How to be a Blessing to the Man You Love Father’s Day ‘96

Well, today is Father’s Day. And it is interesting to compare Mother’s Day with Father’s Day. On Mother’s Day, women seem to bask in all the attention. They just soak up all that love. They glow all day long. It’s a glorious day for them; a highlight of their year.

But on Father’s Day, all over America, millions of men are going to spend this day in a state of mild embarrassment about the fuss being made over them. Their attitude is “Hey, I really appreciate how you feel about me, but let’s get this over with.”

That’s because men and women are different. Recently I came across a list comparing some of the difference between men and women. On one side, it listed what women really want, and on the other side it listed what men really want.

Women really want to be loved, to be listened to, to be desired, to be respected, to be needed, to be trusted, and sometimes just to be held. What men really want is tickets to the World Series.

In light of those incredible differences, it’s no wonder that couples run into problems trying to communicate and get along together in a marriage. And it can become especially frustrating for a wife who is trying to understand how her husband is wired.

On Mother’s day, last month, I shared a few thoughts about women, and how we men ought to treat our wives to let them know that we really love them. Just for the sake of review, we learned that there are three things that every man needs to do for his wife––he needs to connect with her; he needs to respect her, and he needs to protect her.

But today, I want to talk to the women in the audience. And specifically, I want to share some thoughts from a biblical perspective on how you can really be a blessing to the man you love.You see, you women have a lot more power than you think you have. You have the power in your hands to either make your husband, or break him. You can help him, or hurt him; the choice is yours. A bad women can destroy the strongest man.

Look at Samson and Delilah. Samson was the strongest man who ever lived. Yet he was no match for this woman, Delilah, who persistently wore him down and finally did him in.

But a good woman can make her man a far better man than he would ever be on his own. Prov. 31:12 She brings him good, not evil, all the days of his life.

Ladies, the key to your influence in a man’s life centers around the biblical idea of blessing. Many of you approach marriage with the idea that you’re going to change your husband. You’re going to take away his bad habits; you’re going to make him kinder and gentler and more sensitive, and so on.

So you make a kind of a project out of him. You try to domesticate him. But then you get frustrated when you see so little real change taking place in his life.

*Listen to me. If you don’t get anything else out of this sermon, please get this.

It is not your job to change your husband. It is your job to be a blessing to your husband, and let God change him. And if you make up your mind to be a blessing to your husband, you will create the kind of conditions in his heart that will make him more open to the ways that God wants to change him.

Let’s go back to the book of Genesis and see how this works. The first chapter of Genesis describes how God created the heavens and the earth. And six times––one for each creation day––the Bible says “and God saw that it was good”, culminating with verse 31…

Genesis 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

But then we come to chapter 2:18, and we see the first inkling in all of creation that something is NOT good.

Genesis 2:18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Now the word “helper” is an interesting word. Sometimes we use the word helper in a subordinate sense. The contractor who does renovations on your house may have a helper with him––a guy who is sort of a “gofer”. He’s not as smart, not as skilled, not as experienced as the boss is, so that’s why he’s the “helper”.

That is not the way the word is used here in Genesis 2. The Hebrew word means literally “one who completes”. So that means that, on his own, without his helper, Adam was incomplete. The helper that God made for him was not just a nice window-dressing added extra. She was essential to his being all that God intended him to be.

And there’s no sense of inferiority about this word “helper” either, because this same word is used elsewhere in the Bible to describe God.

“The Lord is my helper…” (Hebrews 13:6). No sense of inferiority about this word at all. It is an honorable position––a high position of great power and influence. And this is what God created woman to be. He created her to be man’s helper.

He created them male and female. Notice that God didn’t create another man to be Adams’ helper. In his aloneness, Adam didn’t need another guy to hang out with. He didn’t need a fishing buddy. He needed a woman. He needed a wife. So God didn’t create Steve, he created Eve–a female. The homosexual movement is fundamentally in error at this point.

Now look at the way that God created Eve. Pick it up at verse 21…

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

When God created Adam, he created him from out of the dust of the earth. He could have done that for Eve too. But he didn’t. When he created Eve, he created her from out of Adam––literally from out of his side. Why did he do it that way?

To demonstrate that her purpose was to be at his side. She was a part of him. Without her, he’s incomplete. With her at his side, he’s complete. And together they are one. They are a unit. She was made from his matter and matched with his heart.

Notice that the Bible says that “God brought her to the man”. This is a picture of God’s sovereignty. When Adam goes to sleep, he’s all alone. When he wakes up, he’s no longer alone, because God has been up to something. This is a picture of the sovereignty of God in his life. Adam didn’t go out and find Eve on his own––God brought her to him.

And ladies, God is just as sovereign today. He’s always up to something. I believe that, in the same way He brought Eve to Adam, he brought you to your husband. And he did it for the same reason. He did it so that you might complete your husband. So that you might take away his “aloneness”, stand by his side, and bring great blessing into his life.

So how can you do that? Three ways. Respect him, encourage him, and seek to be his complement.

1. Respect him.

One of a man’s greatest needs is to be respected. To be looked up to.

A few weeks ago, we were shocked and saddened by the suicide of the top officer in the United States Navy. Admiral Mike Boorda had enjoyed a distinguished 40-year career. He had become the first enlisted man ever to rise to the Navy’s top spot––the Chief of Naval Operations.

He was an officer who was admired by his men, and respected by his colleagues. And yet, on Thursday afternoon, May 23, Mike Boorda put a gun to his chest and pulled the trigger. It seems that he was concerned that he may have wrongly worn two small “V for Valor” combat decorations that he wasn’t actually entitled to wear. And, rather than face the humiliation of that being disclosed, and fearing the loss of respect that would entail, he took his own life.

Every man desires significance. He needs continual reassurance that he is, indeed, significant. In a book called “Rocking the Roles” authors Robert Lewis and William Hendricks state that a man has two mirrors of significance in his life. One of those mirrors is his work; the other is his wife.

