Tag Archives: guardian

Slave Or Son?

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SLAVE OR SON?

“What I am saying is that as long as an heir is under age, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were under age, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption to sonship.” Galatians 4:1-5.

How tragic that so many of God’s children still believe that they are slaves and behave like slaves instead of living like sons!

What is the difference between a slave and a son? A slave has no father, no name, no home and no inheritance. He lives in the fear of punishment if he does not obey. He does not belong except as a possession which his master can treat as he pleases and sell to another master when he chooses. He has no permanent place in the family.

A son, on the other hand, has been born into the family. He came from the seed of his parents. He carries his father’s name. He belongs in the household no matter how he behaves. He can never be “unborn”. He inherits his family’s genes. He is like them in looks and in character. He is loved and secure in his family relationships.

“Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12.

In God’s scheme of things, the law served a temporary purpose in history. When God sent His Son into the world, the purpose of the law was fulfilled. It had done its job and was no longer needed. When we believed in Jesus, we were moved from spiritual childhood to adulthood. We have a new relationship with the Father through Jesus and have been promoted to adult sonship. We took our place beside Jesus as brothers and sisters and as sons and daughters of God.

How did this happen? God sent His Son to be and to do what we failed to do. Paul explicitly declares that Jesus was born of a woman. What does that mean? He was a fully human being, born into the world as every other human being is born. His mother was an ordinary woman. She had no special credentials. Paul did not even mention her name. She was a woman, not a divine being who was miraculously conceived and had a sinless nature.

Jesus had to be fully man. He had to have a human nature. If not, He could not have represented us to the Father. He had to face what we face, all the difficulties, problems and temptation of being fallen human beings. He had to be a perfect son, living under the heavy requirements of the law and obeying every detail of the law to qualify as a perfect substitute.

Jesus was also fully God. He was conceived, not through sexual union with a human father but through the power of the Holy Spirit. He, not Mary, is the perfect mediator between God and man. He represents God to man and man to God. He came to show us the Father and take us to the Father because He is the perfect replica of the Father.

He had to pay the redemption price of slaves to buy us back from the slave market of sin and restore us to the family of God. The price God required and the price He paid perfect obedience to God’s law or death breaking the Law. He paid for our sin with His own life blood because we could not pay.

He has the right to give us life because He bought it for us, but we have to receive His gift by faith in Him.   We cannot earn it by trying to please God. We can only please God by believing in His son.

Can it be more simple than that?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

 

Who Needs A Guardian?

Bible Study, , ,

WHO NEEDS A GUARDIAN?

“Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave not free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:23-29.

Interesting how Paul wove Jewish history and Roman culture together to help his readers understand why they were not obligated to obey the Law of Moses! Having explained that the law was given for the purpose of teaching God’s people what sin is, that He is a holy God, and they could not approach Him without sacrifice and a mediator, he went on to explain how the law acted as a guardian until Christ came.

In a Roman household, little children were cared for by a paidagogos, a slave whose task was to care for and teach the children until they reached the age when the sons were “adopted” by the father and the daughters by the mother. The sons would don the toga virilis, the toga of manhood, and take his place at the father’s side to learn the father’s business. For the Jewish son, it was his bar mitzvah which was his rite-of-passage to manhood.

The law acted as a custodian for the people of God. They were like spiritual children who needed rules and regulations to spell out how God wanted them to live. Rules are what children understand best, even if they don’t obey them. Another way to understand the law is to see it as a boundary fence, so that those who live inside the boundaries are safe. One does not open the gate for a toddler to play in the street. He does not understand how to keep himself safe in a dangerous place

When Christ came, instead of boundaries, God gave His children direct access to Himself through Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who lives within the believer as a personal Paidagogos, a companion and guide, steering the believer from within to live in the safety of God’s ways. The law was only meant for immature children, to keep them from destroying themselves. When a person reaches maturity, he no longer needs the do’s and don’ts of the law because he is mature enough to make the right choices through his childhood training.

An immature child is nothing but a slave, but when he reaches maturity, he sheds his slave status and becomes a son. So it is with us. When Jesus came, He rescued us from being slaves to the law and restored us to being sons and daughters in God’s family. When we receive Him by faith, He moves us from slavery to sonship and puts the Spirit of sonship into our hearts. He transfers us into a new family that is made up of people from every group on earth, Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free.

That means that no one is better than anyone else. All are on the same level and have the same status – children of God. Why, then, should Gentiles be forced to accept circumcision as a pre-requisite for faith in Jesus and entrance into God’s family? In fact, why should any requirement except obedience to Jesus’ commands – to be baptised and to remember His death – be a requirement for participation in the family of God?

The argument is futile and foolish and based on a complete misunderstanding of the gospel. The gospel is good news about Jesus, what He had done to set us free from every “yoke of bondage” that demands that we need to obey rules to gain God’s acceptance, and to be yoked with Him because He did it all for us.

Children in a family do not have to perform to gain their father’s love and approval, He loves them because they are his own flesh and blood. We are Jesus’ “flesh and blood” because He bought us back from Satan and made us His own again.

“In bringing many sons to glory it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect though suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of one family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” Hebrews 2:10, 11.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.