Purpose of the Law (Galatians 3:19-4:7)

If you would go ahead and stand with me, we're gonna read a little, a couple verses uh back where we were last week to get the flow because this there's a lot of repetition and common themes, and it's all one continuous letter.

It'll help us to get the flow, I think.

So we're gonna start in reading in verse 17, uh chap Galatians chapter 3, verse 17, and we're gonna read through chapter 4, verse 7.

Galatians 3:17

My point is this the law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously established by God, and thus cancel the promise.

For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise.

But God has graciously given it to Abraham through the promise.

Why then was the law given?

It was added for the sake of transgressions until the seed to whom the promise was made would come.

The law was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator.

Now a mediator is not just for one person alone, but God is one.

Is the law therefore contrary to God's promises?

Absolutely not.

For if the law had been granted with the ability to give life, then righteousness would certainly be on the basis of the law.

But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin's power so that the promise might be given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.

Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed.

The law then was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.

But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus.

For those of you who are baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.

There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female, since you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise.

Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything.

Instead he is under guardians and trustees until a time set by his father.

In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world.

When the time came to completion, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoptions as sons.

And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

Father, pray that you would anoint each one of us this morning with your spirit.

We come to you asking that you would speak into our lives, that you would, uh, as your words as uh active and living, sharper than a two-edged sword, that you would pierce right down to the bone and marrow of things, that you would you know exactly what we need to hear, where we need to be admonished or encouraged, how we need to be built up, and we ask for your work.

Uh Father, not that my words would be heard, but that your words.

Uh things not of you would be quickly forgotten.

But I ask for your work here by your word in among us this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You can be seated.

There's a good chunk of scripture this morning, at least as far as I'm I'm sensing, um, because there's a there's a lot of pieces, and Paul is referring to topics that are maybe a little chunkier because we're pulling back into Old Testament concepts.

And so we're gonna move our way through it as well as we can, but we're gonna uh certainly, as we're we're still in chapter three, we have been for now, this will be, I think, the third week.

And so we we're gonna be pulling back even into some of that chapter three just by virtue of uh pulling the pieces together.

So just as a in a quick recap, Paul is uh Paul the Apostle Paul is writing to a the region of Galatia, the church is in the region of Galatia, that's modern-day Turkey.

He had visited there before, so he's been there present, he has some relationships, and there was kind of the a big problem was that there had been false brothers, come people coming in, preaching a different gospel.

And it was a gospel, basically they were saying they were trying to bring people back into the law to obey things of the law and of tradition and regulations.

And uh in Galatians 6 through 7, Paul said, I am amazed that you so quickly, you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and returning into a different gospel.

Not that there is a different gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

So the church was trying to be perfected in the flesh.

And and not what we're trying to emphasize is that the law is not a bad thing, and doing things, um, reading scripture, that's not a bad thing.

Um there are a lot of things we can do which we can maybe look good, but maybe they can be for the wrong reason.

And but these teachers were trying to bring uh the Galatians uh back into uh back into the law, back into circumcision, things that were that things that had passed.

But over and over, and we'll see this in every single week, we're gonna see throughout the passage.

The theme, Abraham uh from Galatians 3.6, Abraham who believed God, uh Abraham believed God, it was accredited to him for righteousness.

The theme is salvation is by faith in God alone, by faith alone, in God alone, and not by works, not by anything we can do.

Last week, last week, a few main points from last week, when Pastor Chris went through Galatians 10 to 18.

One of the hallmarks of Galatians, the just shall live by faith.

That's declared free of guilt and right standing with God by faith.

We were cursed, but Christ redeemed us, bought us, purchased us, and became a curse for us.

That curse is from the law.

And then the third main point was that the law doesn't annul or invalidate the promise of Abraham.

Really, the promise of Abraham and our inheritance there is it came 430 years prior to the law.

And so this passage this week is saying, well, okay, well, if it the law doesn't annul the promise of Abraham, then why do we have it?

Why do we have it?

He'll be answering this question, and we we're gonna kind of divide the passage into two main parts.

The first is what is the purpose of the law, and then he's gonna take that, and he's gonna he's gonna say, well, here's the purpose, but but uh let's look at this in light of not just the purpose of the law is not for the promise, but the purpose is what are the implications of our being heirs?

And that's where he's gonna take it.

