I invite you to join me in the New Testament letter of Galatians as we continue our study through this letter. We will look at the last couple of verses in chapter 3 and go a little into chapter 4 today.
As you find Galatians 3 in your copy of God’s word, I want to talk for a moment about a topic that is near and dear to some of your hearts: adoption.
Adoption
Adoption is one of the most beautiful and challenging things a family can do on this earth. Some of you here today have walked the road of adoption before. You may have been adopted yourself, or your family may have adopted a child. I want to start by saying, “Thank you!” Thank you for opening your heart and homes to children in need.
If you’ve walked the road of adoption, you know it is not an easy road. It costs a great deal in time, money, and tears (both good and bad). I have enjoyed hearing some of the stories of people who have walked through adoption, and while each story is unique, there has always been a common theme: it was worth it!
Adoption is a topic that is on the minds of many people today. I know that it comes across the conversations in our home every so often. It is something we have prayed about and are very open to. We are just waiting for the green light from the Lord on it. Some of you may even be praying about it yourselves. I would encourage you to do just that: pray and open your heart to the possibility of adoption.
Why is adoption a topic that seems to be on so many hearts?
Some may say that there is just no reason that a child should grow up without a loving family environment. I agree with that statement, but I think something even deeper is at play. Adoption has its roots in the heart of God. This is something that the apostle Paul addresses in the text we are looking at today.
24 The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. 25 But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus. 27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise. 1 Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. 2 Instead, he is under guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world. 4 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God 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 God has made you an heir.
Galatians 3:24 – 4:7
In the first three chapters of Galatians, Paul talks a great deal about justification. Justification is a legal term that means, in the context of Galatians, a gracious act of God by which He declares a sinner righteous solely through faith in Jesus Christ. Martin Luther stated that the doctrine of justification by faith was the doctrine upon which the church stands or falls. John Calvin said, “It is the hinge around which everything turns.”
Justification by faith is definitely an important doctrine of the Christian faith. This is one reason why Paul has highlighted this doctrine up to this point. At the end of chapter 3, Paul shifts the focus to a doctrine that might be even sweeter than justification.
The Doctrine of Adoption
I do not want to downplay the importance of justification by faith because it is the only means that we can stand before a holy God. The justification one experiences when one trusts in Jesus’ finished work on the cross is the fundamental and primary blessing of the gospel because it meets our greatest need.
J.I. Packer, in his book Knowing God, shares that the doctrine of justification makes us right before God the judge, but in the doctrine of adoption, we are loved by God the Father. Justification is a legal term that means “not guilty.” As Packer illustrates in Knowing God, we stand before a judge who makes a pronouncement. But in adoption, the judge not only declares you “not guilty,” but He also gets up off the bench, comes down to where you are, takes your chains off of you, and says, “Come home with Me as My son.”
Packer answers, “What is a Christian?” by saying, “The richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father.” This is something that Paul wanted to remind the Galatians about. When they trusted in Jesus, not only were their sins forgiven, but they were adopted into the family of God.
Do we realize that the gracious gift God extends to us through the cross and empty tomb is not just the forgiveness of sins but a complete change of who we are?
Why sons?
In verse 26, Paul says that we all become sons of God. He was not only talking to the males in the Galatian churches; He was also talking to the females. This is not a chauvinistic statement. Instead, it points to specific customs present in the first century.
Most of the known cultures of that day believed that sons were the heirs in the family. Daughters were not typically recognized as those who inherited anything from the family. Paul says that whether male or female, you become an heir to the whole inheritance as a child of God.
Paul’s insertion of this crucial doctrine of the Christian faith is a key point he makes to the Galatians. They were tempted to add things to the gospel. They were told you had to work to become part of the family. That doesn’t happen. A child does no work to become part of the family. The work is done by a parent or guardian to bring the child into the family.
I’m afraid many of us are also tempted to earn and keep our spot in the family. We are told by different sources that you have to do this or that, or you can’t do this or that and be part of the family.
God sent His one and only Son to be the sacrifice for our sins and bring those who trust Him into His family as adopted children. Because of that fact, God is the one who determines whether a person is a child or not. It’s not determined by a list of do’s and don’ts.
What should be our response?
David Platt shares this truth about the adoption of two of his children. He says, “Their status is based on what a judge in their country declared years ago, but their life is based on our relationship every day as we play cars and read books and run around the yard and go to Moe’s for dinner and sing songs on the way home.”
If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, then know that you were declared righteous through faith in Christ at that moment. But know this just as much you were given a new life in Him — a living relationship with the God you were separated from. You can talk with Him and hang out with Him at any moment. He is constantly pouring His love, affection, and strength upon you as a loving parent does for their child.
Baptism
Baptism has been an important part of the Christian life since the beginning of the church. While the waters of baptism do not wash away the sin of our lives — Jesus’ blood does that — it has been the sign of identification that you belong to God for the world to see. Paul talks about this in Galatians 3:27.
27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.
Galatians 3:27 (CSB)
This is the picture of identifying that you are no longer the person you used to be. You have been made a new creation in Jesus. From the beginning of the church in the first century, baptism has been the public profession of a person’s faith in Christ.
Have you made that profession of faith? Have you let the world know that you have placed your faith in Jesus and are no longer your own but are now following Him as your Lord? If not, we would love to talk with you about doing that. It should be the first act of obedience to the One who saved you and brought you into His family.
A Life of Worship
In Galatians 4:6-7, Paul says…
6 And because you are sons, God 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 God has made you an heir.
Galatians 4:6–7(CSB)
God places His Holy Spirit within the heart of every person who puts their faith in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit lives within us to guide and convict us of sin, but as Paul shares here — to enable us to call out to God as “Abba.”
If you didn’t know, “Abba” is the Aramaic form of “Daddy.” We don’t come before God as “the big guy upstairs” or some distant cosmic being. We come to Him as our heavenly Daddy, and we are His child.
When you are pushed into thinking that you have to earn your way into God’s good graces, you lose sight of the reality that because you trusted in Him, you already are there. You get to call out to Him as “Daddy.”
When was the last time you recognized God as “Daddy”? When we realize we have this new relationship with God, we can begin to live our lives not as a means to earn a position but as a thanksgiving offering to God for what He has given us.
Conclusion
Paul was greatly concerned that the Galatian believers were being led astray from the truth of the gospel. They were forgetting who they were in Christ and the wonderful gifts that God had granted to them. They did not need to try to earn God’s favor; they already had it!
I wonder how many of us today fall into that same trap. We are told that we are not what we should be. While it is true that each of us is a work in progress, we are not outsiders trying to work our way in.
Jesus has brought each person who has placed their faith in Him into the family of God. We are heirs of the promise, and nothing can ever take that away. Because of that great promise, let us live each day not to earn God’s favor but to realize it already rests on those who are His!
