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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Heirs Under Guardianship

Fullness Of Time And Redemption

Adoption As Sons And Identity

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All right, welcome back to the Daily Blade. We have made it uh in my time together, all the way to Galatians chapter 4. That is where we will spend the week. Day one, Galatians 4, verse 1. Now, what you've got to remember here, I know there's been a gap between me talking, um, but you've got to remember that by the time you get to Galatians chapter 4, that Paul is talking about the role of the law in our lives as a babysitter or a guardian, that it had a point and a purpose. It was to make sure that we made it to the point where we could hear the gospel and be free to be children of God. It was also there to tell on us, to point out all the ways in our lives to help us realize that we are sinners. With that in mind, Paul continues in the letter, chapter 4, verse 1. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave. In other words, you were not free when you were children under the care of a guardian. Even though you're going to be the heir and everything that your parents have is supposed to be yours one day, you're not that yet, because the guardian or the babysitter is in charge of you. He says, So I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. That means before you cut you came to know Christ, you and I were slaves to the enemy. We were slaves to our flesh, we were slaves to the ways of this world. And before Christ came, the people of God were under the law as a babysitter, preparing us for the Messiah that would come and fulfill that law. Verse 4. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoptions as sons. This is a really big deal. First and foremost, Jesus came at the fullness of time. That God didn't like look around the earth and be like, oh no, what's happening here, the Ten Commandments and the 613 laws of Moses in the Old Testament didn't work. No, no, no, no. That's not how it worked. But at the fullness of time, at just the right time, God had already preordained for his glory that Jesus, the servant crusher, the Messiah, the Son of God, the suffering servant, as attested to by the prophecies in the Old Testament, would show up at just the right time to redeem those who were under the law. And if you wonder why Jesus came when he came, this just humanly speaking was the best time to ever show up to change the whole world. I mean, Rome was in charge of Israel. Uh Rome had this thing called Pax Romana, which means peace in Rome. The first uh worldwide web was available, and I don't mean the internet, but there was a road system throughout the entire Roman Empire where later, when Paul gets saved, Paul can use his Roman citizenship under Pax Romana to travel to all these different cities under the safety of the covering of the Roman Empire until he got in trouble with them to take the good news of the gospel all over the place. It was just the time that God had purpose. And God sent his son. That we know that the reason that God sent his son is because God loved the world, for God so loved the world, this is John 3.16, that he sent his only begotten son. So the reason that God sent his son was not to punish us, we were actually already in our own condemnation, but he did not come to condemn us, but to save us. And so because of God's great love for himself that was spilled out onto us, meaning God loved us, he sent his son. And his son, even though he's the son of God, Jesus the Christ, the second person of the Trinity, he's also born of a woman, which means this is called the hypostatic union. He's fully God and fully man. And as a man, he is born under the law. But the reason that he came is verse 5, to redeem those who were under the law. And if you've ever redeemed a coupon, I've shared this with you before, it is the picture, it is a good picture of the gospel. You get a coupon in the mail, you take that coupon, you go to wherever grocery store you go, and you get whatever the product is for, you give them the coupon, they give you the product. Now, was it was it free? Well, when you redeem the coupon, it is free to you, but it cost the owner of that product full price. And so Jesus pays the full price on the cross that whoever is redeemed that we get to receive eternal life. And then he keeps going because so many Christians only believe half the gospel. He says, so that we might receive adoption as sons, that we're not only forgiven by the grace of God if you put your faith in him, but we are adopted into the family of God. We are imputed with his righteousness. Well, part of what Paul is trying to remind the church in Galatia is this you are not primarily a tool in the hand of God, or even a soldier in the army of God, but you are primarily a son in the family of God. Amen.

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