This chapter means nothing unless you understand the ancient Roman concept of adoption, the Greek word huiothesia. When I say the word adoption, most of you think of what we Americans normally do when we adopt someone. We take a child who was not by nature our own child, and legally grant that child all the rights and privileges that our own natural born child would have. That is the normal use and definition of adoption: It generally indicates the legal process by which a man might bring into his family, and endow with the status and privileges of a son, one who was not by nature his son or of his kindred. But that is not what the Apostle Paul meant by adoption, nor should we affix this definition to the word as we read through chapter four.

In ancient Roman society it was a singular honor to be considered a Roman citizen. Rome conquered a great deal of the world. Many people from many different lands were absorbed into the Roman government at the time that Paul wrote Galatians. However, being absorbed into Roman government was not the same as being a Roman citizen. Conquered people, even though usually treated graciously by the Romans, were not on the same level with a Roman citizen. Conquered people were ruled by governors. Conquered people could be compelled to do certain things - to carry a soldier's pack, or made to house Roman soldiers overnight. Conquered people were judged by local magistrates, and their case was never appealed to Caesar - if found guilty they were just summarily executed. Conquered people could be tortured to obtain information. Conquered people were considered less than Roman citizens, and thus had few rights.

Not so the Roman citizen. Roman citizens were cherished by the empire. If accused of a crime, a Roman citizen - any Roman citizen - had the right to appeal his case to Caesar for judgment. Roman citizens paid taxes. Roman citizens voted. No one could enter a Roman citizen's house without a properly authorized warrant, and every citizen was treated with the utmost respect. But, unlike citizenship in the United States, Roman citizenship was not automatically given to every child born in the empire. When a child was born of Roman parents, that child had no more legal rights within the household or within the Roman Empire than a slave had. The Roman child was placed under the care of a teacher, a schoolmaster who was usually a slave himself. The slave schooled the child until the child reached the age of 14. At 14, the child underwent a ceremonial adoption where the rights and the authority of the father, a Roman citizen, were conveyed on the son. At that point the adopted son legally became a Roman citizen, an integral part of that mighty society.

Paul uses the Roman system of ceremonial adoption to explain our relationship to the Mosaic Law. The Law was the schoolmaster, the slave that we were placed under until we were adopted into the Family of God. Prior to our adoption we were under the discipline of the Law, the slave, and had to do its bidding. After our adoption into the Family we, like the Roman child that was adopted, became the owner of the slave. We were no longer under the Law as slaves, but now the Law is subordinate to us. Christians are not lawless, but we are under a Higher Law, the Law of the Spirit. The adopted Roman child was still under the Law of Rome, and the adopted Christian is under the Law of the Spirit. The Mosaic Law, however, has no hold on the Christian saved by Grace, saved by faith in Christ our Savior.

(1 Timothy 1:8-10 KJV) "But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; {9} Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, {10} For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;"

The Mosaic Law is not a bad thing. It is a good thing, and it can still be used if used lawfully by the Christian. For instance, there is nothing wrong with the believer using the Law of the Tithe in giving. If a believer is still young in Christ, setting aside 10% of your income for God is an easy exercise of faith. Every believer should be able to set aside at least 10% of their income for God's use, and do this consistently. But you need to understand, Beloved, that as adopted children we are no longer under the Law, and God expects us to give sacrificially and cheerfully. In other words, the Christian's goal is not to give only 10% of his income to God's service, but to devote any and all of what God directs us give to His service. The slave without rights was under the tithe. The Christian Citizen is under the Spirit, and gives as God tells him or her to give. The same is true of what we now eat. Under the Law, under the slave-teacher we were only allowed to eat foods that God marked as clean. Now, as Christian Citizens, we must be careful to NOT eat anything that will offend our fellow Citizens (Romans 14:13-14), and to NOT drink anything that will offend our fellow Citizens. In other words, we must consider the WHOLE BODY of Christ in all that we do. Though it may be lawful to have a little wine for my stomach (1 Timothy 5:23), I must drink nothing alcoholic if it offends my brother in Christ. Only the most obtuse and unknowledgable Christian will not admit that the ancient Jews drank weakened yet alcoholic wine - you can ask any Orthodox Jew and discover this truth. Yet I will drink nor eat nothing that will offend my brother. As the Apostle has said:

(1 Corinthians 8:13 KJV) "Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend."

