A Slave but More
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A Slave but More
Reading = Rom. 4:3–11
Good morning, everyone,
The Apostle Paul continues his journey to have the people of Galatia understand the importance of Having a relationship with our Creator and not just following laws blinding to support our faith instead of realizing that the rules were there to enforce the importance of learning that we are flawed, messed up and without our Creator and sustainer sending his son to die on a Cold, heavy and blood spilled Roman cross we are destined to pay for our transgressions and sins no matter how small we think they are.
We learned a few weeks ago that the chosen people God has saved and paid for our sins do not belong to a specific group, including race, gender, ethnicity, or any other identifier. It does not matter if you are Jewish, gentile, an enslaved person, free, male, female, black, white, purple, green, or any other color.
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
The gift we have received is precisely an advantage of mercy and grace because we do not deserve the blanket of compassion given to us. This gift is more than anything that can be measured. This is not something we can buy off amazon or on the shelves of a store.
The law that the Judaizers were following was meant to be a microscope to show us that we are messed up and filthy, like the scum from our shoes or the smell of sweat-ridden clothes after a long day of work.
The point of the law was to show us that we cannot be good because we are flawed. We are messed up, and there is no way that you can do anything on your own to make you a good person.
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.
In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
There is no get out of hell free card in the sense that there has to be punishment for all transgressions. If you sin against our Heavenly Father and lets be honest we all have and still do. We are flawed individuals that are selfish, murder people with our words and actions and so many things that show that we are messed up.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The majority of us in this room have grown up in church but do we truly understand that for every sin we commit we should be killed. every angry thought Or road rage, lustful thought, lie to your boss, unkind action to your coworker, taking the lords name in vein, envy of what your friend has and what you don’t have. All of these things and more are things that we should and deserve to be killed for. All sin requires death. It does not require complex accounting or alerbra to understand that there has to be a consequence if we are going to go against the very fabric and Character of our Heavenly Father.
We cannot and are not able to live in this world without the help of our heavenly Father. Sin is all around us and
Galatians 3:29
ESV
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
The Apostle Paul continues his statement that we are children from the linkage of Father Abraham. We remember from the One Race One Blood Sunday School where we covered how we are all related but different depending on the color of our skin, our characteristics, and even the weird things that make us an individual.
Abraham was the father of Religion and received the promise that we are saved from faith, not from our works or the following of the law. This was a transformation in how Religion was followed because everyone was following the laws of Moses in the Ten Commandments but throwing their spin up to the tune of 613 laws and how we are supposed to wash our hands, walk, talk, and even if we can turn a light on the Sabbath.
We see in this verse that we are a part of Abraham’s family and heirs or a part of the family to Christ. We have been given the gift of Salvation without anything we must do. When the Apostle Paul wrote this to Galatia, the topic of Adoption was quite popular during this period.
After Augustus enacted a law in 9 A.D. that gave more privileges to those with children, everyone wanted to adopt children. These children would go from family to family to gain power, family, and gifts.
The Author is trying to show the audience and us that the term offspring or children do not mean literally but, in a sense, all of us. Everyone chosen before the very foundation of the earth has received the favor by being called a Believer of Christ. This is not a status or something you put on your bumper sticker but a relationship and faith in the supreme being that has gained a son or daughter.
The Apostle Paul is using these terms to try and drive home that they are enslaved and children who have an inheritance of eternal salvation partying in heaven with Jesus at the marriage supper of the lamb. I know I use the word awesome too much (cultural thing), but if this is not awesome, then I do not know what definition we can place on this.
Galatians 4:1–2
ESV
I mean that the heir, if he is a child, is no different from an enslaved person; though he is the owner of the thing, he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.
Like we have currently in our Society, times kids are left parentless, and they have a guardian. They have someone who has volunteered or entrusted to keep them safe, heal, and provide for their needs.
As I write this, I see flashbacks of my foster family and the situation where you are just a paycheck to them. The act of providing these was not me were to be a benefit to the adult but an honor if this involved a child.
The Apostle Paul states that the child is no different from a slave, but this is entirely different from our image of slavery in the United States.
Twenty Percent of the Roman empire was slaves of every ethnicity, background, and circumstance, including warfare or punishment.
The enslaved person had their need,s provided, and they offered a service by working. I am not glamorizing it, but the master is responsible for caring for the slave regarding food and shelter. The Roman Government and the church ensured that this was correctly done.
The child is a slave because they have guardians and managers overseeing him. Guiding him to ensure that things are going correctly, the finances are being managed, and other needs.
Imagine if every child that required a guardian or manager was just left alone to fend for themselves. What do you think would happen - no matter the age?
Would they have shelter and food that provided nutrition so they could grow and be healthy?
Would the electricity and water be paid for?
