9th Sunday after Pentecost
August 1, 2004
Galatians 3:23-5:1

^3:23Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. ²⁴So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. ²⁶You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, ²⁷for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

^4:1What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. ²He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. ³So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. ⁴But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, ⁵to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. ⁶Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." ⁷So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. ⁸Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. ⁹But now that you know God-- or rather are known by God-- how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? ¹⁰You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you...

²¹Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? ²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. ²³His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. ²⁴These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants... ²⁸Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. ³⁰But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." ³¹Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. ^5:1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (NIV).

Now, We Are All Sons of God.

  I’m sure you’ve all seen the Pepsi commercial where the guy decides whether he wants to keep his Pepsi or get back the hair he had in high-school. At first he thinks it would be great to go back in time and get back his long hair. But then he comes to his senses and realizes that he’s better off now even though he hasn’t much hair.

  In this letter, Paul is trying to reason with some baptized Christians in a similar situation. They were trying to choose between two possibilities. Of course it wasn’t a question of long hair or Pepsi. But it was a question of growing up. It was a question of keeping rules or keeping faith. It was a question of fundamental principles, of one’s most basic orientation in life. Do we think, act and view the world from the point of view of a legal code or from the point of view of faith in Christ? They’re not the same thing. If you live on the basis of a legal code, whatever it may be, it is a system of personal merit based on law. You get what you earn and can scratch out of the world. But if you live by faith in Christ, personal, legal merit has been replaced with Jesus’ merit and Spirit. There is a freedom that the person stuck under law cannot know. Like the guy in the Pepsi commercial, Paul wants these people, and perhaps some of us, to come to their senses and hold on to faith in Christ.

  Paul gives a few good reasons why we are better off with Christ. First he says, Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galations 3:23-29 (NIV).

  God never meant for the law to be our basic orientation in life. The law was given to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. The basic function of the law of God is to make us aware of our sin. The law, whether that be the Law of Moses or our natural knowledge of God’s law, is what hammers away at our conscience and makes us feel guilty for doing things wrong and neglecting duties. However, God’s purpose here is not to make us feel guilty so that we become psychological nut cases. Yet unfortunately, that’s where so many people get stuck, on guilt. The law produces guilt so that we are uncomfortable and seek relief from guilt. It’s like putting a grain of sand in an oyster to irritate it so that it produces a pearl. The law produces guilt so that we will turn to Christ and trust in him for justification. Justification is the pearl that God makes out of our guilt. Just as the oyster covers the sand with layers of pearl, so God covers us with the blood of Christ, clothes us with Christ so that the guilt is gone.

  When we put our trust in Christ, we become sons of God. That’s true for all people. Under the old system, the law, being a son meant being an heir, especially for the eldest son. Not everyone was a son and thus an heir. There were non-Jews, slaves and women. None of them were sons who could directly inherit the family property, the blessing of God. Jesus brought that system to an end and established a new system or covenant. Through faith we all obtain the status of son and thus heir of eternal life whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. With respect to this new status there are no distinctions based on ethnicity, social status or gender. All that belonged to the law. But now, You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Who would want to give that up and go back to the requirements of the law?

  Paul gives a second explanation of the difference between faith and law. What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. Galations 4:1-7 (NIV).

  Paul compares us to minor children who will inherit a large estate. Until the time comes for the son to take over the estate, he controls nothing. He is like a slave in that respect. He is subject to the rules and regulations that his father has established until he comes of age and takes over the business. Maybe you had a discussion with your parents or children that went something like this: "As long as you live in my house, you will do this or not do that." "Fine, as soon as I’m 18 I’ll move out and do it my way." That’s pretty much the idea we’re dealing with here. Well, thanks to Christ, the time has come for the son to take over the business! Jesus also was born in the old system and had to live under its regulations. But once he died and rose, the old gave way to a new system. The old "basic principles" as Paul calls them, no longer apply.

  Living under rules is a sort of slavery. You’re always conscious of rules and of being under another person’s control. It is the struggle to be righteous through one’s own merit. It is legalism, the need to please God and gain his favour through one’s good behaviour. You’re always concerned with obeying those rules. They define much of your relationship with the one who made them. With respect to God, it’s a sort of slavery as one struggles to please God and fears punishment for his failures. And that is the natural way of things, the only system the world knows and by which it can operate.

  But the good news, the Gospel, is that Christ freed us from that old system so that we might receive the full rights of sons. We are of age because God has given us his Spirit. We are no longer slaves to rules and regulations, but heirs of life freed from the need to merit anything.

  Paul gives one more analogy to stress his point. Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. . .Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. Galations 4:21-31 (NIV).

  As we saw last week, God’s promises to Abraham had nothing to do with law and certainly not with the Law of Moses which came 430 years later. The promise to Abraham was that through his wife Sarah he would have a son. When time went on, Sarah and Abraham got impatient and tried a different way. They had a son, but he was not the son God meant. Ishmael was a son of slavery and of human effort. Isaac was the promised son, the work of God.

  We too are children of God by promise. The promise is that through faith in Christ we become sons of God. So we are sons like Isaac was a son. A person who wants to become a son of God by any other means—that is by human effort—is like Ishmael. Now it’s not that God didn’t love Ishmael, but the inheritance was not available through human effort, only through God’s promise. The inheritance of eternal life is available only through faith in Christ, not through any of our effort. Christ makes all the difference.

  Now the point of all this even today is very simple. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. The time of the law is over. It ended with Christ’s death and resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. The Church does not relate to God nor God to the Church through the law, but through faith in Christ and through the Holy Spirit.

  But how hard that is for us! Yesterday morning I sat with a girl who had just been told that her mother in Intensive Care was not going to live. As she cried and grieved she asked the question of why God was doing this. She exclaimed that it was not fair. Her mother went to church, didn’t drink, didn’t do any drugs, never did anything illegal. It was therefore not just for God to let her die. There in her grief that girl expressed our most natural way of thinking. By nature we relate to God through the law. Our objection is that we have done what he wants. We have done our best to obey the law and we have certainly done more good than evil. Merit or self-righteousness is our basic principle upon which we build our lives. It leads us into error and despair. It led some Galatians to the error of thinking they had to be circumcised. I assume that it led this girl to the error of thinking that not drinking and doing drugs is what makes us acceptable to God. It leads others to despair. They figure they can never please God and either just quit trying or else go crazy trying. They consider God cruel and capricious and resent and fear him.

  That is not what God wants for us! He never wants us to fall into this legalism and relate to him through law. He wants us to hear and believe the Gospel: that Christ has made us sons of God with full access to God; that we are heirs of eternal life and will reign with Christ; that we are free from slavery to the law because we are children of his promise.

  The law had its time, but it’s over now. It led us to Christ who has come and will return. We don’t have the option of going back to a time before Christ. Therefore, we must not return to any old legal system that determines righteousness by merit, whether Jewish or whatever. We must stand firm in this freedom lest we exchange the faith of a son for that of a slave. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.