So the Law, the old slave-teacher, can be used by the Christian IF it is used lawfully. I may use that portion of the Law I find useful, but I must NOT mandate the Law's use, the slave-teacher's use, over any other believer. I have no right to place another Christian Citizen back under the old slave-teacher. We are all under a Higher Law now, the Law of the Empire, the Law of the Spirit of God. We live by this Law, not by the old Mosaic Law.

Outline of Chapter Four

• Position of Grace: 4:1-7
• Permanence of Grace: 4:8-20
• Allegory of Grace: 4:21-31

(Galatians 4:1 KJV) "Now I say, (lego {pronounced leg’-o}, Present Active Indicative, Linear Aktionsart, I keep on repeating this) That the heir, as long as he is (esti {pronounced es-tee’}, Present Indicative, Linear Aktionsart, keeps on being) a child, (nepios:G3516, a child who can’t speak, infant, baby) differeth nothing from a servant, (doulos {pronounced doo’-los}, slave) though he be lord of all;"

(Galatians 4:2 KJV) "But is esti {pronounced Es-tee’}, Present Indicative, Linear Aktionsart, keeps on being) under tutors (epitropos {preonounced ep-it’-rop-os}, stewards or guardians who teach the child until he comes of age) and governors (oikonomos {pronounced oy-kon-om’-os}, managers of the estate, farms, or lands) until the time appointed (prothesmios {pronounced proth-es’-mee-os}, G4287, refers to the set aside time of ceremony of adoption, where the child receives recognition of adulthood from his father) of the father."

Now that we understand the background, we can understand these verses in their historical context. Paul starts out by pointing out to the Galatians, who are familiar with the Roman system as they are within that system, that children under the age of accountability (usually under 14 years old) are considered to have no more rights than the slaves that govern them. Though that young Roman child, now an infant, will one day be the legal owner of all that his father has - including the slaves - while he is a drooling infant he has absolutely NO legal rights. The child is actually under the care of "epitropos" and "oikonomos", teachers and estate managers; the epitropos teach the child all the things that he will need to know when he reaches adulthood, whereas the oikonomos manage the child's estate until he comes of age. When the child comes of age there is a prothesmios, or an appointed time where the child undergoes the ceremonial ritual of adoption. During that ritual the father conveys all the rights that he has upon the child. The child then becomes, in the eyes of the father as well as in the eyes of the Roman state, an adult with full voting rights and citizenship privileges. Says the Expositor's Bible Commentary (pg. 471):

"Under Roman Law there was also a time for the coming of age of a son. But the age when this took place may not have been as fixed as is often assumed (CF Lightfoot), with the result that the father may have had discretion in setting the time of his son's maturity. If this is so, it leads one to think that Paul is referring primarily to the Roman custom as he observed that a child is under guardians and trustees "until the time set by his father". A Roman child became an adult at the sacred family festival known as the Liberalia, held annually on the seventeenth of March. At this time the child was formally adopted by the father as his acknowledged son and heir and received the toga virilis in place of the toga praetexta which he had previously worn. A sense of the moving nature of this moment can be gleaned from the description of the coming of age of Marcellus in the opening pages of The Robe by Lloyd Douglas."

Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 12, ©1976 Zondervan Corporation

At the "prothesmios", the time appointed or set aside by the father - in a beautiful ceremony - removed the toga praetexta, the clothing of the slave from the child and replaced it with the toga virilis, the beautiful, embroidered clothing of the master's house. The child's outward appearance went from common to extraordinary, from slave to master, from drab to colorful, from the ruled to the ruler. All who saw the child, from that moment on, knew that he was a ruler of the household, the heir of the Master. No longer was the child under the slaves - he now was the master.

(Galatians 4:3 KJV) "Even so we, when we were children, (nepios:G3516, a child who can’t speak, infant, baby) were in bondage (douloo {pronounced doo-lo’-o}, Perfect Passive Participle, were in bondage, were in slavery) under the elements of the world:"

When we were infants, unable to speak, locked in the total depravity of sin and without God, we were slaves to the things of this world. We had no control over whether we sinned. An unsaved person sins just as a dog barks or a duck quacks. Heathen will sin. They have no true allegiance to God, no root in His holiness, no Spirit of God indwelling them. For them, their temporal happiness must be satisfied at any cost. Their god is their belly. They cannot believe God, for they cannot conceive of anything greater than the satisfaction of their own appetites. Heathen develop belief systems that defy logic. It was heathen who developed the fantastic extremes of evolutionary thought, who seek to make such a bizarre faith palatable by multiplicity of years. It was heathen who developed murderous techniques and laws designed to kill the child in its mother's womb. It is heathen that would clone and then farm body parts off of cloned humans. It is heathen that experiment with life, with the sanctity of life, all in the name of that god called science. It is heathen that have allowed the letter of the state law to be twisted so that those who take human life escape free by "technicality". It is heathen that tolerate, even condone racism and separatism. Heathen are like infants. Self absorbed, self seeking, self destructive if left untended and unsupervised.

