Message of the Week

The Little White Community Church

Scripture: Gal. 4: 1-7 Feb. 16, 2025

Message: ”Sons and Heirs!”

by Pastor George Gnade

Intro:

1. Gal. 3: 25 ended with the statement: “Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the Law.”  What does that mean?

2. In our study today, Paul is explaining the difference between living in the O.T. and the N.T. He says the best way to look at it is to compare it to an under aged child who can’t wait to grow up and inherit his father’s estate.

A. Let me explain. If you were fortunate to have a rich father, then the moment you were born, you could look forward to the day when you would receive your father’s inheritance. 

1. But if your father died before you were of age, you would not receive the inheritance till you grew up. In fact, in those days, you would be placed under the supervision of “guardians and trustees” (Gal. 4:2). 

a. A trustee would take care of your estate and a guardian would take care of you. 

b. And you would often also be assigned to a tutor who would act as your teacher. 

2. This tutor would often be a slave, and even though you were a son (or daughter), you were no better off than a slave yourself. That is how you would grow up.

a. Normally, your father would set an age at which time you would be old enough to be set free from your guardians and trustees. 

b. From that time on, you would begin living as a son or daughter, free from your overseers, free to live and act like an adult, and prepared to receive your inheritance. 

3. Paul compares this to people in the O.T.  God made the Law their guardian and they were under that law.  But whenever a person learned about the true God and the promised coming of Christ, they could be saved by faith, just as we are saved by faith. Therefore, they became children of God. But because Jesus had not yet come, they were still like slaves under the guardianship of the law. 

4. In Gal. 3: 22, it says: “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith.”

a. This is always the purpose of the Law. It can never save us. But it is God’s law, and it will always remind us that we are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness and in need of a Savior.

b. But now that Jesus has come, we no longer need the Law to be our guardian. Because we have come of age in Christ, we are now able to live as sons and daughters under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

B. Listen to Gal. 4:4. “When the right time had finally come, God sent His son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem us who were under the law so that we might receive the full rights of sons.”

1. First of all, remember that God’s time was the perfect time for Jesus to come.

a. The world was at peace under the rule of the Romans. The whole known world spoke a form of Greek.

And Rome had built roads so you could travel everywhere. 

b. Meanwhile, the whole O.T. as we know it today was already collected into one volume.  Jesus Himself referred to and/or quoted from the whole O.T.  In so doing, He ver-ified its truthfulness, and verified what it said about Him.

2. Secondly, vs. 4 says: “God sent His Son.” This shows that Jesus existed with His Father in heaven long before He was born in the manger. 

3. Thirdly, vs. 4 says Jesus was “born of a woman, born under the law.” Of course this refers to the virgin birth and the fact that Jesus was born as an ordinary Jewish child under the rule of the Romans, and under the guardianship of the Law of God. 

C. But fourthly, vs. 4 says he did this “that He might redeem us who are under the Law.”

1. As a man born to live as a man, Jesus could represent us.  As the Son of God, He could come as God’s gift to all of us and pay the penalty that we all deserve. 

a. As the god-man, Jesus never sinned, and although He was born under the law, He is the only one who ever kept God’s law perfectly. 

b. As it says in Matt. 5:17, Jesus did not come “to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.” This means He kept it perfectly. Therefore, He did not deserve to die to pay the penalty for His own sins. He never sinned (Heb. 4:16).

c. But He qualified to represent us and pay the penalty for our sins. Just as it says in vs.4, He came so that “He might redeem those who were under the Law.”

2. But Gal. 4:4 doesn’t even stop there. It finishes by saying: “so that we might receive the full rights of sons.”

a. Whenever a person puts his faith in Christ, He is justified by Christ and given the right to become a child of God (John 1:12-13). 

b. When Abraham believed God, it was counted unto him as righteousness. Any time during the O.T., when a person put his trust in the true God, it was counted unto him as righteousness. This is Jesus gift to us (II Cor. 5:21).

c. And now that Jesus has come and paid the penalty for all of our sins, we who love the Lord no longer need to be under the law of sin and death.  Instead, we are now treated as sons and daughters of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:1-2).

D. Finally, as God’s children, we are also “heirs” (Gal. 4:7).

1.  We are “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” Jesus earned all of this for us. It was His reward for dying in our place. And through Him, it becomes our reward too.

a. In Phil. 3:20, it says: “Our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await our Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will become like His glorious body.”

b. Obviously, without Him we have nothing. But in and through Him, we now share in everything God the Father has given to Him. In Eph. 1:3, it says “He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing” that we now have “in Christ.” O how blessed we really are. 

2. Let us be honest, no matter how good we might be, none of us deserve that and none of us have that kind of power. 

a. We are simply like children born to a rich man. Because Jesus has everything and all power is under His control, when our time comes to go and be with Him, we will receive our inheritance and share with Him all He has. 

b. Therefore, since we could never earn it, it is simply a gift of God’s grace, given to all who will believe in Jesus who earned it all for us.

In Conclusion: 1. In Gal. 3:3-4, Paul wrote: “Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal through human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing? Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the Law, or because you believed what you have heard?”

2. Obviously, it is because they heard and believed the gospel. That is the only way we can receive it too! Amen!