Identity: No Longer Slaves

Announcements -

Welcome Online & Visitors

APP

WLFJ & Exp God

Souly

Introduction:

If you are just joining us, we are continuing our series on Identity. Last week I started taking apart this idea of adoption. I talked about how we have an orphan spirit. We are lonely and feel forgotten. Our current culture oozes this orphan spirit. And what do orphans want more than anything else? Adoption. Orphans are desperately searching for a home.

Today, I’m going to continue to look at Identity through the lens of adoption and I want to look at the biblical concept of sonship. Once you are adopted you become sons. The problems is just because you are adopted, just because you are rescued, doesn’t mean you have shed the issues of this world. (You can take the boy out of Johnston County but you can’t take Johnston County out of the boy) And truthfully, many of us return back to our old lives. And our life, before Christ, was a life of slavery. We were enslaved to this principles of this world. But Christ came and set us free, yet many of us want to attach the shackles back on our feet.

My main message to you today is this, God sent his Son so you could be free. Don’t return to the slavery that you once knew.

Our text today is from Galatians 4. Let’s read together the word of God.

Galatians 4:1–7 ESV

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. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 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.

Background

In our passage today, we are picking up in the middle of the Apostle Paul’s argument to the people at the church in Galatia and this is a pretty heated argument. What is happening is this, a gentile church which is full of newish believers are being infiltrated by people called Judaizers. Now if you are not familiar, Judaizers were a group of people who believed that in order for you to be saved or become a Christian, you must first convert to Judaism and keep the commandments, especially the command of circumcision.

These people, had come to the church in Galatia and had convinced many of the people there that they needed to be circumcised in order to truly be saved. They also needed to start keeping the laws of the OT.

Paul hears about this and writes this letter. And he is ticked. He uses strong language throughout this letter in order to get his point across, which is essentially this: there is one gospel and you must put your entire trust in Jesus, not in anything else.

Galatians 1:6–8 ESV

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

This is how he starts this gospel and he doesn’t sugar coat any of the rest of it. This is a big deal to Paul. And we pick it up in the middle of his argument and he is using an analogy of Jewish people being under the law and being slaves to it and using that to compare it to this church in Galatia. Essentially he is saying this, you have an identity issue. You are acting like a slave, but you are not a slave, you are a son.

In other words, you are a spiritually immature.

Spiritual Immaturity

The crux of what Paul is pointing out in our passage today is the spiritual immaturity of the church in Galatia. His comparison here is striking. He says essentially, you are children. You may have an inheritance waiting for you, but you are reverting back to elementary principles, when you should be excelling in your faith.

This is the analogy he uses, he says that an heir is no different than a slave. He doesn’t understand his place. Others are making decisions for him. The heir owns everything but has no control. This is a sign of overall immaturity. You are still a child. This is spiritual immaturity. When we act like slaves, we are really showing that we are still spiritually immature.

So one of the big ideas that Paul is saying here, I’m interpreting like this…Spiritually immature people have a tendency to revert back to slave mentality. In other words, if you are not mature in the faith, you will revert back to your slave roots. Maturity is knowing and feeling your sonship. We will explore that idea a bit later.

But first, let’s define a slave. A slave is someone who serves someone or something else. A slave does not own himself, but is owned by others. Slavery during the Bible times was very common. In some ways they are described in negative lights and in other ways a positive one. For instance Jesus tells his disciples that if they desire to be great, they must first become slaves to all. (Matt 20:27). Sometimes depending on your translation though, you may see the word slave translated as “servant.” In fact, the Bible uses these ideas sometimes interchangeably.

People became slaves through a variety of ways, some of them were captured during a war and became slaves that way. A lot of them though were slaves by choice. They entered into a contract to pay off debt and became slaves in order to do that.

Next Paul says slavery to the law is like being...

Under A Guardian

To reinforce this idea of immaturity, Paul likens it to being under a guardian or manager. In other words, you are an heir, you are waiting on your inheritance and your father set a date for when he felt like you would be competent enough to receive the inheritance and have control over it. But until then, you are under a guardian who will manage you and your inheritance. To the Jews, this is what the law was. It was a guardian or tutor or manager that was meant to bring them to Christ. Many of them chose to stay under the guardian rather than receiving Christ with faith.