There was a time when everyone reading this study were just as Paul states. We were nepios, unspeaking babies in bondage, in slavery to the things of this world. When we had an itch, if we were able we would try to scratch it. We thought "as long as it harms no one, and makes me happy, then I can do this". Sin reigned in our lives. Some of us were more outwardly good than others, but our outward goodness was no more than a facade, a sham that covered up our inward sinful desires. There were none who were righteous, none who were good. If you protest this statement, then consider the Scripture:

(Galatians 4:4 KJV) "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth (exapostello {pronounced ex-AP-Os-Tel’-lo}, Aorist Active Indicative, sent Jesus on a mission) his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,"

Why did God the Father wait to send Jesus, God the Son, to be our Redemption? Because there is a right time and a wrong time to do all things. God the Father waited until we were ready for salvation. He sent Jesus to Israel to redeem Israel (and subsequently the Gentiles) after every religious system and system of works for righteousness had come into the sphere of human history. After every method, every sacrifice, every rite and mystical incantation had been tried by desperate people. One after the other, no matter what we did we could not get back to the relationship we had with God in the Garden. Everything failed. And, listen Beloved! After all else failed, Jesus came. Jesus Christ, God the Son came!

Do you remember Creation, the true account of Creation in the Book of Genesis? God created the animals, male and female He created all the animals. God brought these animals to Adam to name. Yes, our father Adam named the animals. The Scripture tell us this, and the Scripture does not lie:

(Genesis 2:19 KJV) "And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof."

But there was no female designed for Adam at the beginning. God made Adam wait, and as Adam named each set of animals he began to see that there were TWO of each species - one male and one female. God did not make woman from the rib of Adam until Adam realized that he was incomplete without the woman. Adam had to see the need. Then and only then could our Creator make the woman, beautiful and wise, the completion of man, and bring her to man in that loving relationship we call marriage.

That was the fulness of time. When man realized he needed woman, God provided woman to meet his need. God's provision always comes when we realize we are empty without that provision. So it was with the Law. God waited four hundred and thirty years, that span of time between Abraham and Moses, before He gave the Law to Israel. Israel had to fail in their relationship with God. God wanted a faith based relationship with these people, just as He had with Abraham and Joseph their forefathers. He wanted Israel to follow Him and love Him with the same intimacy that Abraham had with Him. But it was not to be. Israel in bondage became infected with the polytheism, the paganism of the Egyptian people. Every child of Joseph planted in Egypt grew up praying to the gods of these desert people. When the Lord came to Moses to redeem His people Israel, the average Israelite was NOT a believer. Not a believer in the true God. Not a believer in Jesus Christ. No, these people were believers in the Egyptian gods.

Our God brought ten plagues on Egypt, each of the plagues designed to show the True God's power over the idolatrous and false gods of the Egyptians (gods to whom the Israelites in captivity had begun to worship. See Exodus 12:12; Numbers 33:4). The plagues of blood and frogs were chosen by God to mock Hapi, the Egyptian Nile god, and Osiris, the Egyptian god of fertility. The plague of darkness showed that God is greater than the Egyptian sun god Re or Amon-Re, the one they claimed was the source of heat, light and creativity. The killing of the firstborn by the angel of death showed both the Egyptians as well as the Israelites in bondage that Pharaoh was not, as they believed, the incarnation of god on earth. The slaying of the firstborn sealed the fate of Pharaoh's son, the next incarnation of the god. God saved Israel from Egypt. He brought them out of bondage, and showed them the folly of worshipping any god other than the True God Jehovah. He, their Creator, wanted a faith based relationship with them. Not a law based relationship, but a faith based relationship. But Israel was not ready. Israel showed that they were infected with paganism when they melted their jewelry down to make an idol to worship:

(Exodus 32:3-4 KJV) "And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. {4} And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

Israel was not ready for a faith based relationship with God. The fulness of the times had not come. Israel had to be placed under the Law, a harsh teacher, until she realized her lost status before God. She had to come to God through rites and rituals until she understood that He wanted something better for His people. He wanted His people to believe, to have a relationship with Him by faith.