He's gonna take it from going back to the law to coming back to bringing them back central to the intent of the promise and of salvation by grace.

The passage is setting us up for Paul's sort of admonition and worries in chapter 4, but we're he's building the blocks to set these the foundations for salvation by faith and the position of the law, what it means and what it doesn't mean.

That's where we're going.

So let's dive in.

Starting in in verse 19.

Why then was the law given?

It was added for the sake of transgressions, until the seed to whom the promise was made would come.

What's Paul saying just overall?

He said, Well, the law is here for you, for the sake of transgressions.

It's here for sin.

Why is that?

Well, let's we'll we'll talk about that.

He says, For the sake of transgressions, the law was there.

Just in case we had any question.

And if we go back to Deuteronomy, we could stop right here and go back into Deuteronomy.

We could spend a week in the law.

We could start, we could explore the law and its giving.

I particularly love Deuteronomy 6, 7, and 8, where we see Moses explaining the law and how they're supposed to address it.

But what the Jews were supposed to get out of the law, in part, we're gonna there's gonna pull several pieces together.

What the Jews were going to do, they were supposed to see, and we're supposed to see, that we are desperately incapable of righteousness on our own.

You're supposed to see the regulations and the sacrifices, you're supposed to see the requirements and say, Oh, I can't do that.

I'm going to fail miserably at this.

And that's the point.

It's not to make you feel good about yourself.

And when he says transgressions, he's saying, okay, you need to know that you are a sinner and that you are uh that you will fail at this standard, this law, is to keep us from sinning, to show us our sin, to keep us from sinning.

There are some other things we'll get to.

It'll also demonstrate and show the righteousness of Christ.

But a couple examples, and we we're gonna get into some of the details Paul goes through the chapter, but uh a few examples, and one of the first is is uh as we think about transgressions, why we why we would need the law for transgressions, and I think about my own home.

We have this little one of the one of many rules, one of many rules, is when we're say off in the dining room, maybe having dinner, is that little Daniel does not go in our room, my our my Amy and my my room to play by himself.

You think, why would you need that rule?

Because of transgressions.

That's why you need that rule.

And I am not exaggerating.

There are some transgressions that have not been cleaned, that are that are uncleanable.

They are permanent.

You know, Sharpie is generally permanent.

Why was the law added?

For the sake of transgressions.

You need a rule.

Well, this rule is to both protect you and keep you out of trouble, and hopefully it guides you along the way to keep you from transgressing in your parents' bedroom.

Right?

Another example, um other things we have, and this is maybe controversial.

We've maybe talked about it before, but the speed limit is another law where you go, well, okay, what does it really mean at 65?

And I'm not getting into this parse out details or get you know my opinion on the whole thing, but there's a law there, and and sometimes people need that law because they really are driving too fast for their own safety.

It's a safety thing, right?

In theory.

I'm just saying in general, on a morning like this, you the speed limit is really maybe too high in sp in spots in 101 because uh it's not safe.

And it's if even not just for yourself, it's not safe for other people around you.

So it's for the sake of transgressions.

So you so you see sin.

Paul said, I would not have known sin apart from the law.

He says that in Romans 7.

He says, the law would help me to understand my sin, to see it, and then we're gonna see that it's going to help us to hopefully stay away from sin, and if we're in sin, to get re-centered.

As we dive in, he's he's going to, in the next two verses in verse 19 and 20, he's gonna remind us that the Mosaic covenant, well, we're gonna kind of use that phrase, Mosaic covenant and the law are sort of synonymous, but but uh but because of transgressions, he's referring to the Mosaic covenant and the law, which was a two-way covenant.

So just to make sure we have the context, and some of this stuff is repetitive, but and we're gonna get more into some of these topics later, but it'll help for the full context.

The Mosaic covenant, Moses brought down that brought it down from Mount Sinai, and it was a two-part.

It was, think of it as conditional.

It was if you do this, I will do this.

If you transgress this, you will be cursed.

If you obey this, you'll be blessed.

Over and over in Deuteronomy.

The blessings of obedience, the curses of disobedience.

This was in the law, if you do these things.

And so there were there were ceremonial laws or other things, and they were they were to be benefit to keep you on the straight and narrow.

There were laws pertaining to sacrifice to cover sin.

But the Abrahamic covenant, we're talking about the promise, and I I'll admit that verse 20, a mediator is not just for one person alone, but but God is one, is a little confusing to me.