Likewise, if we as Christians, think that we can go back to living under the Old Testament law and we think we can find salvation in that, we are sorely mistaken. Paul likens maturity to understanding this fact. Mature Christians do not need to obey the OT rules and regulations because they are being led by the Spirit. If you are still looking for a guardian, that is a sign of immaturity.

Enslaved To Elementary Principles

Verse 3 is where he ties all of what I have been saying together. He uses the pronoun “We” to show that he was in the same boat as his audience prior to receiving Christ. He and all of us in this room were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world or your translation may say elemental spirits.

What that means is that we were enslaved to basic knowledge of the universe and the things within. As Gentiles, his readers likely didn’t grow up under the law, or had very little knowledge of the law, so he ties this back to nature essentially, the fundamental laws of life, if you will. He says you were enslaved to the world’s system.

Another way of looking at it is that we were slaves to many things, including sin and fear. But that’s not where God leaves us.

Jesus Changes Everything

But God.... Verses 4 and 5, are some of my favorite verses and this is where we really want to focus our attention. From here to the end of the chapter. And I want to sum it up with one simple phrase…Jesus Changes Everything!

We may have been enslaved to the world, but we don’t have to be anymore. This is his message to the Galatians. Don’t put back on that yoke of slavery. You are free! You don’t need the law, you have Christ! Jesus has literally changed everything! Why would you want to go back?! That’s the message Paul has for the church in Galatia and it’s the same message I have for you today. Jesus has changed everything, why would you want to take on a slave mentality ever again?!

Let’s look at this deeper. At the perfect time, God sends forth his son…Going back to Paul’s analogy of an heir under a guardian, he says that at the perfect time, the time determined by the Father, God sent forth his son. Jesus came at the exact right moment in human history. There was never a better time. He came right when he was supposed to. God planned it and it happened just as he planned.

It says he was born of a woman, I believe this is harkening all the way back to Eve. I don’t think it’s talking about Mary, it could be, but I believe this is going all the way back to the promise to Eve in Genesis. Your seed will crush the head of the serpent.

Paul then reiterates that Jesus was born under the law. Not only was he born under it, he fulfilled all of it. He lived a sinless, perfect life according to the laws of the OT. Where we have broken every law, he kept every law. His perfect life was not just to show off, it was for a purpose. What was that purpose?

We Are Redeemed For Sonship

It was for our redemption!!! Paul says in verse 5, Jesus was born under the law to redeem those under the law. Who is that? Everyone born to Adam. All of us. Everyone. God sent his son to redeem us! To purchase us with his blood!

And it was for a purpose. This was not just God saving a bunch of sinners, he was most certainly doing that, but this is God rescuing family. He is creating sons from slaves. That’s the point, we are redeemed for sonship. God is adopting us into his family. Redemption isn’t free. He paid a price, he purchased us. It cost him his life, but he brought us into his family.

God Put Sonship In Our Hearts, Not Just Our Mind

He brought us into his family, but it wasn’t just in word or only in knowledge, God was concerned with more than just you having the knowledge of being a son, he wanted you to feel like a son. Look at verse 6, because you are sons, so this has been done, you are a son…because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.

So God adopts us into his family and he looks at the situation and says, that’s not enough. It’s not enough for you to just be legally adopted. It’s not enough for you to just know that. I’ve got to send the Spirit of my Son into your heart. Why? So that you will feel like a son or daughter of the king.

God’s purpose was not only to secure our sonship by His Son, but to assure us of it by His Spirit. He sent His Son that we might have the status of sonship, and He sent His Spirit that we might have an experience of it.

