Children of the Child
Galatians 4:4-7
Tony’s Overview Video
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Key Text: Galatians 4:4-5 –
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.”
It’s finally here, the close of the year too tough to tame. As much as we might have wanted to press the reset button on 2020, it stubbornly resisted – but it’s almost done.
The COVID-19 pandemic and political polarities and economic woes will not magically go away, but a new year can bring the sense of a new start and the hope of better things to come.
Our text for the day is a reminder that we don’t face either good years or bad years alone. We have a God who cares deeply about us, a God commonly portrayed in the New Testament as a heavenly father.
Many writers now avoid male-centric language for God, acknowledging that the great God of the universe is far beyond any human conception of gender. In the biblical texts, however, there is no getting around the common depiction of God as a father figure.
This derives from the limitations of human language and the realities of ancient culture. The authors of the Bible lived in a largely patriarchal world in which men tended to hold greater power, so it was only natural for them to describe God with masculine pronouns. God is occasionally described in maternal terms, but the feminine imagery is clearly secondary.
The gospels indicate that Jesus spoke of God in paternal terms. If we had been born into a first century Jewish home in Palestine, we would most likely have learned to call our fathers “Abba.” The Hebrew term for “my father” is “abî,” but most people spoke Aramaic, where it would be “Abba.” Like our word “Daddy,” either children or adults could use the term with a variety of connotations.
Jesus as God’s child
To connect effectively with others, Jesus chose to use the common vocabulary of his culture, though in challenging ways. Thus, although Jesus compared himself to a mother hen when expressing sorrow over Jerusalem’s rejection (see Matt. 23:37 or Luke 13:34), he also commonly spoke of God as father.
With the single exception of the cry of desolation on the cross (Mark 15:34, “Eloi Eloi,” or “My God, my God . . .”) – a prayer quoted from Ps. 22:1 – every recorded prayer of Jesus has him referring to God as “father” or as “Abba.” [DD] The gospels tell us very little about the young Jesus’ relationship with Joseph, his adoptive earthly father. They insist, however, that Jesus thought of God as father, even as a child. In the familiar story of his tarrying in the Jerusalem temple at age twelve, Jesus responded to his parents” scolding by saying “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49).
As an adult, Jesus’ teaching was replete with paternal terminology for God. Matthew quotes him as saying “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). In Mark, Jesus instructs his followers to forgive others when they pray, “so that your Father in heaven may also forgive your trespasses” (Mark 11:25). To illustrate the grace of God, Luke recorded Jesus’ story about a prodigal son and a forgiving, searching, joyful father (Luke 15:11-32). John quotes Jesus as saying “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places” (John 14:2).
Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Our Father in heaven . . .” (Matt. 6:9, cp. Luke 11:2). When the gospel record describes Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, it recalls him praying “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want” (Mark 14:36, cp. Matt. 26:39, 42; Luke 22:42).
According to Luke’s account, as Jesus hung on the cross, he offered grace to his executioners with the prayer “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Even in the moment of his physical death, Jesus prayed “Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit” (Luke 23:46). [DD]
Believers as adopted children (vv. 4-5)
The Apostle Paul also spoke of God as father, believing that Jesus wanted to bring all people into relationship with God as their ultimate parent. In 2 Cor. 6:18, he freely paraphrased 2 Sam. 7:14 (originally spoken to David) as a promise that “I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” In today’s text, Paul speaks to the Galatians about this potential relationship.
The text is rich with meaning. It follows a line of argument in which Paul insisted that the Jews did not have an exclusive claim on God: they were not the only heirs of the promise, for Christ’s work had eliminated distinctions between male and female, Jew and Greek, slave and free (3:28). Paul argued that all who belong to Christ have become “Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (3:29).
Just before today’s text, Paul continued his pursuit of the idea, arguing that even heirs, so long as they remained minors, were bound by the law and could not inherit (vv. 1-3). Only when the time was right, such as when they reached a certain age, did a parent’s bequest become theirs.
The right time to inherit the kingdom arrived with the incarnation of Christ, Paul argued. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law . . .” (v. 4). [DD]
When the time was right, God came into our world through the person of Jesus, who was born as other people are born, born to a particular woman in a particular place and within the particular culture of first century Judaism. As a fully human child, Jesus would have been taught what it means to live in a family relationship with earthly parents and in a spiritual relationship with a heavenly father.
As he grew, Jesus devoted his earthly life to helping others discover that same kind of relationship with God. Thus Paul says “God sent his son in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children” (v. 5).
As Paul saw it, the law could only condemn because no one could keep it entirely. The process that began with Christ’s incarnation set in motion the redeeming work of bringing us fully into the family of God. The Greek word translated “adoption as children” was a technical term used to mean “adoption as sons, with full rights of inheritance.” [DD]
Even though first century women had only limited inheritance rights, we are not amiss in removing the gender component and translating the term as “adoption as children,” as in the NRSV. Most other translations (KJV, NIV, NIV11, NAS95, HCSB, NET) retain the word “sons” or “sonship,” but Paul did not intend for the term to suggest male exclusivity. Just a few verses before, he had argued that in Christ gender distinctions become moot (3:28).
Christ came to bring all people into a potential relationship with God, and that includes everyone, Jew and Gentile, sons and daughters, slave and free.
Many children in our world are unwanted and in need of someone to redeem them from their legal limbo and adopt them into their families. All children are bound to face the experience of becoming spiritually lost, and they need someone to adopt them into an eternal family that extends beyond this world. The good news is that Jesus Christ has cut all the red tape and swung wide the door into the family of God. The only thing lacking is our acceptance of the offer. [DD]
Adoption as heirs (vv. 6-7)
Those who trust in Christ’s redemption can experience a totally new kind of relationship with God, Paul said. The proof of our adoption is the presence of the Spirit: “And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God” (vv. 6-7). [DD][DD]
Paul insists that our relationship with God can go far beyond the unappealing image of a heavenly master served by earthly slaves. We do not serve God out of fear, but out of love. We don’t have to be motivated by concern for what God will do to us, but by gratitude for what God has already done for us. We need not think of God as a demanding taskmaster, but as a loving, caring, forgiving father. Empowered by the Holy Spirit within us, we have courage to live faithfully and the confidence to pray from the perspective of a child who is loved, one who can cry “Abba, Father.”
Paul would want us to know that our privileged standing as children of God does not apply to our time on earth alone. As the children of God, we are also the heirs of God. We stand to inherit the hopeful future prepared for God’s adopted children. We possess the promise of an eternal home – not only with our heavenly father, but with all of our sisters and brothers who have become God’s children through the work of Jesus.
The good news of Christ’s coming through the season of Advent culminates in a miracle that extends beyond Christmas and a hope that need never go dry: the child born in the manger of Bethlehem has become the means through which countless other children are adopted into God’s family and called to see the world as Jesus does – with love and with hope.
Adult Teaching Resources
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This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Galatians 4:4-7
Youth Teaching Resources
Social Media Challenge
Throughout the season of Advent, the social media challenge will be centered around the weekly themes of Advent.
On Sunday, post a picture of three purples candle, one pink candle, and one white candle that are lit. On Monday, post the words “Christ is Here”. On Tuesday through Saturday, post images of where you see, or experience Christ.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Galatians 4:4-7
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
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