These are essential things to adults but can be significant big challenges, and this is why our next generation is struggling because of the lack of guidance.
The Father would set a date that they would be entrusted to be an adult able to make decisions for themselves. Now the age is not the one that you are thinking of.
What age are you thinking?
18,21,12??
During this time in the Roman empire, it was usually around the 14-19. It is crazy that we have children in our eyes that would be considered adults in the Roman Empire.
By a show of hands, who did some dumb things when you were a teenager that could have caused some significant issues if your parents or a trusted adult was there to help you?
According to research by the CDC, the average individual's brain does not mature until they are 25 years old.
The point that the apostle is making is that just like the Guardian is watching over and taking care of the child, so is our Heavenly Father. we is giving our Needs and providing the ultimate gift and sacrifice of Jesus dying on the cross.
Galatians 4:3
ESV
In the same way, we were also enslaved to the elementary principles of the world when we were children.
We continue to learn from the Apostle Paul that before the blood of Christ saved us, we were slaves to the darkness of the world’s ways. In the past 20 years, we have seen how the world has changed, and not for the better—the aspect of Sin making the world darker and nastier than we have ever seen.
Unless we escape, we are headed to paying for our transgressions. Everything in this life has consequences. If a child decides they will not do their homework and then go to school, they will receive points off their grade for not doing the required work. If I overeat because I did not eat lunch at work and then eat everything in sight when I get home, then most likely, my stomach will be hurting a few hours later.
The same principle is how we deal with our Spiritual life. We must maintain it, spend time in his word, fellowship with each other, and, more importantly, have a relationship with our Abba, Our Heavenly Father. Without us doing this, we will fall into the slavery of the basic principles of the world. Our world is terrible with people that will lie, cheat and steal. We will lie, cheat and steal to get what we want because of the fall of the first Adam in the garden of Eden.
Galatians 4:4–5
ESV
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
The Apostle Paul uses the wording of the fullness of time but what he is meaning and implying is in our Creator’s timetable. We in the Western world want everything in our timing. We have Amazon one-day shipping and weird items from places you cannot imagine delivered to your house. You do not have to put shoes on to get your deodorant stick because you can have someone drop it off in a bag by your front door.
We do not control God’s timetable, and the timing of the son of God’s coming was planned before the very foundation of the earth. It was all set up with the religious, cultural, political, and social-economic conditions to meet what was needed.
God did not react to us but knew when we would need him the most. At that exact moment, he sent his son to be beaten to a pulp, humiliated, crucified, and most importantly, fractured from the relationship with his father. We all look at dying, but that fracture in the relationship is far worse than death.
Anyone knows that has children would instead be injured than see their child suffer from heartbreak, challenging times, or other circumstances. We, as parents, want to fix the problem and be the daddy and mommy to make it all better. Kiss the darling that has caused things, but we cannot do this. We cannot stop the heartbreak, the friend that hurts their feelings, the changing of a swim teacher, or the moving away of someone close to them.
We would instead take that hurt in any form because that relationship is showing stress or a fracture.
God sending his son to die for our sins was a way to have his earthly Children escape the bondage to transgressions that must be paid.
Philippians 2:6–8
ESV
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus was the ultimate enslaved person because he was born just like you and me, grew up to be killed by man, and was raised from the dead on the third day. Can anyone imagine Jesus running around learning from Joseph how to be a carpenter and seeing him move those giant boulders in Israel? He was learning from his earthly father how to be a craftsman.
Every temptation, struggle or challenge Jesus went through when he was roaming the earth. Of course, there were no cell phones, but he dealt with being surrounded by gossip.
Jesus was just like us and was required to follow the laws set forth by Moses. He grew up knowing the Jewish rules and knew that the Judaizers had taken something that his Father had sent down and turned it into something legalistic and more to the benefit of man instead of showing them that they were flawed individuals.
Jesus had to follow the same laws as everyone else. He was not exempt and knew the importance of this more than anyone why Man was under the law. Not to be legalistic but to show how messed up we are.
Galatians 4:5
ESV
to redeem those under the law so we might receive adoption as sons.
The Apostle Paul reinforces something that the people of Galatia needed to hear and that they were adopted sons and Daughters of God. They were chosen and not redhead stepchildren. God loved them so much that he sent his son to die on the cross.
This was not an afterthought but planned. Anyone that has had an interesting (not positive) home life growing up knows that this is something you cannot put words into.
God loves us so much that he provides the escape path to take care of the grossness of humanity. The filth and stench of sin that has covered our entire world. This was not a reaction to us but because of what happened in the Garden.
Those who do not have a relationship with their Heavenly Father are like lost children in foster care, hoping for the miracle of having a relationship with a parent. They crave and want that love and attention from someone that cares for them. The awareness makes them sacrifice their comforts and things they like so that they can see their parent.
