GALATIANS 3-4 THE GRACE OF GOD SETS YOU FREE2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Galatians 3-4 The Grace Of God Sets You Free

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. This evening, we're going to continue talking about the foundations for Christian living.

And specifically the doctrine of grace, which is what the book of Galatians is all about. And we're going to continue on kind of jumping into the middle of what Paul is discussing here, because really the first four chapters is Paul discussing the doctrine of grace from many different angles.

And so we're going to jump into verse 23 and we'll finish off chapter 3 or we'll start by reading the rest of chapter 3 and then we'll get into the message for tonight. So let's look at Galatians 3 verses 23 through 29 and read through that. Here's what it says. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith, which would afterward be revealed.

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus."

And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. As we look at this subject of grace again this evening here in chapter 3 of Galatians and then on into chapter 4, I've titled the message tonight, The Grace of God Sets You Free. The grace of God sets you free. And there's a freedom that we have, a freedom that is available to us,

that comes from the grace of God that we need to consider and allow our hearts to meditate on this evening. Now, as we looked through the first part of chapter three over the past couple of weeks, we've talked about grace from a couple of different angles and faith and the promise to Abraham and receiving the inheritance of Abraham and all of these things work together. They're part of this same subject that Paul is teaching today.

as he addresses this situation where people have come into the church and essentially convinced the Galatians in order to really have access to God, in order to have a greater access to God, to have a better standing, to be more spiritual, to really be saved. And, you know, you could describe that in a lot of different ways, but you have to then go back to the laws of Moses, right?

That begins with being circumcised, but it goes on to include then, you know, the rest of the keepings of the law and the holding of the sacrifices and feasts and these things. And they were trying to convince the Galatians and the Galatians were falling for it, that they needed to do all of these things in order to really have access to God, in order to really be spiritual, to really be forgiven or have righteousness before the Lord.

And Paul has been combating that very fiercely. He wants to make sure that we understand. And so he's dealt with it at great length that the grace of God, the gospel of grace is that Jesus Christ has done the work for us upon the cross and the work is completed. And there is nothing that you or I can do to add to our salvation. We can't be more saved. We can't be more righteous. We can't be more

We can't have better access to God than what we have by faith in Jesus Christ. And the grace of God is really incredible in that it enables us to have this relationship with God. Well, as Paul has been talking about the law and faith and the promise of Abraham, he was talking about the purpose of the law because one of the questions then that would naturally come up is, well,

What was the law for? Why would God give a law then if we are not supposed to follow it? If we're not supposed to keep it, then why did God establish the law? And so Paul, and this is what we covered last week, explained that it was temporary. God did establish the Old Testament law, but it was as a foreshadowing and picturing that which would come.

And we left off with verses 23 and 24, but I wanted to go back and review them a little bit because there's a lot that we didn't get to consider as we considered these things. And so we're going to start in verses 23 through 25 for point number one, and that is that grace frees you to grow. Grace frees you to grow. As we talk about the purpose of the law, he tells us in verse 23, he says,

Here Paul explains, here's the purpose of the Old Testament law.

Now today, you know, some are tempted to go back to the Old Testament law. Others, and maybe you've experienced this, are kind of more inclined to come up with our own laws. We have our own systems and rules and regulations and it applies to both. But specifically talking about the Old Testament law, the Old Covenant, Paul is explaining here this was for a season and we were kept under guard by the law.

So there was a guard that was there. There was a hindering, right? There was a holding in place that the law provided for people who desired to walk with God and know God for God's people. We were kept under guard by the law. But that wasn't for forever. It was kept for a time, kept for the faith in Jesus Christ forever.

that would be given to those who would believe. And so there is this opportunity then to be delivered, to be freed from that guard. And there's a change of guard now, that we are no longer under the guard of the law. And so Paul goes on to explain it as a tutor. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ. Now, this is an interesting concept to consider, this idea of a tutor to bring us to Christ.

when you and I think of tutor, we probably think of, you know, something like you're struggling in math, and so you get Roman to help you because he's really good at math, and so he teaches you, you know, the new core approach to math or whatever that's called, and, you know, he's able to then help you grasp those concepts, and that's an interesting thing to consider, a tutor like that, that the law kind of, you know, introduces us and helps us to understand the concepts of the Lord, but

But it's really not the context of what Paul is talking about here. We kind of need to go back a little bit culturally to think about what a tutor was as Paul is writing this. In Roman culture, in Greek culture, the tutor was more than just, you know, someone you would spend a couple hours with after school to help get a subject down. The tutor really was someone who was on staff within the home that was responsible for the child.