And I think there are other interpretations, but here's the way I see it.

The the Abrahamic covenant, and I'm going to go back to Genesis 15.

So if you want to really look into the promise of Abraham and his life, Genesis 12, starting with the Abraham's call and going through to chapter 22, but in chapter 15, particularly is helpful, I think, in the regards to looking at the promise.

Abraham in the process of chapter 15 was saying, How do I know you're going to bring me a son?

Maybe that servant of mine can do it.

And God says, No, no, okay, I will convince you.

Bring me a three-year-old cow.

This is starting in verse 9, and I'll read it for you if you don't actually want to turn there, but bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.

He brought these things to him, cut them in half, and we're talking, this is this is serious business, right?

You're killing animals, splitting them in half.

It's relatively violent.

Birds tried to come down, verse 11, verse 12, the sun was setting, a deep sleep was coming over Abraham, or Abram at the time.

He wasn't staying awake.

But but as part of this covenant, both parties were supposed to walk through the halves of the animal.

And it was, hey, if I if I don't hold up to my end of the deal, uh, may it be to me as it is to these animals, split in half.

That's a pretty serious consequence.

But turns out Abraham fell asleep.

Verse 17, when the sun had set and was dark as smoking, fire, and pot and a flaming torch, appeared and passed between the divided animals.

Abraham never held up his half of the deal.

He never walked between the animals.

God himself, and God, this God is one, the way I'm seeing verse 20 is the Shemon, is the compound unity of God.

He is one, but he is also able to fully, he's able to fully, without a mediator, without a witness, he's fully able to show that he is holding up his end of the covenant without another man.

This was a one-way, kind of unconditional covenant.

So when we see that because of transgressions, this was a the Mosaic covenant was two-way, conditional, but is but the promise is not based on a conditional covenant, but on the Abrahamic covenant, which is unconditional, one-way.

Doesn't matter if Abraham, who did mess up, right?

Messed up pretty bad.

And a lot of people subsequently did, and we have.

So because of transgressions, we get into verse 21.

Paul asks another question: Is the law therefore contrary to God's promises?

Absolutely not, he says.

For if the law had been granted with the ability to give life, then righteousness would have certainly been on the basis of the law.

And he'll repeat this several times.

It will not be unclear that Paul's going to say, no, no.

The point was that it was setting us up so that salvation could be by faith.

Hebrews 9 and 10, and again, we could spend a lot of time going through those scriptures, but I find that Hebrews 9 and 10 provide a lot of great commentary.

Particularly in Hebrews 9, verses 9 and 10, in regards to the Holy of Holies, it says the Holy of Holies is a symbol for the present time during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshipper's conscience.

Hebrews 9:9

That means you can't get rid of the guilt just by offering a sacrifice.

They are physical regulations only that only deal with food, drink, and various washings imposed until the time of the new order.

Saying it's for a time.

They're imposed for just a time.

And in Hebrews 10, starting in verse 1, since the law was only a shadow of the good things to come and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year by year.

In verse 4, Hebrews says, For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

It was never the intent of the law to make us righteous.

There are a couple other things about the law.

The law was important and it provided a temporary covering.

The blood of those sacrifices would temporarily cover sin and uh, but it wasn't a permanent propitiation.

And the law was there to protect and to guide us.

And the law was there later, because as we mentioned, that Jesus said he didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, right?

He wasn't going to say, oh, that covenant's done.

He actually can't undo the covenant.

He came to fulfill the covenant.

That covenant would demonstrate Christ's righteousness.

He didn't achieve it.

He was already righteous, but it would come and it would demonstrate his righteousness.

So the law had several purposes, and here Paul is honing in that that purpose of those of the law was because of transgressions.

He's going to kind of give two main points here in the first half of the passage.

It's for transgressions and it's a guardian.

He's going to describe the law in some terms, both in verse 22 and 23.

He's going to say, we were imprisoned by, it says scripture imprisoned.

So we were imprisoned everything under sin's power.

Scripture imprisoned everything under sin's power.

In 23, we were confined under the law.

Sounds like bars to me.

Kind of sounds like jail, right?

A little bit.

Maybe in different ways.

Not actually jail, because we're going to see it's not necessarily that we were behind bars, but in our sin we are enslaved and we are under its power.

But the image is that you're confined by something.

