Out of Slavery

Galatians 4:1-11

Summary: In Galatians 4:1-11, Paul explains the change in status believers experience when they move from being slaves under the law to becoming sons and daughters of God through Christ.

Application: This passage reminds Christians that they are no longer bound by the strict demands of the law but have been adopted into God's family as beloved children. It encourages believers to live in the freedom and grace that Christ has provided.

Teaching: This sermon teaches that through faith in Christ, believers are no longer slaves to the law but have been given the full rights of sons and daughters in God's kingdom.

How this passage could point to Christ: This passage echoes the theme of adoption and sonship seen throughout the Bible, ultimately fulfilled in Christ who brings believers into God's family through His sacrificial death and resurrection.

Big Idea: Believers have been liberated from slavery to the law and welcomed into the family of God as beloved sons and daughters through faith in Christ.

Recommended Study: For a deeper understanding of the theme of adoption in the Bible and its significance for believers, explore resources in your Logos library such as "Expository Dictionary of Bible Words" and "NIV Application Commentary: Galatians". Pay attention to the cultural context of adoption in the Roman world to grasp the full impact of Paul's analogy in this passage.

As a believer, we have been liberated, taken out of slavery and given freedom, the freedom to follow God.

Paul reminds the Galatian churches about their freedom but is perplexed on why they have chosen to go back into slavery and give up their freedom.

Follow along as I read our passage.

Galatians 4:1–11 NASB 2020

1 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. 3 So we too, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. 8 However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles, to which you want to be enslaved all over again? 10 You meticulously observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.

Imagine being in a beautifully designed park, but confined within a fenced area. You can see the flowers blooming and children playing beyond the fence, but you’re stuck inside the confines of the law. Living in bondage to the law is like enjoying the scenery while being unable to reach it. Christ comes along and opens the gate, ushering us to the full experience of life and joy in Him beyond the fence.

1. Bondage Before Belief

Galatians 4:1-3

Before we believed, we were in bondage to the Law.

Paul’s argument about being justified by faith is about understanding sonship. By understanding sonship in the OT, it demonstrated again that the Judaizers were wrong. His argument might have been a little difficult to follow as he laid it out for us previously so now he takes his point and uses an example.

A son, while still a child, is the same as any other slave even though that son is to inherit everything. To a degree we can understand this example but since we live in a time where we do not encounter slavery or being treated like a slave it might not resonate with us.

Let me us an analogy and see if this will help us.

Even though Susan is my wife and can prove she is my wife, there are still things she cannot legally do for me. Because of this, we have legal documents, such as a Power of Attorney, which legally authorize her to perform certain functions on my behalf.

Without a POA, she is limited to only being able to sign her own name but cannot sign my name.

I can ask her to go and do something for me but because of the law, she is legally bound and cannot do it. Once I give her a POA this changes everything. In the military, with deployments, you learn the importance of doing a POA.

When I was in Iraq, we sold one of our vehicles instead of just letting it sit while I was gone. When I got back I was going to need another one. To surprise me, Susan bought me a new pick up. But it was more than just buying a truck. She went to the dealership while they were having a sale and picked out the truck; negotiated the deal and when they started doing the paperwork, she told them since I was deployed in a combat zone, I didn’t have to pay sales tax. Their reply was that I had to be able to sign the papers for that. So she pulls out her POA that said she can legally sign my name and signed for me which meant I did not have to pay sales tax on the truck.

Without the POA, we would have paid a few thousand more but with the POA it saved us. I know this isn’t precisely the same situation but I hope you get the point.

Under the law, in bondage tot he law, we were the same as being slaves, unable to do anything by ourselves, even though we were to inherit the kingdom, we still could do nothing.

We were in bondage until we believed.

2. Christ's Coming Changes Everything

Galatians 4:4-5

Then Christ came and everything changed.

Paul tells us that “when the fullness of the time came.” What does the fullness of time mean? It was the appointed time set by God.

