Issue 26 - Day 3

Galatians 4

Galatians 4:4-7
4)  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5)  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6)  And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7)  Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Here in England there are two ways in which you can become primary carer for someone who is not your own child. You can foster, or you can adopt. If you foster it is usually on a temporary basis, though it can be longer term, even permanent. However the child concerned only has to obey your authority. They have no rights to inherit from you, or act on the same legal footing as your actual children. If you adopt then in the eyes of the law it is as if you had given birth to that child.

When the only way to God was by the law, as it was before Christ came, this was a fostering situation in many ways. Anyone wishing to be part of that had to become a proselyte Jew. Obey God, be part of the family, but that is as far as it goes. Christ came and changed it all. Suddenly anyone could come to him and be adopted. It is as if we were born of him. In fact Jesus described it as being “born again” of the Spirit. We really are children of God now.

Another side to that is that no believer can say, I am the way I am because I was born that way, because of my upbringing etc. Since you came to know God you are born anew. The way you were born now is holy, a son of God.