Sunday's Message - The Book of Galatians: Set Free. Live Free (Children, Not Slaves - Galatians 3:15–4:7)

During most of the Summer, the congregation of Sligo Presbyterian Church will explore the Apostle Paul's Letter to the Galatians and consider how we might claim the freedom we have in Jesus Christ. During our time together, we'll explore the following:

• May 26 - One Gospel (Galatians 1:1-10)
• June 2 - Grace Changes Everything! (Galatians 1:10-24)
• June 9 - Getting the Gospel Right (Galatians 2:1-21)
• June 16 - Don't Be Stupid! (Galatians 3:1-14)
• June 23 - Children, Not Slaves (Galatians 3:15–4:7)
• July 7 - Don't Look Back (Galatians 4:8-20)
• July 14 - Effort Vs. Grace (Galatians 4:21-31)
• July 21 - Set Free! (Galatians 5:1-12)
• July 28 - Living Our Freedom (Galatians 5:13-26)
• August 4 - Sowing and Reaping (Galatians 6:1-18)

On Sunday, we continued the series by looking at Galatians 3:15–4:7 and by discussing how, through Jesus Christ, we've the children of God. Below are a recording and the text of the sermon. You can stream the service by going to the Sligo Presbyterian Church YouTube Channel on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. (EDT) 

Although I doubt that I need to mention it, we officially crossed over into summer this last week. Of course, since the heat index (whatever that is) has been hovering around 100, I think most of us already know what season we’re in. And I’ll tell you, as I get older, I find summers harder and harder to endure. I don’t know about y’all, but this heat makes me feel like a limp dishrag or maybe a wilted plant. But you know, that’s not the way it used to be. I mean, back when I was kid, summers were great. We played outside all day and we slept inside all night. And remember, I grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, right on the Chesapeake Bay, where the summer humidity never seems to be lower than 90%. And not only did our house lack air conditioning, we had these horrible crank out windows which meant you could never feel a breeze. But did that slow us down? No way. Not only did we all survive, man, we flourished, something I’m having a hard time doing right now.

Of course, I’ll have the chance to relive some of those childhood memories, starting tomorrow evening. You see, Debbie and I are going to visit my Dad for a few days. And when we’re not at the Surf Rider having the best crab cakes on the east coast or getting a grinder at Zeros or eating a pizza at the Azalea Inn, we’ll be spending most of our time in the house where my family has lived since 1959. And although (Praise the Lord), it’s had central air conditioning since the early ‘70s, I fully expect to be focusing on some childhood stuff while I’m there. And since I don’t think my mom threw out anything we ever got or made, I’ll have plenty of opportunities to turn back the clock a little bit and remember the ‘60s on Moose Avenue. As a matter of fact, last Sunday when I was talking to him, Dad told me that he’d found, in the back of a drawer, Mr. Bear, my constant companion from the age three to five, outside of times Mom had to wash him and then hang him on the clothesline by the ears to dry. Now that’s what I’ll be doing while in Norfolk. 

And you know, it’s interesting, this morning we’re going to talk about something similar. You see, we’re going to talk about childhood, but not as it relates to where we lived or how we were raised or what temperatures we survived. Instead, we’re going to consider what Paul had in mind when he called the Galatians children, not slaves. Of course, this really flowed from what he’d already written to this congregation who had turned from a gospel grounded on undeserved grace and bought into the idea that God’s mercy and love really needed to be earned by obeying some of the Jewish laws, an assertion that Paul, in no uncertain terms, called false because not only was it radically different from what the Galatians believed when they first heard about Jesus Christ, it violated what was written in the Old Testament and in particular in God’s relationship with the Jewish GOAT, and I’m talking about Abraham himself. Now that’s some of the stuff we’ve already covered. And as he continued this letter to win the Galatians back to the truth, Paul brought up the idea that, through God and not us, we’ve become his children. And that’s what we’re going to look at this morning. You see, we’re going to consider what Paul wrote and then what it means to us. 

Of course, we can’t really talk about what it means until we have a pretty good understanding of what the Apostle Paul actually said. And I’ll tell you, when we read what he wrote in chapter three, verse fifteen through chapter four, verse seven, I think Paul made three really important points.

