Heirs of God | Galatians 4:1-7

Wonderful. Thank you Desiree. Thank you Dave also for praying. If you all keep your Bibles

open right where they are, I think that will be really helpful for you. Let me pray before

we go further. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that we can be here, that we can open

up Bibles and have you speak your words to us. We pray that as we look at it further,

that you will help us to remember this passage and let us be changed by it. We ask this through

your Son. Amen. How do you know that you are a Christian? Okay, so for some of us that's

not a big issue. We don't spend a lot of time thinking about that. For others of us, this

question is a really big deal. For those people it doesn't feel enough to say, well,

well I believe in Jesus so I'm saved. For those people the question is more, well, how

do I know that I have faith? Or maybe even more to the point, for some people it's how

do I know that I have enough faith? Do I need to pray more? Do I need to read the Bible

more? Do I need to somehow believe harder? It's just that for some of us we need something

concrete to make us sure. We need something that we can kind of think, well, if I do such

and such, if I do this then that will be enough. I can be sure that I'm saved. And I think

that regardless of whether you're one of the people who are kind of concerned and fret

about that or whether you're not, I think that the question of how do we express our

faith and how do we show our faith? What makes us Christian? I think that whatever answer

we come up with for that question shapes us as Christians as we kind of build our lives

around that identity. And I'm going to talk today a little bit about what shapes us. I'm

going to use this word shapes and what I mean by that is that very often in our lives there's

whether we're, you know, no matter what kind of a life that we live, there's often one

thing or a couple of things that kind of everything else gets defined around those

things. Everything else has their meaning based on one aspect. So once Tudor the guy

in maths who was training to be an Olympic swimmer, right, he was only 13 or 14 but that

was his ambition. He really wanted to swim in the Olympics. And everything else in his

life related to that goal. All right, so, you know, his approach to how he spent his

time, his approach to school, his friends, his diet, his whole life was shaped around

swimming. And I think that however we think that we need to express our salvation as Christians

shapes our lives as Christians. And I take it that that is what we want to do. What most

of us here today want to do, we want our lives shaped by our Christian faith. We want our

lives shaped by the gospel. And we want to get that right so that our lives are shaped

in the right way. Maybe that's not you. Maybe you're just here because, you know, someone

dragged you along. You've got a friend who brought you or family. If that's the case,

that just means that you have an awesome friend. It also means that whatever I say here, you

can hold them accountable for and whatever's in the Bible you can question them about.

Now, Michael has been taking us through this book and he's been going through Paul's kind

of extended argument against this group called the Judea Isis who are teaching that Christians

need to be circumcised and take on other aspects of the law. And here in this part we've come

to a section where Paul kind of sums up everything that he's been saying before he kind of then

goes on and continues on with his argument again. And if you're able to remember right

back, if you can remember back to chapter one where this argument started, you might

remember that I preached on the gospel. And at that time we said that the gospel is the

message about God's kingdom, the message that the kingdom has come and that it can be summarised

by saying that our God reigns. And at the time we said that that's the kind of the centre

of the gospel, but there's a number of ideas that are kind of bolted onto that central

idea like the fact that the king of that kingdom is Jesus. He's the divine saviour and his

death brings us forgiveness through our faith. Right? So that is that there's not only a

kingdom, not only is the kingdom come, but that God is welcoming us into that kingdom.

And as we said at the time, the Judea Isis are undermining that gospel by suggesting

somehow that Christ's work isn't enough to save us. It isn't quite a free offer that

there's something more that we need to do. And what we're going to do today, now we've

kind of come this far in the argument, is to kind of look back and to drill down further

into that idea. And it's worth noting as we kind of think about this letter to the Galatians

that Paul's opposition aren't saying that we are saved by the law instead of faith.

They're not saying that. They're not saying that one's saving us, that we're saved by

law, but we're not saved by faith. They're actually saying that you're saved by both.

