first stroke of the midnight bell, Knibbs shouted out, "The monster is dying." At each stroke of the bell that followed this cry was repeated and the great crowd began to join in the cry. At the twelfth stoke 10,000 voices cried out, "The monster is dead, the monster is dead, let us bury him." They then screwed the coffin lid down and lowered it into a huge grave and covered it up. That night, every heart rejoiced and 10,000 voices grew hoarse, shouting and crying with joy. Once they were in bondage to slavery, but now they were free.
There is a tragic side to this story. While many rejoiced in their new liberty and freedom, there were some slaves, that lived in remote areas of the island, that did not know they had legally been set free. Because they didn’t know, for many years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been made a law, they still continued to serve their slave masters. Their former masters successfully kept the news from them as long as they could. By law they had been declared free men and did not have to live as slaves any longer. However, ignorance of the truth kept them in bondage. (Bill Lobbs – Sermon Central)
Now let me tell you an even sadder story. Today, if we’d hear a story of something like that happening, we’d be shocked, sympathetic and even angry. But the truth is, the same type of thing is happening in our day. Jesus Christ, because of his victory against sin on the cross, has issued an Emancipation Proclamation of liberty and freedom from sin to everyone on this earth. But like some of the Jamaicans were, there are those today that just don’t understand that they no longer have to live as slaves to sin any longer, and the devil is trying to keep them in that mind set. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ …”
The message of the gospel – the Good News - is this: Satan has been defeated and sin’s penalty has been paid. We no longer have to surrender to sin or be controlled by Satan. We can belong to Jesus and live to please God. We can be promoted from slavery to sonship.
You can also be promoted …
3. From Orphan to Heir.
Let’s go back to the Roman custom of passing from childhood to adulthood. The Roman child became an adult at the time determined by his father at a sacred family festival called the Liberalia. At this time the child was formally adopted by the father as his acknowledged son and heir. That custom seems strange to us, but it was their custom that a child would not be considered an heir until reaching the maturity of adulthood nor was he formally adopted until that time.
Look at what Paul says in verse 7:
7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since your are a son, God has made you also an heir.
The original construction of this verse in the Greek is such that the final words are “through God.” You have been made an heir “through God” or by God. By placing these words last Paul was emphasizing their importance. He was highlighting the fact that we can only become sons and therefore heirs of God through God.
It is only through Jesus Christ that such an amazing promotion can take place in your life. William Dixon lived in Brackenthwaite, England. He was a widower who had lost his only son. One day he saw that the house of one of his neighbors was on fire. Although the aged owner was rescued, her orphaned grandson was trapped in the blaze. Dixon climbed an iron pipe on the side of the house and lowered the boy to safety. His hand that held on to the pipe was badly burned.
Shortly after the fire, the grandmother died. The townspeople wondered who would care for the boy. Two volunteers appeared before the town council. One was a father who had lost his son and would like to adopt the orphan as his own. William Dixon was to speak next, but instead of saying anything, he merely held up his scarred hand. When the vote was taken, the boy was given to him. (Robert Galasso – Sermon Central) He had paid the price to save the boys life and was therefore granted the priviledge of adopting him as his own son.
God through Jesus Christ has paid the price to save your life from sin and hell because Jesus died on the cross in your place. This day he stands with his scarred hands outstretched as a testimony to his love and sacrifice for you. He has paid the price and earned the right to adopt you as his very own, but the choice is yours this morning.
As God’s adopted child you become an heir as well. Paul said in Romans 8:17, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” As God’s heirs what is our inheritance? Peter says that we are “heirs … of the gracious gift of life” (1 Pet. 3:7). Eternal life in the paradise of heaven is the inheritance of every true believer in Jesus Christ.
When Queen Elizabeth was a little girl, she threw a tantrum. Her nanny said, “Do you know who you are?’ “Of course, “ she replied, “ I am Elizabeth.” “No,” scolded her nanny, “you are the heir apparent to the throne of the British Empire and the future Queen of England.” To that the little girl replied, “In that case I had better dry these tears and act like the Queen, hadn’t I?” (Tim George – Sermon Central)
Sometimes it helps to remember who we are and whose we are. The next time that you are tempted to act in a way that is beneath one who is a Christian remember that. Remind yourself that you have been promoted from childhood to adulthood, from slavery to sonship, and from orphan to heir. Remind yourself that you are now a child of the King and so act like it.
Conclusion:
You’ve probably never heard of Hetty Green. Hetty regularly ate cold oatmeal because it cost too much to heat it. Her son had his leg amputated because she took so long to get him adequate care because she was looking for a free clinic. Hetty died in the midst of an argument over milk, she argued that skim was best because it was the cheapest.
She died in 1916 and left an estate with an estimated value of $100 Million Dollars(not pesos and not 1960 but 1916). She was wealthy but she lived like a pauper. She never enjoyed nor benefited from the riches that were hers.
A second person I heard about lived on the west coast of America living in poverty until one day he found out that he was the only living heir to a British nobleman. What do you think this guy did when he found out? He went to the clothing store and bought the best suit he could find, bought a 1st class ticket to London and returned to England in style!
He believed what he had been told was true and he began to act on it!
Which illustration best describes your spiritual life? Are you a child of the King? Have you received your spiritual promotion? If not, why not? And if so, are you living like it?
Please email me if you use this sermon or a revision of it. Thank you!
steveamanda8297@hotmail.com