Looking into those mirrors, he seeks to find answers to questions of his own identity, worth, and meaning. Both of those mirrors reflect back to him strong messages about his manhood. And over time, what he receives from them will spell the difference between a life of satisfaction and a life of deep frustration.

Of those two mirrors, you as a woman are by far the most important. The messages you give your husband in terms of your respect for him as a man are vitally important. Does he sense that you regard him as your hero? Does he think that you believe him to be your champion?

For all our gruff exterior, we men have egos that are as thin as an eggshell. We are easily broken, easily dispirited. We need to know that the woman in our life doesn’t just love us and depend on us. We need to know that she admires us as well.

A woman makes a devastating mistake when she tears down her husband with snide comments, sarcasm, or nagging and complaining about his habits.

Proverbs 18:21 The tongue has the power of life and death

And sometimes, ladies, you can kill a man’s spirit with your tongue. A man who is not admired and respected at home will begin to look elsewhere for that need to be met in his life. With devastating consequences for all concerned.

One very important way that you can respect your husband is to let him be the leader in your relationship. This has a double benefit. It frees your husband to rise to the challenge for which God created him, and it frees you to be the person God designed you to be.

Show me a woman who is the leader in her marriage, and I’ll show you a very unhappy woman. Trust me, I’ve met many of them in my years as a pastor. Women who, through a sense of insecurity and fear and lack of trust in God and their husband, have seized control of the leadership role in their marriage.

And in the process of doing so, they have lost respect for their husband, they have lost respect for the God who gave them their husband, and they have lost respect for any other authority figure in their life. And ultimately, tragically, they have lost respect for themselves.

Proverbs 25:24 Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a woman like that––a quarrelsome wife, who is always wrestling for control.

Ladies, don’t let your inner need for security and stability turn you into a manipulator, a control freak. Trust God enough to let your husband be the leader in your home. That’s who God made him to be.

2. Encourage him.

The word encourage means literally “to give courage”. One of the greatest gifts you can give to your husband is the gift of courage. Show him that you believe in him–– that you are confident in him––that you think he’s a winner.

Don’t stomp all over his dreams. Don’t pour cold water on his hopes, his aspirations. Don’t think that it is your job to put a wet blanket over his ideas. You’ll suck the initiative right out of him; you’ll extinguish the fire in his belly and you’ll end up with a couch potato for a husband.

Ladies, it can be tough to be a man in today’s world. The workplace can be very cruel. I know that many of you men have gone through the trauma of having given your blood working for a company, only to have been handed a pink slip in return.

Downsizing, re-organization, cut-backs––whatever you call it, it all amounts to the same thing. You’re always looking over your shoulder, and thinking about how you’re going to provide for your family if it happens to you.

It’s a highly competitive dog-eat-dog world out there for men, and they need all the encouragement they can get. And the best place to get it is from a faithful wife. Can he share his fears with you; his inner insecurities, knowing that you will not betray his trust, and not think less of him?

About a hundred years ago, a poet named Dinah Craik wrote these words:

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with another person.

Having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out

Just as they are, chaff and grain together––

Certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them,

Keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

Be an encouragement to your man.

3. Seek to be his complement.

Remember, Genesis 2 taught us that Eve was the complement of Adam. Like two pieces of a jig-saw puzzle that fit perfectly together, she brought a completion to his being. She had qualities that he needed, and vice versa.

So women, understand that God brought you to your man for the same reason. You have qualities that he needs. Understand that God, in His sovereignty, brought you together to be a team, and you are an essential half of that team.

I hear too many women today who are down on themselves. They have a poor self-image. They think poorly of themselves and their abilities. That’s a rebuke to God. He made you who you are.

A man needs his wife to help him in many areas. A woman has many strengths that a man doesn’t have.

For example, a woman has eyes that can see right into a person’s heart. You women are so much more attuned to the unspoken needs and feelings and hurts of people than we men are.

I am amazed at the number of times that Carolyn and I will be in a social setting interacting with other people. And then later on, she’ll share with me an observation about someone that will turn out to be dead accurate. Nothing was said, nothing was revealed in conversation with that person about where they were at. But she picked up on where that person’s spirit was.

I have come to appreciate and rely on her ability to do that. Because I sure don’t have it. Men function on the level of facts, and data, and logic. Women are so much more tuned in to all the other stuff that goes on in life.

A woman can often intuitively size up a situation more quickly and accurately than a man can. While a man is processing the facts of a situation, like a number-crunching computer, she is picking up the “atmospherics”, the ambiance, the emotional tone.

So women, we need you. We need you to be our complement. Don’t undervalue the gifts that God has given you; the way that God has made you. He did it so that together with your husband, you could be a team.

You can be a great blessing to your husband if you respect him; encourage him, and seek to be his complement.

As unto the bow the cord is

So unto man is woman;

Tho’ she bends him,

She obeys him.

Tho’ she draws him,

Yet she follows;

Useless each without the other.

Ladies, make up your mind that from this day on, you’ll be a blessing to your husband and give God room to work in his life.

So have a great Father’s Day, and ladies––don’t make too much of a fuss, okay?

Born Free Gal. 4:21-31

We parents never seem to outgrow our children. Once a parent, always a parent. When your kids are little, they step on your toes. When they grow up, they step on your heart.

This is what the Apostle Paul was experiencing as a spiritual parent. The Galatians were his spiritual children. But instead of growing to maturity in Christ, they had fallen back into a sort of “second childhood” of legalism. And he agonized over them––he wanted to see them come to the place of maturity in their Christian lives.

He has been showing them from the Old Testament that the way of grace is superior to the way of the Law. He has shown them that the covenant that God gave to Abraham was superior to the covenant He gave to Moses. He has shown them that the Law was never intended by God to be the means by which we are made right in God’s sight.

Now in the section we are going to look at today––Galatians 4:21-31––Paul is going to do something unique. He is going to use an Old Testament story to convey a New Testament lesson.