For example, first, I believe he wrote that God made a promise to Abraham, something we looked at last week, but which Paul expanded as he continued his letter. I mean, just listen to what he said:

My friends, I will use an everyday example to explain what I mean. Once someone agrees to something, no one else can change or cancel the agreement. That is how it is with the promises God made to Abraham and his descendant. The promises were not made to many descendants, but only to one, and that one is Christ. What I am saying is that the Law cannot change or cancel God’s promise made 430 years before the Law was given. If we have to obey the Law in order to receive God’s blessings, those blessings don’t really come to us because of God’s promise. But God was kind to Abraham and made him a promise. [Galatians 3:15-18, CEV]

Now that’s what he wrote and just think about what it means. You see, as we’ve already talked about, God made a promise to Abraham, that God would give Abraham deserved grace and that Abraham would receive it through faith, and remember, in both Hebrew and Greek, “faith” is simply another word for “trust.” In other words, on God’s side, he gave grace and on Abraham’s side, he trusted that it was given; that’s it. Of course, since this promise was made by God, it couldn’t be changed by us, even if that’s what we might want to do. The terms were set. And according to Paul, they remained set, until the coming of Jesus Christ, the one who would both fulfil the promise God made to us and enable us to have faith in him. You see, because Jesus came as a human descendent of Abraham, the promise could now be applied to all the other descendants of Abraham, including us. Now, I think that was Paul’s first point.

And second, it was during that time between the promise being made to Abraham and being fulfilled by Jesus, it was during this time when the Law was really important. Just listen to how he described it to the Galatians:

What is the use of the Law? It was given later to show that we sin. But it was only supposed to last until the coming of that descendant who was given the promise. In fact, angels gave the Law to Moses, and he gave it to the people. There is only one God, and the Law did not come directly from him.

The Law controlled us and kept us under its power until the time came when we would have faith. In fact, the Law was to be our teacher until Christ came. Then we could have faith and be acceptable to God. But once a person has learned to have faith, there is no more need to have the Law as a teacher. [Galatians 3:19-20, 23-25, CEV]

Now that’s what Paul wrote and let’s talk about what that might mean. You see, for him, the Jewish Law, you know, all that stuff in the first five books of the Old Testament, it was given to keep us straight and focused until the coming of Christ. It was sort of like a guardian to a child who’s lost his very wealthy parents and will inherit a boatload of money, but just not yet;  kind of like Alfred was to Bruce Wayne. The Law given simply to prepare us for the time when the inheritance would be ours, in other words, when the promise could be fulfilled. And since that happened when Jesus Christ came, I mean, since, from that time, our relationship with God was going to be based on undeserved grace from God and simple trust from us, the Law, that was really important before, it was no longer necessary. You see, it had done its job and could, as it concerns our relationship with God, fade into the sunset. Now I think that was Paul’s second point.

And point number three, since all of this happened when Christ came, at that moment, our relationship with God changed. Again, just listen:

All of you are God’s children because of your faith in Christ Jesus. And when you were baptized, it was as though you had put on Christ in the same way you put on new clothes. Faith in Christ Jesus is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman. So if you belong to Christ, you are now part of Abraham’s family, and you will be given what God has promised. 

But when the time was right, God sent his Son, and a woman gave birth to him. His Son obeyed the Law, so he could set us free from the Law, and we could become God’s children. Now that we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. And his Spirit tells us that God is our Father. You are no longer slaves. You are God’s children, and you will be given what he has promised. [Galatians 3:26-29, 4:4-7, CEV]

Now that’s what Paul said, and I think this is really cool. I mean, since the promise made to Abraham, you know, the promise dealing with grace and faith, since that it applies to us, not only do we no longer need a bunch of rules to prepare us for something that’s already come, now, our entire relationship with God has changed. And since the possibility of that change came through Jesus Christ, God’s son, in a very real sense, we’re brought into that same relationship Jesus shares with his father. Through him, we are adopted as God’s sons and daughters. In other words, we become the children of God, which means there’s absolutely no good reason to feel like slaves, bound to a bunch of “oughts” and “shoulds.” Instead, we can live like children who’ve been set free from their guardian and ready to receive what was promised. This is now our relationship with God. And for me that’s Paul’s third point, you know, based on what he wrote here. 