But when the fullness of the time was come

Jesus came and died for our sins at just the right time. Israel should have been ready for the Savior. She had been bound under first the Law, then a succession of captors for hundreds of years. When Jesus came He came at just the right time. He is God's solution, God the Son, Savior of the world, presented for us all at just the right time.

What does this say of the religious systems that have shown up since the Cross? They are only repeats of what came earlier, and therefore useless repetition that could not save. How many times, O Man, are you going to wander away from the Savior to find another way? There is no other way. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, the Life (John 14:6), and no man comes to God but by Him. This is an absolute that stands for all eternity. We know this because Jesus came at just the right time to save Israel, if she would only believe.

(Isaiah 48:12-16 KJV) "Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. {13} Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together. {14} All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. {15} I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. {16} Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me."

Charles Hodge, the great Theologian, wrote of our Eternal Savior Jesus:

“All divine names and titles apply to Christ. He is called God, He is called the Mighty God, the Great God, God over all, Jehovah, Lord, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, all divine attributes are ascribed to Him. He is … omnipresent, omniscient, Almighty, immutable, and so on. He is set forth as the Creator and the upholder of the universe. All things are created by Him and for Him, and by Him all things consist. He is the object of all worship, as far as intelligent creatures are concerned, even the highest of all angels. He is the object of religious sentiments, of reverence, love, faith, devotion. To Him men and angels are responsible for their character and conduct. He requires that men should honor Him as they honor the Father, that they should exercise the same faith in Him that they do in God. He declares that He and the Father are One, and that those who have seen Him have seen the Father also. He calls all men unto Him, He promises to forgive their sins, to send them the Holy Spirit, to give them rest and peace, to raise them up at the last day and to give them eternal life. God is not more, cannot promise more, or do more than Christ is said to be, to promise, and to do. He has therefore been the Christian’s God from the beginning in all ages and in all places.”

Christ came to earth, God in the flesh, God Incarnate, when man needed Him most. When every hour became a desperate search for relief. When those who needed Him most called out, in desperation, "My God, My God, please save me!" - then Christ came. We had to know that we needed Him, just as Adam had to know that he needed his Eve. Israel should have been ready. Some were, and many in Israel accepted Christ as Savior, entering into eternal life with the many thousands of Gentiles who found peace in His loving embrace.

(Galatians 4:5 KJV) "To redeem (exagorazo {pronounced ex-ag-or-ad’-zo} Aorist Active Subjunctive, once and for all redeem) them that were under (hupo {pronounced hoop-o’}, under, subordinate to) the law, that we might receive (apolambano {pronounced ap-ol-am-ban’-o}Aorist Active Subjunctive, might receive once for all) the adoption of sons."

(John 3:36 KJV) "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."

Here is a mystery, and a wonderful illustration of the Grace of God. The Law of Moses was given to Israel. Not to the Gentile nations, but to Israel:

(Deuteronomy 4:8-9 KJV) "And what nation [is there so] great, that hath statutes and judgments [so] righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? (9) Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons"

And yet we read here that Christ came to redeem, to buy back or ransom them that were UNDER the law. If the Law was not given to the Gentiles, then why would we stand condemned under the Law? How could we be held accountable for anything that we had no dealing with? Even though the Gentiles were never given the Mosaic Law, we were still under the same standards of the Law because of conscience. As we studied before, the foundation of the Law, the Ten Commandments, though they were written in stone for Israel to heed are written in the hearts, on the very souls of all mankind. Paul explores this truth in Romans when he wrote:

(Romans 2:14-15 KJV) For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: (15) Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and [their] thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

The Gentiles were not given the Mosaic Law in the sense that Israel was given the Mosaic Law. Israel was given a written Law because they rejected God's first desire for them, that they have a relationship with Him by faith. They had so seared their consciences by faithlessness and idolatry that they were no longer keeping the Law of God written in their hearts. They had, because of disobedience, become almost as if they were immune to holiness by faith. The first murder is the hardest ... the future murders become easier and easier because the conscience is hardened. This is why they received the Mosaic Law, which in itself was a mirror of the holiness of God's character.