So we need faith and we need to follow the law. So it's not just one verse the other,

it's about whether we're saved by faith only or are we saved by faith plus works or plus

works of the law. And as Protestants, we're very quick to accuse other forms of Christianity

as being works-based. Okay, but most of the time that's not actually fair on the people

that we're criticizing. And it's not actually all that helpful because you're saying that

to somebody and they're thinking, no, but my church does teach faith. And if you actually

look at a lot of those examples, what they're actually teaching is that you do have to believe

in Jesus, but added to that, there are certain legal requirements that need fulfilling. And

so the issue is whether the works of the law are necessary as well as faith. And sometimes

actually we as Protestants need to take the log out of our own eyes. And what Paul is

saying here is not just that we must believe by faith instead of works, but he's saying

that our lives shouldn't be shaped by the law. Okay, that is, we can't say that we're

saved by faith and then have lives that are actually shaped by the law. And I think that

that's a frightening thought for some of us. It's kind of at least it's kind of disconcerting

because it cuts us a drift. Okay, it makes sense for us, it makes sense for so many of

us to sort of hang ourselves on something external so that we can feel saved or somehow

prove that we're serious about the Christian life. And for some of the Christians in Galatia,

they were hanging onto circumcision or food laws or other aspects of the laws to show

their salvation. But Paul says that they are foolish, right? He calls them foolish for doing

this. And he says that those people who are teaching such a thing are under God's curse.

And what we start to see in this passage is that Paul wants us to live lives that are

shaped by our relationship with God as Father. And we do this, we live this life shaped by

our relationship as we obey his Son and we do that within the power of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, our lives need to be shaped by the Gospel. And when we get into the passage,

we're going to see that the Gospel here is shaped in terms of God's missional work.

So God is a missional God. He is sending his Son into the world, he has sent his Son and

he's sending his spirit into the world in order that we're adopted. So our lives then

are shaped around the Trinitarian work of the Gospel. And what Paul gives us in this

passage is a really powerful picture of how it works and he does this based on ideas of

family and heirs and slaves. And what he does is he sets up a contrast between on one hand

being under the guardianship of the law or being an adopted child. So what we need to

do is we need to get into this passage and we're going to kind of look at that contrast.

So firstly, the guardianship of the law and that's going to be in verses one to three.

And then we're going to look at kind of God's mission of adoption and that's in roughly

verses four to seven. And then what I'm going to do, so we're going to look at that in the

passage and then I'm going to recover those ideas. So we're going to kind of do kind of

both halves twice. And in the second half we're going to look at kind of our relationship

with the law and then how to practically live our lives as people who are shaped by being

children of God. So have a look at the passage there. In verses one to three, Paul, what he

says there is that being an heir is basically the same as being a slave while the heir is

under a guardian. Okay, so meaning what he means there is that the law is a guardian

or the law was a guardian over the people for a certain time so that it's temporary.

It wasn't the kind of the final idea or the last solution. And in order to get what Paul

means there, we need to understand a bit about Paul's world. Okay, so if you kind of stop

for a moment and kind of think like what picture do you have in your mind if I talk about slaves?

So if you hear slave, what do you think of? What do we generally think of? And I think

what we, if I'm guessing what's in your mind, we tend to think slave and we kind of think

of Egyptians oppressing the Israelites or something like that. Or we think of Roman slaves kind

of in a galley rowing or being forced into this kind of thing. Or maybe we kind of think

about slavery in the South of America or something like that. And all those images of slavery

are true. That is the experience of slavery for many people. But in Paul's world slaves

can also be useful and valued members of the family business. And their children can often

actually be brought up within the family unit. So the image of saying, Paul's saying there's

no difference between being the slave or being the heir is not quite as jarring as

at first sounds to us. Certainly Paul's kind of exaggerating a bit. It is obviously better

to be the heir. But it's not quite as harsh as it might first sound to us. So the situation

might be that the father needs to go away. So he might go away in the remit that they

don't have airplanes, they don't have quick travel. So the father might be going away

on business for an extended amount of time. And he has his son who's the heir of the estate

he's going to take over. So he might want to put him in charge. But say that the son

is underage, then he may put a guardian over him for a certain time and then say the guardian

is there until the son reaches and then the father gets to decide on the age. So that

could be the kind of situation or perhaps that the father is left in his will that the

estate and that's kind of like a family business gets left to the heir. He's going to be the

next manager of it. But he says he can't take that over until a certain age. So that's the

kind of thing that we're talking about. And what we need to see then is that it's not

a terrible situation to have a guardian over you. It's not the ideal, and that's the same

as having the law. It wasn't terrible that the Israelites were under the law, it's just

not the ideal. And once you took over as the heir of the estate, it's very unlikely you're

going to go backwards and put yourself under the guardian again. So Paul's saying that

the Jewish law is like the guardian, that the people were under for a certain time and

then in verse 3 he says that that's like being under the basic principles of the world.