And so in a wealthy home, there would be a tutor. There would be, you know, in a sense, maybe like a nanny, right? Who would take care of the child, teach them basic principles until they were old enough to actually attend school if there was a school present. And the tutor's responsibility then was to take them to school and then bring them home afterwards to make sure they do their homework, to make sure their needs are met, to discipline them even when necessary, right?

It was a taking care of the child until the child became of full age. And so the tutor was a custodian of a child more than just, you know, someone who would help with some difficult concepts. Pastor Warren Wiersbe puts it this way. The Greek and Roman tutor used to guard and teach the minor children until they reached legal adulthood, after which the children were on their own.

When they reached adulthood, then things changed. Then the child was no longer subject to the tutor. And the child could say, you know what? I don't want to wear the things you've been dressing me in. I want to wear the things that I want to wear. I don't want to just eat the things that you've been feeding me. I want to eat what I want to eat. I don't want to learn these subjects. I want to learn those subjects. The child then had some freedom when they reached maturity, when they became an adult, and

just as there's freedoms that we have as we become adults in our society today. Now, depending on the culture, this idea of adulthood took place at different times. For the Jewish people, they...

celebrate the bar mitzvah and the bat mitzvah, right? That's when they celebrate at 12 years old, a child going into a legal standing before the law, that a child is now accountable for their actions and subject to the law of God. And so they celebrate that. In Greek and Roman culture, it varied, it depended. Sometimes it was like a set age and sometimes it was just, you know, when the father thought

yeah, now my child's ready to be an adult, then it would change. And they would go through, they also would have a ceremony and have, you know, kind of an official, you are now an adult type of declaration to the child and to the community. And so there was a transition. And so this is what Paul is referring to, this idea here, the law was our tutor, right?

That we needed that kind of guardianship, that custodian of us to keep us in line, keep us in check until, well, until we were brought to Christ. We needed the law. We needed those restrictions and that structure until we came to Jesus Christ that we might be justified by faith.

And this is the core of what Paul is dealing with here. The idea of being justified, that we have right standing with God, it comes not by our keeping the law. That was never the intended purpose of the law, to make us righteous before God. Because, well, the law has never made anybody righteous because none of us can keep the law. All the law does is show us

that we need a savior. And so it leads us to Christ. It's a custodian leading us by hand and showing us and disciplining us and reminding us and feeding us and, you know, all of these things until we come to the point where we cry out to Jesus by faith. And then a transition happens. Then we, we transition out of that age and to another age where we now are grown in Christ and

And are able then, we're freed to relate to God in a new way, in a fresh way by the Holy Spirit as one who is righteous or justified because of our faith in Jesus Christ. And so he goes on to say in verse 25, after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. And so it doesn't help us to go backwards, to go back and go, okay, now I believe in Jesus. Now what I really need is a system of rules, right?

to help me live right before God. And there might be some convincing arguments that could be presented that sound really good, makes sense logically, but doesn't make sense spiritually. To go back to a system of laws, to go back to trying to earn God's favor, to go back to trying to deserve God's goodness, to have right standing before God by our merits and efforts. This is what the Galatians were doing.

And this is why Paul is perplexed. I'm astonished that you're so quickly turning away to another gospel because you approaching God by your efforts and through your systems, that's another gospel. That is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. You've gone back to a tutor. You've gone back under another system. You've tried to go back to a prior system and it doesn't work like that. You cannot do that. It will not help you to grow spiritually.