Galatians 4:6–7
ESV
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So, you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
The Apostle Paul continues to drive home that because we are God’s Children, our Heavenly Father has sent the spirit of his son crying ugly tears, Father, Daddy, Abba.
This is the equal of a toddler begging her daddy to play on the floor to spend time with him and dragging his hand to spend daddy and Daughter time.
I do not know how I can show this more to us that this is a father trying to help his child. The Child is crying with tears, daddy, and stressing the relationship that this relates to the people of Galatia but also to us.
Our Heavenly Father is more than a supreme being but someone that loves us. He wants us to succeed. He is not punishing us but trying to correct and love us.
We have been given a blessing, a gift of mercy and love where we are no longer slaves to the master of sin, the master and deceiver of all things negative. We are no longer chained to the fact that the world is so bad that we have no escape plan.
Our Daddy, papa, and father have saved us in all aspects of which you can think. We tell those with horrible Earthly Fathers that it happens for a reason. That you have a Heavenly Father. I was told this constantly after my mother’s death when I chose a foster family over my dad. But does the individual understand that all of this was done for them?
Until you realize the love you have for another person and experience what you would sacrifice for your children, your spouse, a nd your parents, we understand that we have a Heavenly Father that did all of this for billions of people. Not just myself but so many siblings in Christ. We did not earn this gift; we did not put a 100-dollar bill on the offering plate, so we were saved.
We were saved because our Spiritual father has saved us. He has taken us under his wing with love. We do not deserve what we have been given in his inheritance.
Conclusion
This morning I must admit that this passage hit me hard personally. Do we utterly understand what God has done for us? Did the people of Galatia understand this, or were they going through the motions? Were they following the laws like fire insurance? The Apostle Paul uses the example of a child having guardians and managers, and we understand this because most of us have children or grandchildren.
Our Heavenly Father has given the Apostle Paul the words to show us and teach us thousands of years after writing this the importance of that love from our Heavenly Father and how flawed we are as his children. The love that he had to send his son still to die on the cross for us when we do not deserve a single ounce of the amount of grace that has been given to us.
1.We are heirs
We have been selected by our Heavenly Father to be saved. This is a blessing but also a responsibility. We are children of God that require correction, reproof, and love.
God uses the events we go through to rough up the edges of our life.
For some of us, a little sandpaper is required, and some of us need an electric belt sander that is extremely Heavy duty like a Carpenter has.
It does not matter your skin color, background, finances, or other details because God does not care, and we should either.
We are a family, and this is a continuing theme that has been going on with the apostle Paul. A family that we do not deserve to be a part of because we add nothing to the equation and mess it up. Humans will lie, cheat, steal, murder, and do anything to do what they want before they even eat their Peanut butter bagel.
2. Are you a slave to God or Satan?
This a powerful statement, but it is true. Are we living our lives as dust to our Heavenly Father, who has done everything for us? Saved us from the very Pitts of hell, or are you a Slave to Satan even though God has saved us?
Are we trying to play both sides of the fence so we can have an escape plan even though we know it is wrong?
If this is the case, then we are taking the present of mercy given to us and regifting it so that we can do what we want instead of what is right in the eyes of the only thing and only one that matters. God did not go through all this so we could follow a fallen angel but wanted us to be his child. His son and Daughter are an heir to the inheritance of the love, grace, and sheer awesomeness that awaits us in Heaven.
3. Our Greatest Father
Next time you interact with someone who had a donor of a father or mother, explain to them that their Heavenly Father did all this so they could be saved—used so many individuals in his plan to ensure that they could be protected from the nastiness of the world.
Their True Father loved them enough that they did not have to provide a payment to have the love and relationship with them but just had to be there to accept the love.
4. Most Important Relationship
The most critical relationship in your life should not be with your spouse, child, or boss. That relationship importance is reserved for the supreme being that created everything out of nothing. He sent his son to die on a Roman Cross after being beaten to the point of death and then forced to carry his murder weapon across Jerusalem.
I am not saying that the relationship with our Loved ones is not essential, but where are your Priorities? Do they like the world where it is
children
Spouse
work
yourself
family
or
is it
God
Others
Yourself
?
Think hard on that in the last song because if it is the first set, I mentioned how we are using that gift of mercy and grace that God has given us.
We did nothing to deserve the love of our Heavenly Father, Abba (I feel the love and power of that word)
But still, we were saved and loved, and he even wanted a relationship with us. He is not just a spiritual donor or Salvation card but wants to be in our lives every second of every day when you are in the car, at work, or in the shower thinking about your day.
How are we taking the lessons from the Apostle Paul and applying them so that we understand them and grow in our relationship with our Abba?
Let us pray!
