From Slaves To Sons

Introduction:

It is interesting to me that we are here in this passage today. Given the timely and encouraging message Chris brought us last week. One of the reasons I love preaching through the Bible verse by verse is because it allows God’s providence to guide the truths being taught in his church. I wrestled some this week as I thought about how similar this message could be to Chris’ message last week. I thought briefly of moving to a different passage because it seemed too similar in topic. But I believe that is part of the providence of God. He is sovereign over all these things. He declares the end from the beginning. Many are the plans of mans heart, but the Lord determines his steps.

I believe God wants us to look at these things from a different angle. He wants to drive these ideas home. I think the Gospel is like a beautiful diamond with many facets. You can turn it every which way and find another beautiful vision to see that you couldn’t see from a different angle. Last week we saw the great apostle teach the church that we are to remember that we are dead to sin and alive to God. We have a new orientation to God in terms of life, death, and sin.

Today we will see the apostle show us how we are no longer slaves, but sons. We will see our new orientation to God in terms of slavery, freedom, adoption, and identity.

He shows the Galatians, who are on the brink of falling away from God, not into debased sin and depravity, but rather into legalism and self righteousness, the way to stand firm in their new identity in Christ. So let read Galatians 4:1-11 together

Galatians 4:1–11 LSB

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 stewards until the date set by the father. 3 So also we, while we were children, were enslaved under the elemental things of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth 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. 6 And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “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 no gods. 9 But now, having known God, or rather having been known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you want to be enslaved all over again? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you for nothing.

I. Remember the Slavery You Were Rescued From (4:1–3)

Galatians 4:1–3 LSB

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 stewards until the date set by the father. 3 So also we, while we were children, were enslaved under the elemental things of the world.

Elaborate on the son as heir and slave image.

Galatians 4:1–3 NLT

1 Think of it this way.

picture a boy who is the heir to a great estate. One day it will all be his. Indeed, it is already his by promise, but not yet in experience because he is still a child. During his minority, although he is lord of all the estate by title, yet ‘he is no better off than a slave’ (NEB). He is put ‘under guardians and trustees’ (RSV, NEB), who act as the ‘controllers of his person and property’.1 They order him about, direct and discipline him. He is under restraint. He has no liberty. Because he is the heir he is, in fact, the lord; but while he is a child, he is no better than a slave.

We also were under slavery. But what is this slavery? It is to the law Galatians 3:24 “24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor unto Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

But here the slave master is called with the elemental things of the world. Stoicheia variously translated as the elemental spirits, or principles, of the world.

There is some debate about what exactly Paul meant by this word. In Greek this word means something similar to our word elements. And can have a couple of different meanings. It could be used in the sense of elementary things like elementary school. The basics, the alphabet, the numbers, to fundamental things. Which he could be refering to the OT law as a time of early education meant to bring us to maturity which fits the metaphor here. But it isn’t exactly slavery.

The second meaning is a little different. We have the periodic table of elements in chemistry right? The things that make up all other things. The ancient Greeks used the same kind of idea. BUt they had a lot fewer than we have. They also classified them in an earthly/physical sense (Earth, fire, air, water) and a heavenly/spiritual sense (sun, moon, stars)

And they often saw them (especially the heavenly ones) as spiritual beings like gods and goddesses. So as in verse 8 Paul goes on to speak of Galatians 4:8 “8 being slaves to those which by nature are no gods.”

So he definitely seems to be referring to demons or evil spirits.

But how can a bondage to the law be called a bondage to evil spirits? Is Paul suggesting that the law was an evil design of Satan? Of course not. He has told us that the law was given to Moses by God not Satan, and mediated through angels (3:19), good spirits, not bad. What Paul means is that the devil took this good thing (the law) and twisted it to his own evil purpose, in order to enslave men and women

Just as during a child’s minority his guardian may ill-treat and even tyrannize him in ways which his father never intended, so the devil has exploited God’s good law, in order to tyrannize men in ways God never intended. God intended the law to reveal sin and to drive men to Christ; Satan uses it to reveal sin and to drive men to despair. God meant the law as an interim step to man’s Justification; Satan uses it as the final step to his condemnation. God meant the law to be a stepping-stone to liberty; Satan uses it as a cul-de-sac, deceiving his dupes into supposing that from its fearful bondage there is no escape.

John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians: Only One Way, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 105.

So Satan wants to keep people stuck in a cycle.

II. Rejoice in the Son Who Made You Family (4:4–7)

Galatians 4:4–7 LSB

4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth 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. 6 And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

But God…

that glorious turn. The hinge on which all of history swings.

Genesis 8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

Genesis 50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8T he LORD did not love you and choose you because you outnumbered other peoples; you were the smallest nation on earth. But the LORD loved you and wanted to keep the promise that he made to your ancestors. That is why he saved you by his great might and set you free from slavery to the king of Egypt.

Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Acts 3:15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.

Ephesians 2:4 “4 We were dead in our trespasses and sins But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us,” Made alive together with Christ!

We were enslaved to sin, we were enslaved to the endless cycle of the law. But God.

God Sent His Son

He sent his son at just the right time. When the Roman empire’s roads connected most of the known world to be reached more easily than ever before. When Pax Romana/Roman peace gaurded those roads and places so that the messengers of the gospel could go all over with safety and mobility never before possible. When the Romans had spread the Greek language to the utter enders of the earth so that the message could be heard and understood.

He did it at just the right time. At the time when the world was weary of spiritual pretenders and religious ceremonies and darkness over shadowed all the tired practices of trying to reach God on our own efforts.

He sent his son. Perfectly qualified. Truly man, born of a woman, under the law so that he could represent mankind before God. But truly God, the very son of God. so that he could have the righteousness required to actually fix the problem.