But if you will believe in Jesus Christ and accept your position and your standing in Jesus Christ, if you will receive from God the grace that he provides for you, you are set free to grow and mature as a believer in Jesus Christ. I was thinking about it this way. Do you remember if you can kind of go way back to when you first learned to write and

You remember you had to trace the letters and they kind of told you, give you arrows, okay, no, don't draw the line down, draw the line up or whatever, right? Like, here's the direction and you would have pages like this, right? And over and over again, you'd write the letter, write the letter, write the letter, write the whole alphabet, write the whole alphabet, write the whole alphabet. It was a tutor. It was useful for a time, but that's not meant to be how you live the rest of your life. Can you imagine if today the only way that you could write

is if you got a piece of paper with dotted lines in the shape of the letters for the, you know, thing that you wanted to write to your boss or to your spouse or to, you know, whatever. Like if you had to fill out your taxes and, you know, it's just, you had, in order to be able to do that, you had to get the pre-filled out one with the dotted so you could just trace it. If that was all that you were limited to, if that was all that you could do, that would be horrendous.

No, that was to train you, to teach you to write. And then what comes after that? Oh, it's the freedom. You can write any letters that you want in any order that you want. You can write all caps if you want. You can write all lowercase if you want. You can write poems if you want. You can write laws if you want. You know, you have such freedom. And the road ahead is wide open. There's such variety there.

for what you can do with your letters once you've learned from the tutor. And in a similar way, we come to the Lord and going back to a system of, I have to follow this exact pattern and do this over and over and over again, and I can only relate to God. Well, think about it in prayers. What if you could only pray this formula? Now, some people do live that way and try to relate to God that way.

it's not very free. It's strict and structured, and it doesn't really help for growth. It doesn't really lead you on to maturity. When you have to follow these formulas to pray or to serve, you know, I can only serve this way, and it has to be, you know, this particular thing. It has to be this routine, this ritual. We can go back to

the old covenant, or we can come up with our own systems and go back to being under a tutor. And it keeps us in a place, a state of perpetual immaturity. We're not able to grow in that kind of situation. We're not able to grow like that. We

it's intended that we grow out of those systems and we learn from them. Now we don't abandon the law and then break every law possible now because there's grace in Jesus Christ, right? No, but we use those things that we learned, those letters that we learned, we use those to walk with God, to serve God, to love God, to know God in new and fresh ways that the law could never teach us.

And there's such variety for each one of us to be able to have our own relationship with God and connection to God and communication with God, our own prayer life, our own devotional life, our own capacity to serve God. There's such variety because we're set free by the grace of Jesus Christ. We're not under a tutor. We don't have to follow these strict set of rules and laws anymore to stand before God as righteous.

We are righteous before God by faith in Jesus Christ. I wonder perhaps if later on the author of Hebrews was writing to people in a similar situation as he talked to them about their perpetual immaturity. Remember in Hebrews chapter 5?

The author of Hebrews says, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles. Let's pull out the letters and you can trace over them. You need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. You've come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who only partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. And there are those who are around the things of God for a long time,

who by this time ought to be teachers. They have enough experience or time in the Lord. They ought to be teachers. But they're stuck in this, well, let me pull out the paper and trace over what somebody else has done. Because they haven't learned who God is for themselves. They don't have experience relating to God. They don't have that. And it's this immaturity. He calls them babes in Christ because they're

They have not grown. They have not matured. The grace of God frees you to grow. It sets you free so that you can get to know God and you can walk with God and you can cry out to God and call out to God and pray to God and serve God in unique and fresh ways because you're righteous before him. And you don't have to follow this strict set of rules or this pattern that someone else has established for you. You can connect to God and find out how does God want you to spend time with him in prayer?

You get to work with God on what your devotional life is going to be like. You're free. You want to read three chapters a day? That's great. You want to read three verses a day? Hey, as the Lord leads, you're free in Christ. It doesn't make you more righteous one way or the other. You're righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. You have the freedom to walk with God in the way that's appropriate for you.

as a mature believer, able to hear from the Lord and walk with the Lord and worship Him in the way that He calls you to. Grace frees you to grow. Well, continuing on here in chapter 3, looking at verses 26 through 29, gives us point number two, grace frees you to be one with Christ. So here's another aspect of the freedom provided by grace. Grace frees us

To be united with Jesus Christ. And this is terminology that we might be familiar with and a little bit maybe too comfortable with sometimes. But the concept is really radical. For us to be united with Christ. That is, we are in the position with Christ as sons and daughters of God. Verse 26. For you are all sons of God through faith together.

