Family Legacy

Family Legacy

“Family Legacy”
(Galatians 4:1-7)
Series: Set Free To Be Free (Galatians)

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson

Take your Bibles and join me in Galatians, chapter 4 (page 785; YV).

We’re going to be looking at a passage of Scripture that builds on our understanding of the Christian’s family legacy.

It is Mother’s Day and our thoughts are turned to family, to our moms, and we thank God for moms today. The Christian, of course, has two families, a physical family and a spiritual family.

We celebrate our physical family on days like Mother’s Day, and if you’re here with your mother or grandmother, praise God! What a blessing to have a physical family that takes time to be together on a special day like this honoring moms. For others of you, you’ll take time today to remember your mother, thanking God for her influence upon your life. She wasn’t perfect, but she brought you into this world and at the very least you can thank God for that!

I’m going to call my mother later today. I’m grateful my mother took me to church shortly after my parents divorced. I was 14 years old and my mom started taking me and my younger sister to church. I’m grateful for her “making” me get up out of bed and go to Sunday school and worship. Amen?!

One of my favorite mom stories… “If it’s ‘Mrs. Smith’ I’m not home!” no caller ID. Imagine having to guess who it was. Many people would have lived longer lives if they’d had caller ID. But, “If it’s Mrs. Smith, I’m not home.” teaching me to lie. ring ring. I hear my older sister Teri on the line asking for my mom. I say, “Hang on,” look at my mother, hand her the phone and say, ‘It’s Mrs. Smith!’ She’s like, “I told you…!” I smiled and said, “It’s your daughter.”

This passage if full of family imagery…mentions a mother, and a father, sons, and adoption…family legacy.

Paul has just told the Christians in the churches in Galatia that, because of their faith in Jesus, they have been brought into God’s family—adopted by Him through Jesus Christ. So Christians are part of a rich family heritage that goes all the way back to 2,000 years before Christ. The Bible teaches in Genesis that God made a promise to a man named Abraham, a promise of blessing, a blessing of life, abundant and eternal, forgiveness of sins. And God also promised that all of the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham’s posterity. All who believe in the one true and living God of the Bible would be considered “sons of Abraham.”

This is what we studied last time at the end of chapter 3. God promised Abraham that he would have many sons. This is God’s promise. And we also learned that when God gave Moses the law, over 400 years later, the law (summarized in the 10 Commandments) did not cancel out that promise of blessing, but was added to the promise to highlight man’s need for the promise. The promise of life is made possible through Jesus Christ, Jesus and His perfect righteousness that is granted to all who believe—and all who believe are included in the blessing of Abraham.

So the law was given by God through Moses to show us how utterly incapable we are of somehow “earning” the promise of life, or “doing good deeds” or “good works” in the hopes of securing our own righteousness, earning God’s favor by performance. No one is saved based on their performance or works of righteousness. All are saved, all are included in the promise, who place their faith in Jesus.

As Paul writes in verse 26 of chapter 3, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Those living before Christ came—like people in Abraham’s day, 2000 years before the cross, were saved not by works of the law, but by faith in the promise. Old Testament believers were forgiven of sin by looking forward in faith to the coming of the promised Messiah. New Testament believers, including many of us in the room, are saved by looking back in faith to the Messiah who has come, and we know His name to be Jesus Christ. Promise fulfilled.

So the promise was made to Abraham, then through Abraham to his posterity, to as many as would believe. The law came later through Moses not to annul or cancel out the promise of blessing, but rather to point up the need for the promise to be fulfilled, to highlight the urgency of a salvation that obviously cannot come through the law because no one can keep the law perfectly. No one can keep, for example, the 10 commandments perfectly—no one but Jesus Christ! So the law is “a finger pointing” to Jesus. Mount Sinai points to Mount Calvary. The promise made to Abraham is confirmed through Moses, and fulfilled in Christ.

So Paul has been writing about how the law prepares people for Jesus, shows people their need for Jesus. The law guides one along the way training wheels guide a new bike rider until he understand what it means to be free in Christ. The law drives people to Jesus.

Until a person trusts Jesus and leans upon Jesus rather than leaning upon the training wheels of the law, he does not experience forgiveness of sin and the joy of freedom. But once he is saved through faith in Christ, he understands what it is to be forgiven and what it means to have life and to live freely.

Paul now illustrates this same truth by using another picture, an illustration of a young boy’s being heir to a great estate, but while the boy is small, he is not yet allowed to enjoy that estate because he is too small, and must rely on others to tell him what to do. Listen for this teaching

Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

1 Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all,
2 but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.
3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.
4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Pray.

So the Christian enjoys two families, a physical family of an earthbound mom and dad, brothers and sisters—and the Christian enjoys a spiritual family, spiritual brothers and sisters through faith in Christ, “sons of God” birthed into the kingdom of God.

Now let’s look at this passage again and let me give you three main thoughts here for our consideration. The first comes by way of an illustration, a picture that Paul paints and it is a picture of slavery:

I. The Picture of Slavery (1-3)

Paul says that living under the law before the fulfillment of the promise to come—Jesus Christ—was like a young son’s being an heir to an inheritance he could not yet receive. In one sense, he’s no better than a house slave in the Roman world. The law preached rules and regulations—good rules and regulations, to be sure—but rules and regulations that were powerless to save and powerless to provide real freedom and joy.

1 Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all,
2 but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.

In the Roman world, a young boy was considered a minor until the age of 14. Even then he could not receive his share of the estate until he was in his mid-20s. So Paul says, “That’s our living under the Old Testament law.” Old Testament believers knew of God’s promise through Abraham, knew about this promise of life to come, and a promise that was theirs by faith, but in the meantime lived under the guardianship of the law. Again, God the Father did not give the law through Moses as means of salvation, but as a means by which believers would see their need for a Savior. The law was given to drive people to Jesus, the one who could fulfill the rigorous demands of the law, the One who perfectly fulfilled, for example, the 10 Commandments.

So until Christ came, Old Testament believers were under bondage to the law, unable to experience true freedom in Christ, and while they were heirs to a great inheritance, the time had not yet come for them, they had not “come of age” as it were, and so—while wealthy heirs—they were unable to enjoy the riches of their inheritance and thus in one sense were no better than a Roman slave. Verse 3:

3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

So again, believers living before the cross, looked forward in faith to the promise to come—Jesus Christ—and were forgiven on the basis of their faith—just as we—but they did not enjoy the full blessings Christians enjoy, namely knowing exactly who that Savior is—Jesus—having His words and teachings in the New Testament and understanding the abundant power and benefits and freedoms of the gospel, including the indwelling and abiding Holy Spirit who helps us live out the spirit of the law not as a means by which to gain acceptance and approval, but as a thank you note to God for His grace.

Paul takes us now from this picture of slavery to:

II. The Privileges of Sonship (4-5)

Let’s look now at the Christian’s privileges and blessing that comes through Jesus Christ. Verse 4:

4 But when the fullness of the time had come (when the time had come for the heir to receive his inheritance), God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Here is the believers rich family inheritance. When the time had come for this family heir, when he had come of age, when God was through preparing His people by giving the law, the Old Testament law which pointed up their need for Jesus, when the fullness of time had come, at just the right moment, “God sent forth His Son,” Jesus. He took on flesh, adding human flesh, adding humanity to His deity, having been “born of a woman,” and—last part of verse 4—“born under the law,” verse 5: to redeem those who were under the law,”

So God comes to us in the person of Christ, lives in accordance to the law, fulfilling it perfectly that he may “redeem,” verse 5, “to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Apart from Christ, all humanity is in bondage to the righteous demands of the law. Apart from Christ, all men and women are slaves to the law and therefore slaves to sin. We cannot keep the law perfectly. We try but it just keeps pointing out our sin problem. We try not to break the 10 Commandments, but we find ourselves breaking them all the time, breaking them in obvious ways apparent to others, and breaking them in private ways, in the silent darkness of our hearts. We are in bondage to the law and are no better than slaves in the slave market of the Graeco-Roman world.

This word “redeem” in verse 5 is a term that described the releasing of a slave to the person who was willing to purchase the slave’s freedom. A person comes along and purchases the slave and becomes the slave’s new master. Paul’s point is that, apart from Christ, our slave master is the law. The law is our master, keeping us in bondage to it by forever pointing up our guilt and condemnation every time we break it. So Jesus comes along and purchase our freedom, redeeming us, buying us, and taking us away as our new master, a good master, a master who we serve gladly and freely because He has rescued us from the slave market of sin and the law.

And it’s so important to get both sides of this privilege. It is not just the privilege of release from the law, but the privilege of sonship. In Christ, it’s not just that believers have been rescued from the law, and rescued from the guilt and condemnation of sin, but they have been brought into a new family, adopted into a spiritual family, a family of rich blessing of freedom and life.

As we have noted before it is like a judge saying to a convicted felon standing before him in the courtroom, “I declare you no longer guilty of your transgression. You are free.” But the judge is an unusual judge. He does not simply say, “You are free to go,” and return him to the streets with no means of improvement, going back to his old convict friends and ways, but the judge says, “You are free to come home with me.” And the judge takes him into his family. And the judge is no longer worried about the convicts behavior because he is a new person—the way a believer is a new person in Christ, with a new nature, the Holy Spirit within him now, giving him new desires to live in a new way of life.

That is what happened when God adopts us into his family through Christ Jesus. The privileges of sonship. We move from this picture of slavery to the privilege of sonship, and finally to:

III. The Presence of the Spirit (6-7)

When we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we receive the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. Verse 6:

6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

First we believe, then we receive. “Because you are sons,” God has sent forth the Sprite of His Son into your hearts.”

You don’t have to ask God to give you the Holy Spirit. Once you believe in the Gospel, and receive Jesus as Lord, you become sons of God. And because you are sons, God sends forth His Spirit into your heart.

And the Spirit in your heart takes you to God in prayer and worship. You cry out to God regularly, calling Him “Abba, Father.” Abba is the Aramaic term for Father, a more endearing term for God, something along the lines of our calling our earthly father “dad.” It’s more relational and more personal. It’s the same way Jesus referred to God—pretty cool that Christians can call upon God the Father the same way Jesus did, relationally and personally.

Then Paul’s summary statement of these opening verses in verse 7:

7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ [NU-has “then an heir through God”].

So if we believe in Jesus Christ, we are freed from the bondage of sin and the law, and freed to follow Jesus Christ, set free to be free in Christ. And God no longer thinks of us as slaves, but as “sons of God,” as “an heir of God,” adopted into His family.

God no longer thinks of us as slaves, nor treats us as slaves. That means God does not treat us as we deserve, but as we don’t deserve. God does not treats us as we deserve—as slaves)—but treats us as we don’t deserve—as His sons—because of His Son, Jesus Christ!

This is the benefit of our union with Christ. I’m tied to Christ, united with Christ, connected to Jesus, bound up with Him, hidden with Him, covered by Him, so God can’t help but treat me as He treats His Son.

Baptism pictures our union with Christ, entrance into this family, death, burial, resurrection. This is one reason for our church’s vision for “40ByFall,” to baptize 40 new believers by fall of this year. We are committed to sharing the good news of the gospel with our neighbors, school friends, work friends, so that they may be freed from the law of bondage and death and may be won to faith in Christ, rescued from sin’s slavery, redeemed, adopted by God into the family, a spiritual family, receiving life—all this pictured in baptism: death, burial, resurrection. Life in Christ.

However grateful we are today for our physical family, even greater is our place in God’s spiritual family.

So if you are in God’s spiritual family, remember these two things, these two action-points:

**Christian Action Points:

1) Rejoice in your Family

Again, so many of us are grateful for our earthly family, our physical family. Thank God for that. Family is a gift for God. Enjoy Mother’s Day richly today.

And, if you are a Christian, thank God for your spiritual family. Thank God that by His grace, through faith in Christ alone, you have a new family, a spiritual family. Thank God that He has adopted you. You once belonged to the law. It was your master, always and forever pointing out your failures. Now you belong to another. You belong to Jesus, your new Master.

Jesus as made a way for you to be accepted by God, your Heavenly Father. Because of Christ’s work for you—His having lived a perfect life, perfectly fulfilling the rigorous demands of the law for you and having died, to take the penalty you deserved for breaking the law, and then rising from the dead to indicate God’s approval—because of Christ’s work for you, you are accepted by God in Him, in Christ. You are united together with Christ.

You are “in Christ Jesus” so that you get credit for what He did. God sees you as having done what His Son did. It’s as though you lived a righteous life. You are inseparably united with Christ.

Just as the way sugar dissolves into a cup of coffee so that you can no longer tell which part is sugar and which part coffee—they are one—so are you in Christ, united together with Him, one with Him. God looks at Jesus approvingly and therefore He looks at you approvingly. It’s as though you lived a righteous life. Christ’s medals are pinned to your chest.

All of this because you have been adopted into God’s family, enjoying the privileges of sonship. And God has sent forth His Spirit into your heart, He loves you so much. He longs for you to address Him the way His Son addressed Him, “Abba,” intimately, personally. He loves you. Rejoice in your family. And secondly, if you are a Christian:

2)Rejoice in your Freedom

If you are a believer, remember your freedom and rejoice in it regularly throughout the day. Christian freedom happens not just once at the point of our initial faith in Christ, but Christian freedom occurs regularly throughout each day of our lives.

We must remember who we are in Christ and rejoice in that freedom, not going back to some other means of seeking God’s approval or acceptance.

Many of us in this room may well be Christians. We believe in Jesus. We say that He has freed us from the penalty of the law and forgiven us of sin and we know we one day will go to heaven.

But—while we may know this to be true theoretically—many of us live our lives practically as though we were not free. Much like the Galatians, who heard the gospel and believed it, but were then adding to the gospel additional ways to earn God’s approval, so many Christians may say they believe in Jesus and know they have eternal life, but add things to their lives each day as a means by which to earn God’s approval or maintain God’s favor.

It’s like someone gives you a gift and you receive it freely, but then give it back to the one who gave it to you, and you try to earn it! That’s the way many Christians live their lives, always trying to merit their way into God’s favor. They’ve received Jesus Christ freely. They’ve received the promise of life freely and are looked upon favorably by God. But then, it’s like they give the gift of life back to God and say, “Now, let me try to earn it.”

These Christians have slipped back into bondage, forgetting that God loves them not just at the point of their salvation and faith in Jesus, but at every single point along the journey.

Like sugar dissolved into coffee so much so that it is one with the coffee, so Christians are united together with Christ so that they are one with Him.

So while we make mistakes in this world, God still loves us perfectly in Christ. And when we do well, God loves us the same—He’ll never love us more when we do right, and He’ll never love us less when we do wrong. He does not accept us based upon our performance, but based upon Christ’s performance in our place.

RESPONSE:
Family? Either in the family or not. Either a member or not. Either adopted or still in bondage.

The only way any of us can become family is to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We must believe in Him, trust Him for our forgiveness. We must believe He died for our sins. Some of you need to trust Jesus this morning. Do that. Believe. Confess. Repent. Say to Him:

“Lord Jesus Christ, I admit that I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed, but, through you, I am more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope. I thank you for paying my debt, bearing my punishment and offering forgiveness. I turn from my sin and receive you as Savior.”

Freedom? Rejoicing in it?

It may be that you are abusing your freedom—presuming upon God’s grace. Reasoning sinfully like, “Well, I can just go ahead and sin because God will forgive me.” That is wrong behavior. And if you have sinned, you need to repent.

And the good news of the gospel is that when you repent, when you turn back to God through Christ, He receives you lovingly into His arms. Turn back to Him and live in freedom again.

We’re going to sing our hymn of invitation and response. God is inviting us—every single one of us in the room—God is inviting us to respond to His Word.

Some of you want to join the church, or be baptized, baptism picturing our faith in Christ: death, burial, and resurrection. You come during this time and I’ll meet you up front here. Others of you want to follow Jesus and you have questions. Right after we pray, I’m inviting you to come.

Let’s pray: “Lord…family…freedom…slaves to sons…set free to be free…and when Satan tempts us to fall into despair, pointing out our guilt, help us look to the cross and see Jesus who died for our sin so we could be free, to remember our lives our united to Christ, hidden with Christ on high, then walk in the freedom of knowing you have forgiven us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”

Now stand and as we sing, you respond however the Lord is leading you.

2
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

3
Behold Him there the risen Lamb
My perfect spotless righteousness
The great unchangeable I am
The King of glory and of grace
One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God!
With Christ my Savior and my God!

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