You Are Heirs of God

Galatians 3:23-29

Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was. Peter nailed the answer. You are the Christ, the Son of God. What Jesus said next must have been a big surprise. He let them know that because he was the Son of God he would have to suffer, die, and rise again. In fact, he said that if they wanted to identify with him, to be sons of God too, they would have to face suffering. They would have to take up their own cross in order to follow him. This was nothing new. Through the prophet Zechariah God foretold that the disciples would all scatter when Jesus was arrested. He said that he would refine a faithful remnant like gold is refined in the fire. It wouldn’t be pleasant, but the result would be that God would be able to call them his people, his children, his heirs, and they would call the LORD their God, their father.

What makes you a son of God, an heir of God? That was one of the questions that the members of the churches in Galatia were debating. They were experiencing the refining fire of false teachers who were teaching that you became a son of God by trusting in Jesus and following all the laws like circumcision and the Old Testament food laws. In other words, you had to become a Jew, physically and in the way you lived, before God would accept you as his son. Paul argues that such thinking makes you an under-age child, not a son who is able to inherit heaven. He makes it clear that all who have faith in Jesus are sons of God, seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.

The thought of being sons of God suggests an example for Paul to use to explain the place and purpose of the law. He says, So the law, referring to what God gave Israel at Sinai, was put in charge until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Paul says that the law is a “paidagogus.” A paidagogus, we’ll call him a guardian, was a servant who was put in charge of an under-age child. It was his job to make sure that this child got back and forth to school safely, that the child did his homework, that he stayed out of trouble, and learned proper etiquette and manners. He was given the right to use extreme corporal punishment if necessary to keep the child under his supervision in line. His goal was not to be the child’s friend or to even care whether the child liked him or not. His goal was to keep him from foolish sins of youth and prepare him to be a young adult of whom his father would be proud, and to whom he would be happy to leave his inheritance. You can imagine that this was especially important in regard to the sons of kings. Once the child came of age and was ready to take on the responsibilities of an adult, the job of the guardian came to an end. Maybe the closest thing we have today for this kind of arrangement would be a nanny.

The point of Paul’s illustration is this. The law of Moses was indeed given by God, as the false teachers were claiming. God gave it to Israel at Mt. Sinai. In the previous verses he has pointed out that the law was given over 400 years after God gave the promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him. This set of laws given on Mt. Sinai, were given to the very immature children of Israel. These laws served as their guardian, their nanny. The laws given at Mt. Sinai served to keep the children of Israel separate from the bad influences of the heathen nations around them. They used the threats of punishment to try to keep them from idolatry, adultery, theft, and neglect of worship. The required sacrifices constantly reminded them that sin required a life and that forgiveness would come through the shedding of blood. But the law was not intended by God to be in charge forever, just as a guardian was not in charge forever. The law was to be in charge from the time it was given at Mt. Sinai until Christ came. Just as when a child comes of age the guardian is no longer in charge, he has served his purpose, so now that Christ has come, the law is no longer in charge, it has served its purpose.

There is another comparison that applies. While the child is under the care and control of the guardian he feels as if he is in prison. Paul says, before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. The child hates the guardian’s discipline. He longs for the time when he can be free and on his own. But, by the time he is on his own, he has grown and matured. When he looks back, he sees how the guardian only had his best interests in mind. He continues to follow the rules and training he was given, not now because he is afraid of the punishment he might receive, but because he wants to and because he sees the benefit of doing so. No one wishes to be back in that time of life when he was under the strict rule and discipline of the guardian. In the same way, while someone is under the law he feels as if he is in prison. He hates all the rules and discipline. He longs to be free from the law and its oppression. When he learns that Christ has come and has fulfilled the law, that he is free, he continues to follow the moral law, not out of the fear of punishment, not in order to be able to demand anything from God, but out of joy and thankfulness for what God has done for him in Jesus.

All people are born under the guardianship of the moral law. That includes each of us. The law serves a good and beneficial purpose. Through the threat of punishment it curbs sin, it keeps people, including us, from doing some of the sinful things we might otherwise do. It holds a mirror before our eyes so that we see our sins and long for someone to save us. Then, when we hear about Jesus and the fact that he has paid for our sins, and freed us from the condemnation of the law, when we are brought to believe in Jesus, we rejoice and give thanks to God. We have a new view of God, of ourselves, and of others. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Through faith in Christ, we see God as a loving Father, not a vengeful tyrant. When we look in the mirror of God’s law, we still see our sins, but we also see Jesus handing us the robe of his righteousness, which covers every one of our sins. We see that in our baptism; God has cleansed us and washed away our sins. We see that we have nothing to fear, that we are welcome to come into God’s presence, to talk to him as dear children talk to their dear fathers. In Jesus we see that God is our loving and gracious heavenly father and that we are his beloved sons and daughters. And, If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. You don’t become a true son of God and seed of Abraham by birth, or through circumcision, or by keeping Old Testament ceremonial law. You become a son of God and seed of Abraham, an heir of heaven, by belonging to Christ. At our baptism we were joined to Jesus. Through our baptism we were united with Jesus in his death and resurrection.

What a wonderful thing it is to be a son of God! Since you are a son, you are also an heir! That means that everything God has is yours. It means that the glory and riches of heaven are yours. It means that we will get to live in that place where there is no mourning, crying or pain, where there is no night or need for the sun, where the gates never need to be shut because there is no such thing as evil. It’s all ours, not because we have earned or deserved it, but it is ours as an inheritance, because in Jesus God has made us his heirs.

Under the guardianship of the law there were many distinctions. There were Jews and Greeks, distinctions of race and culture. There were slaves and freemen, distinctions of class. There was male and female, distinction of gender. As we live and deal with each other in the world there still are and must be distinctions. Someone has to be the boss, and someone has to be the worker, someone has to be the mayor and someone has to be the citizen. In any home, or company, there has to be a head, the buck has to stop somewhere. But, when it comes to spiritual matters and our relationship with God, Paul reminds us that everyone is equal. It doesn’t matter if you are the president or a man living on the street, you are a sinner deserving God’s eternal punishment, and you are saved only because of what Jesus has done for you on the cross. Your position or status in life, or your lack of it, doesn’t contribute a single thing to your status as an heir of God. We may have different roles in our service to God here on this earth, but we all have the same status before God, sinners saved by Jesus, sons of God through faith in Jesus, heirs of the promise of heaven.

The false teachers in Galatia wanted people to continue to follow the law God gave at Sinai. One reason for this is that the law creates distinctions. They wanted to use the law to make themselves better than others. But the gospel does not allow us to make distinctions. It reminds us that all believers have equal status before God. This is an important reminder for the church today. We are constantly being reminded that neither our country, nor our churches, will continue to be made up primarily of people of northern European descent. We are constantly being encouraged to reach out with the gospel to those who have different cultures and languages than we do. We need the constant reminder that, in Jesus, we are all one. None is better or worse than the other. In Jesus we are all sons of God, heirs of forgiveness and eternal life. If we think ourselves better or worse than another Christian, we are forgetting that in Jesus we are one.

What makes you a son, an heir of God? Contrary to what the false teachers then and now might say, it is not your genes, nor is it how closely you follow God’s law. What makes you a son of God and an heir of all that he has, is faith, not just any faith, but faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. As Jesus reminds us, following him will mean trouble, taking up our cross daily. But no matter what troubles you face in life, remember that you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus, heirs of the promise of a perfect life in heaven.