Galatians 4:1-7 - Who Do You Think You Are?

Listen along as Mike Gaston continues our series through Galatians.

 

Notes//Quotes:

Slide 1

Who do you think you are?

Slide 2

“The most important belief we possess is a true knowledge of who God is.

The second most important belief is who we are as children of God, because we cannot consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with how we perceive ourselves.” 

Neil Anderson

Slide 3

Why is the period of Christ’s coming termed ‘the fulness of the time’? Various factors combined to make it such. For instance, it was the time when Rome had conquered and subdued the known inhabited earth, when Roman roads had been built to facilitate travel and Roman legions had been stationed to guard them. It was also the time when the Greek language and culture had given a certain cohesion to society. At the same time, the old mythological gods of Greece and Rome were losing their hold on the common people, so that the hearts and minds of men everywhere were hungry for a religion that was real and satisfying. Further, it was the time when the law of Moses had done its work of preparing men for Christ, holding them under its tutelage and in its prison, so that they longed ardently for the freedom with which Christ could make them free.

John Stott

Slide 4

Romans 6:16-18

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 

17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 

18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 

Slide 5

Romans 8:15-16

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 

16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 

Slide 6

Who do you think you are?

“I am a child of God by faith in Jesus, set free by His death and adopted into His family, 
waiting to enter fully into my inheritance.”

Slide 7

But our penchant for earning paralyzes us before God’s offer of true grace. We don’t know how to receive favor without working for it. And so we subtly (or not so subtly) trade away the one true gospel because we prefer to work for and serve God as slaves (or at least as employees), and not as sons. We don’t feel safe letting him do all the work, and earning gives us some semblance of control. We simply can’t believe eternal security and everlasting life could be offered as a gift.

Marshall Segal

Slide 8

Do I know my own real identity? My own real destiny? “I am a child of God. God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer. My Savior is my brother; every Christian is my brother too.” Say it over and over to yourself, first thing in the morning, last thing at night, as you wait for the bus, and any time when your mind is free, and ask that you may be enabled to live as one who knows it is all utterly and completely true.

For this is the Christian’s secret of – a happy life? – yes, certainly, but we have something both higher and profounder to say. This is the Christian’s secret of a Christian life, and of a God-honouring life; and these are the aspects of the situation that really matter. May this secret become fully yours, and fully mine.

J.I. Packer, Knowing God