A sermon idea based on Galatians 4:4-7 about how we were once enslaved to the impossible task of being perfectly pleasing to God, but now we are his beloved children.
Because of the redemptive work of God, through Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection, we’ve been set free from the obligation of presenting to our Creator a perfect performance. Instead, we are free to experience a grace-filled relationship with God.
The Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the churches in Galatia somewhere around 48 AD. One of his primary goals was to establish his own apostolic authority and, by extension, the authority under which he wrote this and other letters. So he begins with a word of personal testimony…
Galatians 4:4-7 NRSV
[4] But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, [5] in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. [6] And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” [7] So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
When the time was right, God sent his son, so that we ALL might be adopted into his family as beloved children, including Israel (those who were under the law).
The good news for us, today, is…
1. We’ve been adopted into God’s family.
All of us have either been 1.) condemned by our inability to keep God’s law, or 2.) excluded because the Law wasn’t given to us to keep. But now, we’ve been granted adoption into the very family of God as his children.
2. God has sent his Spirit.
The Spirit of God is the form through which God walks alongside us every day of our lives. He is not a distant, unavailable Father, but rather a God who is constantly and readily available to us at all times through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
3. We get to live free lives.
We were once condemned by a law we couldn’t keep, enslaved to sinful tendencies we couldn’t stop, and excluded from God’s family. But all of that has been changed by the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ.
We now get to live free of condemnation under the law.
We get to live free from slavery to committing sin.
We get to live like children instead of slaves.
Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash