Children of God
Okay, I
want to go back and pick up something I left off of the end of my discussion on
Galatians 3 – and I left it off because it really fits better here in a
discussion on Galatians 4. Paul begins Galatians
4 by talking about being heirs of God.
Actually, he makes the progression from sons/daughters to heirs! Thus, we are God’s children!
Now,
clearly we are not God’s child in the same way that Jesus was God’s child. Jesus was God, we are not. Jesus was begotten, we are made. So I do want to be clear up front that while
we are the sons/daughters of God and we are God’s heirs to the promise of
eternal life – this does not make us equal to Christ! I hope we all knew that without me having to
type out those words, but sometimes it’s good to say reminders like that
anyway.
But here’s
the cool thing. If we are genuinely
heirs to God’s promises, upon what quality are we heirs? Certainly not because we were begotten into
the promise like Jesus was. We are heirs
because through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ God has sent the Holy Spirit
into us! God has done more than simply
send His Spirit to walk beside us and to stand beside us and try and pull us
this way or that way. God has sent His
Spirit to dwell within us – to come within us and genuinely have communion
within us. God has sent His Spirit to be
one with us. It is through the cross
that we are given the promise and it is through the reception and sanctification
of the Holy Spirit that we are made – and kept – heirs.
Now we’re
ready to go back to hear what Paul has to say in the closing verses of
Galatians 3. “There is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you
are all one in Christ Jesus.” Only when we
believe that it is the presence of the Hoy Spirit that sanctifies us and keeps
us as heirs to God’s promise can we make this statement that Paul makes. Only when we give all the credit to God and
take none of the credit for our own qualifications can we make this
statement. As I said a few days ago,
either God is completely sufficient or His work is not sufficient at all.
As for me,
I believe that God’s work is completely sufficient. It is His doing that has brought me into
salvation and it is His doing that will keep me in salvation. It is His doing that will keep me sanctified. It depends upon Him, not me. If it depends on Him, then there no longer is
the need to distinguish between male/female or slave/free or Jew/Greek. There is simply God.
Applying This to Life
So let’s
look at our life. Do we believe that
there is no difference between Jew/Gentile?
Probably. What about
male/female? What about slave/free
(economic status)?
How many
people/congregations do make differences?
I can’t tell you how many Lutheran churches I’ve been in that because
I’m not German Lutheran or Swedish Lutheran or Finnish Lutheran that I’m always
an outcast because I just don’t understand the “traditions.” After all, is the church about maintaining
our human traditions or about proclaiming Jesus Christ to the world? Isn’t that one of Paul’s main points here in
Galatians?
Or how
many churches make others feel like outcasts because they raise their hands
when they praise God? Or how many
churches make youth and children feel like second class Christians when in
reality if they have the Holy Spirit within them they have the fullness of God? How many churches tell women that they have to
play a different role in the church?
I can go
on and on, but I’ll make my point.
Either we believe that we are saved only through the faithfulness of
Jesus Christ on the cross and that the presence of the Holy Spirit is the only
thing that makes us heirs to God or we don’t believe it at all. When we look for people to lead us, either we
look for the guiding of the Holy Spirit or we don’t. If we come to the table with our huge “human
criterion” and fail to see the leading of the Holy Spirit, who is at
fault? As Christians, we need to do a
much better job at understanding Paul’s theology in the closing section of
Galatians 3 and the opening section of Galatians 4. We need to understand it better, live it
better, teach it better, and set higher expectations for other people to live
it with us.
Genuine Love
Moving to
the next section, I’m going to pass over Paul’s concern for the Galatians with
a simple paragraph. Notice his genuine
love. Paul’s doesn’t want it to be about
him; Paul wants it to be about genuine spirituality! Paul love is expressed in a way that is
intended to bring people closer to God, not closer to him! Of course, if Paul is genuinely spiritual and
should the Galatians act in a genuinely spiritual manner, they will draw closer
to one another by default.
Slave or Free
Then we
get to the challenge of the end of Galatians 4.
I don’t have to make this long, either.
Most of the foundation has already been laid. The challenge is out there. Paul talks about Hagar (Sarah’s slave) as the
equivalent of Sinai (living under the Law).
Paul talks about Sarah (the true parent of God’s truly spiritual heirs)
as the spiritual choice. He is bold when
he really asks them, which one do you want to be? Do you want to continue to live under bondage
or do you want to live under the Spirit?
This is a
question that we have got to get better at asking ourselves: What law
(traditions, “so-called church doctrine,” etc) have we established that
prevents us from living free under the Spirit?
Let me ask
it another way: What qualities within another person would immediately make you
stop listening to them as a spiritual being?
Nationality? Gender? Languages being spoken? The version of the Bible that they read? Age?
Color of skin? The different ways
that they worship? The way that they dress?
How clean they are?
Now ask
yourself: Is it possible for God’s Spirit to still indwell somebody who has
those qualities?
If so,
then I think it is time for change. Time
for us to change.
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