Daily Devotional Thursday 22nd October 2020
by William Moody
Galatians 4:1–7
Sons and Heirs
4:1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave,1 though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles2 of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Footnotes
[1] 4:1
For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface; also verse 7
[2] 4:3Or elemental spirits; also verse 9 (ESV)
We come today to consider the important Biblical truth of adoption. Paul introduces this by contrasting the differences between a slave and a child. He teaches that in childhood a child in many ways is like a slave as they are under many rules as to what they can and cannot do (v1-3). The people of God in the Old Testament were not a people who had reached maturity and were therefore spiritual children in a similar position as a slave.
That changed when Christ came and what Jesus was doing was buying the freedom of those under the law, of those who were immature spiritual children (v4-5).
What Jesus achieves is to bring them into the full rights as adult children, adopted into God’s family through which they are enabled through the Spirit to cry ‘Abba! Father! (v6). This speaks of a new privileged position and wonderful freedom there is in Christ.
Going back to the law means going back to a religion which is primarily about rules, which enslaves them (v7). They need to remember they’re not slaves but sons. Have you the mentality of God’s slave or God’s child?
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.