December 12, 2016
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Children of God

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Dear Lord, I do not need to fight for my worth because You have already called me Your child. I bless Your name.

Read Galatians 3:23-4:7

[23] Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. [24] So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. [25] Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. [26] So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, [27] for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [29] If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. [1] What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. [2] The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. [3] So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. [4] But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. [6] Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” [7] So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

You are encircled and enfolded by your relationship and trust in God. Pause to give thanks, and to be glad.

The New Testament often uses family words to describe the experience of being church. We read that Christians are brothers and sisters, or that older believers can be like fathers and mothers in the faith. In today’s verses the point is that all Christians belong to God as Father, and Jesus the Son is a prototype for our relationship with God. His Son-ship is a bond that gathers and includes us all.
When we gather as church, all have an equal dignity and status. Whatever our race or gender or social class—things that can matter so much in the world’s pecking order—we are called to be one (28). When I turn to look at a fellow-Christian, I see the face of Jesus (27). Together we call on God as Jesus did: Abba is an Aramaic word meaning “Father.” Jesus used it when he prayed (Mark 14:36), and so may we. It speaks of confidence, intimacy and trust.
There is a trace in these verses of an idea that has become very important in the course of Christian history—the thought of God as Trinity, as three persons yet one being. “God sent his Son”: Jesus was truly human, “born of a woman” (4:4), yet he carried in a special way the life of heaven (5). God is still sending. He sends “the Spirit of his Son” (6). The Spirit comes to call out in our hearts, with the voice of the Son, the name of the Father (6). So Christians—ordinary people like us—are drawn into the center and circle of the Trinity. Our heart is an echo chamber for the word of trust and belonging that calls from Spirit to Son to Father. We speak, in our prayer and faith, as the lips and love of God.

The New Testament often uses family words to describe the experience of being church. We read that Christians are brothers and sisters, or that older believers can be like fathers and mothers in the faith. In today’s verses the point is that all Christians belong to God as Father, and Jesus the Son is a prototype for our relationship with God. His Son-ship is a bond that gathers and includes us all.

When we gather as church, all have an equal dignity and status. Whatever our race or gender or social class—things that can matter so much in the world’s pecking order—we are called to be one (28). When I turn to look at a fellow-Christian, I see the face of Jesus (27). Together we call on God as Jesus did: Abba is an Aramaic word meaning “Father.” Jesus used it when he prayed (Mark 14:36), and so may we. It speaks of confidence, intimacy and trust.

There is a trace in these verses of an idea that has become very important in the course of Christian history—the thought of God as Trinity, as three persons yet one being. “God sent his Son”: Jesus was truly human, “born of a woman” (4:4), yet he carried in a special way the life of heaven (5). God is still sending. He sends “the Spirit of his Son” (6). The Spirit comes to call out in our hearts, with the voice of the Son, the name of the Father (6). So Christians—ordinary people like us—are drawn into the center and circle of the Trinity. Our heart is an echo chamber for the word of trust and belonging that calls from Spirit to Son to Father. We speak, in our prayer and faith, as the lips and love of God.

Apply

How can you increase the sense of oneness in Christ in your “world”?

Closing prayer

Lord, what an amazing thing it is to belong to the Family of God. May the quality of our relationships demonstrate to the world the difference Jesus makes.

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