And although all that may be interesting, you know, nice to know information, it really doesn’t have a whole lot of meaning and significance until we apply it to ourselves, now does it? I mean, all this business about a promise made and a law given and a relationship established is all well and good, but what difference does it make to us right here and now, knowing that we are the children of God? Now, for me, that’s an excellent question, and in my opinion, there are three pretty good answers, and let me briefly share with you what they are.

You see, first, because we’re God’s children, I think we can now trust the promise. In other words, we can trust that what God said was right and true. And even though there may be a part of us that wants to add something to it so that we can feel as though we’ve done enough and that we’ve earned God’s love, and that we deserve God’s grace, that’s not the way it is. In fact, we’re going to have to live with the fact that all we can do is to trust, to trust that for some reason God chose to love and to trust that, in spite of our best effort to change the promise into something else, you know, something that we control, God’s grace is always undeserved. This we’re going to have to trust, whether we like it or not. But I’ll tell you, when we do, when we do trust, maybe we’ll have the same kind of experience Paul shared with the Philippines when he wrote this:

Always be glad because of the Lord! I will say it again: Be glad. Always be gentle with others. The Lord will soon be here. Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel. [Philippians 4:4-7, CEV]

You see, because we’re God’s children, I think we can now trust the promise. And that’s one.

And second, I believe we can also claim the freedom, and I’m talking about the freedom we have as children of God. You see, we’re not slaves any more. As a matter of fact, since the coming of God’s son, that old rhyme that I remember saying at the end of every school year, you know, the one that Alice Cooper sort of incorporated into his song School’s Out, 

I’m telling you, I think it really applies: No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks. Of course, dirty looks has an entirely different meaning now, one that can get a teacher fired, but you know what I mean. Like a student set free from school and a minor set free from a guardian, because of Jesus Christ we are free, something that Paul explained to the Romans when he wrote this:

If you belong to Christ Jesus, you won’t be punished. The Holy Spirit will give you life that comes from Christ Jesus and will set you free from sin and death. The Law of Moses cannot do this, because our selfish desires make the Law weak. But God set you free when he sent his own Son to be like us sinners and to be a sacrifice for our sin. God used Christ’s body to condemn sin. He did this, so that we would do what the Law commands by obeying the Spirit instead of our own desires. [Romans 8:1-4, CEV]

You see, because we’re God’s children, not only can we trust the promise, man, we can also claim the freedom. And that’s two.

And finally, third, we can also experience the relationship, and I’m talking about the relationship we have with God right here and right now, one that’s grounded in what’s he’s done and not on any law we need to obey or any work we need to do or any experiences we need to have or any words we need to say or any prayers we need to pray or any promises we need to make. Man, it’s based on him, not us. And just imagine, just imagine a relationship we don’t have to earn or deserve, rather one that we can just trust is there. I’m telling you, that can change everything. It can change how we see God and how we see others and even how we see ourselves. As a matter of fact, it just might enable us to experience that same sort of thing Paul shared with the Romans:

Only those people who are led by God’s Spirit are his children. God’s Spirit doesn’t make us slaves who are afraid of him. Instead, we become his children and call him our Father. God’s Spirit makes us sure that we are his children. His Spirit lets us know that together with Christ we will be given what God has promised. We will also share in the glory of Christ, because we have suffered with him. [Romans 8:14-17, CEV]

Talk about peace and hope. You see, that’s possible, because God has made us his children; therefore, we can experience the relationship. And that’s three.

Now, after we drop off Coco Chanel at the Vintage Country Pet Resort, which sounds so much better than Puppy Jail, Debbie and I will be heading south, and take it to the bank, we won’t be packing any coats or jackets for our stay in Norfolk, because, like we used to say when I lived in New Orleans, Hell may be hotter, but it’s less humid. And of course, when I get there (and I’m talking about Norfolk, not Hell), when not eating, I expect to experience all kinds of childhood memories, many that will make me happy but others, well, not so much. 

But I’ll tell you something that should make us all happy, it’s what the Apostle Paul told the Galatians about how God made a promise to Abraham and how, before Christ came, the law was important because it prepared us for his coming, and how, since Christ came, our relationship with God has changed. You see, we are the children of God. And because we are, we can trust the promise and we can claim the freedom and we can experience the relationship. You see, that’s more than possible because, as Paul told the Galatians, we are now children, not slaves.