Growing Up

When we grow up there is always some "rights" of passage. You get to ride a two wheel bike, then you get to leave the sidewalk or cross the street, later you get a learner’s permit to drive a car and then...after passing your test. You get to drive the car alone. Paul also described another right of moving from a child "who isn’t any different than a slave" to being the true heir of everything that owned by his father. But there is a day when everything changes, that day, set by the father, when all the rights and privilege are passed along by the father. What happen in the natural sense happens in a similar way in the spiritual world. Notice what Paul says, "as children we are held in bondage under the things of the world." That changed when God sent His Son at the right time (fullness of time) to make it possible to be set free.

Gal 4:1-7 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. 3 So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, " Abba! Father!" 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. NASU

We are all born under the law. Not one of us does good. The Son’s purpose is to redeem us from that law by making adoption as sons possible. Then we can cry Abba Father (like saying Daddy) and changed from being slaves to being son. The joy of passing from one life to the other.

Explore for Yourself

1. How are children and slaves the same?
2.When would we have been considered "children" and why?
3. What did God send "in the fullness of time" and what was the purpose?
4. What is significant in that the Son was SENT?
5.What do we receive when we are redeemed?
6.What did we receive when we became sons by adoptions?
7. What changes?