So the law is intended for the world, but it's not the ultimate reality. It's the shadow

and we now have that reality through Christ. So our lives shouldn't be shaped by the law.

So now we're actually in that new period of time, the period that's set by the Father,

so he's under the guardian until the time that the Father sets. And so here we kind

of need to move on to the next part, which is verses 4 to 7. And notice in this section,

as we've said, that there are two sendings, if you like. So the Father sends twice. So

the first is that the Father sends the Son. So have a look at verses 4 and 5. He says,

but when the time had fully come, so this is it, we're in that time, 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. Right? God is a missional God. He sends his Son, the divine Son, takes

on humanity, he's born under the law, so that he can rightfully redeem us from under the

law. And the word redeem there is really fitting to fit in with the rest of his image, because

it's the language of releasing a slave. So the Jewish people were under the custodianship

of the law. When that was the case, they were slaves to the world. Right? But Christ redeemed

us from that by fulfilling and surpassing the law. And he did that so that we're no

longer under a guardian, but we become full heirs of the kingdom as we're adopted. So

notice here the way that Paul has created two categories. You're either a slave or

under a guardian, that's one category, or you are a son or an heir. Okay? You can't

be both at the same time, because they're in different time periods. And because if

Jesus redeemed us out of one category, we can't be under both. And what the Judea isers

in Galatia are doing, and what we must not do in our lives, is act as if we're under

both categories. Right? So that's the first sending. The Father sends the Son to redeem

those under the guardianship of the law. And then that shows us then that our lives shouldn't

be shaped by the law. And the second is in verses six and seven. So he says, because

you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls

out Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but God's child. And since you are

his child, God has made you also an heir. Right? So the Father sends the Holy Spirit

and he calls the Spirit. Notice there that he calls the Spirit, the Spirit of the Son.

Right? And he does that so that we get the connection between the Spirit and sonship.

Okay? The Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not just the Spirit of the Father, but he's also the

Spirit of the Son. So it makes sense then that when we receive that Spirit, that's linked

to our adoption. Okay? So Paul says that when the Father sends the Spirit of the Son into

our hearts, then it calls out Abba, Father. Right? Which is simply a way of saying that

the Spirit in our hearts is a witness that we are adopted. Okay? It's having the Spirit

in us that allows us to know God as our Father. Right? He's not just an abstract God. He's

not just a God out there, but our personal Father. Okay? And a Father then who we are

in relationship with. And it also allows the Father to see us as his personal sons because

we have the Spirit of his Son, the perfect Son within us. So it makes sense then that

God the Father recognizes us with his Spirit in us as the true sons, the true heirs of

the kingdom, just as Christ is the King of the kingdom. So that means then that the

primary function of the Holy Spirit is not to make us more spiritual or to make us more

charismatic, but it's actually a witness that we are saved. In fact, it's the means by which

we are saved. It is what joins us to God the Father and brings us into relationship with

him. So this then answers the original question. How do we know that we're saved? Right? It's

not that we keep the law. It's that we have the Holy Spirit. And how do we know that we

have the Holy Spirit? Well, the way we know we have the Holy Spirit is that we cry out

to the Father. If you want God to be your Father, if that's the person you cry out to,

then you are a Christian. You wouldn't want God as your Father if you didn't have the

Spirit of the Son in you. If you want the Son as your Lord, then you are a Christian.

That is the work of the Holy Spirit in you. So there are some of us there at that point

who are just sitting there and saying, well, awesome, that's great. But there are others

of us still. So we all think differently, don't we? And there are other people still

who are saying, well, yeah, that's great. But what do I actually do? What does this

actually mean? And this brings us to the final section. So I said before that we're going

to look at the passage and then talk about these two topics again. So we want to talk

about our relationship with the law. And then we want to think about what it means then

to be adopted children. So firstly, thinking about the relationship to the law. So the

passage means, as we've seen, that our lives should not be shaped by the law. So then what

would that look like? What would it look like if our lives were shaped by the law? Okay.

