His Children

SOURCE: Maxlucado.com

Galatians 4 (NIV)

At one point in their lives, despite being called by God to be His sons, the Galatians stopped at their tracks and looked back into slavery, chose to be under the bondage of law again. Just like what the Hebrews, who were freed through Moses, felt about Egypt and their old lives as slaves when they were lost in the wilderness, experiencing discomfort.

Comfort, convenience, the old ways, the old nature, the old self---these are all easy, way too easy. And forgetting too! Given the array of choices of life's comforts, it is easy to forget that we are God's children. What is it to be God's children? What is in store for His sons? What are the full rights of sonship that Paul mentioned in Galatians 4:4-5?

A God's son...

• is no longer a slave, he is a free man born of a free woman
• was born as the result of God's promise
• has the Spirit in his heart, and can therefore call out to God, "Abba, Father", and
• is an heir to an inheritance. (verses 6-7, 23)

To God's children, life here on earth is never promised to be easy (v. 29). The tug of the flesh, the old self, sometimes gets the better of us. We are a good people. We are of God. And we should remind ourselves of who we are, time and time again (v. 12-16).

We were adopted and now belonging to God. Not minding whether it would be easy or not, we should get rid of any encumbrances (v. 30), defending at all cost (v. 19) our inheritance, our full rights of sonship...never forgetting to whom we belong. We are God's children! We are of God!

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

Galatians 4:4-5 (NIV)