Just like we have this rule in our house, we're trying to confine and provide boundaries.

There's these boundaries that are supposed to help remind us not to get in trouble.

There are laws that have consequences if we do step past those boundaries.

And he's going to boil these down to verse 24.

He says, the law then was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.

Here's the law.

It's trying to convict and to bring boundaries and to bring limits to keep us out of trouble, to point us in the right direction.

While we were still without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And this word guardian, I found the best, the best description of the guardian is I got it from the blue letter Bible.

It just, I think, the best helped me with the best understanding.

Some of your translations may say tutor, and I'm not sure they like the word tutor as much.

This guardian was like a guardian and a guide of boys.

Among the Greeks and the Romans, the name was applied to trustworthy slaves who were charged with the duty of supervising the life and morals of boys belonging to the better class.

The boys were not allowed so much as to step out of the house without them before arriving at the age of manhood.

I kind of think, and I mean, just these are just nowadays for me to help under to think through it.

I kind of think a little bit like a headmistress or a headmaster or schoolmaster who is that it's the stereotypical who has the ruler in her hand.

And if you would step out of line, uh I had a certain middle school teacher, and if if you were stepping out of line, you knew about it, and things were great if you didn't step out of line.

But still, that classic uh the you know, the eyes in the back of her head, you know.

You want to pull pull boy wants to pull a little girl's hair, there's there's always someone watching, right?

Sort of that schoolmaster.

It's gonna make sure those kids are raised tight, that they know what they know right from wrong, and that they know that there are consequences of right from wrong.

That's the way I look at this guardian.

So Paul's saying, hey, if this helps you understand this the law for your sake, it wasn't for righteousness, it was this guardian.

And you understand that they understood this from their culture, less from ours, but this guardian who might leave with a little Roman boy going to school, he's gonna be there available while the parents are busy and doing things throughout the day, but he's there to raise them up, kind of like I think of a nanny or a Mary Poppins.

Is that a bad example?

Because I'm not uh an expert in Mary Poppins, but nonetheless, Paul is saying this this is this is the way you can view the law.

It was a guardian until Christ, he says.

Or a tutor to Christ, some translations read, you might be familiar with, so that we could be justified by faith.

Again, there's that there's that phrase, justified by faith.

And as Pastor Chris mentioned last week, this isn't your faith.

Paul will say in Ephesians that it's uh you've been saved by grace, not uh not by works, and he says, of faith, and that not of yourselves.

So it's not even our faith.

We've been given the faith.

It is nothing that we can do.

So Paul is now going to say, since the faith has come, the law was a guardian, but we're no longer under a guardian.

So all of this to say, it was because you were under a guardian, but you're no longer.

We're no longer under a guardian.

That time and that that that time frame, that period, it has changed.

Paul is gonna is about to go into detail about how that's changed from going from a guardian to being heirs.

He'll continue in verse 27.

Because this is how verse 27 and 28, 29, or how Paul is gonna show how we bridge from being Jews coming out of a guardianship to all people being offered this uh inheritance under the Abrahamic covenant.

He's saying, for those of you who are baptized into Christ, you've been clothed with Christ.

What is this?

Not baptism with water.

This is not the physical dunking, this is a spiritual immersion in Jesus Christ.

When we give our lives to him, when we surrender in faith for his death uh for our uh our sin, that baptism is being saturated and imbued in Jesus.

This is all of us who have been, who have given, uh who have put our trust in Jesus, have been baptized by Jesus.

And he says, if you've been baptized, you've been clothed.

And the way I look at this, and it which is not the direction of the passage, is not not this is not to say, well, can we lose our clothing in Christ?

Can we become unclothed in Christ?

That's not the point of the passage.

We've been clothed.

What does that mean to be clothed?

I think I think of a uniform, of your identification, right?

If you saw me in a military uniform, you might think that I belonged to the military, and you might expect a certain character out of me if I were in the military.

We've been clothed with Christ.

We've been clothed with his character.

Maybe that that's his love with his purity, with his graciousness.

I think of an army soldier again, where I would expect when you're wearing that uniform, that I would expect someone very respectful, someone very focused on the commander, not on his own desires and needs.

Would it seem weird that if you saw a soldier and he was uh off horsing around and drinking, carousing, would that seem like, would you say, I don't, that doesn't, that's not consistent with that uniform.

