Passage: Galatians 4:1-7

The Big Idea

Every heart longs for a father’s forgiveness and love. Paul contrasts a slave and a child to show the difference between law and grace. Under the “ABCs of the world,” you get what you earn. But God sent His Son to buy us back and give us the status of sons, and He sent His Spirit so we could experience it, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Children don’t live by a checklist. They live by love.

Paco

There’s a story told of a father in Spain whose son had run away after they became estranged. The father searched for months with no success. Finally, in a last desperate attempt, he put an ad in a Madrid newspaper: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father.”

On Saturday, eight hundred Pacos showed up, each looking for forgiveness and love from his father.

There’s a deep, powerful need in every heart for connection with a father: for forgiveness and love.
Many of us have a twisted or broken picture of our fathers, yet deep down we still long to know what it would be like to have a real Father.
We watch movies with strong fathers, and it makes us angry or sad.
No matter how hard we try to ignore or deny it, we feel incomplete without a strong, loving, authoritative and gentle father who treats us as his son or daughter, and his heir.

Child or Slave? (Galatians 4:1-3)

As long as an heir is a child, he’s no different from a slave, even though he owns everything. He’s under guardians and managers until the time his father set. In the same way, when we were children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world.

What’s the difference between a child and a slave? This section of Galatians teaches the difference between grace and law by contrasting the two.

In a wealthy family, a slave or servant often took care of the master’s child, the heir. So the child was actually under the servant. Imagine the tension when the child realizes he’ll one day own everything, including authority over that servant.
For now he has less day-to-day freedom than the servant.
But that only lasts while he outgrows the foolishness of youth.
Then, at the appointed time, he’s able to fully experience everything that belongs to him as an heir.

The ABCs of the World

“The elements of the world” are like the ABCs of the universe: the basic ideas about how things work. Karma. You get what you earn.

Paul wants us to grow out of that common way of thinking and into the amazing New Covenant of grace: God gives everything, and we believe.

Grace contradicts the ABCs of the universe, because under grace God doesn’t deal with us based on what we deserve. Our good can’t justify us, and our bad doesn’t have to condemn us. God’s blessing and favor come on a completely different principle, for reasons found entirely in Him, and not in us.

False teaching follows these basic principles of the world and not Christ. Paul warns the Colossians not to let anyone take them captive through empty philosophy and human tradition, based on the basic principles of the world rather than on Christ (Colossians 2:8).

You can be cheated.
And it’s against Christ.

Paul goes on: if you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, why do you live as though you still belong to it, submitting to its rules (Colossians 2:20)?

We died with Christ to that way of thinking.
There are no regulations that earn God’s blessing or approval.
We’re not even living by the rules of this world. We’re living by the rules of heaven. Jesus said we’re not of the world, just as He isn’t of the world (John 17:16).
Yet legalism brings us right back around to “submitting to regulations,” which is bondage to the basic principles.

God Sent His Son (Galatians 4:4-5)

When the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those under the Law, so we could receive adoption as sons.

God sent His Son!
Born of a woman. He became human to buy us back. Imagine a man who sees an anthill about to be destroyed and desperately wants to warn the ants. But he can’t communicate with them. The only way would be to become one of them. That’s what Jesus did for us.
Born under the Law. He had the power to live a perfect life according to the Law, which was really just a description of Him.

To Redeem

A boy named Tom built a little boat and took it to the river. He set it on the water and let out the string, and it sailed beautifully. But a strong current caught it, the string broke, and the boat raced downstream out of sight. He searched all afternoon until it was too dark, then went home heartbroken.

A few days later, walking home from school, he saw a boat just like his in a store window. It was his! He ran inside. “Sir, that’s my boat! I made it!” The manager said, “Sorry, son, someone brought it in this morning. If you want it, it’ll cost you a dollar.”

Tom ran home and counted his money. Exactly one dollar. He rushed back, paid, and walked out hugging the boat. “Now you’re twice mine,” he said. “First I made you, and now I bought you.”

That’s redemption.

The Spirit of His Son (Galatians 4:6)

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”

Wait! Are you telling me I get everything I was trying to get by obeying the Law, just by being adopted by God? Does that mean we just stop trying to keep the Law?

Think about two young people in love. It’s amazing to watch. Nobody has to give them rules for how to make the other person happy or show their love. It’s their joy to do it. They act lovingly because they’re in love. The heart gives the direction. There’s no checklist for being in love.

Nobody ever saw this on a school test: “What are the rules of falling in love?” Buy flowers? Buy chocolates?

I did once find a tongue-in-cheek list of rules for how not to fall in love:

Never watch a sunset with the object of your desire.
Never look at the stars together.
Avoid acoustic music.
Never use candles.
Always keep at least a meter apart.
Never exchange mixtapes.

Why are people afraid of love? Because it makes you vulnerable. It opens your heart to its deepest levels. Do people think love will lock them in a prison of relationship for the rest of their lives? That’s not how the fairy tale ends! It ends with “happily ever after.” That’s how love is supposed to go.

This is what makes grace so far superior to the Law. We don’t have to figure out how to please our Father. We just fall in love with Him, and obedience is the natural outcome.

It really is all about loving God.
It really is all about relationship with Him.
Love God with all your heart, and do whatever you want!

The Dog and the Son

Watchman Nee told of a new believer who came to him in deep distress. “No matter how much I pray or how hard I try, I can’t seem to be faithful to the Lord. I think I’m losing my salvation.”

Nee pointed to his dog. The dog was house-trained, obedient and a delight to him. Then he pointed out that in the kitchen he had a baby son who made messes, threw his food and soiled his clothes. “But who is going to inherit everything I have? Not my dog. My son is my heir.”

You are Christ’s heir because it was for you that He died. We’re heirs not through our perfection, but by His grace.

Status and Experience

How does God do this? He sent His Son so we could have the status of sons, and He sent His Spirit so we could experience it.

You didn’t receive a spirit of slavery that leads back to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. And if children, then heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:15-17).

Fear isn’t the fruit of a love-based relationship with God. Fear is the fruit of legalism.
Talk with Him.
It’s free and easy.
There’s nothing to be afraid of. We’re children, not slaves.

Many times I’ve been afraid of this kind of intimacy with God. You might be too. We feel like He has to see the sin we know is in our lives. But He already sees it, and He still calls you His child. Read the promises of His love for you, and let His heart sink in: you are a child, not a slave.

Grace Takeaway

You don’t have to earn your place in God’s house. Jesus came under the Law to buy you back, and the Spirit lives in you crying, “Abba, Father!” You’re not a slave trying to keep the rules. You’re a beloved child and heir. Fall in love with your Father, and let obedience flow from that love.

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