Title: Adopted into a new Family

Text: Gal 4:4-7

Date: 03-09-03.am

In the first three chapters of this letter Paul has been arguing for, or maybe a better way to put it is presenting evidence in support of faith based righteousness. The doctrine of “justification by faith.”

He has presented evidence based on his personal experience and the personal experience of the Galatian believers. Then he presented a clear presentation of support from the Scripture to support or confirm their experience and clarify the doctrine. It’s important I think for us to understand not only what Paul said but the way it was presented as well. That is personal experience must be consistent with Biblical teaching. Most all religions, cults, sects, groups have been founded and based on someone’s experience. Because you experience something doesn’t mean it’s from God just because you experienced it. Paul was making the point what they had experienced justification by faith, was real and it was scriptural. It explained it’s consistency with the covenant God made with Abraham, and he showed why the law didn’t set aside that covenant and exactly what the purpose of the law was.

Last week we saw how justification by faith brought into us a new and right relationship with God. We saw it also brought about personal transformation, and it created a spiritual equality among all people, races, cultures, and genders. Everyone stands before Christ justified in the same way.

This morning I want us to look in chapter 4 at verses 4 through 7. Paul introduces another doctrinal concept – adoption.

Gal 4:4-7: 4 But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. (NAS)

God sent forth his Son, as we heard Dr Roberts, President of Midwestern Seminary say Sunday night, His unique Son, when the time for His purpose had come according to God’s timetable. It was a time when the Greeks had brought a common language to most of the world, the Romans developed a system of roads that made travel between places easier and they had initiated a system of law and order that had not previously existed to make travel a little safer than it had even been, that provided an avenue for the spread of the gospel. It was the perfect time for Christ and the gospel to come into the world.

And, just as all men are born, Jesus was born into this world by a woman. Dr. A. T. Robertson points out that while Paul is not making a direct reference here to the Virgin Birth, the language he used supports the doctrinal idea. Paul does affirm the deity of Jesus by using the words "his Son," referring as we said to God’s unique preexistent Son, and he affirmed His humanity by the words “born of a woman,” so here Paul asserts both Christ’s deity and humanity as factual, not mythological not allegorical. This is the unexplainable unique reality of the incarnation. When the time was right the divine Word which was with God and was the very essence of God became flesh, became a man and personally entered into human history and yet remained fully and completely God.

The importance and impact of this message can’t be ignored. God Himself, clothed Himself in human flesh, left the glories of heaven, entered history to suffer shame and humiliation, to bear our sin and reproach, to die in our place on a cross that we might be reconciled to Him; that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law and from the wages of sin and from eternal separation from a God who loved us. That’s truly good News for all mankind.

Paul then introduces a new theological concept to our understanding of redemption and justification – adoption. Justification is the legal action of a merciful judge setting a prisoner free, in the case of spiritual doctrine of justification by faith it is the act of Almighty God, the Righteous Judge of creation whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous in Jesus Christ.

Adoption is another aspect of that same experience, but it is relational. Rather than the act of a judge, it is the act of a loving Father embracing as a son one who is not a natural son, and endowing him with freedom, blessing and inheritance.

The term is unique to Paul’s writing. It literally means “placing a son.” Adoption is the legal process by which a man might bring into his family a person who was not by nature his son or even his kin and endow that person with the status and privileges of a son. While it is a legal term, the foundational idea behind it seems to be one that expresses the idea of a relationship.

The adoption custom was prevalent among the Greeks and Romans, but there doesn’t seem to have been corresponding practice of this type among the Jewish people. Paul, though a Jew by birth, was also a Roman citizen as well as being from the city of Tarsus which was a cosmopolitan city would certainly be aware of the custom and used this metaphor in much the same way Jesus used parables. It’s something we have already seen several times already in this letter, Paul using an illustration from everyday life to explain a spiritual concept.

Like we said last week, the use of son and sonship are important in understanding the relational concept of adoption. There was no corresponding practice for adopting women within the Greek or Roman cultures. But the idea is that when a person was adopted and made a son, he then obtained a privileged status as one writer describes it the adopted person was regarded as being “born again” into a new family, and became an heir or joint heir to all that was the fathers.

The initiative in an adoption was always with the adoptive father, and in this case like justification, adoption is always the initiative of our Heavenly Father.

Spiritual equality within the family of God is again emphasized here in that men and women, Jew and Greek, slave and free are equally adopted into this special relationship with God through faith.

The confirmation of our adoption is the gift of the Holy Spirit, whom Paul refers to as the Spirit of His Son. As a side issue you might want to note that while Paul isn’t fully developing a Trinitarian teaching here he does incorporate the three persons of the Godhead – Father, Son and Spirit into this passage on adoption consistent with other New Testament that develop that doctrine which is one of the foundational Christian beliefs.

Paul says God sends forth the Spirit into our hearts, and when he says hearts he is making reference to our innermost being, not just emotional being, but our physical, spiritual and intellectual being. God’s Spirit permeates every aspect of our being, everything that makes us who we are, pervades the very center of our existence. And, Paul says in Rom 8:16: “. . .bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” (NAS). Not only has God given us His revelation that we might know we are His, but He has given us His very Spirit resident within us to confirm that written revelation.

The Spirit has many ministries in our lives, but the one Paul mentions here is that God’s Spirit enables us with confidence and assurance to cry out to Him “Abba! Father! Something unheard of, something unimaginable. God is Holy and righteous and Pure and just and on and on you could apply adjectives that signify how much greater and higher God is than man.

The term Abba is a term of endearment, it is an intimate personal term of reference that we might translate daddy. It is unthinkable that mere men who are sinful and unrighteous and unclean could call Almighty God by such personal term. But through adoption and the indwelling Spirit we are bought into an intimate relationship with a heavenly Father. A Father we can call daddy. You see I have a wonderful relationship with everyone in this church, at least I think I do, it is a personal and a loving relationship. But you know what you call me, most of you call me R.D.. You don’t have to call me Pastor or Preacher or Reverend, just R.D. and that’s good. That means we have a personal relationship, but you know there is one person who calls me daddy and that relationship is special, actually now that I think about it there are two people who call me daddy and maybe a couple of more who could because of the closeness of our relationship, but the point is it signifies a special relationship. You may have someone you call daddy and you understand that intimate personal relationship, and because we have been adopted into God’s family and because He is our Father we have, and because He has given us His Spirit we have the wonderful privilege of calling Him daddy. Of being able to approach Him at any time and any place for any reason and know He is there for us, that we are special that we are His sons.

Let me ask you can you call Him daddy? Do you enjoy that kind of a loving relationship with the Father? You can, because He has made it possible, he has provided all that’s necessary for you to become His son. Maybe you haven’t experienced that intimacy lately, maybe you’ve rebelled, maybe you have moved away from His presence and forgot to call Him lately. But He’s still there. His love hasn’t grown cold and He still wants you to come back to Him, and He wants to hear you call Him daddy. He wants to hear you call to Him to draw you nearer.

#290 I Am Thine, O Lord