Soteriology - Adoption and Union with Christ

Adoption and Union with Christ in Galatians 4

Well I want to invite you to open your Bible with me tonight to Galatians chapter 4. We are in our study of the subject of Soteriology, which is the doctrine of salvation, and we have looked so far at so many wonderful subjects.

We have looked at the atonement, the definition of the atonement. We have looked at the extent of the atonement. We have looked at the subject of grace, both common and special grace. We have talked about justification being by faith alone.

We have talked about the relationship between faith and regeneration, and the relationship between faith and repentance. And so that brings us to tonight's lesson, and tonight's lesson is on the subject of adoption and union with Christ.

Adoption and union with Christ. I will never forget November the 18th, 2006. Now for most everyone else it was a regular day, but for my wife and I it was the day that would change our lives from then on.

We had been married for seven years, and we had not yet been able to conceive children. A foster mother was coming to the church, and she had brought with her two beautiful children, and we fell in love with them over a period of time, and we asked if we could become their foster parents.

After a year of legal proceedings, we finally came to that all important day, November 18th, 2006, which was adoption day. The judge explained to us that these two children were now going to be our children.

They were no longer going to be foster children. They were not even going to be adopted children. They were going to be our children. The birth certificate would have our names on it. My name is listed as the father.

Jennifer is listed as the mother. They would no longer have their old identity or even their old name. Ashley was Ashley Marie Blaylock, and Cody was Cody Lee Blaylock. They would now be Ashley Ann Foskey, Ashley having taken my mother's middle name, I'm sorry my wife's middle name and my mother's middle name, Ann.

Cody became Medford Cody Foskey because I felt the need to pass on the curse of the first name of Medford, and he is the fourth generation Foskey man to have that name. The judge went on to explain that the children would have all of the rights of inheritance that any natural born child would have, that we would never be able to disown or disinherit them simply because they were foster children having been adopted because now they were no longer that, now they were our children.

They had all of the legal rights and all of the responsibilities of a child. Adoption is an amazing experience, both for the one being adopted and for the one who is doing the adoption. The sense of becoming a new family is an incomparable one, and therefore it is right and good that God would use this language to describe the relationship between his children and himself.

We have already seen, as we have studied, that God saved us through Jesus Christ, and we have talked about the fact that there was an atonement that was made. God's wrath was satisfied. Our relationship, which was severed by sin, has been reunited by the cross.

We have seen all of those wonderful things, but what we have not yet really, really dug into is the new relationship which is formed through the act of God. God adopting us into his family. So that is going to be what we talk about tonight.

We are going to read Galatians 4, and we are going to read verses 1 -7. Now I have been in a longer exposition of Galatians. I have been preaching Galatians at Set Free Ministries every Thursday morning, and I have been preaching through Galatians for probably over a year now.

Just to give you an idea, this text has a much broader context that I really wish I had time to unfold, but I don't. So some of the things I am going to say tonight regarding the context, you may just have to take for granted that I am telling you what is correct.

If you want to go back and listen to the messages, feel free, but there are going to be some things that I mention that you may not realize that are important to the understanding of this text. But it begins in verse 1.

Paul says, I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son is a slave, then he is an heir through God. That is the reading of God's holy and inspired and inerrant word. So Paul begins in verse 1. He says, I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave.

Well, the reason why he is mentioning this is because in chapter 3, Paul has been making a distinguishing, he is distinguishing between children and slaves. And basically what he is saying is that when children are children, they are not treated much different than slaves in the sense that they are under the rules of the house.

A child, when he is growing up, does not really have a lot of authority in the house. In fact, even when they are grown up, they do not have a lot of authority in the house. Amen? Okay. If they are still under the father's house, they are still under his rule.

Right? And so the children, as they age, are given a little bit more responsibility and a little bit more liberty, but ultimately they are under the authority of the father. And so Paul compares children to slaves.

