When Your Way Isn't Working - a Study of GalatiansSample

Imagine you’ve been incarcerated and stuck in prison. Imagine it’s been months or even years. You’ve been stuck going where people tell you to go, eating what others tell you to eat, with no freedom to do as you please.

Then imagine—you get released. Freedom. Now, you can go where you want, do what you wish, and live as a free person who can make independent choices.

Who would ever want to go back and continue to live in prison?

Of course, we can be imprisoned and enslaved in other ways. Enslaved to shame, sin, or addiction…but in this case, Paul warns people not to become enslaved to the law. What’s the law?

The law was established by Moses on Mt. Sinai (Read about that in Exodus 19 & 20). The Law became known as the Torah, the 613 commandments for the Jewish people to maintain a right relationship with God. The law was useful for a time. It kept people close to God and reminded people of their sin.

But Jesus came to “fulfill the law” (Matthew 5:17). Because of Christ, the law is no longer needed. Jesus is the better and greater fulfillment of anything that the law could do to keep people close to and in right relationship with God.

And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, "Abba, Father." Galatians 4:6

So, when Paul says in Galatians 4:7, “Now, you are no longer a slave, but God’s own child,” that’s a big deal. As an adopted child, we receive all the rights that any heir or birth son would receive. We no longer have to keep the law to be part of God’s family, which Paul reminds us over and over. We simply receive the inheritance given to us by Jesus as adopted sons of God.

In fact, we can cry out, “Abba,” to our heavenly Father. “Abba” is an Aramaic word that means “Daddy” or “Papa.” As Tim Keller wrote, “Just as a young child simply assumes that a parent loves them and is there for them and never doubts the security and openness of daddy’s strong arms, so Christians can have an overwhelming boldness and certainty that God loves them endlessly.”

The Son of Man became a man so that we could be sons of God and call him “Abba.” Do not go back to the law (any religious duty to get right with God). You’ve been given the same rights and privileges as Jesus to God’s resources. Don’t go back to slavery; stay the way of freedom.

Who would ever want to go back?

Bonus: Genesis 15, 16, & 21