Pastor Rusty Milton

"Adopted into the Family of God"

Galatians 3:26-4:6 ESV

First and foremost, our identity is a child of God, adopted into his family. The chief way God has shown his glory is by adopting rebels into his family, regenerating their nature and giving them rights and privileges as true children of God. God gives rights as his children through what Christ has done: because Christ bore our debts, we have a new legal relationship with the Father and are free to be adopted. Through our adoption, God gives us the nature of his son and we can approach the Father in the same manner as the Son, directly and with confidence in his love for us. Do you view God from the perspective of an orphan, or the perspective of a child?

Galatians 3:26-4:7 English Standard Version (ESV)

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[a] 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.

Sons and Heirs

4 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave,[b] 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[c] 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.