But the difference between a slave and a child is that a child has an inheritance to look forward to. And we see that there as well. He says, I mean the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything.

So even though the child, like J .J., runs around and he is my son, he does not have any authority yet, but one day, one day he is going to inherit everything that is mine. One day I will die and my child will become the owner of whatever I leave behind.

I have five children, and so there will be a certain division of property. But that is what Paul is saying. He is saying, if you imagine a child in a home, when he is a child, he is like a slave, but when he gets old enough, he is going to become the owner.

And see, at this time in history, things are a little bit different. You know, when my son got old enough, Cody, he left the house and he went on and now he started his own life and he has got his own apartment and he has got his own place to live and he sort of does his own thing.

He bought his own car for the first time. He went out and he started life. You know, that is great. But in the ancient world, it was much more likely that a child would stay closer to home and take over the estate of the parent.

And therefore the children growing up in the home, at a certain point, there would be a transfer of ownership in power. There would be a transfer from the father having all the authority to the son having a certain authority and the father stepping back into sort of a role of retirement, still in a position of patriarch, but still letting the son take that ownership that is his.

But the point that Paul is making is that ownership has been his since birth. That child has been the child since birth, but he was treated like a slave until he was an adult. And then verse 2, he says, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.

And this is actually harkening back to something Paul talked about earlier because Paul talks about the fact that the Jews were under a guardian and the guardian was the law. You see, the whole book of Galatians is the question of whether or not we should keep the law for salvation.

Because there were those who were saying, if you want to be saved, you've got to keep the law. You've got to be circumcised. You've got to maintain the dietary restrictions. You've got to maintain the Sabbath.

There are things that you have to do to be saved. And those things are not just grace through faith. Those things are law. You have to keep the law. And Paul says, no, the law was a guardian and the law had one purpose, to hold the people until such time as the promise came and the promise was Jesus.

And it's sort of the picture is this. You've got the child who is the child and the whole time he's a child as he's growing up, one day he's no longer going to be the slave. One day he's going to be the son.

There's going to be that change. And that's the picture that Paul is giving. And again, this fits into the context of Galatians because what he's saying, he's talking about the Jews and he says, in the same way also when we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of this world.

We were like children who were still under the bondage or under the authority of the law. But when the fullness of time had come, verse four, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law.

Now, before we go any further, because he goes on, what is the fullness of time mean? What is that referring to? Well, there's a lot of different theories about what that phrase, fullness of time means.

But ultimately, I think that what we need to understand is that when it was God's chosen time, because some people say, well, the reason why this was the best time for Jesus to come was because this was during what was known as the Pax Romana, which was the peace of Rome.

And therefore, this was the best time for Jesus to come because there was almost universal peace. And therefore, the gospel could be spread throughout the world without there being a lot of hindrance to the gospel going out into the world.

And therefore, that's why it was the fullness of time. Other people say, no, the reason why this was the fullness of time was because this was the first time where there was almost a universal language that everyone understood.

The Greek language. Alexander the Great had conquered the western world that he'd spread the language of the Greeks. And therefore, there was almost a universal language. So the fullness of time had to do with the language.

And other people say, no, the reason this was the fullness of time was because this was the time when the prophets had said Jesus would come. And they had prophesied a certain amount of time. And you go back into Daniel and you look at Daniel.

He talks about a certain amount of time. And this was the right time for Jesus to come. And I think any one of those things is true. But I don't think that any one of them by itself is really the whole story, because Paul doesn't tell us what is special about this time.

He simply tells us that it was the right time. He says, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to have to be careful, because I could stop at every word. But if you think about the fact that he says he sent forth his Son, this reminds us that Jesus existed before Bethlehem.

Because it didn't say he created a Son, it said he sent his Son. And therefore, there's a certain point being made about the pre-existence of Christ. Christ who is Jesus has always been, and has always been the second person of the Trinity, has always been in the relationship with the Father.