Well think of the swimmer. Remember the guy that I was talking about that I tweeted? Well,

if you asked him something like, why don't you spend more time with your mates? Then

the answer is, it's because he's focused on getting to the Olympics. If you asked him,

why do you have a tutor? He would say, well, it's because I get behind in my homework and

I need a tutor to catch up because he spends all his time swimming up and down the pool.

If you asked him about his diet, well, the answer is, it's because he's focused on the

Olympics. And in the same way, if someone was to look at your life and then asked you

why do you do such and such, if the answer was that it is to fulfill the law, then perhaps

you are living according to the principles of this world. That you're not living according

to the ultimate reality that came about at the time that was set by the father. And that's

the time he sent his son. But Paul's not anti-law, nor is anywhere in the New Testament. And what

is right and wrong never changes. So if something is morally wrong in the Old Testament, that

doesn't change. It's still morally wrong today. So the law remains God's moral standard.

So thinking about that kind of in a negative way, what it means then is that because it's

God's moral standard and tells us right and wrong, it should bring us to repentance and

show us our need for the Savior. But on a kind of a positive side of that, like the other

way round of thinking about that, we need to think that if God is unchanging and God

is unchanging, then the law still reveals God. So if we were to ask the question of how

do we know the father, what is the father's will for us, then one place that we can find

that is in the law. So the law remains useful to us today, but it is our guide, not our

guardian. So our Christian lives are not shaped by anything less than the law, but they're

shaped by something that's beyond it. And this is where we get to kind of working out

our adoption. So whereas the Jewish life prior to Christ, the Jewish life is law-centered,

the adopted Christian life needs to be Christ-centered. So remember in this passage, our salvation

is defined in terms of two sendings. Remember that? So the father sends the son to redeem

us and he sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts as a witness. And this means that the Christian

life is defined by the teachings and the example of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

And because God's act of sending was so incredibly and radically loving, it means that our lives

should be marked by radical love. And that's exactly what Paul does. So he gets through

this argument in the letter of Galatians and then he applies it. And so just have a little

look forward in that. If you were to turn over to chapter 5 and verse 6, he says, for in

Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. That has been his argument,

right? That's summing up his argument. Then he says, the only thing that counts is faith

expressing itself through love. Then in 5.13 he says, you, my brothers and sisters, were

called to be free. Again, that's his argument. But do not use your freedom to indulge the

flesh, rather serve one another through love. Right? So you see that the father sending the

son and the spirit reveals to us a way of living that the law could never reveal. Right?

So the law can tell me that I need to love my neighbour, but it cannot tell me and cannot

tell me and this is in Jesus' words, he says, love one another as I have loved you. That

is new and that is the consequence of the gospel. Right? Love one another as I have

loved you and then what does he go and do? He goes out and dies for us. The gospel teaches

us that true love is a radical act. The law can tell me to tithe, it can tell me that

I need to have concern for the poor, but the cross teaches me that I need to get in the

gutter with the broken and the addicted and the unlovely. The law can tell me to love

God, but it can't clearly show me that God loved me first, that he sent his only son

when I was still his enemy. The law can tell me that I should give the best of everything

to God, but it cannot say, as Jesus said, so this is Matthew 16, 24, Jesus says, whoever

wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. And

what does he do? That's his words. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves

and take up their cross and follow me. And then he literally goes out and carries his

cross to die for us. So the Christian life should be a radical act of loving self-denial.

So do not waste your lives trying to satisfy the law. Don't waste your lives living according

to the principles of this world. Don't waste it trying to indulge yourselves. Don't waste

your life on building empires. Don't waste it on building your reputation or your prestige.

Don't live for the world's desires. Live lives that are shaped by Christ and that reflect

that you have God's spirit in your heart. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, you are such

a loving God. You have loved us and served us beyond anything that we deserve and anything

that we can imagine. Please help us to live lives as your children that reflect your love.

Amen.