Northside Church - Sydney
GALATIANS 2013 // Week 2: Grace to Belong
I'm listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. I didn't do anything. That was just the title of an email sent by this girl to her mother. In June, I think it was, of 2011. This girl, Ginny, sent her mum, Gina, an email saying, "I didn't do anything." That was because, at that time, her brothers and sisters were about to launch a massive legal action in the Supreme Court to oust their mother out of their trust fund that was owed to them as she was a trustee. This Ginny was the daughter of Gina Reinhart, the daughter of Lang Hancock, one of Australia's greatest mining magnates, and Gina herself is Australia's richest woman. This trust, they believe, is worth in order of about $22 billion. All of these funds are locked away in this trust fund until it vests according to Gina in the year 2068. So you can imagine, for these adult kids, the problem is that they're grown kids. Some of them may not even be alive to experience it when they finally get their hands upon this fortune, and so as heirs to that sort of inheritance, they don't want their inheritance in 2068. They want it now, and that's why they're going to court. And as a result, there's intense animosity, there's intense anger, there's intense frustration, there's intense litigation amongst a family that should be loving each other. I mean, look, I don't know about you, but if you were inches away from that sort of mind numbing wealth, how would you guys react? If you're that close to it and couldn't get your hands upon it, if you couldn't access it, if you couldn't experience it now, how would you react? You see, the great truth of this passage and the great truth of Christianity is, as we learned from Graham last week, you were saved by grace. The truth of Christianity is that you're not just saved from something, but you're saved to something. That in Christianity, the great truth is that you've been saved by an act of grace from God, from a life of sin and death, but more importantly, you're saved to something, you're saved into God's family. Not only that, you were saved into a family of such mind numbing riches that it makes the Reinhardt family look like, I don't know, the Bundies from married with children. And yet, in light of this truth, Christians can still be just as bitter and just as frustrated, just as angry, just as litigious as the Reinhardt kids. Why is that? Well, Paul says in Galatians, chapters three and four here, is that our problems, Christians, is that we're not that much difference from the Reinhardt kids. That is, we need access to our inheritance. That's what he cut straight to in verse 26. He says, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." The gospel says here that you are sons of God. What an incredible statement that he makes here. And right now, about half the people in this auditorium are saying, "That is an incredibly sexist remark today." You've been reading from the wrong version again, Sam, where I'm not a son, I'm a woman. And yet, to just shift the wording like that a little bit would actually to be do away with the incredible power of what Paul is saying. When you look at the underlying Greek, you can't translate it, you are sons and daughters of God. It has to be translated sons of God. And here's why, until we see what that sonship means, we miss the radical nature of what's happening here. You see, women in Paul's days and in most ancient cultures, they had no rights. Daughters were not allowed to inherit property. And so to translate sons into children in the Bible here in this passage would diminish the significance of what Paul is saying here. The gospel is telling us, "You are sons of God in Christ. Girls, you are sons of God. Girls, you are also heirs." Do you see why we should use sons? It's saying because you have exactly the same rights as someone else. And to strip that wood, to strip it of its significance. And you say, "Well, look, who cares, why are sons and heirs so important?" But Paul is using a very purpose language, a very specific image to the people that he was writing to. You see, Roman adoption, as one commentator puts it, he says, "The profound truth of Roman adoption was that the adoptee was taken out of his previous state and placed into a new relationship of son to his new father. All of his old debts are canceled. And in effect, the adoptee started a new life as part of his new family. And on the one hand, the new father owned all of the new offspring's property, controlled by his personal relationships, and had the rights of discipline. On the other hand, the father was liable for the actions of the adoptee, and each owed the other reciprocal duties of support and maintenance." He says, "This is an amazing statement here. Something utterly unique. You are sons of God." The gospel says, "If you believe in Jesus, you are the sons of God, you are heirs to God's trust fund, including you two girls." Right? And let's return to the Reinhardt for a second here. What's their problem? They're kids of an estate of immeasurable wealth and riches, but what are the issues? According to various newspaper articles, the vesting date is going to be in 2068. They're heirs, they're sons, they're daughters, but they're sons. They're heirs to the estate, and yet they can't access it. They are children by right, but they are slaves by effect. That they are at the wishes of the trustee of Gina, and that's why there's so much animosity between them and her. The children by right, but they're slaves by effect, come back to chapter 4 with me again quickly here. Look at this. Paul says, "What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave. Although he owns the whole estate, he is subject to guardians and trustees until this time set by his father." You see what he's saying there? Paul is using exactly the same metaphor to qualify this statement of what he's saying about your sons. He's using the illustration of this child who's an heir to a greater state, but when they're a minor, when they don't have the legal rights to it, they're no different from a