Yet the Gentiles, while not possessing the Mosaic Law, still possessed the Law of God written in their conscience and in their hearts. All men have the Law of the Holy Creator stamped on their souls. We are in God's image.

(Genesis 1:26-27 KJV) "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (27) So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

We are all indelibly marked with His decrees of righteousness, found in His holy Law, found in His very being. We KNOW right and wrong, good and evil, sweet and sour, holy and unholy. We KNOW what is wrong and what is right, for our Creator coded this into our souls as surely as He arranged the strands of our DNA. Though we Gentiles received no Mosaic Law, no written Law to compare our actions to, we were held accountable to - at the very minimum - the Ten encoded Commandments of holiness. We instinctively know that there is only one True God, and that He alone must be worshipped. Even the basest of all Atheists will cry out for God if the suffering is imminent and terrible. There has never been an Atheist in the middle of a raging battlefield. The Atheist will take God's name and curse with it, a mocking proof that they know that He is.

So we are all under the Law of God. The Israelites were under the Mosaic Law, the Gentiles under the Law written in our conscience. We all know the right and the wrong, and are all accountable. And we all, sadly enough, fail in keeping God's Law. In this day and age people of all ages have come to regard sexual intercourse as no more than a handshake, something exchanged after the first date. There was a time when several dates would pass before the couple would consider kissing. Now the woman is expected to "take the cover off the cookie jar" by the second or third date. Murder has become fashionable. Whereas in the past life was considered sacred, in our era abortion is becoming commonplace. With the denigration of life in the womb comes the cheapening of life in other places. Overseas it is becoming fashionable to condone euthanasia for those who are no longer productive in society, with the result that the aged are being put to death prematurely. A few years ago an American President was caught in adultery with a young aide. Comedians made jokes about it. Liberals condoned it. Yet God's Law condemned the act as adultery, a violation of the seventh commandment. It might have been of little consequence to the liberal minded, but it violated the Law of God, both Mosaic as well as Conscience. It is a twisting of the image of God written in us, and we all know - every one of us - the right and the wrong. We, just as Israel before us, violated and continue to violate God's Law. This is an offense to God. And since He is eternal, the offense stands for all eternity unless the debt be paid off. Unless we are redeemed from the Law, from our failure to keep God's Law, from our failure to walk in His image, then we cannot receive the adoption of sons. And, dearly Beloved, if we do not receive the adoption of sons, then we cannot - I repeat, CANNOT - enter into God's house, which is Heaven. Only a child of the King resides in the palace of the King. A guest may come and visit His presence from time to time, but only a son stays in the palace.

There must be the adoption of sons. This doctrine in itself disproves and casts out all the liberal tripe of the concept of the brotherhood of man. We dance around and sing, "we're all brothers - we're all brothers of the same family", an inane tune if there ever was one. We are not all brothers. We're all human, created in God's image. But unless we have accepted Christ as Savior, unless He has redeemed us, purchased us as His own, paid the penalty for our breaking of God's Law (Mosaic or Conscience), then we have NOT been adopted. As we studied adoption earlier, even the natural born child of the Roman had to be adopted by his father. The toga praetexta had to be removed, and the clothing of the father, the toga virilis had to be given. Until the ceremony of adoption the child was no better than the slave. In fact, the child was in subjection to the slave. After the ceremony of adoption the child now owns the slave, and he stands ready to inherit all his father's estate.

The same is true of the believer in Christ Jesus. Our Lord paid the penalty of our failure to keep the Law of God. The penalty for our disobedience was death, and that penalty stood as long as God is - which is forever. Jesus paid the price for us on the Cross. Now we who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior are adopted sons of God because of what Jesus did, not because of what we did. The toga praetexta of the world is removed, and the toga virilis of the Spirit of God is draped over our lives. We were cloaked in the dress of the world - now we are cloaked in the Spirit of God. We are part of the Father's inheritance, heirs to His estate, sons of God. The Scripture calls us all - whether female or male - sons of God. There is a reason for this. No, not sexism, but the reason is related to our inheritance. In the ancient world the inheritance of the father was always passed down through the sons. Women were many times (and very wrongly) treated as chattel or property, and were often left out of the inheritance of the family. Sons received that which the father had. We are all, whether male or female, called in Scripture sons of God because we are all, whether male or female, regardless of color, inheritors - heirs of the Father. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior then, in the Father's eyes, the toga praetexta has been removed and you are now cloaked in the toga virilis. There are no second class citizens in Heaven. If you have accepted Christ as your Savior by faith, you are part of the great family of God. You are heirs to the Father, Beloved, and cherished sons of inheritance.