Now, ladies, this is not Paul being, you know, just focused on the guys. It's just the terminology, right? It's talking about being a child of God. You are all children of God. You are a child of God in a similar way to Jesus being the son of God. Now, Jesus is the only begotten of the Father. So he has a unique position in that sense.

His relational aspect to the Father as the Son of God is something that is, well, given to us as children of God. That we are included. That's why he says in verse 27, The idea here is that you were baptized, that's immersed into Christ. He's not talking about water baptism, but he's talking about what water baptism pictures are.

The point of water baptism is not the water, but the point of it is what it symbolizes. And it symbolizes you being immersed into Christ. Your old life gone, buried. You come up, new life in Christ. He says you have put on Christ. And put on Christ, that is the idea of now Christ surrounds you.

Like you put on a space suit, right? I would say put on clothing, but then you have these other parts that are exposed, right? No, no, put on a space suit, right? Christ, he seals you in completely. You're encapsulated inside of Christ, spiritually speaking. And so you are free, right?

to relate to God. You are free to walk with God. You are free by the grace of God because you are one. You are united with, you are immersed in Jesus Christ. You are a child of God. You're not a, you know, distant cousin that, you know, we kind of wish you wouldn't really come around that much, but you're family. So I guess we have to, you know, put up with you. There's a lot of laughter that there might be some chords of truth in that, huh?

You're a child of God. It gives you a relationship to God that is incredibly unique and special and blessed because you're his child. More than just the, you know, there is the sense that all human beings are the children of God in the sense that they are his creation. But this is not what Paul is talking about. And the grace of God that's poured out upon you is way more than that. The grace of God is that you get to relate to God and

As if you were as righteous as Jesus Christ. You get to walk with God like Jesus does. You get to call out to him like Jesus did. You are a child of God with everything that that entails and everything that comes with that. You're part of the family of God in an incredible way. And the way that God relates to you is as his child, not as his enemy, not as, you know, someone that he doesn't care about or someone that, well, if you make it to heaven, you know, I guess that's okay.

No, you're his child. You are special to him. You're precious to him. You are one with Christ. He's going to relate to you with the same care as he relates to Jesus Christ. That's the father and his relationship towards you by grace.

Now again, the false teachers here in the region of Galatia, they were trying to convince the Galatians in order to have this special treatment from God, this extra access to God, in order to have, you have to follow these laws, fulfill these regulations, perform these rituals, do these things, and then you can have special access to God. And Paul is saying here, no, you have the most privileged place possible already. You can't improve upon that.

You're one with Christ. You've been baptized into him. You've put on Christ. Martin Luther puts it this way. A son is an heir, not by virtue of high accomplishments, but by virtue of his birth. He is a mere recipient. His birth makes him an heir, not his labors. You've been born again. Your birth makes you an heir.

Jumping down to verse 29, that's what he says. And if you're Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. You're an heir by birth because you've been born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

And so you have this access to God. Now, again, the Galatians, they were convinced, oh no, in order to really have access to God and receive from God all the promises and blessings that he has for us, we have to follow these laws. They became convinced by the false teaching. And Paul here is going through a very sound logical process saying, think about it.

You've been immersed in Christ. You've put on Christ. And so if you're Christ, then you are already Abraham's seed. You don't have to become circumcised to become Abraham's seed. You are already Abraham's seed. And you're already heirs, recipients of the promise that was given to Abraham. You are one with Christ. And there is not an advantage that someone else has over you in access to God.

This concept, I don't know about you, but, and maybe I talk about it a lot because it just really blows me away. It amazes me that there is nobody who has better access to God than you do. Like that just kind of blows my mind. I mean, you would think Richard would have better access to God than all of us, right? Go back to Billy Graham or Chuck Smith or Moses, right? But

Nobody has or ever had better access to God than you have. This is what Paul is talking about in verse 28. He says, Now,

Some people take this verse and try to make it mean all kinds of things that it doesn't mean. So it's not talking about, you know, the idea of gender is all, they'll just throw it out the window. That's not, you know, no, no, there are distinctions. There are different roles and different capacities that God calls us to. There's different, you know, lives that God has called us to. So it's not in that sense, there's no Jew or Greek or slave or free or male or female. But what he is explaining here is that we are all one in Christ. We have the same standing before God.

