Galatians 4:1-7
NRSVUE
My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than those who are enslaved, though they are the owners of all the property, but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir through God.
Some time ago I listen to a preacher speak against the phrase, “I have a friend in Jesus.” His sermon denied that a friendship relationship could exist with Jesus.
“Jesus can’t be your friend,” he said. “You can have a relationship with Jesus, but not as a friend. Jesus can be your master, you can serve him, but never can Jesus be your friend.”
This pastor continued speaking about how Jesus was a king. As Christians, we serve Jesus. Should Jesus walk into the room, he believed we would be in awe, scared to death, and we would bow down to worship him as a loyal servant.
Perhaps some of that may be true. But I think this pastor misses what the crucifixion of Jesus does for us. Matthew 27:51 states, “Behold, the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom.”
Prior to the crucifixion, no person could simply come to God directly and commune with him. This function occurred through the priest. To talk or give offerings or sacrifices, one had to go to a priest, who would then go behind the veil that separated common people from the altar. Then the priest would act on their behalf. A person did not simply come to God. They did not commune directly with God.
When they crucified Jesus, God tore the veil of the tabernacle in half, which separated us from communing with him directly. God was no longer separated from us. There was no longer a need for a priestly mediator. For through God’s son, Jesus Christ, who has been sacrificed, now we can go directly to God.
Not only was there now an open line to God, but those who believe in God were no longer considered servants. Up to this time, as followers of God, we were under the law. We were servants. But through the blood of Christ, this servant hood, this bondage to the law was removed. Now God adopted us as His children.
The preacher in my introduction was partly right. We cannot be friends with Jesus because it is more than friendship. Through Christ, we become children of God. God adopts us into his family. God gives us the exact spirit in his son Jesus. He places that spirit into our hearts. Through the spirit, we call God, father. God becomes our parent. With this comes the love, the discipline, the caring of a parent. God as parent is far more and far different from servant hood. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, belief in his words, God adopts us as his children.
Romans 8:17 says that if we are children, we become heirs; heirs of God; and joint heirs with Christ.
Christ is more than our Lord and Savior. Jesus is also our sibling. We are a child of God as Jesus was the Son of God.
Yes, that is hard to comprehend, especially when we consider Jesus is God incarnate. Yet, as Jesus the Son, we are heirs with him.
Many Christians today still look to God as if he is an un-reachable power. They see God as an authoritative dictator. They feel they can never live up to God. They are still trying to serve him as a servant. Such thought diminishes their relationship with God.
God sent his son to redeem us to him. No longer are we to think of God as a ruler, rather we think of God as a father. God wants us to have a father and child relationship. That same intimate, loving, nurturing relationship God has with Jesus.
John 1:12 reads, “To all those who did receive him, to those he believed in his name, he gave right to become children of God.”
Children aren’t servants to their parents. Neither are they friends. They are children.
We are children of the God most high.
(Preached in 1999. Outline revised and edited for publication, 2023.)