He’s going to take the story of Abraham and his family and show how those historical events and those people who lived 2,000 years before Christ actually had a symbolic meaning that pointed to Christian truth.

This is “The Allegory of Abraham’s Family”. I’ve put the details in chart form to help you understand it. You’ll find it on your study sheet in the bulletin today.

An allegory is a story in which the characters and events have a deeper, symbolic meaning. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis is an allegory. Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan is an allegory. Moby Dick by Herman Melville is an allegory. The characters and the plot in those stories have a symbolic meaning.

Now usually an allegory is a fictional story. But sometimes, a real life story can become an allegory. And this is what happened in the case of Abraham and his family. Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Isaac and Ishmael were real people who really lived.

But God, the author of the story, put their lives together in such a way as that their relationships, their situation, their circumstances, would convey a powerful spiritual lesson that would not be fully understood until 2,000 years later. That’s when the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, explained it in the book of Galatians.

Let’s look at what he wrote.

Galatians 4:21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?

(Paul is reminding the Galatians that the book of Genesis is part of the Law. The first five books of the Bible were written by Moses. And Paul is taking the story of Abraham and his family from the book of Genesis.)

Galatians 4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

Abraham was married to Sarah. God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of many people––that his descendants would be as numerous as the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky. Only one problem with that. Abraham and Sarah were childless. They had been unable to conceive. And they were getting pretty old.

So when Abraham was 85 years old, Sarah came up with a creative alternative. According to the laws of that day, if a woman were childless, she could give her servant girl to her husband. And if the servant girl conceived and had a child, that child would be considered to be the offspring of the wife. That was a legally-accepted

practice. In fact, archaeologists have found inscriptions on clay tablets that indicate that that is exactly what they did in those days.

So that is what Sarah did. She attempted a human solution to a divine problem. She gave her slave girl Hagar to Abraham. Abraham slept with her, and she conceived. And that’s when the trouble began. That’s what always happens when we take problems out of God’s hands and try to solve them ourselves.

Hagar began to despise her mistress. And Sarah began to be extremely jealous and bitter toward Hagar. In fact, she drove her out of the house. But God had mercy on Hagar. Even though Hagar’s being pregnant wasn’t part of God’s plan, God still had mercy on her and promised to bless her. He brought her back into Abraham’s house, and she gave birth to a son, named Ishmael. This is all in Genesis 16.

But just because Hagar had a son who, according to the culture of that day could legally be considered to be Abraham and Sarah’s offspring, didn’t mean that this was the fulfillment of God’s promise. Many years went by until Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. By now, it was utterly out of the question for Sarah to get pregnant. Women just don’t get pregnant at 90 years of age!

But God re-affirmed his promise to Abraham, and sure enough, Sarah got pregnant. Paul says in Romans 4:19…

Without weakening in his faith, Abraham faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

So Sarah gave birth to a son, and they named him Isaac, which means “laughter” because they laughed to even think of a woman of 90 being wheeled into the maternity ward with all the other mothers. God has a sense of humor!

But now you have more trouble in Abraham’s family. Because when they bring this bouncing baby boy home––the child of the promise––there is already a teenager named Ishmael living in the home––a teenager who thinks that he is the firstborn; that he is the heir.

In Genesis 21:8 we read…

The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

According to ancient tradition, Isaac was 3 years old when he was weaned. Ishmael was 17. But Ishmael had to go, because the two children could not co-exist under the same roof together. One was the child of a slave girl; the other was the child of the free-woman. One was born as the result of a natural, human-powered attempt to solve a divine problem. The other was born by a miracle of God. One was the proper heir of God’s promises; the other was not. So Ishmael had to go.

And this is where Paul begins to draw out the tremendous spiritual truth of this allegory. Look at Galatians 4:24…

These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.

If you’ll look at your chart on your study sheet, you’ll see how this allegory unfolds.

Hagar represents the Old Covenant, the Law of Moses. She stands for Mount Sinai, where Moses was given the Law. And she corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, where the Jews––even to this day––are in bondage to the Law of Moses.

Her child, Ishmael, stands for the old nature––the flesh––which represents our attempt to make ourselves acceptable to God in our own power.

Remember, Ishmael was man’s attempt to solve a divine problem. In the same way, our old nature, our flesh is a human attempt to overcome a divine problem––the problem of our own sinfulness. And it never succeeds. Trying to justify ourselves in the power of the flesh just results in more sin and conflict. It just drives us further away from God.

Now Sarah represents the New Covenant, the Covenant of Grace which God gave us in the person of Jesus Christ. By simply trusting in Him, by believing in Him, we are made right in God’s sight––not by anything that we do.

And when we trust Jesus Christ, God gives us a new birth. He makes us new people. He puts his life within us. He comes and lives within us Himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit. He gives us a new nature.

And Isaac represents that new nature, that new Spirit. His birth was miraculous; he was born because God made it happen. And he was born a free man. He wasn’t a slave with a slave-woman as his mother. He was the child of God’s promise, and he became the heir of all of God’s blessings. His home is Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.

Flip over your study sheet for a moment. You see point 1 there––Isaac represents the believer.

(1) He was born by God’s power. When Isaac was born, everybody knew that God did it, because Abraham and Sarah were as good as dead. They didn’t do it; God did it.

And in the same way, if you are a Christian today, God did it.

John 1:12-13 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born out of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

(2) When Isaac was born, he brought great joy. They called him “laughter”––that’s what the name Isaac literally means.

And in the same was our salvation brings great joy. What a privilege it is to be a part of God’s family! No matter how bad things get on the outside, you can be smiling on the inside, because you are a child of the promise.

(3) We read in the book of Genesis that Isaac grew and was weaned. And in the same way, we need to grow in our faith. Salvation is just the beginning, not the ending. God doesn’t want us to stay spiritual babies forever. We need to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

newborn babies milk .. 1 Pet. 2:2 that you may grow up in

your salvation

mature solid food .. 1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12

Galatians hadn’t grown up spiritually

(4) Another thing that was true of Isaac that will also be true of the followers of Jesus Christ. Isaac was persecuted.