And so a Jew doesn't have a better standing before the Greek. But that's not what they were convinced of. That's not what they were thinking. They were thinking, well, yeah, we come from Greek descent. We come from Roman, you know, heritage. We come from this. And so we got to become Jews in order to have this access to God. And Paul is saying, no, there is neither Jew nor Greek. By faith in Jesus Christ, you are born again. There's a new thing internally that God is doing. It's not your heritage, your background that gives you better access to God.

And then he goes on to say, there's neither slave nor free. Now, that didn't mean that, you know, those who are slaves were just to rebel against their masters and run away. Again, he's not saying those things do not exist in the world. But what he's saying is, before Christ, before God, you have just, what, you have the same access to God, whether you are a slave or free. And you could think, wow, you know, if I didn't have this debt, then I would really know God. Well, no.

You would have the same access to God if you were free, or as you do, indebted. Well, if I had this job, then I could really walk with the Lord. Well, you have the same access, the same opportunity to walk with God now as you would if you were in those other circumstances. That's the point.

Some people might try to make a case that men have greater access to God than women do. Others would make the case, no, women have, you know, they've got that intuition and that connection. They got that connection to God. It's better than what men have with the Lord. No, no, no, no. We are one in Christ. We are all one in Christ. We have the same access to God. By faith in Jesus Christ, grace frees you to be one with Christ. And so there is no one who has better access to God than you do.

There are people who take more advantage of their access to God than you do. That's probably something that we can wrestle with a little bit. But the opportunity and availability, nobody has greater opportunity or greater availability before God than you do. We are one in Christ. We have the same access to God, the same opportunity to walk with God, the same opportunity to know God, the same opportunity to receive from God as Jesus does.

And that's what we'll continue to consider as we head now into chapter 4. We're going to look at verses 1 through 5 for point number 3, and that is grace frees you to receive from God. Let's read verses 1 through 5. It says, Now I say that an heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.

So Paul says, while I'm talking about this idea of being an heir, let's think about that a little bit. An heir, as long as he is a child, doesn't really differ from a slave.

Now, again, Paul has in mind this idea of what was common for them. A wealthy family where there would be a child, there would be a tutor, that custodian of the child, who would take care of the child pretty much day and night and take them to school, bring them home, dress them, feed them, discipline them, all that stuff, right? Now, the child is the heir. So when the parents are gone, the child will be the recipient of all of their wealth, all of everything.

their resources, the child will be inheriting all of that. But as a child, well, they don't get access to those resources in the same way that they would when they're an adult. And so Paul is saying an heir, as long as he is a child, doesn't really differ from a slave. So the servant that's caring for the child, well, they benefit from the wealth of the master, the provisions of the master, and

They're given the food they're provided for in that way. And they're, you know, given resources to get clothing. They're both recipients. The master gives to the child and gives to the servant what's needed. Whatever, you know, the master desires to give.

as the master considers appropriate, there's not much difference in that sense. They don't receive differently. They don't have, you know, the child does not have autonomy. So the child is not different from a slave, even though he's the master of all, Paul says. One day he will inherit it all and he'll be the boss. But until that happens, his access to the resources, his access to the wealth of the family and the resources of the family is

Well, it's not much different than the access that the servant has. Paul says the child is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. And again, in Greek and Roman cultures, the father would have the opportunity to set and say, you know, you're not quite ready to be an adult. And so we're going to wait till next year and then you'll graduate. Then, you know, we'll have that. And so the time set by the father established, okay, now you're a full age child.

And that changed everything. It changed their position, their standing, their access. It changed their ability to receive from the Father and to access the resources that were the family's. And so Paul relates that then in verse 3. He says,

When we were children, again, that idea of a tutor being under the law, there was a bondage. We weren't free because we were children. And that ends as we come to Christ. In verse 4, he explains, Now, there's a big picture thing that you could consider here.