John Stott

God had a purpose, Stott says, and he wasn’t content with just calling you son. He wants you to experience life as a son. And so he puts his spirit in you and that spirit cries out Abba! Father! The word Abba is kin to how we may say Daddy or Papa. It’s a word of intimacy. God’s relationship with you is meant to be intimate. It’s not meant to be just a head knowledge, something you know, but something deeper than that. It’s meant to be intimate. He is your Abba and his Spirit inside of you is crying out to Him.

And this is hard for most people when I talk about this. People worry that I’m getting mystical or over emotional or whatever. But this is God in his word saying that just having head knowledge about a fact wasn’t enough. He wanted you to experience life as a son, not just “know” that you are a son. The Holy Spirit is alive and well today and if you are a believer, he is in your heart, crying out to the Father.

No Longer Slaves, But Sons

Paul pulls this all together with verse 7. He says you are no longer slaves, but sons and if a son, then an heir through God. In other words. You may be living like a slave or perhaps you want to go back to that slavery in some form or fashion, but that’s not who you are and in your heart you are crying out for your father.

You are a son. You are his son. You are not orphaned. You are adopted. You are not forgotten. You are loved. God has not left you, he’s living in you.

So what I wanted to do now was to see how this applies to us. What’s the difference between Sons and Slaves.

Sons Verses Slaves

I’ve got three different comparisons to share, that I hope will be helpful to you -

Slavery Is A Works Based System

Sonship Is A Relationship

So here’s the premise. When you are operating your life in a slavery mindset, you think you need to work for favor. In order for God to love you, you must do the right things. You believe in a merit based system. If I pray, read my bible, don’t hurt anyone, etc. then God will be pleased with me and love me. Slaves work. That’s what they do.

Sons on the other hand, are in a relationship with the father based on being rather than doing. We don’t have to do more, we are already his sons or daughters. We can rest in that. It doesn’t mean we won’t do things, but it’s not to win his affection.

I love my kids because they are my kids, not because they do everything right. God is much more loving than I am as a father. He loves you because you are his children, not because you do everything right.

Number 2 -

Slavery Is Based On Fear

Sonship Is Based In Love

Slavery is a fear based system. It’s based on a master who is ruthless and will instill fear into those under him. Slaves live in constant fear. Fear that they will mess up. Fear that they will miss out. Fear of their neighbor, fear of their friends. Fear of serving. Fear of the truth. Slaves are filled with fear. But that is not what sonship is based on.

1 John 4:18 ESV

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

John here is saying that love and fear are like the opposite poles of a magnet. If you have a relationship based on love, you don’t fear. If you are in constant fear, you are missing love. Allow God’s perfect love for you to wash over you and and cast out all fear.

Number 3 -

Slavery Is About Your Past

Sonship Is About Your Future

Slavery is all about your past. A lot of slaves in biblical times were slaves because they sold themselves into slavery to pay off debt. Where did the debt come from? Past sins. They made financial mistakes along the way or they were born into a debt, but either way, it represents past sins. Slavery is about your past sins.

BAND

Sonship is about your future. If your debt is paid, guess what? You are free. This is why Paul is so passionate about this message. The Galatians had been set free, but they were now, voluntarily submitting themselves back into slavery! What were they thinking. So Paul is trying to get them to look to their future. Sonship brings hope and freedom. Paul would exhort them at the end of the book this way:

Galatians 5:1 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

And then a little further...

Galatians 5:13–15 ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

You were called to freedom and the purpose of that is that we have now been empowered to love and serve one another. And this is one of the biggest needs in the church right now. Too many Christians have been set free, but they have returned to their slavery and now they bite and devour one another. I know so many people who have been consumed by this. It’s a spirit that tears apart a church. And that spirit is alive and well.

So Paul encourages us to not submit again to that yoke of slavery. Do not submit to it. You may have been born into originally, but now you have a choice. Don’t do it. Stand firm.

Closing

So to close today, I know this is something all of us have dealt with. We have all been in this type of bondage and some of us are still there today. We are a body and I believe in body ministry. So I’d like to end today with some body ministry. As the band plays, I’d like to invite you to join with some people around you and just pray. Pray that they would be able to stand firm. Pray that God would set them free. Pray that they would rest in the freedom that Christ has for us.