FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM
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Opening Prayer
Faithful Father, thank you that I am held fast in your care; you will never be far from me, you will never let me go. Help me to live like the cherished child that I am.
Read GALATIANS 3:23–4:7
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Children of God
23 Before the coming of this faith,[a] 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.
4 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[b] 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.[c] 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[d] 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.
Footnotes
- Galatians 3:23 Or through the faithfulness of Jesus … 23 Before faith came
- Galatians 4:3 Or under the basic principles
- Galatians 4:5 The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture.
- Galatians 4:6 Aramaic for Father
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Take a moment to thank God that you can approach him as ‘Father.’
I wonder if you’ve noticed a shift in focus as Paul moves from talking in the first person plural (‘we’) to the privileged position of the Galatian Christians (‘you’)? ‘We were held in custody under the law’ (see v. 23)—‘You are all children of God’ (see v. 26). In a declaration that would have stirred things up back then and still does today, Paul states, ‘If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed’ (v. 29). This is the heart of Paul’s argument throughout the letter: whether you are a Jewish or gentile believer in Christ, you are the heir of the promises of God. Consequently, Paul can say that there is neither Jew nor gentile (v. 28); you either belong to Christ or not.
Having covered the Jew versus gentile debates, Paul then moves on to discussing slavery, specifically as a metaphor for life outside of Christ, life in bondage to the law and the ‘elemental spiritual forces of the world’ (4:3). Imagine slaves being adopted as children into the family they once served. Paul is saying that Christ came to liberate slaves and change their status to children. This is astonishingly good news for the whole world. As when the disciples of Jesus asked how they should pray,1 Paul reiterates that when we pray, we can say, ‘Abba, Father’ (4:6). Moreover, not only can we address God as ‘Father’ but, remarkably, we have the status of heirs. I recall a preacher once defining the inheritance that Paul alludes to as ‘a secure possession, which is ours now and can never be taken away.’ As Christians, we can easily fall into the trap of believing that what we have in Christ will one day be revealed. However, unlike an earthly inheritance that may be yours at some future point, what you have in Christ is yours now. May ‘Abba’ give us the courage to reach out and take hold of it.
Apply
What is yours that you’re yet to grasp, as a child of God?
Closing prayer
Heavenly Father, I hold out my hands, looking to you to show me the extent of what is mine in Christ Jesus.
1 Luke 11:1, 2
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