Galatians 4:7-11

Galatians 4:7  So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

Can you image a more dramatic change than slave to son?  To go from serving someone to being someone, is spectacular.  That is what we are going to explore this morning.  We are going to look at the difference between being a son and being a slave.  Not only is it a change status, it is a relationship change.  It is a change in how one view’s one’ self. It is a change in mindset.  It changes everything.  It is going to take us a few minutes to get to exploring this question but it will be worth the wait.

Last week I told an allegory. It was about two boys; Rich and Nicholas.  Richard was the son of wealthy man named Mr. Joshua.  Nicholas was the son of a slave, in today’s vocabulary; employee.  In our story Mr. Joshua offered to adopt Nicholas and make him his son and, logically, his heir.  Nicholas joined Richard on their 18th birthdays to become heirs of the family fortune.  

We learned from my allegory that we are Nicholas.  We have to choose if we are going to accept the adoption.  Are we going to change our status from slave/employee, to son and heir?  To me this is a no-brainer.  I made that decision some 40 years ago and have never regretted it.  But we also learned last week, that when we turn 18, figuratively, we receive our inheritance.  We pictured last week the lawyer bringing us into the room and reading Mr. Joshua’s will.  What did we receive as our inheritance?
-It was not the Big, Big house.
-It was not the rose garden of life.
-It was not the lack of touch choices; was’t?

Rather our inheritance is the gift of the Holy Spirit in our hearts!  The Holy Spirit, which is our guarantee of the Big, big, house, who promises to guide us through the problems we face in this life and who helps us to conqueror sin and become more like Jesus, is the promise we receive because we are sons of God!   We have a spectacular inheritance from our Father.  We receive the Spirit which allows us to address the Creator of the Universe with, “Abba, Father!” 

Galatians 4:7  So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

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We, who have Christ/faith have undergone a spectacular transformation from slave to son!  But, what is the difference?  How does being a son change the way we live? Keep pondering that question.  We are making progress toward the answer.  It is really cool.  But, what we have to do now is take our allegory a little further.  Once you get on a roll you need to stay with it.  I am going to press our allegory further and track what is going on in Galatia and follow the next argument Paul makes to the Galatians about the difference between sons and slaves. 

Let’s let a couple of years go by in our story of the two boys.  Nick - he dropped the Nicholas and went with the cooler Nick - has been enjoying his life as Mr. Joshua’s heir.  He bought him a brand-new Corvette. He bought a cool condo on the coast and blinged it all out. He got all the cool toys; high-dollar laptop, huge 1080p HDTV and blue ray player, and an IPod with lots of cool apps.   He enrolled in a great college and is studying voice. Remember he could sing.  He is pursuing a career in opera or maybe country and western; which ever breaks first for him.  He fired his mom from being a servant and bought her a nice house and fixed her up for life.  He has friends and everything is going great for him.  He is enjoying the life of an heir.

Here is where our allegory takes an odd turn. Let’s say, Richard comes to Nicholas one day and says, “I am glad you are a part of the family. It is good to have you as a brother. I have always wanted a brother.” Nick feels a but coming.  “But… there are some rules you need to follow to really be a member of the Joshua family.  In order to earn your place in the family you have to go to work for the company business.  Dad always intended us to work in the business. We must start at the bottom and work our way to the top.  I start tomorrow as a receptionist in our corporation.  I have lined up for you a job in the mail room.  You will deliver all the packages and stuff through out our office building downtown. If you do well and work hard in 20 years you can be an executive with our company.  I think you need to put all you money in the bank, get rid of your car and you condo and your stuff and make it on your own.  Dad would have wanted us to learn how to make it on our own.  You don’t want people saying you couldn’t really cut it in the real world.  We have to work our own way to the top.  That way you will deserve your inheritance.  You will prove you are a true Joshua and Dad will be proud.  You will then be pleasing and worthy and then I will have the brother I have always wanted.” 

After Richard’s speech, Nicholas begins to think.  “Maybe, Richie is right.  Maybe, I don’t deserve my inheritance.  Maybe, I need to prove that I am a real son and member of the family.  Maybe, I should give up my singing career and go back to being an… employee instead of an heir.” 

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That is the struggle in Galatia in 49 AD. Paul had taught the Gentiles that through Christ/faith they had become sons and heirs and they were no longer slaves, but the Jewish-Christian agitators had come along behind Paul and taught the Gentiles that in order to really be a member of the family of God and to please God they had to go back to work and earn their father’s acceptance. Listen to Paul as we continue in chapter 4. 