I mean, let's get out of the the maybe there are some um, maybe there's some stereotypes of those in uniform partying it up, right?

But let's be but in the but in this in the war setting or battle setting when you're wearing that uniform, I'd expect you're gonna be pretty serious and you're gonna be looking for the you're gonna be obeying the commander, you're gonna be looking like someone who's fit and trim.

I think of the movie, I don't know if I should even mention the movie ELF.

And I just I I'm only saying this because in elf, there is a point when this grown man is in a suit but behaving like a three-year-old.

He's behaving like an elf.

And I go, you're clothed like a businessman, but you aren't behaving like it.

And that's why, whether you think so or not, that's why it's funny.

It's odd and it's weird, right?

I hope that was not inappropriate.

So Paul's saying, hey, you've been baptized into Christ, you're imbued with his presence, you're physically, you I see Christ when I see you.

You're clothed with Christ.

You've been immersed with him, he is yours.

Three, you are his.

And he's gonna say, well, then if you've been clothed with Christ, you all have been, if you've all been clothed, then just like in the military, there could be someone uh who's who looks much like they're from Asia, who could look like they're from Africa, who could look like they are maybe rough around the edges, but guess what?

They look like they're soldiers.

It doesn't matter how you look in that uniform, what it looks like is that you're a soldier, right?

In the same way, he's saying, you've been clothed with Christ, you look like him, you're imbued by him, you're saturated.

And then let me tell you, Paul's saying, there's actually for all of you, not just those who run under the guardianship of the law, you are all clothed with Christ, and if you're clothed with Christ, verse 29, you belong to him.

If you belong to him, this is super logical, and I appreciate this.

If you belong to him, you're Abraham's seed, and you're heirs according to promise.

Paul has brought, Paul's brought the brought the them from this guardianship to how not just the Jews, but all of us non-Jews, and that's not everyone in this room, but a lot of us are not Jew, Jewish, he's bringing and saying, look, this is applying to all of you.

You've all been baptized with Christ, you've all been clothed with him, and so you uh you are in Christ.

He says, There is no, verses 28, it's coming back, there is no Jew, Greek, slave or free, male or female, since you are all one in Christ, you're all clothed in Christ, you've all been saturated, imbued by Christ.

Then as we transition to chapter 4, Paul is going to develop.

Now that we've moved past the guardianship of the law, the purpose of the law, he's gonna give us an analogy, and he is going to bring home the implications of our being heirs of the promise.

Verse 1.

Sorry, 4, verse 1.

It says, Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything.

He is under guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.

He's using an analogy more in keeping with that culture.

Uh the analogy is this case where there's a child, and in the coming of age, either Jewish was at 13, or whether you were maybe a Roman or a Greek, you were, it was when your father said, and I like the I like the picture here, when your father said you're an adult and you're you're ready to be a man, that's when when he says you're ready.

In his time, when your father says it's time, that's when you are, until that time that's set by your father, you're just still a child.

Sounds kind of fitting.

As long as that that child might be an heir, but he's still a child, right?

We could think of someone very wealthy in our nation who has children, and those children are, let's just say, for all intents and purposes, they're waiting to inherit potentially substantial assets.

But while they're a child, uh in this culture, you're no different from a slave.

There may very well be slaves in this day that were responsible for that child, maybe let's call them guardians.

Uh, and those guardians were responsible for, and they maybe had more responsibility and freedom than that child.

Maybe pretty pretty great responsibility and freedom as a slave in the day, more highly educated.

But the child still had the inheritance.

The child still effectively owned, at least in the future of that child, the child had the inheritance that the slave didn't have.

So Paul's using analogy, he's saying, well, for now the child who was an heir, he had uh differed, didn't differ from a slave.

Well, he was under guardians, some translations say managers, until the time set by his father, when his father would decide.

He says here, here's how this analogy applies in verse 3.

In the same way, we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world.

When the time came to completion, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, verse 5, to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Do you all remember what it was to be in slavery under the elements of the world?

Sometimes it's easy to get past our salvation that we forget what it was like to be in slavery.

And sometimes when we get saved, I think it was my case, I think the Lord, in his maybe in his mercy, would kind of reveal those times and points in my life where he'd say, you know, you were enslaved.

Do you realize that?

Oh, here's another thing.

You were enslaved to that.

