The Powerless Life of the Christian | Christmas | 25th December 2001 | Galatians 4:4-7 | Bruce Shields |

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.

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