(Galatians 4:6 KJV) "And because ye are (Present Indicative Active eimi, keep on being) sons, God hath sent forth (exapostello {pronounced ex-AP-Os-Tel’-lo}, Aorist Active Indicative, sent Jesus on a mission) the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."

(Galatians 3:26 KJV) "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."

(Ezekiel 36:26-27 CEV) "I will take away your stubborn heart and give you a new heart and a desire to be faithful. You will have only pure thoughts, (27) because I will put my Spirit in you and make you eager to obey my laws and teachings."

Only the Holy Spirit of God can execute the Christian way of life, and we only enter the Christian way of life by faith in Christ Jesus. There never was a person who lived on planet earth who ever deserved anything from God – what we have, we have because of God’s great Grace!

Consider the great implications of our salvation and you will understand why the Christian is to live a life radically different from those who are yet in the world and unsaved. First, the Christian is dressed in the regal robes of his Father. We do not wear these robes because we deserve them, but we wear the toga virilis of the King because we were BORN into this family. At the moment we accept Christ as our Savior we are born again. We are no longer children under the tutelage of the slave, the Law, but are children covered in the robe of the Spirit of God. No prince would ever exchange his fine clothing for that of the common beggar. Such an idea would be laughed at by true royalty. Yet in America on a daily basis Christians exchange their finery for the rotten clothing of the beggar. When adherents to other beggarly religions get in our face and demand equal respect with the Cross of Christ many of us feel shamed and compromise the Gospel message. Though Jesus emphatically declared Himself the only Way to God the Father we make Him out to be a liar by saying there are many ways to God. We promote the idea, for the sake of religious harmony, the crass idea that anyone can walk in the King's house and speak with the Majesty on High in prayer. We pretend to believe that any prayer, if sincere, will be heard by the King, when the Scripture tells us that only the Sons of God have His ear. And, Beloved, we become murderers if we persist in these foolish compromises, for our unscriptural wishy-washy interpretations have led many to believe that they do NOT need to accept Christ as Savior. That a good Muslim or a good Buddhist or a good person of any faith will get into Heaven because they are good. When the mutton headed demand entrance into the Kingdom without the Son, without accepting by faith the work of Jesus Christ, then we MUST declare that these deluded souls are wrong - regardless as to whether it makes us popular or not. The words of Paul ring out, "Because you are Sons, God has sent the Spirit of God, the Toga Virilis, into your hearts. Because you are Sons by faith in Jesus Christ the Spirit indwells you, calling out to the King and to the Kingdom that you are My Children. As Jesus promised us when He walked the earth:

(John 16:14 KJV) "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."

The Holy Spirit of God whom He would send would be our identifier. This Spirit of God who indwells EVERY believer marks us as Sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

(Galatians 4:7 KJV) "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."

We who have accepted Christ as Savior are no longer servants, slaves to the King, but we are Sons of God. We alone have entrance to God by prayer. We alone can speak to the King when we desire. This "all men are brothers" nonsense has done more to populate hell than any other Satanic doctrine sowed among men. All men are not brothers. All CHRISTIANS, believers in Jesus, are brothers, and are children of God because of Jesus. If a man or a woman is white, black, brown, yellow, red, or even polka-dotted, and that person has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, then that person is your brother or your sister if you also have accepted Christ as Savior. Vincent states:

The figure is based upon Roman, not upon Jewish, law. According to Roman law, all the children, sons and daughters, inherited alike. According to Jewish law, the inheritance of the sons was unequal, and the daughters were excluded, except where there were no male heirs. Thus the Roman law furnished a more truthful illustration of the privileges of Christians.

If we are heirs of God, then live under the bank account that God has established for us. Hoekstra wrote in his devotional:

Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit . . . You must be born again. (John 3:5-7) The new life that allows us to start out with God comes through a spiritual birth that is brought forth by the Holy Spirit. "Unless one is born of . . . the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Just as man must be physically born into the human family, so man must be spiritually born into God's family. There is no other option. That is why Jesus said,"You must be born again." The reason spiritual new birth is a necessity is because "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Natural human birth brought about by natural human resources can only produce a life that is natural. Being a child of God involves a supernatural life that God alone can provide. When Jesus came to secure our redemption, He was generally rejected. "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him." (John 1:11). Nevertheless, some realized that he was Messiah, the Anointed King and Savior sent from the Father. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). Believing in Jesus name involves trusting in His person and His work. It encompasses relying upon who He is, what He says, and what He has done and can do. Such faith brings a unique new birth. "Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13). This birth is from God. It cannot come by inheritance or genetics through our human bloodline. It is not available through an exercise of our human will. Neither can we have it pronounced upon us by some religious leader. The Lord desires for us to walk in a heavenly, spiritual life, not a mere earthly, human existence. Only a birth from the Spirit of God could bring us this type of life. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." All genuine spirituality must come from a work of the Holy Spirit on our behalf. This is true concerning our starting out with God in new birth and justification. "You . . . were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:11).

I like that, especially the statement "Believing in Jesus name involves trusting in His person and His work. It encompasses relying upon who He is, what He says, and what He has done and can do. Such faith brings a unique new birth." It is increasingly evident in our present estate that we have a growing number of professors of Christianity who are professors only, but who do not utilize the resources that heirs of God have. I recently encountered a professing Christian who is going through marital problems. I asked the young person how much time they invested in study of the Word of God, in prayer, in fasting, in the disciplines of the normal Christian life. The individual indicated that they spent little time in these things. However, when I questioned them on the amount of time they spent on the Internet in chat rooms, in game playing, in watching television, in outside sports and recreational activities, the same people told me that they invested a great deal of time in these activities.

Beloved, if you are an heir of God by faith in Christ Jesus, then you must begin to act as an heir and not as the lost. The Christian life is one that a person is born into by faith in Christ. The Christian life is a supernatural experience, not a natural experience. The Christian life is not powerless, but Spirit invested and Divinely Empowered. Many walk the aisle at Church believing the lie that faith in the aisle or faith in the preacher's message will bring you and easier life. This is part of the modern gospel that deceives, a part that is utterly without truth. Our Lord Jesus taught that those who followed Him would not have easier and painless lives, but that the Christian way of life would bring its own type of friction. No, Beloved, the life is not easier, nor is it - as many false prophets speak - a rich life, showered with money and every physical blessing. If you are following the lies of those prophets, then you are following foolishness and deception. Simon the sorcerer wanted the type of profitable Christianity that so many televangelists preach today, and he was cursed for trying to use the heirship of Christ for such a base thing (Acts 8:9-23). Christianity is not some get rich scheme, nor is it a means to pave the believer's pathway with gold. Christianity is a faith that empowers the believer, if we use the resources that we, as the heirs of Christ, have.

If you owned a fine automobile, and woke up every morning to go to work, walked outside, looked at the automobile and thought "What a fine vehicle", then proceeded to walk to work - how foolish would this be? Yet day by day and week by week and month by month and year by year those who profess Christ refuse to use the resources of their inheritance. They are just like the fool who owns the fine car yet walks to work. They are like the rich man who lives in poverty, sleeping on a mattress of money in a one room hovel, hoarding the resources that God has given him. If we are heirs of God by faith in Christ Jesus, then we should be utilizing the resources of our heirship. The written Word of God is the believer's empowerment, the believer's tool to overcome the evils of this world. The written Word is packed with promises for children of the King. The written Word is packed with prophecies for children of the King. The written Word an inventory of precious assets for children of the King. Listen to this, Beloved! Our Lord Jesus is the heir, the heir of all things that belong to the Father:

(Hebrews 1:2 KJV) "Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;"

Since we have accepted Christ as Savior, we are intimately tied to Him by faith. The Spirit of God was sent to live inside of us by Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Brother, and our Joint-Heir:

(Romans 8:16-17 KJV) "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: {17} And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."

As an heir of God and a joint-heir with my beloved Jesus, I possess eternal life, just as Jesus possesses eternal life:

(Titus 3:7 KJV) "That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

As an heir of God and a joint-heir with my beloved Jesus, I possess an inheritance, just as Jesus possesses an inheritance. My inheritance in this life is an assured place in the working Plan of God. My inheritance in eternity is an assured place in the Heavens with my Savior:

(Ephesians 1:11 KJV) "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:"

As an heir of God and a joint-heir with my beloved Jesus, my inheritance is both eternal and promised. I need not worry that I won't get my share. You need not worry that you won't get your share. What God has promised in Christ, we shall receive if we truly believe:

(Hebrews 9:15 KJV) "And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."