When a father had a son, one of the things the father would do was to set an age of when his son would be able to inherit the property. Until that time, the son was not allowed to actually take possession of the inheritance. He would be like the son in the previous section, the owner but still not in control. When that son reached that age, he was able to inherit the property, business or money that was to be his.

When the time set by God arrived, or as the CSB reads, “When the time came to completion,” God sent His Son.

Many talk about Rome having conquered the known world, how they built roads that allowed travel, enforced the peace and how the Greeks had brought some cohesion to the world with a shared language and culture. All those are true but the fullness of time came because that was the time set by God.

At the right time, God sent His Son. God didn’t send an angel; He didn’t send a mediator; He sent His son, His one and only Son. God came to us.

The Son was born of a human mother and He became human, still divine but at the same time human. Jesus became the one and only God-man.

The Son was born under the Law meaning He was born to a Jewish mother, into the Jewish nation and subject to all the Laws and Covenants of God and Israel. Jesus had to submit to all the requirements of the Law and was the only person to perfectly obey the Law.

John Stott wrote:

The Message of Galatians 2. God’s Action through Christ (Verses 4–7)

So the divinity of Christ, the humanity of Christ and the righteousness of Christ uniquely qualified Him to be man’s redeemer. If He had not been man, He could not have redeemed men. If He had not been a righteous man, He could not have redeemed unrighteous men. And if He had not been God’s Son, He could not have redeemed men for God or made them the sons of God.

At the right time, God sent His Son so that the Son could redeem us but also to change our status.

3. Cry 'Abba, Father'

Galatians 4:6-7

What changed for us was that we became sons and daughters of the Most High God.

God sent His Son so that we can be redeemed. But even more than being redeemed, we were adopted into the family of God. Our status changes from being a slave, being in bondage to the Law to having freedom by becoming sons and daughters of God. And as a son and daughter, God then sends His Spirit into us.

And the Holy Spirit in us calls out to the Father, calling Him Abba.

Abba is an Aramaic word for “father”. It is the same word that Jesus used when praying to the Father. It carries a sense of intimacy but also a deep sense of respect for the person you address as Abba.

John Stott wrote:

The Message of Galatians 2. God’s Action through Christ (Verses 4–7)

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.

The Holy Spirit cries out to the Father for us and calls out to us so that we can know we belong to the family of God.

How do we know we have the Holy Spirit?

John 1:12–13 NASB 2020

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.

Christ is central to Christianity. God sent His Son so that we can become sons and because of our sonship, God sent His Holy Spirit so that can experience being His.

Our lives do not determine our faith. Good things happen. Bad things happen. We sin. We do good. None of these determine if we are in a relationship with God.

What makes us right with God? What justifies us before God? Christ and Him alone determine this.

And if God has adopted us then:

4. Choosing Christ over Customs

Galatians 4:8-11

Why do we want to choose customs over Christ?

And this is precisely what perplexes Paul with those in Galatia.

But we still do the same thing even today. We choose something, someone over Christ. Which is why Paul wrote this to the church.

Romans 6:16 NASB 2020

16 Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

Knowing Christ has set you free, knowing you do not have to remain slaves to sin, in bondage to the Law, why would you still turn to the Law once again?

Oswald Chambers wrote:

4159 Worldy people imagine that the saints must find it difficult to live with so many restrictions, but the bondage is with the world, not with the saints. There is no such thing as freedom in the world, and the higher we go in the social life the more bondage there is.

Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)

I remember starting in the Army as a PVT.

I started at the lowest rank possible and couldn’t wait to get promoted. I wanted there to be someone I could boss and less people to boss me. What I found was the higher in rank I was promoted, the more people seemed to be able to boss me.

It is the same with God. The more people try to work and earn justification, the less they are justified.

When Joshua addressed the nation of Israel, he gave them two options. And they are the same two options we have today.

Joshua 24:15 NASB 2020

15 But if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Who will you serve?

Who is your boss?

Do you want to be in a relationship with God? Then put your faith in Christ and His work so that you may be justified before God.

Let’s pray