He saved us. He redeemed us. Bought us out of the slavery. That the technical meaning of redeemed. Bought the freedom of the slave. But not only that. We have been redeemed, justified by grace alone. But we have been adopted into the family.

God Adopted Us

[Adoption] is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification. This may cause raising of eyebrows, for justification is the gift of God on which since Luther evangelicals have laid the greatest stress, and we are accustomed to say, almost without thinking, that free justification is God’s supreme blessing to us sinners. Nonetheless, careful thought will show the truth of the statement we have just made.

That justification—by which we mean God’s forgiveness of the past together with his acceptance for the future—is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel is not in question. Justification is the primary blessing, because it meets our primary spiritual need. We all stand by nature under God’s judgment; his law condemns us, guilt gnaws at us, making us restless, miserable, and in our lucid moments afraid; we have no peace in ourselves because we have no peace with our Maker. So we need the forgiveness of our sins, and assurance of a restored relationship with God, more than we need anything else in the world; and this the gospel offers us before it offers us anything else.

… But this is not to say that justification is the highest blessing of the gospel. Adoption is higher, because of the richer relationship with God that it involves. (Packer, Knowing God, 206–7)

And this is just what God does. He goes above and beyond. He always does this.

Consider the story of Rahab.

She feared the Lord. God not only saved her from the just wrath against her and her people. He allowed her to be included in the family of his own son. The great great great… grandmother of Jesus the Christ. Consider this passage in Isaiah

Isaiah 62:4 NLT

4 Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.” Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride.

God adopts us in. He calls you son and daughter.

Not only did he send his son. Not only did he adopt us.

God Sent His Spirit

Galatians 4:6 “6 And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!””

He sent his son to secure our adoption. He sent his Spirit to assure us of it. He send his Son that we might have the status of sonship, and he sent his Spirit that we might have an experience of it. It is by his spirit we cry “abba” This is the intimate word for father. This is dad. This is the familiar and informal intimate way to address your father. We can call on him intimately and know we are heard.

We can depend on him for all our needs. We can turn to him, our hearts knowing we are his, and he will aid us. His powerful spirit is at work in us even now.

The privileges of this adoption are many.

We have an eternal father. Even if you never had a father of your own. You have one now and forever.

We have an eternal family. Even if your family was never there, you have been isolated, unwanted, unloved. You are loved and have fellowship and family now and forever.

We have an eternal home. Even if you have never had a permanent place to call your home. You do now and forever.

That leads us to the final call we have from this passage.

III. Refuse the Slavery That Christ Has Broken (4:8–11)

Galatians 4:8–11 LSB

8 However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. 9 But now, having known God, or rather having been known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you want to be enslaved all over again? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you for nothing.

We must never turn back again to the slavery. Whether to the slavery to sin. By listening to the voices of the devils around us as they call us to stray and destroy ourselves and others.

Or whether it be to the slavery to the Law that holds us bound to the weak and worthless cycle of guilt and rule keeping.

Both of these ways lead to death.

The world would have us think freedom is doing whatever feels good.

The devil likes that one. He also likes the legalistic religious one too. Religious festivals, days, months, seasons, rituals. Lent, Confession booths, Rosary prayer rituals, Penances, Pilgrimages.

We could also sub in, church attendance, bible reading, etc.

If it is an empty ritual that is just a rule it means nothing. It keeps you in the cycle.

so many religious people are in bondage to their religion! They are like John Wesley in his post-graduate Oxford days in the Holy Club. He was the son of a clergyman and already a clergyman himself. He was orthodox in belief, religious in practice, upright in conduct and full of good works. He and his friends visited the inmates of the prisons and work-houses of Oxford. They took pity on the slum children of the city, providing them with food, clothing and education. They observed Saturday as the Sabbath as well as Sunday. They went to church and to Holy Communion. They gave alms, searched the Scriptures, fasted and prayed. But they were bound in the fetters of their own religion, for they were trusting in themselves that they were righteous, instead of putting their trust in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. A few years later, John Wesley (in his own words) came to ‘trust in Christ, in Christ only for salvation’ and was given an inward assurance that his sins had been taken away. After this, looking back to his pre-conversion experience, he wrote: ‘I had even then the faith of a servant, though not that of a son.’2 Christianity is a religion of sons, not slaves.

the cycle God wants for us is a better one.

He wants us to live in freedom. This is the great work of the Christian life.

We need to commune with God in his word, prayer, and community with others. We need those things not because they are rules to follow to be made right.

We need them because they remind us who we are.

God uses his word to remind us that he bought us and loves us and adopts us.

He uses his people to remind us we have a family and the encourage us to remain in the freedom of Christ and not to fall back into slavery.

But we must constantly remind ourselves and one another that we are no longer slaves, but sons and heirs

A good example of this is John Newton. He was an only child and lost his mother when he was seven years old. He went to sea at the tender age of eleven and later became involved, ‘in the words of one of his biographers, ‘in the unspeakable atrocities of the African slave trade’. He plumbed the depths of human sin and degradation. When he was twenty-three, on 10 March 1748, when his ship was in imminent peril of foundering in a terrific storm, he cried to God for mercy, and he found it. He was truly converted, and he never forgot how God had had mercy upon him, a former blasphemer. He sought diligently to remember what he had previously been, and what God had done for him. In order to imprint it on his memory, he had written in bold letters and fastened across the wall over the mantelpiece of his study the words of Deuteronomy 15:15: ‘Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman (a slave) in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.’

If only we remembered these things, what we once were and what we now are, we would have an increasing desire within us to live accordingly, to be what we are, namely sons of God set free by Christ.

Galatians 4:7 LSB

7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.