“Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”  Galatians 4:6

Let’s take time together to discover what it means to be God’s sons.  Let’s be free from slavery, and free from the life of the orphan.

Who Are the Children of God?

In order to set the stage for our discussion we must first understand, “Who are the children of God?” Well, in one sense we might easily say everyone is a child of God because we can see their very life has come from God. The intellectuals in Athens held to this point when Paul addressed them in Acts 17, and he used this idea to reinforce their understanding that God was our creator (as they said “we are His offspring”) and was not something made of our hands or a religious invention. We can ascribe the word “children” to be synonymous with “created by” in this sense, but we should not stop there. If we do stop there, then we can come to a quick conclusion: “If God did create us, and we are like his children, then what else is there to be concerned about? After all God could not abandoned His own, nor is there any need to consider religion, judgement, or the after-life.” We can see how easily this sentiment could grow strength, especially in our modern intellectual climate where metaphysical truths and absolute ideas about God or eternity are laughed off as archaic, bankrupt inventions. (more…)