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January 4, 2004
2nd Sunday after Christmas
Galatians 4:4-7
Pastor Ben Berger

You are a Child of God

I hope that you didn't have to spend Christmas or any part of the holidays alone. During the holidays, and especially during Christmas, we like to spend time with our families. Of course, there are a lot of people in this world who don't have a family. They don't have moms and dads or brothers and sisters. No aunts, uncles or cousins. No friends. They didn't have a choice but to spend Christmas all alone. One blessing of belonging to a church is that you always have a family. An even greater blessing of belonging to the Church is that you are part of the family of believers. Today the apostle Paul wants you to remember that you have a family because you are a child of God. You are a Child of God 1) because God sent his Son and 2) because God sent his Spirit.

Whether we've thought about it before or not, we all know what it's like to be without a family. Each of us was born without a family. We were all born as orphans spiritually. I can't fully describe the feelings of an orphan because I was not an orphan. However, I've known some orphans and they have told me what they felt. Orphans feel alone, abandoned, unloved and unwanted. To some degree we can all relate to those feelings. We have all felt alone, abandoned, unloved and unwanted at some point. In fact, that's very close to our spiritual condition at birth. We were born as orphans, without a reliable spiritual father. Yes, we were born as part of the human race. How often our human family lets us down! We were born as individuals, only to realize that we fail more than succeed and can't live without the help of others. In the end, we were born as sinners with an unloving, unreliable "father" named Satan.

We were orphans and therefore slaves. We wanted nothing more than to find someone to love us. In our hearts we really wanted God to love us, but we didn't know how to make it happen. We were slaves to our own sinful minds and to the ideas of the world and the devil. They told us that God wouldn't love us unless we impressed him. So, in fear we set out to do our best. We put on some nice clothes and our best behavior and prayed that God would love us. We had no other choice, no other way; we were slaves. The harder we tried the more alone we felt. We realized that we could never do enough to impress God so that he would take us home and be our Father. Left to ourselves and our slavery we would remain orphans.

"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son…that we might have the full rights of sons," (v.4-5). While we were chained to thoughts of impressing God, tied down to our failure and feeling sorry for ourselves, God did a most amazing thing. God sent his Son to take our place. We didn't even know that God was looking to adopt more children. Why would he? He already had the perfect son. But, for a reason we can't fully understand, God wanted more children. He knew that no other child could ever live up to his standards of perfection. He knew that no other child could impress him or earn his love. He knew that there was only one way to adopt another child. God would have to send his own son as a substitute.

So, when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, (v.4-5). In order to become our substitute God's son had to become one of us; he had to become human. As a result God's son was born of a woman. The Son of God became the Son of man. That means that God's son became an orphan. His Father abandoned him. He was left to live on his own, dependent upon sinners. Jesus learned what it meant to be an orphan when his own people rejected him, including some of his own family; and when his best friends deserted him; and when his Father in heaven completely abandoned him to suffer hell. Jesus took our place as an orphan.

Jesus also took our place as a slave. Like all other men the Son of man was born under the law. The Son of God who created the law and gave the law now lived under the law. In order to make us children of God this substitute had to keep the law perfectly. And that's just what he did. Jesus did everything that we could never do. He always obeyed his parents. He never made fun of someone else. He loved his God and his family and his friends and his enemies perfectly. He never broke a promise or abandoned his friends. He always did what was right. He kept all of God's laws for us. By taking our place under the law he redeemed us from the law. Because he fulfilled the requirements of the law, we don't have to. We don't have to worry about the times we failed to keep the law. We don't have to worry that God won't be our Father because we aren't good enough.

Because God sent his son to take your place, you are a child of God. You have the full rights of a child. You are wanted and loved. God showed how much he loves you and wants you by sending his son in the first place. You are accepted. Because God's son took your place, the Father accepts you with open arms. You have a home. Your Father is waiting for just the right time to take you home. Then you will spend eternity not as an orphan on your own, but as a child of God in heaven.

You are a child of God because God sent his Son. You will remain a child of God because God sent his Spirit.

We are indeed children of God, but it's not always good to be a child. Basically, children are under some kind of authority. Ask the teens. I'm sure they will tell you that they are under too much authority. There always seem to be too many rules. They probably think that they are old enough to take care of themselves and don't need those rules. The rest of you might remember feeling the same way. In the verses just before our text Paul actually compares a child to a slave. He was talking about wills and inheritances. A child might be the heir to a multi-million dollar estate. But, the child cannot have that estate until the time set by the will. Until then the child is still under authority, just like a slave.

Although we are already now children of God, we are still under authority. First of all, we live in a sinful world. We cannot avoid living with the consequences of sin. They never seem to go away. We are always dealing with the same problems. We have health problems; we have money worries; we have frustration at work; we have arguments at home; we have friends that betray us; we have our own failures. We just want out. We know about the heavenly estate that awaits us. We want to be in heaven, but it's not time yet. We cannot receive our inheritance until the Father gives it to us and he will do so only in his good time.

Secondly, we also live under the authority of unbelief. Sometimes it's very hard for us to believe that we are really the children of God. In his commentary on these verses Luther said that if we could fully appreciate what it means to be a child of God, we would rate the things of this world as small change. He said that we would welcome death so that we could receive our inheritance. He said that if we perfectly believed we are children of God, we would die from pure joy. But, we don't perfectly believe. In fact, we often doubt. We tend to keep looking back at ourselves in the mirror, only to realize again that we don't deserve to be children of God.

But, because we are [children of God], God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts (v.6). God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to give us his gifts. His first gift is faith. The main job of the Holy Spirit is to create faith in the work of the Son. The Holy Spirit shows us again and again how the Son took our place to make us God's child. The Spirit continually works on our hearts so that we believe in the Son. He takes our eyes away from the mirror and off of ourselves and directs them to the cross. He helps us appreciate the fact that God loves us not because of who we are or what we do but solely because of his Son. God loves us because he sent his Son. God sent his Spirit because he loves us and wants us to believe it.

The Spirits also helps in another way; he prays for us. Because of our doubt and unbelief, we often do not know how to pray. We don't pray with the confidence that God loves us. We don't pray with faith in God's promises. We pray weak, wishful prayers if we pray at all. So the Holy Spirit cries out for us. He cries out, Abba, which means father. The Spirit takes advantage of our status as children. He takes our groans and cares and worries and gives them to the one who loves us most. He prays in confidence and faith knowing that the Father always keeps his promises, especially for his children.

Because God sent his Spirit, you can be sure that you are a child of God. The Spirit in your heart is your receipt. He is the official papers of the will that guarantee you are an heir of God. The Spirit created faith in your heart assures you that one day you will receive your inheritance from the Father. The Spirit proves that you have a reliable Father. He has made many promises to you, his child. He promises to bring you home to heaven. In the meantime he promises to provide for you and protect you. He promises to make all things work out for your good. Your Father has never let you down and you can believe he never will.

Never again will you have to feel alone, abandoned, unloved or unwanted. Never again will you have to feel like an orphan or a slave. Never again will you have to spend another day without a family. God sent his Son to take your place. God sent his Spirit to give you the gifts of faith and prayer. You are a child of God.