And therefore, the Father had the Son from all eternity. And the Father sent the Son at a specific time. And we think about John 3 .16, for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son. That's why God did it.

God sent his Son because he loved the world and because he wanted to save those who would believe. And so he sent his Son to give them someone in whom to believe. And then he makes two qualifying remarks about the Son.

He says, first, he was born of a woman. In the ESV, it actually just says, born of woman. And that's probably more specific to the original language, because this is a reference to the Incarnation, because Jesus is not born of man and woman.

Jesus is born of woman only, by the power of the Holy Spirit. But it's also a reference to the fact that he was born as a man. Because how are men born? Of women. Men are born of women. Men are not born by a seed planted in the ground and they sprout up.

Men are not birthed out of caves, but men are birthed from wombs. And so, this is the point here. Jesus was sent by God, but he was born as a man. He was born of a woman. He didn't materialize from the ether.

He didn't come out of nowhere, but he was born of a woman. And that's the first qualifier. He says he's born of woman, but then he said he's also born under the law. Jesus, and remember this, this is very important from a theological perspective, Jesus submitted himself to the law of God.

Even though he himself was the author of it. What did Jesus say about the Sabbath? The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Why could he identify himself as Lord of the Sabbath? Because it was his idea.

He is God in the flesh. The whole idea of the Sabbath is his idea, therefore he can declare authority over it. He is God and man. And when it says he was born under the law, what that means is he came and submitted himself to the very law that he had designed.

And he came in during the covenant that God had given to Moses, which was the time of the covenant of law. This was prior to the new covenant. Jesus came under the standards of the old covenant. And he kept the standards of the old covenant.

Jesus never broke God's law, not even once. He kept the standards of God's law perfectly. Jesus Christ was impeccable. Always remember that. Hebrews 4 .15 says, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

1 Peter 2 .22, he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. Jesus Christ never sinned. He was born of a woman, which means he was born, in a sense, a natural birth, but he was not a natural man.

He was conceived of the Holy Spirit of God and he was God in the flesh, the author of the law, born under the law to keep the law for men who had broken the law. And that's what we see in verse 5. It says, the reason why he was born under the law, verse 5, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

The law demands a price for anyone who doesn't keep it. What is the price tag for sin? Death. The wages of sin is death. Everyone who has ever sinned, even once, deserves death for that sin. Even the smallest infraction of God's holy law is high treason against the creator of the universe, and therefore every sin that we have ever committed is worthy of the death penalty.

Christ kept the law, therefore he was not worthy of the death penalty. He had no debt to pay, yet he paid a debt that wasn't his. He paid a debt that was ours. As one commentator, Govey, said, Christ by nature, son of God, became son of man, that we by nature, sons of man, might become sons of God.

Wonderful exchange. Wonderful exchange. Notice it says in verse 5, it says to redeem those who are under the law. Who are under the law? Well, first and foremost, the Jews are under the law. The Jews have the written code, and so the primary audience here is the Jews, but the Gentiles also are condemned by the law.

We do not escape simply because we don't have the law in a written code, because we have the law of God written where? On our hearts. Romans 2 tells us that. It says when Gentiles do what the law requires, it shows that the law of God is written on their hearts.

And so therefore no man, Jew or Gentile, can ever say, I'm guiltless before Almighty God, because if we don't have the law in written code, we have the law in our conscience, and we know that we've broken the law, and Christ came, and Christ came to redeem both Jew and Gentile who were in debt to the law and subject to death.

And what's the result? Well, the result is here in verse 5. It says he redeems those who are under the law so that we might receive adoption. Earlier I talked about how a child brought up in a home is like a slave until he becomes an adult.

That is the picture of Israel. But the picture of the New Covenant believer is the picture of one who was born in a different family, and the father goes and chooses that one out of that family and makes him a son.