Talking about the whole plan of God in that in the exact right time, in the fullness of time, at the perfect time, Jesus came, born under the law, born of a woman, a little bit of a hint to the virgin birth there, in order to redeem those who were under the law,

completing the old covenant, establishing the new covenant. And that all took place at exactly the right time. And so in the fullness of time, all of this took place so that we might receive the adoption as sons. And so there's that big picture look. But then there's also the kind of the personal individual look that like we being under a tutor, the tutor is responsible to bring us to Christ. So there was a sense where it was appropriate, a time where it was appropriate for

For us to understand that there are laws, to understand that we don't measure up to righteous standing before God, to bring us to Jesus Christ, but not for us to live in that condition, trying to follow laws and keep laws. Christ came to redeem us from under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And so that we might

Again, be part of the family of God in that way and become children of God in more than just that we are God's creation, but in the unity with Jesus. We are children of God. We are adopted as his sons and daughters. Adoption in our culture is a serious thing, but adoption in their culture was a very serious thing as well. It was, you know, very strict. It was granted equal status as a child. Now,

I knew a family growing up where there was a mix of, well, it was a mixed, some kids were from a previous marriage and other kids were from the current marriage. And my friend was one of the previous marriage kids and the younger kids were, you know, the current marriage kids. And there was a dramatic difference in how the family or the parents would relate to the children.

It was visible. Sometimes it was openly declared, you know, that there was a clear show of favoritism. There was a clear show of, you know, I like these kids better. You're from a previous marriage and, you know, you're my kids, but not my kids, you know, kind of thing. And there was this distinction. That is not the way that it is being members of the family of God. Yeah, you're a son. Yeah, you're a daughter, but you know, you're kind of from one of the previous marriages. And so, and yeah,

not going to treat you the same, not going to give you the same access, not going to give you the same benefits. No, the idea of being adopted as sons, you're adopted as a child of God. You have this standing before God as his child and not as a black sheep child, not as a white sheep child, not as a blue sheep child. You're just his child. He loves you. He relates to us in that way. Grace frees us to receive from God because God,

Although we are heirs, we don't always receive from God what is available to us. You think about the prodigal son, that account, that parable that Jesus told, right? He took his inheritance early, went and squandered it, lived out, you know, in the pigsties after he spent it all. And he kind of came to his senses, it says, and then he decided, you know,

I'm desiring to eat this food that I'm feeding the pigs. I would be better off as a slave, a servant in my father's house. So maybe I'll use my, you know, child relationship to dad to kind of leverage this opportunity. Dad, give me a job. You know, I need a job. I've been eating pig slop. And so he's going back to his dad with that in mind, thinking, I'm going to try to negotiate to be a slave, to be a servant. It'll be better than where I'm at.

And the dad sees the son coming and runs and embraces him. And he pleases him again, not as a slave in the family, but as a son. He treats him as a son. He relates to him as a son. And the son says, no, no, no, I want to be your slave. And dad's like, no, you're my son. You're not my slave. I'm not going to treat you like a slave.

in a similar way sometimes we're like no i want to be treated like a slave i want to go back to the law i want to go back to systems and rules and regulations and i want to go back to trying to no and god says no you're you're missing out you have access to god in a way that only children have access to god grace frees you to receive from god in that way

for him to put on the new clothes and put a ring on your finger and set a feast before you. You're free to receive from God because you're an heir, you're his child, you're adopted in. Now again, nobody has better access to God than you do, but sometimes others do take advantage of that access more than we do. And there is the need for us to then behave as children of God and enter into the presence of God.

and walk with God and live with God as children and not as slaves. Well, we're going to finish up in verses six and seven for point number four. Point number four is grace frees you to cry out to God. Verse six says, and because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. So again, Paul is building this argument, right? He's building upon the previous thought. You used to be under a tutor. You grew into maturity as a child of God, included with Christ, immersed in Christ, adopted into

as a son, as a daughter with equal standing, equal access to God. And so you have this opportunity to know God and to walk with God. And because you are sons, because you have entered into this relationship with God, he says, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. You have this access to God. You have this spirit from God that

so that you can cry out to God, Abba. This idea of Abba, again, this is another interesting picture for us to consider, and we could spend a lot of time considering it, but it was a familiar way to call out to the Father. It's not so much a special word as it is a common word in Aramaic. It was the typical word that children would call their father. Now, you can be very formal about

in speaking to a father, but you can also be very informal and familiar and say, Papa, Daddy. Now, not in a disrespectful way, right? But just in a familiar way. There's that relationship. And this is what Paul is describing here. There is this access to God, this relationship to God that we're freed to have by grace. We can cry out to God, Abba, Father. Right?

