The Powerless Life of the Christian

Text: Galatians 4:4-7
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

Do you ever feel as though your life is not your own? That you are not in control? That you are a slave to some power outside yourself? That you are not even sure who you are, let alone what you should do next? We all feel this way at times, and the terrorist attacks of September 11 intensified those feelings in people around the world. God has offered help to us for our feelings of powerlessness.

In our text, the Apostle Paul describes a transition from powerlessness to divine power. Paul has been explaining to the Galatian Christians that whether they were Gentiles or Jews they had been under the control of what he calls "the elemental spirits of the world" or "the rudiments of the universe." Even when we think we are in control our genetic makeup and our circumstances in society determine many aspects of our lives.

Now he points out that they have been adopted as children in the family of God. The Galatians would be familiar with Paul's metaphor. It was not unusual in the Roman Empire of that day for a ruler to choose a successor by adopting him as a son-even if the younger man had been a slave. In this way all the insecurity of the wait for power would be lifted, and the successor/son could expect to take power at a time stipulated by his father-usually at his father's death.

Then our text opens with the conjunction "but." A big change has happened and Paul is about to tell us about it. Before, we were slaves-or in another figure of speech, we were minor children, not yet empowered to control our own lives. BUT there came a time ("the fullness of time") when God acted to change that circumstance; and God did something very surprising.

God sent his Son. GOD SENT HIS SON. Do you hear the importance of that proclamation? In our recent celebrations of the birth of Jesus we have been dealing with a central event in the history of the human race. Whether or not we are aware of it, Christmas celebrates the beginning of a radical change in the identity of human beings. Long-time Christians are always in danger of taking for granted "the greatest story ever told." We need to sink ourselves into texts like this to renew our appreciation, our awe, of what theologians call the incarnation. God sent his Son.

How did God send him? "Born of a woman." Christ came through the same, strange, wonderful, painful process by which all of us entered this life. Born of a woman. That woman had a name and a home town. She was Mary of Nazareth.Our Christmas pageants remind us that the birth took place in a stable. We make it look as peaceful and serene as possible, but stables are messy places. Life is a messy place, and God chose to send his Son into the grime, blood, and general mess and confusion of life as we know it. He was born with Jewish genes-with swarthy skin, dark hair and eyes, his size and general shape determined by his birth.

He was also "born under the law." Paul has already pointed out that the Torah, the law of Moses, was one of those limiting, enslaving circumstances under which human beings live. Now we see that Christ came not only through the same birth process as all of us, but also into the same limiting circumstance that we all experience. We all live under law. We live under family traditions, under cultural mores, under attitudes formed by our educations and choice of friends. We live limited lives. In order to help us break out, God had to break in.
God's purpose was two-fold. First, God sent his Son to redeem us. "Redeem" is a business-oriented term, referring to buying a slave from a master and setting the slave free. The Roman government, under which the Galatians lived, had very detailed laws for the redemption of a slave. Paul's original readers would have understood that God in Christ did what was necessary to free us from our slavery.

Second, he came "so that we might receive adoption as children" of God. The Roman laws about adoption were also very clear and specific, just as our adoption laws are. The adopted child has all the rights of the child born into the family. Just as redemption delivers the former slave to real freedom, so adoption brings the former outsider fully into the family circle. Both of Paul's metaphors for the out-of-control life, slavery and non-children or minor children, are resolved in the coming of Christ. We are released from slavery and we are given the rights and privileges of grown-up children in the family of God.

The seal of this redemption/adoption is that "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" The heart in the Bible is not the soft, mushy seat of our emotions, but the firm seat of the will. We need more than to feel free. We need to be free so as to make adult decisions. Thus the Spirit of Christ (the only fully free person to live the human life) now lives in the center of our wills. We know that by our ability to speak intimately and boldly to our heavenly Papa.

As Paul often does, in the larger context of Galatians he extends his metaphor of being a child. He talks about himself as though he is mother to the Galatian Christians; he also points out that they are now all children of Abraham and Sarah (Jews and Gentiles alike); and he points to the center of the Gospel which assures us that we are children of God. Even these great metaphors of slave redemption and adoption cannot fully express what God has done in Christ. Human language is just as limited as human beings when it comes to trying to describe the love and grace of God for us.

And the result of all this is that instead of being slaves and minor children, we are now heirs of God-in line to receive the inheritance of eternal life with God and able now with the help of God to control our lives in every circumstance. Because of what God has done in the past through Jesus Christ, we are presently God's children, and we are assured of the greatest inheritance we can imagine. Knowing this, we can make decisions, face difficulties, and celebrate victories with our knowledge of God as our primary point of reference. A person with strong connections to past, present, and future is one who knows what life is all about.

So when your life seems out of control, remember who you are-a full-fledged adult child of God, with all the rights, privileges, and perquisites appertaining thereto-an adult child adopted into a family that reaches across the globe and across the centuries-an adult child with access to the Father who has made it all possible-an adult child who is loved and cared-for by the Creator of the universe and by all other true children of God-an adult child whose redeemer is pleading your case before the Judge-an adult child whose very life is inhabited by the Spirit of the One who came born of a woman, born under the law-an adult child who even when faced with adult responsibilities can stand secure by trusting the Father of power and mercy to protect and guide through whatever life brings.

The reality is that our lives are out of our control, but those of us who have been redeemed and adopted have yielded our lives to God and can trust that the Creator is in control. Let us rest secure in God. Let us work boldly with God. Let us hope for ultimate homecoming to God. God never fails.

Prof. Bruce E. Shields
Emmanuel School of Religion
Johnson City, Tennessee, USA
E-Mail: BruceShi@msn.com