Do you recall when you were in slavery under the elements of the world looking for things that satisfied because nothing would?

Do you remember feeding your pride?

Maybe thinking about your own, how you you had, you were a good person.

Maybe that's what it was.

That's I think that's that's where I came from.

I wasn't the I wasn't the outright sinful kid, but my pride was sinful.

Some people, uh, some some of us are that slavery looks different, but when we were still under the elements of the world, we were, Paul's saying here in verse 3, we were in slavery under the elements, and when time came to completion, this is verse 4.

And what does that mean?

The time to completion?

There's a lot in that little phrase.

From the time that the law was given, the Lord was working in his perfect time for hundreds of years, waiting for the waiting to bring his, send his son down to the form of a man.

What are these things?

Maybe they literally, this was important, the time to completion.

There was there were things being happening in culture and society in the world.

The Greek language would come and provide a means to spread the gospel.

So there was God's perfect timing, allowing the law to be its guardianship.

And I should mention that Israel often came and came and went from obedience to that, right?

But when the time came and sin was where it needed to be at, and the scriptures were becoming and ready to be fulfilled, and the language was just right to spread the gospel.

When that time came to completion, and as Romans 5, 6 says, in due time, while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.

In his perfect timing, God sent his son.

Because the Jews might say, Why are we waiting?

But God had his time and his purpose.

God sent his son, this is still verse 4, born fully human, born under the law, he would fulfill it, right?

He's born under the law, so we can fulfill it, to redeem or pay for those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

So he's saying with this analogy, look, it's it's very similar.

This is a very similar, this is an analogy of how we too were under slavery, and Jews and Gentiles alike were both under the, we were both in slavery to the elements, waiting for this time of completion until God's perfect timing, and he sent his son who would demonstrate perfection, righteousness, and rightness with God.

And as in Romans 11, I think that to me, Romans 11 is another great passage to help provide this commentary.

The best commentary on scripture is scripture.

In Romans 11, 17, we learn that we've been grafted into God's family.

That's part of how he's working, this big, this grand picture.

Some will be clipped off and some will be grafted back in.

Well, we're grafted in.

When we receive this adoption, we've been grafted back in.

He says, here's that progression.

Though you are the elements, Christ came, he paid for your sin.

Your sin had a cost.

That's the gospel.

We're sinners, it has a cost.

That cost is eternal separation from God.

And this side of this side of death, uh, this is as good as it's gonna get.

If we don't know Jesus, this is as much grace as we're gonna see.

Apart from Jesus, we're just looking at eternity apart from every good and perfect thing that there is.

God sent his son.

Because you were sons, he says, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

And the full logic of this.

If you can see the big picture now, there was the there was the promise, right?

Then the coming of the law, the seed, Jesus, fulfilled that law.

We were able to put our faith and trust upon Jesus.

We were baptized into Jesus, clothed with him.

We then become, we became Abraham's seed, and then we become sons, and we are heirs.

Paul is saying, He made you sons, he put his the very spirit of his son, of Jesus, into our hearts.

Let me pause.

When Christ came to redeem us, he went to the cross, he suffered.

That took care of the salvation, right?

Golden, we're good.

But it doesn't stop there.

Paul is taking this and saying, it's not just salvation, there's a critical event that happened.

He said in Ephesians 1, he says, You've been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise as a guarantee of our inheritance.

We've not just been redeemed, or our sins not just been paid for.

He's saying, no, no, no, more so, you've also been made sons.

Not just sons.

God put his own spirit, the spirit that's in his own son is in you, crying Abba, Father.

This term might be a little cliche now, but this is this is our daddy or papa.

This isn't a term the Jews, when they hear Paul read this, would have necessarily been apt to go calling their the Lord God their father.

They wouldn't even write his name as the Jews.

They wouldn't necessarily write his name fully because of the reverence and fear they had.

He's received us as sons.

What does that mean?

It means intimacy, it means access, it means relationship.

And not to dwell too long away in the point, I think a lot of people, a lot of us, we don't have perfect fathers, and some of us have really imperfect fathers.

This is a really fundamental part that Paul is framing of our identity in Christ.

We're not just saved, we are sons.

We can boldly approach his throne of grace.

He is fully holy.

He is awe-inspiring and powerful.

If you were going to approach the President of the United States, regardless of your political affiliation, generally you would think you're going to be approaching someone in great respect and caution.