Galatians 4:29 At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.

Ishmael mocked and laughed at Isaac. There is an old Jewish tradition that says that Ishmael even shot arrows at him.

The Bible says that if you are a believer, you will be persecuted.

Philippians 1:29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.

2 Timothy 3:12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Notice that it doesn’t say “you might be persecuted” – it says “you will be persecuted.”

This persecution takes two forms. Sometimes, there is outward persecution. You can be mocked and laughed at for being a Christian.

But there is always an inward form of persecution that takes place in the life of the Christian. It’s the battle between our old nature and our new nature.

Remember, before Isaac was born, Ishmael wasn’t giving anybody any particular problems. There was relative tranquility in the home. But as soon as Isaac was born and came into the home, that’s when the trouble really started. Ishmael didn’t create any disruption until Isaac came along.

And in the same way, your old nature may not give you any particular problems. You can be sailing along quite peacefully as a non-Christian. But then you become a Christian and God puts a new nature in you––a nature that is sensitive to Him and to His Spirit’s leading. And this new nature moves in beside the old nature.

That’s when your old nature really begins to rebel and create problems for you. Paul talked in Romans 7 of a war raging within himself between his old nature and his new nature. It is a war between the flesh and the Spirit. And the only way to win that war is by the power of the Spirit. You can’t win it yourself.

Now look at point 2 on your study sheet. Ishmael’s mother was Hagar, and Hagar represents the Law. The Galatians were trying to make the Jewish Law the means by which they were going to please God. But Paul reminds them of several important facts about the Law, as represented Hagar.

(1) First, Hagar was Abraham’s second wife, not his first. Sarah was his first wife. God didn’t begin with Hagar; he began with Sarah. He didn’t give the promises to Abraham and Hagar; He gave them to Abraham and Sarah.

And that reminds us that, in His dealings with us, God begins with grace. Grace has always been God’s original plan. Back in the Garden of Eden, God graciously provided a covering for Adam and Eve when they sinned. There was no Law back then.

When he dealt with Abraham, he dealt with him in grace, making a covenant with him and giving him divine promises of blessing––all on the basis of grace, not Law. When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, he did it by his grace. The Law had not even been given yet.

You see, the Law was added, as Paul says in Galatians 3:19––just as Hagar was added––to perform a temporary function and then pass off the scene. It was never meant to be a permanent feature of our relationship with God.

(2) Second, Hagar was a slave woman. Seven times in this passage we are reminded of that fact. And that reminds us that the Law was given to be a servant. God gave Israel the Law to be a mirror, to show them how sinful they were, and to be a monitor, to show them the way to Christ. But God never gave them the Law to be their spiritual mother.

(3) Third, Hagar could not provide an heir. Hagar’s pregnancy was the result of Abraham and Sarah’s impatience with God. They stepped in and tried to do God’s work for him. But that is not what God intended. Ishmael was not to be the heir––Isaac was.

And in the same way, the Law cannot give us a spiritual inheritance. It cannot give spiritual life to anyone (Gal. 3:21). It cannot make us righteous in God’s sight (Gal. 2:21). It cannot give us the gift of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:2). Only grace can.

(4) Fourth, although Hagar was under authority herself, she gave birth to a rebel. We read in Genesis 16:12 that Ishmael was a wild donkey of a man; his hand was against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he lived in hostility toward all his brothers.

Even though he was a slave, nobody could control him, not even his mother. In the same way, the old nature is wild––it is at war with God. Nobody can control the old nature, not even the Law. The Law cannot take away the rebelliousness of our old nature––in fact it just incites it even more. And that leads us to point #5…

(5) Hagar was ultimately cast out of Abraham’s house. In Genesis 21, Sarah ordered her out of the house with her child, and God approved of that order. The slave-woman and her child had to go.

Likewise in your spiritual life, the only way that you can deal with the Law and the old nature is to cast them out. You cannot hope to change your old nature. It’s not going to change. You can’t try to compromise and live your Christian life in the power of the flesh according to a legalistic framework, trying to keep your old nature under the control of the Law.

They’ve gotta go, just like Hagar and Ishmael had to go, because you can’t mix Law and Grace. You can’t mix the flesh and the Spirit. They will not co-exist.

The Galatians were trying to do that. And Paul said, “It’s not going to work. This is not what God wants for you.” Which leads me to ask, “What about you?”

Where are you at today in your Christian life? Are you trying to live on the basis of the law? Are you trying to please God in your own efforts, by trying to measure up to a list of do’s and don’ts, trying to keep your old nature on a leash? Or are you enjoying the freedom of grace?

We were born to be free. And next week, we’re going to look at how to live free.

The Purpose of the Law Gal. 3:15-25

A few weeks ago, I looked at my front lawn and I saw something that displeased me very greatly. I saw about two dozen dandelions. In the middle of my beautiful, lush green lawn were these two dozen dandelions.

Well, I was seized with a desire to do something about those dandelions. So I went in to my garage and grabbed a spray bottle of chemicals and proceeded to give every one of those ugly dandelions a shot right between the eyes.

There was only one problem with that. The spray that I used was not only meant to kill dandelions. It was meant to kill grass, too! In my overwhelming desire to get rid of those dandelions, I didn’t stop to read the label.

Well, the end result was that my lawn now looks like it has the measles. Everywhere I sprayed, there is a spot of dead grass. I wish that somebody had stopped me before I sprayed those dandelions and asked me, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

And as we get back into our studies in the book of Galatians, we might be tempted to ask that question about God: “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” We might want to ask that question about the Law of Moses, and the reason God gave that Law.

You see, Paul has just shown the Galatians––and shown them from the OT, no less–– that a person cannot gain right standing before God by doing what the Law commands.

Galatians 3:11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”

But that raises the question, “If God gave the Law in the first place, but salvation doesn’t come by the Law, then why did God give it? What in the world could be the purpose of the Law? Does God really know what he is doing?”