See, we are not born into the family of God. We are adopted into the family of God. Now one might argue and say, but wait a minute, we're born again into the family of God. And yes, there is a certain spiritual rebirth that happens, but our legal standing with God is the same legal standing that happens when a parent chooses a child and adopts that child.

He places that familial relationship under the legal authority and says this child is mine. And that is the picture of adoption that we have here in this text. Every believer is immediately made a full heir of God when he comes into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we can mature in that relationship, but we will never be more of an heir than from the very moment we came into union with Christ. Like I said, we can mature, but we can never be more of an heir. Just like now, going back to that analogy of the child who was always the son, you can never be less than a son if you are adopted into the family.

Paul discusses the fact that we sometimes need milk and not solid food, and we should be yearning for solid food, and we should be yearning for maturity, and we should. But the point here is not maturity, it's position.

By grace through faith we have come into the family of God, having been adopted as sons. And notice verse 6, and because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

This is a beautiful witness to our faith. When we come to faith, the Spirit makes His home in our heart, and when the Spirit makes His home in our heart, we now have something we didn't have before. We have a relationship with God.

And the relationship with God is God is now Father, whereas before God was enemy. I always, always struggle when I hear an unbeliever say that God is their Father. You say, why would an unbeliever say God is their Father?

Man, everybody thinks God is their Father. The most wicked and dangerous of all false teachings is what is known as the Universal Fatherhood of God and Universal Brotherhood of Man. The Universal Fatherhood of God and the Universal Brotherhood of Man is very ingrained in a lot of people's minds, and it ain't so.

The Bible says that God is becomes our Father through adoption. And when we are born, we are not born as sons of God, we are born as enemies of God. We are born as rebels against the King of the Universe.

And the King, because He is a gracious King, chooses to love us in spite of ourselves. Because He is a gracious King, He chooses to go and choose us in spite of our wickedness. And because He is a gracious King, He chooses to make us part of His family, because He is good.

The whole picture of salvation is a picture of a gracious God and a rebellious people. Think of the Old Covenant. Read the Old Testament. What do you read over and over and over? A rebellious people and a gracious God.

So we who were rebels, we who were enemies have become sons of God. And now we get to call God by the most intimate language. We get to call God Abba. And that's one thing slaves couldn't do. Slaves didn't call their master Father, they called Him Master.

But children called the Father Daddy. And the idea of Abba is that. The idea of Abba is intimacy of relationship. No longer slaves but sons. No longer aliens but family. No longer those on the outside but now in the family.

This is why verse 7 says, so you are no longer a slave but a son. And if you are a son then you are an heir through God. Not because of what you did but because of what God did for you. Just like, again, using the example of my own home.

Ashley and Cody didn't become our children because of what they did. They became our children because we chose them and we went through the process of going and getting them. We stood before the judge.

We made the vows. We said this is what we want and we went and we got them. God chose us and He came and got us. Not because we were good but because He is good. Not because we were worthy but because He is worthy.

Union with Christ in Romans 8

Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8. This is the parallel passage. If you ever study Galatians, I want you to understand Galatians is like a little Romans. Because so much of what exists in the book of Galatians, the six chapters of Galatians, parallels so much of what is in the sixteen chapters of Romans.

And listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter 8 verses 14 to 17. And just think of what we just read in Galatians. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba Father.

Same thing. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Same thing. And if children then heirs, heirs of God. Same language. And fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

See this is the one part that Romans 8 says that Galatians 4 doesn't say. Romans 8 points out the fact that our adoption is based on our union with Christ. Look again at verse 17. If children then heirs, heirs of God and I like the old king, the joint heirs, the old King James language.

Joint heirs with Christ provided we suffer with Him in order that we may be glorified with Him. And you might think oh wait a minute. So I don't get saved unless I suffer? So is my suffering, is that my payment for salvation?

Am I going to pay for my own salvation through my own suffering? No. The expectation and the statement that's made here by Paul when he says provided we suffer for Him is because of the context of what he is saying is this.

