Galatians 3:26-4:7
“Our Adoption As Sons” March 12, 2006
SI: Paul has been arguing that there is nothing you can do
to make yourself
acceptable to God.
Introduces new argument in
this passage—another way of looking at your salvation.
He want
to press home the fact that you can earn nothing from God.
Everything good you get from God is an
inheritance through Christ.
Inheritances are not
earned—they are given to sons and heirs.
Make comments later in sermon why chose this
version.
INTRO: I’ve told you before a story one of my seminary
professors told us.
Dr. Calhoun had been invited
to preach at a church,
was staying in the
home of a church family he did not know.
They had several
children. At one point in visit youngest
child—little boy—
Asked him:
Did you know I was adopted?
Dr. Calhoun said: No, I didn’t know that.
Little boy got an important look on his
face.
My mom and dad got my brother and sister the
old-fashioned way—
but they chose
me.
That is a wonderful
introduction to the wonderful doctrine of adoption.
Up to this point Paul’s focus
has been justification—now moves to adoption.
In justification God as Judge
declares you righteous
and frees you from
all the penalties your sins deserve.
In adoption God as Father
brings you into His family,
and makes you an
heir of all his blessings.
Justification is great.
Knowing that in Christ you
are acceptable in God’s sight
even though you
have sinned and are still a sinner—is awesome.
If we just had justification, that would be enough.
But your salvation is more—it’s
also adoption.
It’s not just acquittal by a judge—it’s
membership in a family.
More than just knowing that
God holds nothing against you any more—
it’s knowing that
He is your Father, that he chose you, cares for you, plans for.
Adoption is greater than
justification. It’s sweeter. It’s richer.
Let me read you something
written by Sinclair Ferguson—Scottish theologian.
“The notion that we are children of God, His
own sons and daughters
is the mainspring
of Christian living.”
Saying that the main motive
and drive for living as a Christian is not simply
your adoption—it’s
the experience of your adoption.
What he means by the word
“notion.” Notion
children, mainspring.
If don’t have this notion—missing the most
powerful drive for Christian life.
That’s the challenge of the
doctrine of adoption—
you have to
understand it and you have to experience it—
for it to become a
power in your life.
Let’s go back to the little
boy who talked to my professor.
In a child-like way he understood
his adoption.
He didn’t know the civil laws but he
understood that something had happened.
His parents had chosen him. They had made him their son.
Once he was not their son, then, because of
things they did he became their son.
But he also experienced his
adoption.
His adoption had come home to his heart.
He said, “Mom and Dad,” he said, “my brother
and sister.”
He knew in his heart, in his
experience, that he was their son.
That’s what gave him happiness and
confidence.
That’s what made him get that important look
on his face.
That’s your challenge. That’s the challenge Paul presented to
Galatians.
You have to understand your adoption and you
have to experience it.
Next week: Show Galatians—not living like sons, living
like slaves.
Main motive not—I’m an adopted child. I love my father.
I’ve got to check things off my list to
prove myself to the slave master.
That’s where Paul’s
going. But first—Your
adoption.
Two headings for your
note-takers.
1. Jesus Christ’s work was to secure the status
of your adoption.
2. Holy Spirit’s work is to secure the experience
of your adoption.
MP#1
Jesus Christ’s work was to secure the status of your adoption.
Vs. 4-5
But when the fullness of time
had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to
redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
At just the right time in
history God sent his Son, born of virgin Mary—
As a man, required to keep
the law perfectly.
He came to redeem us, so we
might receive adoption.
These are two important legal terms in the
ancient Roman world.
Redemption and adoption—and they go
together.
Redemption was paying a price
to release a person from slavery.
Slavery was very common in
But slaves could be redeemed and given their
freedom.
Paul says: Christ came to redeem us from slavery under
the law.
How are we under the law of
God? Two ways.
First, we are obligated to be perfect before
God or we are condemned to hell.
Second, we are spiritually/psychologically
fixated on trying to win the favor
of God and other
people. Craving for
righteousness.
Jesus came to redeem us from
that slavery.
By his perfect life he fulfilled all the
demands of the law—
so that everyone
who has faith in Him has nothing left to do or pay for salvation.
You are perfectly obedient in
God’s sight. You don’t have to win His
favor.
That’s redemption. Were a slave under
law. Now free.
Did that for a purpose: So that we might receive the adoption as
sons.