Galatians 4:8-11   Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.  But 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?  You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

Watch the argument Paul makes in this paragraph.  It is scary.  But we are getting closer to the temptation of being a slave instead of a son.

1) The Galatians were Gentile, pagan, idol worshippers when Paul taught them about Jesus.  They had worshipped and feared and attempted to manipulate the gods.  Pagan worship involved sacrifices and incantations and special ceremonies and all kinds of nasty things which were done to manipulate the gods – who were, I believe, demons.

1 Corinthians 10:19-20   Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.

Pagan idol worship was worshipping demons.  Life, before Christ, was for these Galatians an attempt to appease the gods; these demons.  It was all about forcing the gods to do their will.  But in reality as Paul says, “It was slavery to weak and miserable principles.”  These base principles all involved working and performing rituals to gain these so-called gods favor.  Pagan worship was ceremonies and liturgy and rituals and stuff done to get the gods to do their bidding. 

2) They gave all that up when they came to know God by Christ/faith.  Christ/faith is all about a loving God who sent his son to die upon a cross to offer forgiveness and redemption and acceptance and adoption and to say to us humans, “God loves you!”  He is not an angry God bent on your destruction or some sort of petty God which is manipulated by silly rituals. God offers adoption out of his gracious mercy! Not because we performed some incantation or ceremony to persuade him to grant us favor!  These Galatian Gentiles accepted his offer and became sons and heirs and put all that legalistic manipulations behind them. 

3) Then the Jewish agitators came and told them to be fully pleasing to God and to be accepted into fellowship with them they needed to be circumcised and follow the Law of Moses.  If they really wanted to be a part of the family of Abraham, they needed to follow all the laws.  If they wanted to really please the Fathers; to earn his approval they must follow the rituals!

4) Here is a fascinating point that Paul is making.  Paul equates pagan worship with the observance of the Law of Moses; what? 
-Both are attempting to earn favor from a deity by acts of worship.
-Both are attempting to appease a god through ritual sacrifices.
-Both focus on doing to earn the rewards of a god.
-Both are slavery; in that you are working for your salvation and that never ends.
-Both are a waste of time.

5) So, Paul says, “You’ve been there and done that, why do you want to do back and do it again?”  After Christ redeemed us from the law and ended the paidagogos and brought Christ/faith it is silly to go back to a legalistic form of worship.  Why do you want to go back to the weak and miserable principles of that kind of religion? 

Galatians 4:7  So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

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At the heart of this appeal to the Galatians, Paul is asking if they want to be slaves or sons.  Pay your nickel and make your choice.  Which do you want to be?  What is the difference between a Son and a Slave?  They two are opposites.  You can’t be both. You must decide which you will be.  Do you want your relationship with God to be as a slave or as a son?  “Well, Tim I think I’ll take the son option.”  Before you are too quick to answer, perhaps you need to know the difference between the two and what it really means to be one or the other.   Let’s read our Scripture again and watch for the difference.

Galatians 4:8-11   Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.  But 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?  You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

Here is the difference:
A slave attempts to meet the demands of a master in order to avoid punishment.  A son attempts to get to know the Father because of the Father’s love.  This difference is fundamental.

-The master demands and the slave reacts.
-The son observes and becomes like the Father.

-The slave does the minimum requirements to appease the master.
-The Son does all he can do because he loves the Father.

-The slave is responsible for implementing the masters will.
-The Father is responsible for raising the son. 

-The slave is motivated by the fear.
-The son is motivated by the love.

-The slave works on the most basic level of up and down.
-The Son works on a horizontal level of mutual relationship.

-The master is not interested in getting to know the tool.
-The Father knows all about the son and treats him as precious.

-The slave is discarded when all is said and done.
-The son becomes an heir.   

Wow.  Being a son is all about the Father knowing us. Being a slave is all about appeasing a Master. You could reduce all this to a pretty simple sentence.  Trust the Father who knows you! 

It is all about being known by God:
-Being open to his tender mercies in our lives. 
-Living humbly because God knows us. 
-Allowing our inheritance of the Spirit in our hearts to do his work there. 

Nicholas had a choice to make.  Do I continue to live as an heir or do I give it up to be a slave; an employee?  Does Nicholas allow his pride to dictate that he earn his inheritance?  Or does Nick allow his Father’s love to be free in his life?  Once again you must make the decision; slave or son?  

Los Alamos Church of Christ
May 24, 2009