That we're not trying to approach God and he is like some distant far away and we have to go through, you know, these formulas and rituals and procedures and jump through hoops. But we can approach God in a very familiar, informal, comfortable way by grace. Now, Abba Father, there's a lot that we could talk about there, but sometimes this concept is skewed into

by our own experiences with fathers, right? And I don't know what your experience with a father was like. And maybe you've seen different kinds of fathers and you've seen good and bad. You've seen traits that are not consistent with our heavenly father. But when we talk about Abba father, we're not talking about some kind of father that is impacted by a sinful nature and is inconsistent with perfection and love. Your heavenly father is

is holy. He's without sin. He's without favoritism. He loves you, and he loves you so much that he always is working towards what is best for you. He is completely set apart, but not in the sense that he is inaccessible. You can call out to him, Abba Father. He's completely set apart in the sense that he, well, there's no shadow. There's not even a hint of cruelty in his relationship towards you.

There's not even a hint of anything that would be detrimental or hurtful to you in his relationship to you. There's not even a hint or a shadow of any kind of sin or harm. You can relate to God. He is holy in that he is perfect and set apart, but he is accessible and you can cry out to him, Abba, Father. And you have access to God as his child.

As any child would with, you know, the perfect father in this world. You have access to God. You have relationship with God, opportunity to know God. Jesus called out to the father with this term, Abba Father, in Mark chapter 14, verse 36. He was in the garden of Gethsemane. He said, Abba Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but you will. I point that out for a couple of things. First of all,

You get to relate to the Father like Jesus did. Abba, Father. You get to have that kind of access to the Father, but also that doesn't mean that you get everything that you ask for. It doesn't remove us from being submitted to the will of the Father. Jesus had a relationship to the Father that was incredible. It's the same access that God gives to you by faith in Jesus. But it doesn't mean that you get everything that you ask for and then, you know, you never have problems. Sometimes the will of God is different than our will.

But we can, like Jesus, in that position, calling out, Abba, Father, trust in the Father that He desires what's best. He loves us and wants to accomplish what is best for us. And so we have access to God like Jesus does. Grace frees you to cry out to God. You don't have to reach a certain level or attain certain things or, you know, be free from sin for a certain amount of time. And then you can call out to the Lord and

You can cry out to God, Abba, Father, by faith in Jesus Christ right now, no matter what's been happening in your life. Paul finishes up in verse 7 saying, You're no longer a slave. You've grown out of that by faith in Jesus Christ. And so you have the opportunity to know God and to walk with God. The grace of God sets you free from

You're not bound by the letters anymore. You don't have to have the written out prayers and relations. You get to walk with God and relate to God and call out to God and develop your own walk with him. It will be consistent with the word of God. Again, you don't throw out the form of those letters, you know, and make up your own language. Well, you might, but that's not what Paul is talking about. There will be elements of what we learned of God from his word, but at the same time, there's a freedom there.

We don't have to follow these or measure up or meet these rules and regulations in order to know God. The grace of God sets you free. You're free to grow, free to be one with Christ, included with him, one with one another. There's a relationship that we have that's enabled by the amazing goodness of God. It frees us to receive from God, to ask of God, to invite God to work in our lives in ways that we don't deserve.

Boy, that's bold, right? I don't deserve for God to work this way in my life, but God, would you work this way in my life? I'm your child. Grace frees you to cry out to God in that way. I want to finish up with a quote from Charles Spurgeon. Something happened to the Wi-Fi, so I can't put it on the screen, but I'll just read it to you. Spurgeon says, Do we not tremble at God as if we were his slaves rather than his sons? Let us remember that we are God's sons, his heirs, and let us come close to him.

Let us take possession of the blessed inheritance which he has provided for us. It's a good reminder. There are a lot of times that we tremble as if we were slaves rather than sons. We still try to go back and relate to God in that inferior relationship. Let's remember we're his children. So let's come close to him. Let's grasp hold of the blessed inheritance that he has provided for us. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.