And that’s the question that we’ll attempt to answer today as we look at Galatians 3:15-25, which you’ll find on page 1153 of the pew Bible. You might also want to refer to the study notes that you have in your bulletin.

In this section, Paul is going to make three statements to help us understand the purpose of the Law, and the relationship between the Law that God gave to Moses and an even earlier promise that God gave to Abraham. Now the first statement that Paul makes is:

1. The Law cannot CHANGE the Promise

Galatians 3:15-18 Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to you r seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

God made a covenant with Abraham. We read about that covenant in Genesis 12ff. Now that covenant that God made with Abraham is one of the most important events that ever happened in the Bible. In fact, you cannot understand the rest of the Bible unless you understand what God was doing here with Abraham when he made this covenant.

That covenant involved several promises. God said to Abraham in Genesis 12:2, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Now we don’t have time to explore all of the ramifications of those promises. But I want you to understand two things about that covenant––it was unilateral and it was unconditional.

It was unilateral in that God alone made it. (Unilateral means “to take action by yourself”.) When God made this covenant with Abraham, he was taking action by himself. In fact, we read in Genesis 15 that God actually put Abraham to sleep when he ratified this covenant with him. It was all God’s doing. Abraham played no part in it. He was simply the recipient.

And secondly, this was an unconditional covenant. It didn’t depend on Abraham to live up to certain conditions in order to receive the promises that God was making to him.

It was different from a contract, in other words. In a contract, two parties agree that one will do something if the other does something in return. The plumber will install a new bathtub for you if you pay him some money. That’s a contract.

But an unconditional covenant is different. In an unconditional covenant, it doesn’t matter what the other person does. You’re going to carry out your side of the agreement regardless.

Now let’s stop here for a minute. Can you think of an example of an unconditional covenant? Sure you can. In fact, those of you who are married made such a covenant yourself.

When you get married, you stand up in front of a bunch of witnesses and you promise to love, honor, and be faithful to your marriage partner no matter what happens––for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; till death do you part.

If that person you marry doesn’t turn out to be a perfect husband, or wife, you’re still going to love them because you made an unconditional covenant. If your partner comes down with some incurable disease and becomes an invalid for the rest of their life, you’re still going to be faithful because you made an unconditional covenant. You see, with an unconditional covenant, it doesn’t matter what the other person does.

And that is the kind of covenant that God made with Abraham. It was unilateral and unconditional. So that means that nobody could come along later and change that

covenant.

Now God made those promises to Abraham around 2100 BC. That was long before he ever gave the Law to Moses. (If you want to find out just how long, check out the flip side of your study notes.)

And when God gave the Law to Moses, it didn’t mean that he was rescinding, or changing his covenant with Abraham one iota, because he had already given Abraham his word that he was going to do the things that he promised.

You see, the Judaizers implied that the giving of the Law changed or superseded that original covenant of promise. But Paul says, “No. It does not.” He says in verse 17, “The law…does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.” The Law cannot change the promise.

Now there’s a second thing that Paul tells us:

2. The Law is not GREATER THAN the Promise

Have you ever seen the movie “The Ten Commandments?” Do you remember the part where Charlton Heston went up on the mountain and received the Law? That was pretty impressive, wasn’t it? And when he came down, his face glowed because he had been in the presence of God.

When Moses received the Law from God on Mount Sinai, the Bible tells us that there was thunder and lightning and the sound of a trumpet blast and a voice speaking that was so terrifying that those who heart id begged not to hear it again. The children of Israel were not even allowed to go near the mountain. It was so scary that Moses himself shook with fear.

Now that was pretty awesome in comparison with the giving of the covenant to Abraham. When God gave the Law to Moses, thousands, if not millions, of people witnessed it. But when God gave the covenant to Abraham, only Abraham witnessed it. You might think that the manner in which they were given indicated the relative

importance of the two things. But that is not so.

The Law of Moses is actually inferior to God’s Covenant of grace with Abraham in three ways:

1. The Law was temporary.

Galatians 3:19 What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.

God intended the Law to be in effect for a limited period of time––until the coming of the Seed of Abraham: the Messiah––through whom all these promises and blessings were to be fulfilled. With the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Law was done away with––it was no longer needed. Because now the righteous demands of the Law are carried out in the lives of Christ’s followers through the Spirit, as Paul explains in Romans 8.

So it is obvious that a temporary Law cannot be greater than a permanent covenant.

2. The Law’s promises were conditional.

God promised to bless the children of Israel if they met certain conditions. There are whole sections of the Law which spell out what would happen if they obeyed the Law, and what would happen if they broke it.

But when you look at the covenant that God made with Abraham, you don’t see any “if’s” attached to those blessings. Nothing was conditional; the promises were given to Abraham by the grace of God.

So a conditional Law cannot be greater than an unconditional covenant.

3. The Law required a mediator.

Galatians 3:19-20 The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.

When God gave the Law to Israel, he did it by means of angels and through the mediation of Moses, who acted as the go-between for God and the people. This means that the Israelites actually got the Law third-hand––God gave it to angels, who gave it to Moses, who gave it to the people.

But when God made his covenant of grace with Abraham, he did it personally and directly, without a mediator. It was a unilateral, unconditional covenant, so there was no need for a mediator to stand between God and Abraham. God took the whole responsibility on himself.

It’s kind of like the difference between getting a personal phone call from the President of the United States versus getting a form letter from the White House that has been signed by one of those auto-signature machines.

A mediated Law cannot be greater than a personal covenant.

Now at this point, you may be wondering, “So does this mean that the Law might somehow be OPPOSED TO the covenant that God gave to Abraham?” No. Because Paul goes on to show us in verses 21-25 that …

3. The Law is not CONTRARY TO the Promise.

Galatians 3:21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.