Our inheritance is secure, and not subject to the whims of another. Our inheritance is reserved in Heaven for us, and kept by the power of God. Because I am a son of God by faith in Christ I do not worry that I might stumble and lose my inheritance. If I stumble in this life, God will discipline me, but I remain His son and His inheritor according to His promise, according to His Grace, according to His power:

(1 Peter 1:4-5 KJV) "To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, {5} Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

(Galatians 3:29 KJV) "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

God was so certain of the work of Christ that He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell all who believe. The Holy Spirit is the down payment on our inheritance. Every one who has ever accepted Christ as Savior is indwelt by the precious Spirit of God. This Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, comes to abide with us, to empower us to use the resources of our inheritance. :

(Ephesians 1:14 KJV) "Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."

(Galatians 4:6 KJV) "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."

Do you wish you could live the victorious Christian life? Are you discouraged because it seems as if this life is out of your grasp? Perhaps it is because you have not realized, not fully realized who you are in Christ. It is time that Christians broke free from every wind of doctrine that blows us about, and that we embraced the Biblical concept of who we are in Christ. Again, do you wish to live the victorious Christian life? Then stop chasing every fad that runs through the local Christian bookstore. Stop and ask yourself, "Is the author of this piece giving me the book, tape, or lesson freely, or is he or she charging me a suggested donation for this resource?" Ask yourself "How many times do I see Jesus charging for what He taught? How many times did Jesus withhold a miracle because He wasn't paid?" Ask yourself, "As an heir of God by faith in Christ, and a joint heir with Christ, why do I have to fund what should be rightly mine?"

Believers, we have lived our lives too long chasing the message of the snake oil salesman. Embrace the resources that God our Father has provided. Embrace the Word of God. Embrace and heed the Spirit of God. Embrace prayer and Scriptural meditation. Believe that which God has promised. Embrace your faith in the historic and Biblically presented Jesus. Quit compromising with the world, which does not love you, and seek out genuine fellowship with genuine believers, brothers and sisters in Christ. Quit racism and divisions and schisms and hate mongering, which things are sponsored and endorsed by Satan, the father of lies. Embrace the Christian disciplines. Embrace and welcome the trials when they come, knowing that this is an opportunity to strengthen your faith by believing that God's Word and God's Spirit will take you through them.

In short, be Christians. Not religious, but Christians. Not denominational, but Christians. Not worldly, but Christians. Be who you say you are. Act like who you say you are.

There is a story about a great king named Alexander. One day it was brought to his attention that in the middle of a battle one of his men turned coward and ran from the enemy. Alexander was angered, and demanded that this man be found and brought to him for judgment. So it was. The man was captured, and dragged to his fate. As he lay whimpering before the king, that noble king asked the coward his name. In a stuttering, fearful voice he replied "I am Alexander". The king blanched, then with the eyes of an eagle looked at the coward and said:

"No, you fool! I am Alexander, you are a coward. Either change your name, or change your ways!"

If you are believers, if you are Christians by faith in Christ Jesus, then act like it. Either change what you call yourselves, or change your ways to conform to that of Children of the King. Quit professing Christ if you will not live as an heir of Christ. Quit shaming the rest of us who are Christians by your worldly, evil ways. Act like believers, or change your name.

• Is The LAW made for righteous people? (1 Timothy 1:8-10)
• In ancient society, who was of greater worth: the child of the parent, or the parent’s servant? How does Paul show our relationship to the Law through this ancient Roman practice? (Galatians 4:1-2)
• What does the phrase “Fullness of the time” mean? Why did God wait until then to exemplify Grace? (Galatians 4:3-5; Isaiah 48:12-16)
• Who was “redeemed” from the Law? What does this redemption mean to us? (Galatians 4:5-6; John 3:36)
• Who ALONE can execute the Christian Way of Life? (Galatians 4:6; 3:26; John 16:14)
• Who am I in Christ? (Galatians 4:7)
• As regards heirship:
  • Who is the heir of all things (Heb 1:2)
  • Heirship is based on _________________ (Rom 8:16-17)
  • If I am the heir of God, I must have what He has, which is _______________________ (Tit 3:7)
  • Heirship means that we share the destiny of Christ (Eph 1:11)
  • Heirship means that we have eternal _______________________ (1 Pet 1:4-5)
  • Heirship is based on Grace, not on my abilities as a person. (Gal 3:29)
  • The ____________________________ is the down payment on our inheritance (Eph 1:14; Gal 4:6)