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>>[music] >>Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotion, Galatians chapter 4, day 2. If
you remember yesterday we began to look at what you and I experience in the
freedom of Jesus Christ. And we looked at this argument that Paul went through,
this logical argument that for those who have freedom in Christ, as we look back
in history, we recognize there was a time when the Jewish people were under the
law.

But Paul says the law wasn't meant to lead them to Christ. The law was, well, he
paints this picture. He says it's like when a child has their parents die and
they have a guardian over them.

And until that child becomes of age, becomes an adult, that guardian is going to
control the child's life. So they may as well be a slave. Their life is
controlled.

But when they become an adult, then they're free. And Paul shared with us
yesterday that we become adults, that we get our sonship when you and I come to
faith in Jesus Christ. Now I use the word son very, very, very meaningfully.

Because I know I'm talking to both men and women, and later Paul is going to
talk to brothers and sisters, so he knows he's talking to both men and women. So
why does he call us all sons of God? Because we are all sons of God in that we
all have the inheritance.

Inheritance in that day came to the sons. So the Bible is very clear that the
inheritance isn't just for men, it is for men and women both. We are all in one
sense.

Even if you're a woman, you're a son of God in one sense in that you have the
inheritance. Now in light of that, Paul talks--we looked at verses 1 to 10
yesterday. Paul talks in verses 4 to 7 about what it means to live out this kind
of life.

There's a principle for growth here that's extremely important. Let me read
those verses again for you. Galatians 4, 4 to 7.

Now what does it mean to be a child of God? Not a creation of God. We're all
creations of God.

But only those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ are children of God.
That's what the New Testament teaches again and again and again. God created us
all, but he doesn't force us to trust him as a father.

We have to choose that in our lives, and we choose that through Jesus Christ.
How does this happen? What does it mean to be a child?

Well, Jesus says we became a child of God when the right time came. When the
right time came, God sent his Son. It's a great phrase, the right time, the
fullness of time.

It doesn't mean time as far as seasons. It means time as far as it is just the
right perfect time. It was the right time for God to work in human history.

I don't know why he had to wait for thousands of years through the flood of Noah
and all the history of the people of Israel, but he waited. He waited for the
right time. And this time, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, was the exact right
time for this time.

And that's why we have the right time for this to happen. It was the right time
for God to work. It was also the right time for the world to receive the work of
God.

One of the things we know through all the history of the Old Testament is the
ways that do not work to get us to God. It doesn't work to get us to God to wipe
out the whole human race and just leave the one best family, and then everybody
will be perfect from then on. That didn't last one generation in the case of
Noah.

It does not work to give us the rules and regulations so that we can read them
and know exactly what God wants us to do. And then we'll be perfect. That
doesn't work.

That didn't last one generation with the people of Israel. What does work is
God's work, is God himself coming into this world in his Son, giving his life
for us. The right time.

Sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. That doesn't mean that Jesus
had to keep the law in order to be saved. He's God.

It means that he was born as a Jew, that he came into this world, born as a Jew,
to show us a new way of freedom. And that new way of freedom was to become a
true child of God. How did he do this?

Well, these verses tell us he did it in two ways. We are sons. We are children
of God by redemption and by his Spirit.

Notice he says in verse five, he sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves
to the law. We become children of God through the redemption of Jesus Christ.
And you might know from studying the book of Romans and some other books of the
Bible that the word redemption has to do with God buying back our freedom.

It's the picture of a slave market. It's the picture of you standing on the
block, being sold into slavery, and all these people bidding on you. And Jesus
Christ walks into the middle of that slave market.

And he bids, he bids a priceless price. He bids his own life. He gives his life
for me.

He gives his life for you. And because he gave so much, he bought our freedom.
We're no longer slaves because of the redemption that comes.

He bought our freedom. We're also no longer slaves, but we're children by his
Spirit. Because we become his children, God has sent his Spirit, the Spirit of
his Son, into our hearts.

We know that Jesus redeemed us, and we see it through the God Spirit, the Spirit
of God put into our hearts. And now, because of that, we can call God our
Father. And what does this mean?

When you and I think about what it means to be a child of God, what does it
mean? Well, it means that we are heirs. Everything he has belongs to you.

That amazes me. That's what verse 7 says. Since you are his child, everything he
has belongs to you.

And this does not mean that you become somehow God and you have the powers of
God. That's not what this is talking about. This does not mean that somehow in
your humanity you know how to act as God and that you can ask for anything
selfishly.

That's not what this is talking about. This is talking about your place in God's
kingdom. All the grace and all the power of God belongs to you.