A. The Law cannot give me life.

God gave the Law to regulate the daily lives of the Jewish people, but the Law could not provide them with spiritual life. If spiritual life and right standing before God could have come by keeping the Law, then Jesus Christ would never have needed to die on the cross. Because we could have all worked out our own salvation by keeping the Law.

But in the sovereignty of God, Jesus did come, and Jesus did die, because the Law cannot give me spiritual life. Only Jesus can. He’s the only way to God.

B. The Law shows me my sinfulness.

The other day I was out working in the garden planting some flowers. It was hot and I was sweating and my hands were dirty and when I wiped the sweat from my forehead, I left a dirty mark on my face.

Later on, I went into the bathroom and I looked into the mirror and I saw my dirty face. And I knew I needed to wash my face. So what did I do? Did I take that mirror off the wall and try to use it to wash my face? Of course not. That’s not what mirrors are for.

The mirror showed me that my face was dirty, but in order to clean it, I turned to something else.

And that is precisely the relationship between God’s Law and God’s grace. The Law shows me that I am a sinner. It shows me that God’s standard of holiness is so high that I can never measure up to it on my own efforts.

Romans 7:7 I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

So the Law shows me that I am a sinner. And that’s good. Because you won’t go to the doctor unless you know that you’re sick. God gave the Law to serve as a spiritual stethoscope that reveals the condition of our heart. But you don’t use the stethoscope to try to get well.

C. The Law’s purpose is to lead me to Christ.

Galatians 3:22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the

supervision of the law.

Paul uses an interesting illustration in verse 24 that he took from ancient family life. A well-to-do Roman family would have many slaves, who were actually like part of the family. Some of them were quite well educated. One of those well-educated slaves was given the job of supervising the upbringing of the child of the family. He was like a child guardian. They called him a pedagogue.

The pedagogue would watch over the child. He would sleep in the same room as the child. He would play games with the child to keep him amused. He would make sure that the child didn’t get into trouble. He would discipline him if he did. And he would also do a certain amount of teaching so that the child would learn about life.

But when the child reached a certain age of maturity, he would no longer be under the supervision of the pedagogue. He would be an adult, with all the rights and privileges of adulthood, and he would take his place at his father’s side in the family business.

Paul says that the Law was to Israel like a pedagogue was to that child. The pedagogue was not the child’s father; he was the child’s guardian and disciplinarian. Likewise, the Law wasn’t the thing that gave life to the nation Israel; it regulated their life.

And similarly, just as a pedagogue was responsible to prepare a child for adulthood and maturity, the Law was intended by God to prepare the nation Israel for the coming of their Messiah, Jesus Christ. The ultimate goal in God’s program was His coming, but “before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the Law, locked up until faith should be revealed” as Paul says in verse 23.

The Law prepared the children of Israel for the coming of Jesus Christ in many ways. The demands of the Law constantly reminded them that they needed a Savior. The sacrifices of the Law demonstrated that there could be no atonement without the shedding of blood. The various feasts and festivals of the Law, such as the Passover, pointed to the coming Messiah.

And yet, when Jesus came, the nation Israel did not recognize him as their Messiah. They did not accept him. They continued to insist that the Law was the key to their relationship with God. They continued to believe that the Law was what would give them spiritual life. They continued to live as though the pedagogue was really their father.

And so God disciplined them. He scattered the nation Israel and they are scattered to this day. There are more Jews who live outside the land of Israel than live in it. And God destroyed their Temple to make it impossible for them to continue to carry out the demands of the Law.

So today it is impossible for a devout Jew to live according to the OT Law. He can only pretend to do so, because there is no altar, no priesthood, no sacrifices, no Temple. And yet the tragedy of Israel is that so many Jews continue to cling to the Law.

Now you may be saying, “What does all this have to do with me?” Well, it has a lot to do with you and me, because it reveals to us a lot about the character of God and the way he deals with us.

1. It teaches us that God never does anything without a reason. God gave the Law for a reason. And that reason was to lead us to Christ by showing us that we are unable to save ourselves.

Many people nowadays think they’re going to get to heaven because they try to keep the Ten Commandments. But the Ten Commandments were never intended to get you to heaven. They were intended to lead you to Jesus by showing you how poorly you measure up to God’s standard of righteousness in your own efforts. That’s why God gave the Law.

2. Everything God does for us, he does for our good. The Law of Moses was, in many ways, a very stern, serious, intimidating thing that God gave to Israel. But even so, we have seen how God intended it for their good.

And oftentimes God sends things into our lives which we really wonder about. Things that are difficult –– Accidents, sickness, pain, suffering … How can these things be good? And yet God works all things together for good to those who love him.

The worst thing that God can do for us is better than the best thing we can do for ourselves. Because he loves us perfectly and wants to bring us to Himself.

3. God never contradicts himself. We have seen today how the Law did not contradict the promise of grace that God gave to Abraham. The Law actually cooperated with that promise by leading us to see our need for Jesus Christ.

God never makes mistakes!

4. All of God’s plans––his plan for Abraham, his plan for Moses, his plan for the nation Israel, and his plan for you and me––they all find their fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the center of God’s plan for all of us. Jesus is the goal that God is working toward in human history.

So that means that knowing Jesus and having a relationship with him puts you in step with God’s program.

From Slavery to Sonship Gal. 3:26-4:7

This past week, TIME magazine had an exclusive interview with First Lady Hillary Clinton. During that interview, Mrs. Clinton revealed that she and her husband were thinking about the possibility of adopting a child.

Now, apart from what you think of that possibility, and what you think of the Clintons, I want you to try to imagine that scenario through the eyes of the child. This child is currently without parents. He or she may be living somewhere in an orphanage, a foster home, or maybe even in a third-world country overseas.

This child is currently a ward of the state. His or her legal status and well-being and rights are under the care of an impersonal guardian appointed by some government agency. The child has none of the advantages of a loving family, with a father and a mother to watch out for his interests, education, and upbringing.

