Adopted as Children & Heirs of God

 

Adopted as Children & Heirs of God

Galatians 4:1-7

 

We as followers of Jesus are not natural born children of God, but we have been adopted into God’s family as His children. We do not enter God’s family by adoption the way a homeless child would enter a loving family in our culture. The New Testament word for adoption means to place as an adult child. It has to do with our standing in the family of God.

 

In Galatians 4:1-7 Paul shares with us the journey of becoming an adult child of God.

 

Verses 1-3: What We Were: Children in Bondage

A minor child is under guardians & managers until a time set by their father. In Roman culture the children of wealthy parents were looked over by a slave. The slave was under the master of the house & the child under the slave. This was the spiritual condition of the Jews under the law. They were being taught by the law their need & preparing them for the coming of the Messiah. The Father had set the time for their becoming adult children when Jesus came. Legalism is not a step to maturity, but a step back into childhood. Jesus, not the law, is the final revelation of God to us.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about growing into mature adult children of God through Jesus.

 

Verses 4-5: What God Did: Redeemed Us

When the fullness of time had come which was determined by God the Father, the Messiah, Jesus came as a human & as part of the nation of Israel, so He was under the law. He came to redeem or pay the ransom price for those under the law so they could become adult children of God & to be witnesses of the gospel of Jesus to the world.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about being redeemed from sin & a legalistic approach to God & coming to a relationship with God through Jesus as His adult children.

 

Verses 6-7: What We Are: Children & Heirs

When we become adult children of God, we receive the Holy Spirit & the privilege of calling God our Abba or Dad. So, we are no longer slaves but children. Notice, the contrast is now between a slave & a child.

In this passage there are five contrasts between a slave & a child:

The child has the same nature as the father; the slave does not.

The child has a father, while the slave has a master.

The child obeys out of love, while the slave obeys out of duty.

The child is rich, while the slave is poor.

The child has a future, while the slave does not.

 

But also, the adult child is an heir & as heirs we inherit all of God’s promises.  We inherit a new nature that is not controlled by sin. We also inherit an eternity with God.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about surrendering our lives to Jesus as Savior & Lord & becoming adult children & heirs of God.

 

We were created by God to be His adult children & enjoy a loving relationship with Him through Jesus being our Savior & Lord. The law cannot make this a reality. It is only through God’s grace that this will be a reality in our lives. 

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

                         Joe

The Law & The Promise

 

The Law & The Promise

Galatians 3:15-29

 

Paul has established that salvation does not come through the law. Now, he must show why the promise made by God to Abraham, which is based on grace, is greater.

 

Galatians 3:15-18: The Law Cannot Change the Promise

 

In Genesis 12:2-3 God makes a promise to Abram that He will make him a great nation, that He will bless him, that He will make his name great, that He will bless those who bless him & curse those who dishonor him, & that through him all the families of the earth will be blessed. This promise was made over four hundred years before the law was given. So, the law cannot change the covenant promise that God gave to Abraham & his offspring. In Luke 1:55 in Mary’s song of praise to God for the promise of the coming of the Messiah, it indicates that the promise is given to Abraham’s offspring. This is singular, referring to Jesus. So, the promise of blessing all people is through Jesus & it is by God’s grace through faith in Jesus as Savior & Lord that we receive salvation. If we could receive salvation through works of the law, then it is no longer through a covenant promise based in God’s grace, but through our own efforts.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting God’s grace to fulfill the covenant promise of salvation through faith, not works of the law.

 

Galatians 3:19-20: The Law Is Not Greater Than the Promise

 

The law was given to Israel by Moses, who was an intermediary, & it was given to Israel to make them aware of God’s standards & the fact that they had not lived up to God’s standards. It was also given to them with the promise of the Messiah who would deliver them from the penalty of their disobedience. That Messiah is Jesus. John 1:17 says, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The law came through Moses &, as great as he was, he was not Jesus, God in the flesh who gave us grace & truth. Jesus is greater & thus the promise is greater than the law.    

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting in God’s grace which is greater than the law.

Galatians 3:21-26: The Law Is Not Contrary to The Promise

 

The law is not contrary to the promises of God. The law cannot give life & it cannot make us righteous. If the law could, then there would be no need for the promise. But the law can only make us aware of sin, it is through Jesus, His death & resurrection & our trust in Him that we are delivered from the power of sin. So, the law was like a guardian until Jesus came & justified us by grace through faith in Him. Jesus’ death & resurrection makes us children of God through faith in Him.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting Jesus’ finished work of salvation to save us, not following the law.

 

Galatians 3:27-29: The Law Cannot Do What the Promise Can Do

 

The promise that was fulfilled in Jesus’ coming, His life, His death, & His resurrection can do what the law could not do. Jesus baptizes us into His death & resurrection & establishes us in a relationship with Jesus as our Savior & Lord. Jesus does away with racial & ethnic divisions. Jesus does away with social divisions. Jesus bring equality between males & females. Jesus makes us spiritual offspring & heirs according to the promise God gave Abaraham.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting Jesus to make us one with Him & into the people that we were created to be.

 

The law was given to make us aware of sin. Jesus came to justify us & deliver us from the power of sin & give us eternal life.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

                         Joe

The Righteous Shall Live By Faith

 

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

Galatians 3:10-14

 

Galatians 3:10-12

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not faith, rather, “The one who does them shall live by them.”

 

Paul makes three points about living by faith in Jesus as opposed to living based on the law.

 

First, if we are going to live depending on the law to make us right with God then we must obey all the law all the time. James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” If we fail to obey even one part of the law, we are guilty of disobeying all the law.

 

Second, the righteous shall live by faith. We as disciples of Jesus are to live by faith, not by following rules.

