From Slaves to Sons

When I wrote to Galatia I reached for a picture from any household they knew: "the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father" (Galatians 4:1-2). The child owns everything, yet he is fenced in, watched over, not yet free to enter his inheritance. That, I said, was our condition under the law — "in bondage under the elements of the world" (Galatians 4:3). Not orphaned, but not yet home.

Then came the turn on which everything hangs: "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Galatians 4:4-5). Mark how far he came down to bring us up — born of a woman, born under the very law that condemned us, so that he might buy us out from under it. And having made us sons, God will not leave us cold and doubting our place: "because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6). The Son was sent to purchase you; the Spirit is sent to persuade you — to teach your frightened heart to say Father and mean it. "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ" (Galatians 4:7).

So hear the ache in my next words. Having come so far — from serving "them which by nature are no gods" (Galatians 4:8) to being known of God — why would they crawl back to "the weak and beggarly elements" (Galatians 4:9), counting off days and months and years as if their standing hung on a calendar? I did not fear their idols half so much as their religion. It is a strange grief to watch a son return to the servants' quarters when the Father's table is set for him. Beloved, whatever you are tempted to add to Christ — some rule, some ritual, some measured performance to feel finally accepted — it is a return to slavery dressed up as devotion. You are already a son. Live like one.

Then I could hold back no longer, and I stopped arguing and simply pleaded. I reminded them how they first received me, sick and weak, and welcomed me "as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus" (Galatians 4:14) — and I asked, "Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" (Galatians 4:16). Those flattering teachers courted them only to shut them out and be courted in return (Galatians 4:17). But I wanted no such thing. Hear how I finally named them: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Galatians 4:19). That is the whole aim of grace — not that you keep a better set of rules, but that Christ himself be formed in you, until the family likeness shows. If you are his today, rest in it, and let the Spirit teach your heart its true and only word: Abba, Father.

Grace and peace to you.