Now suppose that child were chosen to be adopted by the First Family of the United States. Overnight, there would be an enormous change in that child’s position. He or she would go from being a parentless, and perhaps even homeless, orphan to living in the White House in Washington, D.C. as a full-fledged member of the most famous family on earth. That child would be given the surname of the 42nd President of the United States––a name that will one day go down in the history books. His or her legal rights would now be assumed and protected by the most powerful man on earth.

And there would be a tremendous change in that child’s privileges as well. He or she would go from being a nameless, virtually anonymous face in the crowd to a VIP with Secret Service protection. That child would be able to go to the most exclusive schools and gain the best possible education. He or she would be whisked to and from appointments in a chauffeur-driven limousine, or a Marine helicopter. And on any given day of the week, that child would be able to walk into the Oval Office and address the President of the United States as “Daddy”.

Adoption, you see, brings about a change in position and a change in privilege. And nowhere is that more true than in the spiritual realm. And that’s what we want to look

at today in our passage in Galatians 3, which is found on page 1153 of the pew Bible. You might also want to refer to the study notes in your bulletin.

In this passage, which goes from verse 26 of chapter 3 to verse 7 of chapter 4, Paul talks about our position in Christ and our privilege in Christ. He is writing to the Galatians, who were new believers who had just recently put their trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior. However, they had run into some teachers who had told them that, in order to really be saved––in order to really be acceptable to God––they needed to adopt the Jewish Law.

So Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians to refute that idea. And he sought to show them that, if they began to regard the Jewish Law as the basis for their relationship with God, they would be taking a giant step backward spiritually. And he used the illustration of adoption to make that point in this passage.

Now we need to clarify our understanding of adoption as practiced in the ancient Roman world before we go any farther. Because that is the world in which Paul and the Galatians lived. They lived in the Roman Empire. They lived in a Roman culture. So we need to understand things from that perspective.

There is a significant difference in the way adoption was understood and practiced in the Roman Empire from the way we understand it now.

We regard adoption as when parents take a child who is not their own, biologically, and bring that child into their family. And the Romans understood it that way, too. But the Romans also understood adoption another way––and actually practiced it far more commonly this other way.

They actually adopted their own children. How did they do that, you say? When a child was born into a Roman family, particularly a well-to-do Roman family, that child was placed under the guardianship of a hired servant, or a slave, who was called a pedagogue. The word literally means a “child-guide”.

The pedagogue was in charge of every aspect of that child’s upbringing. He would instruct him, he would watch over him, he would discipline him. But then, when the child was approaching adulthood, usually during the teenage years, on a day chosen by the child’s father, there would be a special ceremony during which the child would be adopted by the family.

He was already a member of the family biologically. But on the day he was adopted, he received his full rights and privileges as an adult member of his family. It was like a coming-of-age ceremony. Now he was recognized to be an adult. He would no longer be under the supervision of the pedagogue. Now he would take his place beside his father and his older brothers as a peer, as an equal, as a full-fledged heir of the family estate.

This is the picture of adoption that Paul is painting for us in the book of Galatians. And we need to understand that and remember that in order to fully understand what he is saying to us here. Look at verse 26…

Galatians 3:26-27 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus

The word he uses for “son” there refers to an adult son––a son who has reached the age of maturity. And if we place our faith in Jesus Christ, this is how God regards us. He regards us as full-fledged adult members of his family. That is our IDENTITY in Christ. We are sons of God.

He says in verse 27 “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

The word baptized there does not refer to water baptism. The word “baptize” simply means to take something and put it into something else. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, God takes us and places us into the Body of Christ––the Church.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized

by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

So, as followers of Christ, we have gained a new position. We’re no longer outsiders; we’re in God’s family––we’re in the Church of Jesus Christ––because God has put us there. And the ordinance of water baptism is simply a picture of that. When you go down into the water, you are re-enacting, in an outward way, a spiritual change that has already taken place. Water baptism is just a symbol of a spiritual truth.

And Paul goes on to say “we have clothed ourselves with Christ.” This is a very beautiful illustration of something else that happened in a Roman adoption ceremony.

When a Roman young man came of age, his father, at the adoption ceremony, would give him a robe that they called the “toga virillis”. He would take off his boyhood tunic and put on the toga. And the putting on of this toga signified that he was now a full-fledged mature adult, with all the rights and privileges of an adult.

And Paul says just as that Roman lad puts on the toga to signify his arrival at the age of maturity, so we have put on Christ. We have taken off the rags of our own righteousness and put on the royal robe of Christ’s righteousness which makes us acceptable to God.

Now there was something else that a Roman father did for his son at the adoption ceremony. He gave him a signet ring. That ring bore the engraved mark of the family name. In ancient times, when you wrote a letter, or conducted some legal transaction, you sealed that document with wax and while the wax was still soft, you impressed it with your signet ring, so that the document now bore the mark of your family name. Remember, this is what Pilate did to seal the tomb of Jesus.

Now, obviously, you are not going to give a signet ring to just anybody. You’re not going to give it to a child. You’re only going to give it to a mature, responsible member of the family. Because that seal has a legal importance to it. It is legally binding.

Remember the parable that Jesus told of the Prodigal Son? In that story, when the Prodigal Son returned, his father––rather than punishing him––did several very beautiful things. First, he embraced his son. He didn’t nag him. He didn’t give him a lecture. Jesus said that while the son was still a long way off, the father ran and embraced him and kissed him.

Then, he probably gave him a bath. The Bible doesn’t say this, but I think it must have happened, because the son had been living with pigs. He must have smelled pretty bad!

And then, Jesus says, the father put a robe on him––it was the toga virillis––the robe of acceptance––and a ring on his finger––it was the family signet ring. Do you see the significance? The son was prepared to come back to his father’s house as a servant. He knew that he didn’t even deserve to be a son any longer for what he had done.

But the father says “Nothing doing. I accept you back, not just as my son, but as an adult son, with all the rights and privileges of the family name. Here is the robe. Here is the ring. Now let’s have a party.”