 

Third, the law is not faith. Faith is trusting in what you cannot see & trusting in what you do not possession yet but know you will, based on who God is & what God has promised. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith we can please God. So, since the law is not faith, then we cannot please God by trying to keep the law.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about living by faith, not the law, & trusting that faith in Jesus as Savior & Lord makes us righteous.

 

Galatians 3:13-14

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree,” – so that Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

 

In this passage Paul makes it clear that everything comes through Jesus.

 

Since the law has put us under a curse, it is Jesus who redeems or frees us from that curse. He did it by becoming a curse for us by being crucified on a cross.

 

We are recipients of the promise that God gave Abraham, that through him all the families of the earth will be blessed through Jesus. Even if we are Gentiles & not physical descendants of Abraham, through faith in Jesus we have become spiritual descendants of Abraham & heirs of God’s promises.

 

We receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit through Jesus. It is when we surrender our lives to Jesus that we receive the Holy Spirit & are sealed in Jesus for eternity.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting Jesus to redeem us from the curse of the law & make us spiritual descendants of Abraham who receive God’s promises & are filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

Being a disciple of Jesus is not about by following a list of rules. Being a disciple of Jesus is about having a faith relationship with Jesus where He is your Savior & Lord & trusting Him with every part of your life.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

By Faith or By the Law

 

By Faith or By the Law

 

In Galatians 3:1-6 Paul asks a series of questions that should cause us to think about how we are saved & how we are made into the people God created us to be.

 

Galatians 3:1

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

 

Paul is asking who deceived the Galatian Christians into denying that Jesus was crucified for our sins. The beginning of depending on anything other than Jesus for our salvation is when we deny that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. We deny that Jesus’ death in the only source of salvation.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about depending on Jesus’ death to pay the cost of our sin.

 

Galatians 3:2

Let me ask you only this; did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

 

Paul is asking the Galatian Christians if they are filled with the Spirit by working to keep all the law or by faith in Jesus as Savior & Lord. The law can tell us when we have sinned, but it cannot empower us to not sin. Only the Spirit can give us power over sin & we receive the Spirit by placing our faith in Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about putting our faith In Jesus as Savior & Lord & receiving the filling of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin.

 

Galatians 3:3

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

 

Paul now turns to sharing about our sanctification. We are saved through faith in Jesus & we are conformed to be like Jesus by the Holy Spirit working in our lives. We are not conformed to the image of Christ by our own human efforts, but only by the work of the Holy Spirit.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about being conformed to the image of Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

Galatians 3:4

Did you suffer so many things in vain – if indeed it was in vain?

 

The Galatian Christians along with Paul had been persecuted because of their faith in Jesus. Was that all in vain now? Paul is saying to these believers, have you had such wonderful spiritual experiences, all to no purpose? The Galatian Christians had seen God do awesome works through the Spirit & now they were turning away from faith in Jesus to the law. Does that mean that all the work of the Spirit was for nothing?

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting the work of God the Spirit in our lives as proof that it is about faith in Jesus, not the law that saves & sanctifies us.

 

Galatians 3:5-6

Does He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by heating with faith – just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

 

How did the Spirit come to indwelling the Galatian Christians & how were miracles done among them: by the law our by faith? It was by faith. Paul uses the example of Abraham. Abraham believed God & he was declared righteous. This occurred many years before the law was even given to Israel. So, just as Abraham was declared righteous through his faith, so we are declared righteous because of our faith.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about being declared righteous because of our faith in Jesus.

 

We are saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, made into the image of Christ, & declared righteous all through placing our faith in Jesus as Savior & Lord.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

                         Joe

Justified by Faith

 

Justified by Faith

 

Justification is the gracious & judicial act of God whereby a person is granted complete absolution from all guilt & a full release from the penalty of sin. The question: By what are we justified? Paul answers this question in Galatians 2:15-21.

 

Verses 15-16 Justified by Faith

This passage makes it very clear that we are justified by faith in Jesus, not by works of the law. In Ephesians 2:8-9 we are told that we are saved by grace through faith. If justification came through acts of the law, it would not be by grace through faith & we could take credit for our own salvation.  

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about being justified by faith in Jesus & not works of the law.

 

Verses 17-18: Freedom from the Law

The argument is made here that since we are justified by faith & not works then by turning from faith in Jesus to again embrace the law for justification, we are saying that it is Jesus who made us sin. We are also saying that Jesus’ death on the cross is not enough & that we are still under the burden of having to keep the law to be saved. In James 2:10 we are told that if we fail to keep the whole law, we are lawbreakers & guilty of disobeying all the law.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about being freed from the burden of keeping the whole law because we are incapable of keeping the whole law.

 

Verses 19-20: Dying to Sin & the Law

We die to the law so we can find our life in God. We are to identity so much with Jesus that we are spiritually crucified so that it is no longer we who are living but Jesus living in & through us. We live life in our bodies by faith in Jesus because He loved us & died for our sins. We are dead to the law & dead to sin.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about been dead to the law & sin so that we are alive in & through Jesus. People are to see Jesus in us.

 

Verse 21: The Grace of God

If we depend on works of the law or keeping all the law to bring us justification, then we nullify God’s grace & we will never be righteous. Righteousness only comes through God’ grace that allows God to declare us righteous when we surrender our lives to Jesus as Savior & Lord. If righteousness could come through works of the law, then Jesus died for no purpose.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about depending on God’s grace through the death of Jesus for our justification.

 

The law was given to us to make us aware of our sin & our inability to obey the law & thus our need for a Savior. Our trying to obey the law cannot bring us justification because we cannot obey the law fully. Jesus did & that is why He is our perfect sacrifice for sin.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

                         Joe