I know that's a hard concept with that analogy, but but we can approach God boldly and as his sons, and his laps there, his listening ear.

Psalm said, My cry came before him even to his ear.

That's because he's our father.

He is our true father.

And sometimes, some of us, there is a we see our fathers and the modern-day father, and we often have, we project what a father should be.

Well, this is to redefine what a father should be to us.

So Paul says, here's all the logic.

So here, so you are, verse 7, so you are no longer a slave but a son.

Right?

No longer a slave to sin.

And you're not just saved, you're a son.

Hey, and if you're a son, then God has made you an heir.

He's just connected the law to Jew and Gentile.

From Jew and Gentile, he's connected us.

All the way into our inheritance to this promise to Abraham.

And wrapping things up.

The law had a purpose.

It did not annul the Abrahamic, the Mosaic covenant.

Wrote that wrong.

He didn't annul the covenant or the law.

Jesus came to fulfill that, but the law had a purpose.

It was to guard us, to goad us, to keep us on this to the straight and narrow.

Do we get blessed by following the Jews blessed by following the law?

The Lord said, if you follow us and obey it, you'll be blessed.

And that's because in general, that was to keep you out of trouble.

But those that law, as we read in Galatians, that's not the we're no longer under it.

We no longer need it as a guardian.

Instead, by faith we are sons.

We're no longer slaves.

We're no longer slaves to the penalty or to the power of sin.

We're also heirs.

I'm going to go to Colossians 2.

Starting in verse 20.

Paul says, Colossians, if you died with Christ, the illness of this world, why do you live as if you are still belonged, if you still belong to the world?

Why do you submit to regulations?

Don't handle, don't taste, don't touch.

All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up.

They are human commands and doctrines.

Although these have a reputation for wisdom, by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.

The good news is that we are not, the Jews are no longer under the guardian.

But we don't need guardians because God has given us his spirit.

Jesus said, I won't, I'm going to depart, but I'm sending you another helper.

And he says, I'm sending you my spirit.

When the spirit of truth comes, John 16, he says, He'll guide you into all truth.

His spirit, he's given us a spirit, not to leave us as orphans.

He's adopted us and he said, I've given you my spirit, my very spirit inside of you to lead you, to guide you, to draw you into truth, to glorify me.

He says, He'll glorify me in John 16, 14.

God's Spirit brings us into a place of intimacy.

Helps us to it causes us to cry, Abba Father.

We have a spirit.

We have a perfect Father.

We're no longer subject to the regulations of the law, but we have freedom.

So a couple of questions this morning.

Are you still enslaved to sin?

Are you under its power?

Have you given your life to Jesus to be freed from the power and penalty of sin?

Paul's talking to Christians who have done that, and though they've departed and they've tried to pull back things of the law, they said, no, you need to be circumcised.

You have the opportunity this morning to be freed from that power and uh from the power and penalty of sin.

For those of us who have been freed, do we still live as though we're enslaved to sin?

Do we still, are we still subject?

Do you do you walk?

Do we walk as though we're struggling and striving to walk with him?

And in our own power, finding ourselves frustrated in our walks.

God's given us his spirit to empower us, to embolden us, to speak to our into our hearts.

Are we bolstering our pride?

Are we trying to be made perfect in our own power?

Paul asks the Galatians, he says, Are you so foolish after beginning by the spirit?

Are you now finishing by the flesh?

The good news this morning is that he's given us his spirit.

We're no longer under the law, we're no longer under guardians.

We have the guardian of the spirit, and that makes me feel confident that I don't have to worry.

Even if I'm messing up, I'm gonna get that conviction of his spirit, of sin.

He's gonna show me what Christ looks like, and he's gonna do his work from the inside out.

Pray with me as we wrap up.

Father, thank you so much for your word.

Thank you that we are not, uh we no longer have to be enslaved by the things of this world, by the elements, that we are no longer, we no longer have to bolster ourselves to look right, try and be right with you, but Jesus' blood has covered all of our sin, that we have been made right with you by the work of Jesus, by the act of our faith, which is not of ourselves, it's also your free gift.

Pray that you would bring us, Father, from a place of any sort of place, of looking to the law to be made right before you, that we would, uh you would be in the forefront of our minds.

Lord, to walk in the power of your spirit as you transform our lives.

In Jesus' name, amen.