Galatians 4:4-5. 4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Think together: Do you know anyone who is adopted? What does it mean to be adopted into a new family?
Read together: Paul says that at just the right time God the Father sent God the Son to rescue us from our slavery. Galatians 4:4 says that Jesus was “born under the law.” That means that Jesus was born to obey all of God’s laws for us. And He did! Jesus never, ever sinned, not even once. He always loved God and loved everyone else (including you) perfectly. He kept all of God’s law perfectly.
Why? So that His righteousness (law-keeping) could be credited to us. Now we can be set free from the law. But that is only the beginning. Once we are free from the law, we can be adopted as sons. When we trust in Jesus we become sons of God. Not THE Son of God—only Jesus is THE Son of God—but we become A son of God.
God has lots and lots of “sons.” Boys and girls both are adult sons of God, which means that they can be heirs of God; they can inherit His kingdom. How do we become sons of God? By adoption.
Today, we tend to adopt young children or babies. Maybe you know someone who was adopted as a little child. Sometimes kids get adopted as teenagers, too.
But in Paul’s day, people often got adopted as adults. Usually it was someone who was a slave in the house, but then the master of the house decides to make the slave into a son, with all the same privileges of the sons that were born to the master and his wife. Does this sound a bit strange? Well, it is—at least to us.
But Galatians says that this is what happens to us when we trust in Jesus to be our Savior—we stop being children under that “mean babysitter,” the law. Instead, we are now like adult sons with all the same blessings, rights, and privileges as Jesus Himself. You see, being a Christian is not about obeying rules. It is about loving God as our good Father, and letting Him love us as our gracious Dad.
Do something together: Have your kids role-play how they would approach your house if they were a delivery driver v. being a family member. What would be different? What are the privileges of being in the family?
Because of Jesus: We are no longer slaves to rules.
With Jesus: We can simply love God and others as his children.
Pray: Father, thank You that I am no longer a slave to rules, but Your adopted child who can talk to You anytime. Amen.
