Galatians 4:1-19 - Leaving Home

Some of us fly the coop earlier than others.  I left home at 14 to play competitive hockey.  I never lived at home again.  I now think that was unwise, but it is what it is and I’m thankful for how my parents loved me and supported me.  My hockey career let me travel a good deal and baked in a lot of my perspective on the world.  We traveled to Russia, Finland, and all over Canada and the US.  And I was honored to represent my country and play against the Swedes, Russians, and Americans.  I’m surprised at how often I think back to those teammates from the 1980s and early '90s and the nonsense trouble we got into and the funny stories and the fights.  And how, by the grace of God alone, I survived it.

        But I missed years of my mom and dad’s company.  And I missed a lot of my mom’s cooking - the best in the world - and that I regret.  I missed years of helping to work on the farm and to grow up with my brothers and the kids in our small town.  Leaving home early has definitely impacted how we’ve parented our kids.  I don’t want to miss time with them.  I absolutely love their company and that’s why I’m down in the USA close to all five of our kids and our grandkids.  That said, I heartily support God's principle of growing up, leaving home, and starting your new life.  It's God's way.  I’m eager for my sons to find godly wives as my daughter has found a godly husband, but I know that patience is important.  And I know that God will provide each of our sons a wife of understanding, virtue, great capabilities, trustworthiness, industry, Galatians five fruitfulness, and, hopefully, a great sense of humor.  Those young women will need it to put up with our crew.

Okay, sorry for the personal aside.  But I’ve got the day off work so have a few more minutes to muse.

Into the chapter.  Paul hammers home the point of the before and after, the BC and AD.  Everything changes with Christ: when you are born again by the power of Christ.

Picture, if you will, when you were a child in your parents' home.  You were subject to their rules and schedule.  You went through elementary, middle, and high school.  You may have gone to university.  At some point, you broke free of your parents' home and their schedule  Then you had your own family, or at least your own work, schedule, and life.  It’s not a great example, but it gives you an idea of the before and after.  God designs things this way.  The before and the after.  They are meant to look different, to be different.  We don’t stay babies.  We grow.  If things are not different after you have been given new life in Christ then there is a problem.

This passage tells us that before Jesus, people were like slaves to the basic spiritual principles and powers of this world.  The law helped them to a degree.  It acted like a guardian and protected them until they could be made right with God through faith in Jesus.  Once the Son of God came into this world to buy freedom for all who were slaves to the law then the old situation passed away.  We no longer need the law as our guardian.  Jesus puts His law in our hearts.  The old way was the before; now things are new, and they are supposed to be much different.

Now we who believe in Jesus Christ (and such a faith is offered by God to every man and woman who breathes air) are children of God.

This is the after.  As children of God, we now have the Spirit of his Son in our hearts.  We live in God’s family, His household.  We are God’s heirs.  It’s a new day and a new way of life.  The best and most full life.  We live according to Jesus’ way.  His rules, and, thank God, His protection.  God’s schedule.  God’s priorities.  God knows us now and we know Him.  The Christian life is not dull, not by any means.  It is rich and full and exciting.  The problem is that we search for satisfaction in the mire of the world when we have every good gift from God already.  But do we show how Christ lives in us by how we live?  Do our deeds show we are Christ's followers?

We must not go back to the before - back to being slaves to the principles of this world.  Back to being babies, rebellious teenage hockey players.  We must live in freedom from the world’s laws - and from the Jewish regulations that pointed to a coming Messiah.  That day passed.  The Messiah lived, died, and marvelously and miraculously rose again!  He now calls us to live in this day with eyes focused on eternity with God in obedience to His will.  We thankfully live with joy and grateful spirits that come only from our Good Father who loves us and will never leave us.  We are new creations in Christ, children of God.

This is one of those crazy good passages of Scripture that we can easily read through without remarking on its enormity.  Listen to this, “And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham.  You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you” (3:29). God’s promise of eternal life and richness in God’s family forever belongs to you!  And me.  Take that in.  God’s promise to Abraham belongs to all the people sitting around you at church.  They are God’s children.  Make no mistake.  God is just.  He repays all people according to what they have done (Psalm 62:12).  But thank God that He is Good and his promise is true.  You are His child and he will love and protect you forever.

Lord Jesus, please help me to be your man today.  Please guide my eyes, thoughts, and actions.  Please bless my friends and family.  Please give your church purity and explosive growth.  Please give us courage.  Amen.

Our daughter Meghan and her youngest, Colt.