Oh, the goodness and grace of God! For this is what he has done for us who come to him in Jesus name. He gives us a new IDENTITY.

And he gives us a new EQUALITY in Christ. Look at verse 28:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

We live in a world that is rife with division. There are cultural barriers, racial barriers, economic barriers, social barriers, gender barriers, denominational barriers. We just seem to mistrust and dislike anyone who is different from ourselves.

And all the legislation, information, and education in the world cannot remove those barriers. Only Jesus can. In Christ, the walls that divide people are broken down. There’s much more I could say on this but we must move on.

In Christ, we have a new IDENTITY. In Christ, we have a new EQUALITY. And in Christ, we have a new DESTINY. We are heirs according to the promise that God gave to Abraham.

Galatians 3:29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

When God made that unilateral, unconditional covenant with Abraham back in the book of Genesis, Paul says in verse 16 “the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.”

Now if we have put our trust in Christ, and God has placed us––or baptized us––into the Body of Christ, then we are heirs, along with Christ, of the promises that God made to Abraham.

Paul says in Galatians 3:7 “that those who believe are children of Abraham.” And again in verse 9 “those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

The blessing that we receive is the same blessing that Abraham received. He believed God and so God credited that to him as righteousness. When you take Jesus as your Savior, you are believing God. And so God credits that to you as righteousness. You gain right standing before God, just like Abraham did. And you gain eternal life, just like Abraham. So in Christ, we have a new DESTINY.

Our position has changed because God has adopted us. And our privileges have changed as well. In chapter 4:1–7, Paul returns to this idea of adoption as practiced in a Roman family. And he shows the difference in the privileges of the child before he reaches the age of maturity, and afterward. It’s like one of those “before and after” pictures that he paints for us. Let’s look at those verses…

Galatians 4:1-2 What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and

trustees until the time set by his father.

To be a child in such a Roman family was no special treat. You were under the thumb of the servant who was placed in charge of you. When he whistled, you jumped. He could boss you around and discipline you when you got out of line. Life was no bed of roses! Even though one day you would inherit the whole estate, you lived the life of a slave until the time of maturity came.

Notice that the time of maturity was a time set by the father. It wasn’t just an arbitrary age, like 18, such as we have in our society. The father, in his wisdom, determined exactly when it would be. Paul goes on to say…

Galatians 4:3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.

Many people have wondered what those “basic principles of the world” might be –– what this verse really means. The actual expression in the Greek means “things that are lined up in a row,” and the idea seems to be basic, elementary things that we have to do before we can move on to something more advanced.

Remember when you were in first grade learning how to write? The teacher taught you how to hold the pen and how to make the letters of the alphabet. And there were charts on the classroom wall, with the various letters of the alphabet, and how they were supposed to look. And as you wrote your first faltering letters as a child, you were under the authority of those A,B,C charts. You were like a slave to those penmanship diagrams.

What Paul means here is that, before we came to Christ, we were under a similar kind of authority. We were under a sort of religious slavery. If you happened to be Jewish, as Paul was, your slavemaster was the Law of Moses. If you happened to be Gentiles, as the Galatians were, your slavemaster would have been the religious dictates of whatever pagan religion you happened to belong to.

Everyone, no matter what their religious background before coming to Christ, is in a sort of slavery-relationship to their religion. Their religious faith is something they know they have to live up to, but somehow, they just never can seem to live up to it.

They go through the rituals and the ceremonies, and they try hard to uphold the traditions, but somehow it never seems to be very satisfying. And no matter how zealous you are about it, it never seems to be enough. And it never seems to draw you closer to God.

And this was true of the Jewish people under the Law of Moses, and the Galatian Gentiles under the pagan religions they practiced. They were in bondage, and in a state of spiritual poverty, and in spite of their religious zeal, God seemed to be a distant, remote, intimidating figure. They lived in fear of him.

Galatians 4:4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

Jesus came in the fullness of time, and not a moment sooner or later. God sent his Son––the word for “sent” is the same word from which we get our word “apostle”. It means someone who has been sent on a mission. Jesus Christ was the first apostle.

He came down from heaven, a member of the Godhead, on a mission. He was God very God, but he also became a man, because Paul says that he was born of a woman. This refers to the Virgin Birth. (cf. GEN 3:15)

And he was an Israelite, because he was born under the Law. God was fulfilling those promises he made to Abraham. When the Savior of the world came, he didn’t come as a German, or an Englishman, or a Japanese. He came as a Jew. He came as a descendant of Abraham, because of the covenant that God had made to Abraham to bless all nations through him.

And he came to redeem those under the Law––the Jews, but also the Gentiles––that we might receive the adoption––the full rights of sons.

So that means that there is a tremendous contrast in the privileges I have i Christ with what I had before coming to Christ. Under the Law, I was a slave. I was in bondage. I was a spiritual pauper. And I was alienated from God. He was distant and remote.

But in Christ, I am no longer a slave; I am an adult son. I am free, and have all the rights and privileges of a son. I am an heir of my father’s estate, and a joint-heir with Christ. And look at verse 6…

Galatians 4:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

Last weekend, my wife and three youngest sons were in Buffalo. And when they returned on Monday night, the little guys jumped out of the van and threw themselves into my arms and cried “Daddy!”

That expression is the equivalent of the Aramaic word “Abba.” It is the word “Daddy.” It is a term of affection, and endearment, and intimacy, and comfort. It speaks of a closeness and trust and security.

It is what Jesus called his Father when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane in Mark 14:36. And it is how we can cry out to God because God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.

These are the fruits of our adoption into God’s family. When you become a Christian, you go from slavery to sonship. God gives you a new position, and he showers you with wonderful new privilege in Christ. To want to go back to a legalistic, religious way of living under the Law as the Galatians were in danger of doing, would be utter folly.

Adopting a legalistic religious lifestyle would mean turning your back on all of the wonderful blessings that God has for you through his grace in Christ. It would be like spending a night in the White House as a member of the First Family and then choosing to go back to the orphanage.