Read different version this morning instead
of NIV—
Liked way it translated this word “adoption
as sons.”
NIV “full rights as sons.”
That’s not bad—both are
attempts to translate a single Greek word.
Word is the word son and the word
established, crammed together
“sonestablish”
Legal term from the Roman
world for the process by which a childless aristocrat
could take an
adult, male slave, and adopt him as his son and heir.
When this “sonsestablish” took place—all the legal privileges of sonship—
were conferred to
this man who was once a slave, now a son.
“Ben Hur” Charlton Heston adopted by
aristocratic Roman.
So that’s what Jesus did for
you—not only redeemed you from slavery to law—
removing your legal
status as a sinner deserving God’s condemnation—
He have you a new
legal status of son—deserving great wealth and honor.
Now—let’s look at some of the
honors and privileges of adopted sons of God.
These are the things you have as a son of
God. Three
1. You have a
new identity.
vs. 27 “For as many of you as were baptized
into Christ have put on Christ.”
“have clothed
yourselves with Christ.”
Covered the baptism part last
week—focus on the clothing part, put on Christ.
This is a rich image—just scratching the
surface.
Clothing is a mark of
identity. It tells people who you are.
Nearly all clothing is a uniform identifying
you with other people of same
gender, social
class, age, values.
Read a story: School where students wearing hip-hop
clothes—
Principal didn’t like them—dress codes didn’t
work—teachers wore.
Students were so horrified at being
identified with teachers—clothing changed.
In adoption you have a new
identity—identity—clothing is Jesus Christ.
Ultimate identity not
social class, occupation, nationality.
Leads perfectly to next
privilege—
3. You have a
new family.
vs. 28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither slave nor free,
there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in
Christ Jesus.”
Verse not saying there are no
role differences.
Bible makes it clear that those remain.
Unity in Christ—in context of
this adoption passage—family unity
that transcends
race, class, and gender.
MLJ trained as a surgeon in
His wife Bethann
also studied medicine—you can imagine their life and circles.
First church was in a little
town in
Visiting an elderly widow—husband a
fisherman.
Huge differences in class,
education, age, experience—
I have more in common with this Christian woman,
my non-Christian colleagues
in
4. You have a
new inheritance.
vs. 29 “if you are Christ’s then you are
Abraham’s offspring heirs according to promise.”
I don’t know if you are
familiar with any of the Bible translations
that remove what is
supposedly sexist language from the Bible.
Idea is to make Bible as
gender neutral as possible so as not to offend people.
So—Adoption as
sons—Adoption as children.
Sons of God translated Children of God—or
sons and daughters.
Lots of problems with
that—but one is that if you do it in this passage—
you totally miss
something wonderful that is being said by calling all Christians,
both men and
women—sons of God.
In the ancient world daughter
could not be heirs. Only sons could
inherit.
In calling both men and women sons—Wonderful
privilege—all are heirs.
I have a dream of being an
heir.
About 10 years ago got
interested in tracking down my roots—
able to trace
Siegenthalers back to early 1700s to village in
Even found some pictures of
this village—there are Siegenthalers there.
Know if ever go—You
are Ulrich’s heir—chalet is yours.
As an adopted son you are
heir to all the blessings God has given Abraham.
All the blessings of
salvation. Many
temporal blessings—God working all things.
Many blessings in new
heavens and new earth.
What’s the challenge with this teaching of
adoption?
To believe you are a son of
God in such a way it sinks into your heart.
You can believe all this doctrine
intellectually—son, identity, family, inheritance
Not only a judge but father—
But it has not sunk into
heart. True—even if you don’t feel it.
vs. 26 “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons
of God through faith.”
But tend to relate to god as
a slave master—not as father.
When good things
happen—because you’ve been good.
Good things come to children daily from
parents—even when bad—love, food.
You will feel pain in your
life is punishment of judge, not disciple of father.
Have a hard time trusting God—won’t really
think has best interests in mind.
Obeying—yes—but out of fear
and obligation—
not as a child
wanting to be like your dad. (Next
section—but start now, HS)
Brings us to next important
teaching in this passage—
MP#2
Holy Spirit’s work is to secure the experience of your adoption.
vs. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent
the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
Let’s start by comparing the
work of Christ to the work of the Spirit.
God the Father sent Christ
into the world to secure your legal status of sonship.
And Jesus did it. Accomplished everything.
Means you are a child of God whether you
feel like you are or not.