If we come to Christ, we give our whole selves to Christ. And I want you to know this, that in the first century if you gave your whole self to Christ, you would suffer for it. Your whole life would change.

There wasn't any of this raise your hand and nobody will see nonsense that we have today. There wasn't any of this just come forward and sign a card and you're in that we have today. No, in the first century if you were baptized, you were dying to your old life.

That's where the idea of buried in baptism raised a new life. It wasn't just a spiritual reality, but it was an economic reality. It was a physical reality. It was a familial reality. You were severing ties with your old life.

Think of that man who came to Jesus. What must I do to be saved? Sell everything you have and follow me. I can't do it. And so he goes back home sad. How many people do you think that represents in real life that would not come to Christ because the cost was too high?

They would not come to, and people say here's the thing, coming to Christ is free but it costs us everything. Grace is free, but it costs us everything because we turn our back on our life and we turn to Christ.

Last night I had an opportunity. I had very, very dear friends. They knew about what had happened with Jennifer and I. I hadn't seen them in a long, long time and they just happened to come by the house to give us a hug.

It had been so long, I just cried. I held on to them and cried and we talked for a few minutes and we talked about how family is important, but the true family is the family of God because this is the family we're going to spend eternity with.

This is the people, this is our true family. If you have unbelieving family members, love them. I love mine, but understand this, and I say if you're listening, unbelieving family members, if you are not in Christ, we will not spend eternity together.

And in the first century the reality was if you came after Christ, you were leaving everything. So Paul makes it very clear in verse 17, he says, yes, you're heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided you suffer with him because that's what it means to follow him.

It means to suffer with him. And so there's a sense, and that's why I call tonight's lesson adoption and union because how are we adopted into the family of God? We're adopted into the family of God by union with Christ because Christ is the only natural son of God.

If you want to call it natural, maybe it's probably somebody's going to maybe knock my theological pedigree because I call Jesus a natural child, but you understand what I mean. Jesus is the only one who's got the link to the Father that is a link that's not by adoption.

Every one of us comes by adoption. How do we be adopted? We be adopted by union with the one who's the natural. You understand what I'm saying? I'm probably saying it in a, the word natural relates to creation and people maybe knock me again for that, but understand what I'm saying.

Christ is the true son. He's the only, he's called the monogamous theos, the only begotten God. He is the only, and he's called the monogamous huyos, the only begotten son. He's the only son of the Father full of grace and truth, and so he's the only one with true claim to the inheritance, and he shares it with us provided we be united with him.

We become part of the family of God by entering into a relationship with Jesus Christ. We are gods because of Christ. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. We are gods because of Christ. Ephesians chapter 1, and we'll begin to draw to a close here.

Ephesians 1, beginning at verse 3, and we'll read only a few verses. I'll read down to verse 6. Notice what it says. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. That is in Christ.

Notice in just three verses how many times it refers to our union with Christ. We are in him. We are blessed because we are in him, and we are united with Christ, and that's how we are adopted into the family of God.

Romans 8 .1,. Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are what? In Christ. 2 Corinthians 5 .17,. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Ephesians 2 .13,. But now in Christ you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

It's all about being in Christ. It's all about being in union with him. That's what baptism pictures. Buried with him. Raised with him. There is nothing more precious in this whole world than to be a child of God.

Brother Andy says that a lot, doesn't he? He talks about being a child of God. I always say, child of God. And he is right. There is nothing more precious than to be a child of God, and we are not children by birth.

We are children by adoption. Blessed be the God who has adopted us as his own. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this time of study tonight. I pray that it has been fruitful for your people. I pray that tonight's lesson, maybe above all the rest that we have looked at so far, will truly become ingrained in our mind and in our heart, and we will understand that we are your children because you have chose us to be your children.

You have adopted us out of the wickedness and sin of our lives, and you have made us fellow heirs with Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that we can call you Abba, Father. And we do that because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we thank you for him in his name. Amen.