And so because of that, the gifts of God are also given to you. He has given you
his grace. He has given you his love.

He's given you his joy. He's given you his ability to serve and to make a
difference. He's going to give you his eternity.

And you and I get to share the inheritance of Jesus Christ through all of
eternity. The inheritance of joy, the inheritance of what it means to be his
child. I can't even, I don't know about you, I can't even begin to fathom what
that means.

I can't wrap my mind around how great and wonderful a thing that that is. But it
is true. We are heirs of God.

And why are we heirs? What does it mean to be a child of God? We are heirs of
God because we are adopted by God.

The Bible says God has sent his Spirit into our hearts but that is because he
has adopted us as his own children. It's an incredible picture to me that God
chose me. He chose you as his child.

It was no accidental birth. There is no accidental birth. God brings everybody
into the world that he chooses to bring into the world.

But we think that way sometimes. And sometimes we even think that way about God.
Well, maybe I slipped in under the radar as a Christian.

Maybe God doesn't really know because if he really knew I was a believer, he
wouldn't want me in his family. Look at how I mess up. Look at the things that I
do.

But God says, "No, I adopt you. I choose you. " And I hope that you today sense
and feel and experience what it means to be an adopted child of God throughout
this day.

God's choice through Jesus Christ is to choose you. And because of this, because
I'm an heir, because I'm adopted, it means I have a relationship with God. We
can call God our Dear Father.

Now the phrase there is Abba Father that we read other places in the Bible.
Abba, which was the word that a young Jewish child would say. Just like you hear
a young child in English say Abba first.

In the Hebrew language, the Aramaic language, they would say Abba first. It's a
very simple, childlike term for a parent. And Paul uses that term unashamedly in
our referencing God and says to us that we have that kind of a close
relationship with God.

God is a God who, because of who he is, I experience great awe and the fear of
the Lord in my heart. But he's also a God because of who he is, I experience
great closeness and what it means for him to be my Abba Father. And that gets to
the principle of growth that's behind this logical argument.

The principle of growth here. If you're going to grow as a believer in Jesus
Christ, you have to realize, I have to realize, here's the principle. Growth is
a relational choice.

Growth is a relational choice. Growth in my life as a believer, it doesn't just
happen automatically. If it happened automatically, the older I was as a
believer, the more mature I would be.

But you know that's not true. No, it's a choice in my daily life. I choose to
spend time with God.

I choose to turn my mind to the things of God. I choose to think about what's
good and honorable and right and pure and lovely. It is a choice.

It doesn't just happen. But it's also a relational choice. It's not just an
activity.

It has to be a choice that's out of love. This is extremely important. A lot of
people think, well, it's just a choice.

So I just choose to go to church. I just choose to read the Bible. I just choose
to memorize a verse and I will grow.

No, there are many people who memorize many Bible verses and they're not growing
at all. Well, maybe they're growing more judgmental of the people who don't
memorize Bible verses. You grow by a relational choice, a choice that's based on
my love for him, a response to my love for him.

I don't read the Bible to get God to love me. I don't read the Bible to get God
to grow me. I read the Bible because God loves me.

I read the Bible because God wants to grow me. Growth is a relational choice.
It's a difficult choice at times because the cross is involved, because it means
following Jesus through difficult times.

It's a difficult choice at times because we, like the Galatians, sometimes like
to look for shortcuts, the easy way. But the question is, am I understanding who
I really am? I am a child of God.

I don't have to look for the shortcuts because I have the privilege of being his
child. I'm an heir. I'm adopted.

I can call to him as my own child. I can call to him as my own child. I can call
to him as my own child.

I can call to him as my own father. I'm an heir. I'm adopted.

I can call to him as my Abba father. Which am I choosing? Am I choosing to do it
my way or am I choosing to do it God's way?

Am I choosing to do it based just on activity or based on love? Growth is a
relational choice. Let's talk to God for a minute.

Our father, Abba father, thank you for loving us. Thank you for adopting us.
Thank you for adopting us.

Thank you that everything that you have belongs to us. We pray that with a great
sense of humility, knowing we are not deserving, but knowing also that you are
loving. And I pray today, we pray together that you'd help us to make the
relational choice to grow in you, to look to you by faith.

Help us to do it in love and help us to make the choice in love. I pray that
those times in my life, in our lives, when we come up against a point where I've
got a choice to depend on me or depend on you, to go my way or to go your way.
Whether it's in a temptation or whether it's in a decision or whether it's in a
relationship, help me to choose to love you in that situation.

Give me the power. I pray for it right now. I pray in dependence that you have
given me that power through your spirit.

Amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to look at Paul's personal argument for your
growth.