You have a new identity, you
have a new family, you have a new inheritance—
it’s your legal
status with the Father.
God the Father sent the Holy
Spirit into your heart to secure your
experience of sonship.
The intensity of experiences
vary from person to person—
but passage tells
us what the essence of that experience is.
Describes
it as crying out or calling out Abba, Father.
This verb cry out, call out
is very strong—it is used to describe crying out
with strong
feelings—used of Jesus crying out on the cross.
What Paul is talking about is
your prayer life.
It is in your prayers that the Holy Spirit
works this experience of adoption.
A child does not prepare
speeches for his or her parents.
This is especially true if the child is in
distress—cries out, Momma, Daddy.
As a parent you can tell by tone of cry if
something bad has happened.
Even when children want
something—if they are young—no formality—
they just ask, it
just comes out—Daddy, I want that.
It is the work of the Holy
Spirit to give you that spontaneity and freedom in prayer.
So that your prayer
becomes less and less mechanical—more and more personal.
This doesn’t mean prayer
can’t be eloquent.
Very godly man, deep sense of sonship—pray, even thank God for food—
there was an
eloquence beyond his education, almost like speaking poetry.
One way this comes about is
that the Holy Spirit gives God’s sons
and increasing
sense of his real presence.
Just as a child calls out
automatically when mom or dad are close by—
to deal with a
problem or ask a question—so Christians call out in prayer
Then there is this way of
addressing God: Abba, Father.
This is the way Jesus addressed God in
Abba, Father, let this cup pass from me.
Abba the Aramaic word for Daddy—Word
Jesus would have used for Joseph.
Word Paul would have used for his Father
growing up.
Simply the
word of an intimate, open relationship between a parent and child.
This is the work of the
Spirit—to bring home to your heart intimacy of sonship.
His work is to give you a growing assurance
of your adoption.
Years ago I read about a
family who had adopted a child—
First time they disciplined him, he ran in
fear, crawled under bed.
Parents, sensitive to his
insecurities from past did not pull him out, leave him.
One crawled under bed, wrapped arms around
child, held him.
With presence wanted to communicate reality
of his sonship.
A child does not worry about
getting fired for disobeying a rule—
if anything he
knows that a father’s heart goes out more
to a troubled child
not less.
That’s the work of the Holy
Spirit.
According to this passage, the
place you are going to experience his work
is in your prayer
life. In the freedom
with which you call out to God as Father.
So, how can you experience
more of the Holy Spirit’s work?
First, remember the Gospel
order.
The Spirit’s work in your life occurs
because of the work of Christ.
In other words, an experience
of your sonship in your prayer life
is based on the
reality of your adoption.
It’s not the other way
around.
It’s not that your adoption is real because
of the intensity of your
feelings that you
are a son of God. If you have faith in
Christ, you are a son.
Look at vs. 26 again:
“You are all sons of God through faith in
Christ Jesus.”
Not by feeling close to God. Not by freedom and spontaneity in prayer.
By faith alone.
Faith in the promises.
Then, with that in hand—I am
a son of God by faith—feel like it or not.
Two things:
You have to ponder and meditate on these
great truths of your status.
Read these verses and think about them.
Take Bible, look up word son,
child, adoption, Abba—meditate on those truths.
“As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on us,
for he knows how we
are formed, he knows that we are dust.”
Isn’t it true that parents
are more concerned for children when get in trouble—
not less.
If you are a parent, think
about what you would do for your child—
what hopes you have
for him or her, how much you long for his well-being.
“If you, though you are evil
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask.”
Way Spirit works in bring adoption home to heart—works through truth.
Makes the truth shine. You have to do you part by looking at the
truth.
You can’t make it shine—Holy Spirit does—but
you have to look.
Other thing you have to do is
“cry out” to the Father often through the day.
Concentrating on his
Fatherly love.
As you face the challenges of
every day life—challenges with people, work,
money, emotions,
health—call out to God, reminding yourself he is your Father.
Holy Spirit will come along
side and fill you heart with help and assurance.
vs. 7 So you are no
longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
That will sink in and take root.
J I Packer
If you want to judge how well
a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of
being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and
controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that
he does not understand Christianity very well at all.
Adoption is the highest
privilege the Gospel offers.
That is true. You must be a person who makes much of being
God’s child.
Christ has secured your Sonship.
Spirit it present to help you experience it.