slave. They still have to listen to the guardians and the trustees. They're promised an inheritance, yet they're not entirely free to do whatever they want with that inheritance. Now, what is Paul getting at? Paul's saying that when you first come to know of God, that you're no different from the Reinhardt kids, that also you can call yourself a Christian and be no different from the Reinhardt kids. That is, you can be kids, you can be kids by name and kids by right, but until that action happens by which you are given access to the trust fund, you are no different from a slave. And isn't that the difference between Christianity and religion? Religion is the Reinhardt kids approach to the trust fund of God. Religion is the litigious approach to the trust fund of God. Religion is what the Reinhardt kids are doing. I will take it into my own hands to use whatever means that I can do in order to extract the blessings of my parent into my life, whether they like it or not. There's no love, there's no joy, there's no relationship. See the difference between religion and Christianity? When you come to know God, Paul is saying that there is a deep problem for us. That is, that outside the work of Jesus, you are only an heir apparent. You're apparently an heir, but you're not heirs with access. All these things apparently could be coming away, but you can't access it. And so, we're just like the Reinhardt kids. Now, there is a wealth that is there by promise, not by access. And that's what he's saying here, that as long as a child is an heir, as long as that child knows that he's sure of his later inheritance, but can't access it until he comes of age, until the trust is vested, it's all just a promise. And so, where do we go from here? Well, the Reinhardt's, they go to the Supreme Court. Christians go to the gospel, look at verse 4 here, it says, "But when the time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law that we might receive the full rights of sons." What's Jesus doing here? You know what Jesus is doing? He's vesting the trust. He's vesting the trust. Jesus is the demonstration. Jesus is the legal demonstration by God the Father to say, "Kids, I'm giving you access to your inheritance. I'm vesting the trust, not in 2068, I'm doing it now." In other words, the work of Jesus makes you come of age, helps you move from not just an understanding of your inheritance, but to the position to access your inheritance. You know, kids can understand their legal right to their inheritance, but until they access it, they can't come of age. And so, you know what Jesus has done? He's changed your hairstyle. You move from heirs apparent child slaves to heirs actual kids, sons, full rights. It's incredible. Can't you see it? To be a Christian is on one hand to be like the Reinhardt kids. You are a child of a father with immeasurable riches, but you call the son, but until you have no legitimate way to access it, then you're a slave. And the son, the legal work of the son, Jesus Christ, vests the trust. That's what's Paul's getting out here with this language. Now, here's the challenge, though we're totally loving our new hairstyle. We're fully adopted children of God, and we now have complete and unrestricted access to the trust fund. If I say that to you this morning, for most of us, we just go, "Well, that's nice. That's nice. It's good to know, but it won't melt you, it won't move you, it won't change you." And here's why, you see, you don't just need the objective knowledge of your son's ship. You need something else desperately. You need not only just to access your inheritance, you need something else you need to experience your inheritance. Verse 6 to 7, "Because you are sons, God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out Abba Father, translated Daddy, so that you are no longer a slave but a son, and since you're a son, God has made you also an heir. Why won't riches alone? Why won't the knowledge of the access to this do it for you? Why do we need the Holy Spirit? Why is there going to be the work of the son legally and the spirit experientially? Why do we need the two to be working together? Is it possible to say that you're a child of the ultimate father, and still there be no joy and no love and no warmth and no excitement, no richness in your life? Is it possible that you could say that you're a child of the ultimate father, and yet your life is characterized by fear and blame shifting and begrudging obedience and self-pity? Yes, of course. Of course. And here's why I think why, because I think one of the greatest challenges of Christianity is not knowing the objective truth of Christianity. It's not so knowing the truth of God, but it's experiencing it. Martin Luther once said, "The truth of the gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine. Most necessary is that we know this article well, teach it to others, but most importantly, beat it into our heads continually." It is the work of the Holy Spirit is to developing you a deep-seated persuasion, a reality that you are sons of God. Why is this so important? Sinclair Ferguson, a commentator picks it up on this and he says, "Our problem is that we have a native inability to believe that salvation being saved is entirely by God's grace and love. We are slow to realize that we are sons, and yet we are always in danger of having the mindset of hired slaves." And you think, "Well, what does that look like?" Ferguson goes on to paint a picture of what every person who first comes to Jesus does. He says, "You may say in your head, 'Oh, I'm a sinner saved by grace. You might say that, 'Oh, I'm a child of God. You might say that I'm a son of God. You might say, 'I get it.'" He says, "No, you don't." Why is it that you feel at times like such a failure? Why is it that when you do wrong it takes you so long to come back to live and live a normal life again? Why is it that you are constantly secretly comparing yourself to other people all the time and jealousy and self-doubt characterizes your life? You say, "Yeah, I believe, but no, you don't." See what Ferguson is saying? You can have access to the trust fund, but you don't know how to experience that access. I remember up the back of the auditorium here, a little Isabella Van Bentham who we saw up on stage last week as we farewelled them. She was only three or four months of age, drool coming down a chin, gorgeous little blonde thing there, and as I walked in from the back of the auditorium, I saw her playing with something, and as I got up a bit closer, there she was sucking on Shane's debit card. I bent down and I said to her, "Oh, honey, if only you knew what you were sucking on." You see, Isabella had access to her inheritance, but she didn't know how to experience it. Imagine her at 16 years of age with that thing in her mouth, she's going to do some serious damage, right? See, there's a difference between having access to your inheritance and actually knowing how to experience it. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. That's what the Holy Spirit does. It grows you up, and unless you were grown up in the Spirit, we siddle around like six month olds, three months old, sucking on our inheritance, and having no idea how to experience it. Can you see why the Spirit's such an important thing? You constantly need a reminder of who you are in your inheritance and that it's constantly yours. You constantly need the Spirit to help you experience your access. See, it's one thing to know you're adopted. It's another two experience. You see, if we just had the access, that would be one thing, but you need the work of the Spirit to grow you up in that show you how to use the debit card. We've seen you need access to your inheritance. You need Jesus to change your hairstyle. You need to go from heir's apparent to heir's actual. You need to understand that, but you also need to experience your inheritance. You need to be grown up in that. I think it's funny. The question is, how do I know, how do I know that I'm living out of both? My question for you this morning is, are you acting like a slave or are you acting like a son? That is, am I acting like a slave afraid of God or a child who is assured of the father's love? What's the difference? Slaves are characterized by a fear-based life. Sons are characterized by faith working through love. Slaves have a compulsive obedience. They obey God and moral codes out of a fear of rejection. They've got this moralism and drivenness in them, unrealistic goals, often a lot of self-criticism. Sons are characterized by an obedience out of joy and an experience of gratitude and certainty of his love. Others are characterized by being controlled by people. They've got expectations and the opinions of others become the real moral standard and they're controlled by what people think. Sons recognize that integrity encourages a heck of a lot easier. Slaves are always hiding. There's lots of strategies to hide their inner and outer feelings from everyone, even from themselves and from other people, including gossip, blame shifting, anger, obsession, overwork. Sons are open and transparent. They've got a freedom they don't have to put up a front, they're able to appreciate people who are different and are hurting. Slaves are characterized by isolation. They have this growing feeling that no one understands them and no one ever cares and no one can be trusted. Sons, because of that openness and transparency, have a lack of self-pity. Slaves despair in troubles. They see difficulties as paybacks from God and it results in either guilt because they're aware of their own moral failings or bitterness because there's a feeling that they've got some form of moral accomplishment or as sons learn to see discipline as the father's love. They follow his instruction lovingly. They prepare for the future test from him and they learn the lessons that show them patience in life. And a slave has a begrudging repentance. A slave, their admitting failure is the destructive of the very basis for their own identity. And yet a child admits that failure is the basis of Christian identity as an adopted child and the repentance just reminds them of the magnitude of the father's love. Are you living as a slave or as a son? That means you too, ladies, okay? I'm not sure you're at this morning. I'm not sure where you're sitting at, but look, would you be interested? Would you be interested in a life that's characterized by faith and love? Would you be interested by a life that's characterized by integrity and courage? Would you be interested in a life that's characterized by openness and transparency? Would you be interested in a life that's characterized by discipline? Would you be interested in a life that's characterized by joyful obedience? The only way that you can have that is to place your faith in the only one who had the ability to vest the ultimate trust fund. So if you don't know Jesus Christ this morning and we don't have time to go into it all this morning, but I can promise you that through faith in Christ and access into that trust fund produces in you all these characteristics that some of us may desperately want. But Christian, brother, sister, are you calling yourself a child? But are there aspects where you are living like a slave? Do you know what's happening? If that's the case, you're still sucking on Daddy's debit card, whether you're 155075. The reason is, Paul says, you're not experiencing your access, you're not doing business with your sonship. At that moment, the reality, the gospel's not being worked in your hearts. As Luther would say, you're not beating it in your head. The great news this morning is let the Holy Spirit do that for you. He's a little bit gentler. But are you a Christian who's living out of a position of slave ship instead of sonship? The question for us this morning as a church is, are we acting like the Reinhardt kids? Are we acting like God's kids? And the degree to which we get the work of the sun changing our hairstyle and the degree to which we get the work of the Holy Spirit growing us up, showing us how to use the debit card is the degree to which will be the latter. I'll leave it with you this week. Let's pry. [BLANK_AUDIO]