“The Good News Of Adoption”
Galatians 4:1-7
Sermon Series: “The Gospel”
Introduction: The main idea of this passage is adoption through redemption. It is one of the great results of the gospel. God the Father makes sinners His children through the work of God the Son for us and God the Spirit in us.
What does this mean and what does it look like in our lives? First, let’s think about this practically. Many psychologists say that people get their image of God from their earthly father. This means that many people have trouble thinking of God as Father or have a very negative view of God because of bad experiences with their earthly father. Others have a positive view of God because of good experiences with their earthly father. Ultimately though, whatever we think of our earthly father, it is crucial that we see our Heavenly Father for whom He really is according to His Word.
Second, let’s look at the biblical background. The first three verses of the chapter give an analogy that Paul uses to build the truths of verses 4-7 on. In the Roman world, sons were heirs of the father’s estate. However, that son had basically the rights of a slave until he came of age. Normally, slaves supervised and took care of the sons until they became of age. Paul says that we were like this spiritually until we came to Christ. We were slaves of sin and Satan. But, God sent His Son to redeem us and make us His sons (this is not a sexist statement, but based on this analogy, men and women are all sons of God in the sense that we are joint-heirs with Jesus). Let’s look at this great truth in detail.
1. God sent His Son to redeem us (v. 4-5). The Father sent Jesus at His perfect time. He was born of a virgin, fully human, and perfectly fulfilled the Law. The phrase, “God sent forth His Son,” implies that Jesus came from heaven and is the eternal God. God’s Son lived the life we failed to live by perfectly obeying God’s Law and died the death we deserved to die by taking all of our sin upon Him. He did this to set us free from our slavery to sin and Satan. In order to truly understand adoption, it is necessary for us to realize that we were spiritual children of the devil (John 8:44, Ephesians 2:1-3, Colossians 1:13) before we trusted Jesus. God takes us from Satan and makes us His children. Jesus is the Son of God by nature (John 5:17-18, 10:30) while in salvation we become adopted sons of God with a new nature (2 Peter 1:3-4).
2. The purpose of redemption is adoption (v. 5). Based on the picture of adoption from the Roman world, it means that:
A. You lose all rights in the old family and gain all the rights of a fully legitimate son in the new family.
You become an heir and this cannot change.
Your old life and debts are completely erased.
3. The results of adoption include (v. 6-7):
We are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. God gives us
His DNA, His nature, when He saves us. God lives in us through His Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to be who God wants us to be. He enables us to relate to God as our Father.
We can cry out, “Abba, Father.” This refers to an
intimate relationship with our Father. We have a Father who rules from His throne (Revelation 3:21-4:11), a Father we can talk to (Matthew 6:9, Ephesians 2:18), a Father who takes care of His children (Matthew 6:25-33), a Father who gives good gifts (Matthew 7:11), a Father who is merciful and comforting (2 Corinthians 1:3-4), a Father who delivers us from the bondage of fear (Romans 8:15), and a Father who will remove us from this messed up world and take us to be with Him (Romans 8:23).
We are set free as a child of God. John 8:36 says,
“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
We are made heirs of God through Jesus (Romans
8:14-17). Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”
Conclusion: John 1:12-13 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” Have you received Jesus by faith and become a child of God? Are you living in intimacy with your Heavenly Father?
