LETTER TO THE GALATIANS
Goal of the Gospel: Sonship
INTRODUCTION
So what is God’s ultimate purpose for us? What is His goal for our lives? To be God’s sons or God’s daughters.
| 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise. . . . 3 So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 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. |
Commentary
At the time we place our faith in Christ, God’s Son, God sends the Spirit into our hearts. According to Rom. 8:9 the Spirit is first called "the Spirit of God" (in general terms) but then "the Spirit of ______________" specifically. Because the Spirit is specifically that Spirit, when He enters into our lives, we truly become sons or daughters of God (4:6-7). God does not simply call us His son or daughter; He literally transforms us into sons or daughters of God. John says the same thing:
“Behold, how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should
be called children of God. And __________ __________ __________!” (1 John 3:1-2).
We aren’t simply called children of God; we ARE literally children of God!
In this passage, Paul uses 3 images to describe how we become sons or daughters of God.
God’s intention for you and for me is, as His sons and daughters, to be completely transformed into the image of His great Son, Jesus:
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be
conformed to the ____________ of His ___________, that He [Jesus] might be the first-born among many
brethren” (Rom. 8:29).
According to the NT it is only on the basis of a right relationship with Jesus that people are transformed into sons and daughters of God and that God literally becomes our Father. Today, many people claim that we are all sons and daughters of God, no matter which religion you adhere to. We will not know for certain 100% for sure which view is right; however, if Christianity is true, then only those rightly related to God THROUGH Jesus Christ are His sons and daughters because only they have the Spirit of God's Son dwelling in them.
Look at the system which God has set up which honors His GREATEST Son Jesus. God doesn't make us His sons and daughters apart from Jesus. In fact, Jesus is the basis of our existence in the first place. The Father has such a wonderful relationship with His Son that He, being as gracious as He is, wants to include us in that relationship. But it is only by faith in Jesus and by Jesus' coming to live within us that we truly becomes God's sons and daughters. Jesus pleased His Father to such an extent by allowing Himself to be humiliated to the greatest degree at His Father's request that the Father is going to make sure that His Son Jesus is honored to the highest degree.
According to Heb. 4:16 because we are God's sons and daughters, what is something we have the right to do?
God brings us into such a wonderful relationship with Him as His sons and daughters that we can approach Him as an earthly son can approach his earthly father, with great confident, tenderness, and intimacy. In fact, according to Rom. 8:15 what name do we have the right to call God?
Notice that this is the same title a Jewish son would call his father in great respect and tenderness; in fact, it is also the name Jesus called His Father in His prayers. Being in this kind of intimate relationship is God’s goal for us.
I was fortunate to have been the son of somebody I thought was a great man, Carey Ford, Jr. Dad worked hard, rising from humble beginnings to become Vice President of Safeway Food Stores when it was in its heyday. My freshman year at UT I was working at a Safeway store in Austin. One of the employees who wanted to rise up through the ranks asked me to accompany him and some of his Safeway buddies to Dallas to see the sites. When we got to Dallas, he asked me if I wanted to drop by and see my Dad. “Sure, why not?” So we drove up to Safeway Headquarters. I jumped out of the car and rushed up the stairs to my Dad’s office with my friends following me. When I saw Dad’s secretary, Rony, I asked if he was busy. She said, “No.” So being my Dad’s son, I traipsed into his office and starting talking to him. He was genuinely glad to see me (especially because I was attending UT, his favorite university, especially football team). When I turned around to introduce my friends, I realized then that they had not followed me into the office. Why? Because they weren’t my Dad’s sons, just employees. I, as the son, though, hadn't even thought twice about going into my dad's office. That is what it means to be someone's son. That is the kind of relationship we can have with our heavenly Father too; we can traipse into His presence, full of excitement at being in His presence and knowing that HE HIMSELF is glad that we have come into His presence. The psalmist knew what he was saying when he wrote: “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord’” (Ps. 122:1).
According to Eph. 1:5 God predestined us for what?
Too often, though, we misunderstand what the NT means by this. We think solely in terms of we were not His children before we confessed Jesus the Son; now we are God’s sons/daughters because we have confessed Jesus the Son—just like in normal human adoptions. Yet there is a radical difference between God’s adopting us and our adopting children. When we adopt a child, nothing physically or DNA-wise changes about the kid. He still looks the same, acts the same, has the same genetic make-up, etc. Not so with God’s adopting us. We experience a radical spiritual DNA change because the Spirit of God’s Son comes to live in us so that not only are we called children of God but that we ARE children of God. In fact, the rest of our life should be devoted to being transformed into the image of God’s Son, Jesus (Rom. 8:29).
There is a wonderful illustration from Mere Christianity [Book 4, Chapter: Counting the Cost (borrowed from George MacDonald)] which explains what God is doing in our lives once we become Christians. Spiritually, we are all like little cottages with some bad plumbing and leaky roofs, asking Christ to come make those repairs. Christ comes in at the time of salvation to make those repairs.
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building a quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible that we were 'gods' and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him-for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.
One of my favorite claims is the one Lewis makes: if Christianity is true, the then fairy tales are true. Think about them for just a moment. The beast turns into a young handsome prince (Beauty and the Beast), the little puppet is transformed into a real boy (Pinocchio), Ella by the cinders becomes a princess (Cinderella), the crippled Jake becomes a vibrant Navi (Avatar), Aladdin becomes the prince of Persia (Aladdin)..."and they all live happily ever after." That is certainly the story of Christianity: we are transformed from mere creatures into vibrant, radiant sons and daughters of God who one day will live happily ever after.
All this is painful and very discomforting. Christ, though, is not ultimately concerned about our comfort. He is interested in developing us into His image. Christ is not content with you and me just being cottages; rather He is making us into palaces. You see, we are not the only persons who dwell in our little cottages. Christ is turning us into suitable dwelling places for HIM, the young prince of the universe to dwell in. He will accept nothing else. He will pay whatever cost is necessary for Him to pay in order to make us into palaces; plus He is willing for us to pay any cost necessary to convert us into palaces. He has not only called us “Sons and Daughters of God”; He is in the process of making that a reality. When we reject faith as a way to live the Christian life daily, we are running back to the prison warden, to the paidagogos, and to the managers/guardians to beat us up or to restrain us. How sad when a full inheritance is awaiting us as sons and daughters of God. Only after we truly come to grasp who we are in Christ Jesus will we experience the life He died to give us.