Devotion - 23 July - Sons of God

A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily prayers this week. The scripture is from our Sunday Service Bulletin. We continue a multi-sermon series on Galatians that will run through the summer.

26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

4 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Paul pictured Israel before Christ’s coming as a child. In Paul’s day, it was common for children to be under the care of a tutor [see 4:2].  The dominant image of a tutor in that day was that of a harsh disciplinarian who used force and physical punishment as a way of making children toe the line. That is what the law did for Israel, it was a harsh disciplinarian until Christ’s coming. Now all who trust God are adult sons and no longer children. It is faith that makes one a son of God and an heir to His kingdom.