When I was a kid, I loved the movie “Annie”. When Annie first arrived at Mr. Warbucks’s house, the staff showed her around the house and asked what she would like to do first. Annie started listing areas she would start cleaning, because that’s what she was used to doing at the orphanage. She misunderstood why she was brought to Mr. Warbucks’s mansion. She wasn’t there as a servant but as a guest – and eventually as an adopted daughter. 

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been looking at our adoption as sons and daughters of God. In Galatians 4:7-9, Paul contrasts the role of a slave and a son as he explains our adoption by God’s grace.  

“So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” (Galatians 4:7-9)

In this portion of Galatians, Paul is in the middle of a larger argument about slavery and redemption. The church at Galatia had been led astray by teachers who said they had to earn their salvation by keeping the law. Paul wanted them to understand that they were no longer slaves, but they had been set free to be sons and daughters of God. 

God has always been the God who redeems His children from slavery. In Exodus 2, God heard the groaning of His people, the Israelites, who were enslaved in Egypt.  Exodus 2:25 says, “God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” God heard, God knew, and then God acted to bring His people out of slavery and give them a secure place in the Promised Land. 

God acted to redeem us from slavery to the law by sending His Son to die as an atoning sacrifice for our sin (Galatians 4:4-5, 2 Corinthians 5:21). Now we live in the freedom of adoption—children who have been saved by grace and are no longer in bondage to the burden of the law. 

No matter what you face this week, we are no longer slaves, but adopted children of God. 

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When my son was a toddler, we went through an awkward phase when he used the word “dada” to refer to all men. I’d watch him look around the store and spot a random stranger, and I’d brace myself for what would come next. “Dada!” would fly enthusiastically from his mouth as Mr. Random Stranger looked around in confusion. 

My son didn’t yet understand that the word we use to refer to his daddy was a precious name for an even-more-precious relationship. Now that he’s older, he knows that the love of his father is unique. He calls him “Dad” because of the relationship they share. And we see in Galatians 4:6 that God has given us, His adopted children, the unique privilege of calling Him our Father: 

“And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:6)

Abba is the Aramaic word for father, a word used specifically by children to refer to their fathers. Jesus cried out in prayer to His “Abba, Father” in the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:36). If we’ve been united to Christ by faith and adopted into God’s family, we also have the privilege of calling God our Abba, Father. We can be confident in this privilege because Jesus taught us to call on God as our Father when we pray: “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’” (Matthew 6:9). 

In Galatians 4, we see the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bringing us into this special relationship and giving us the privilege of calling God our Father. We saw last week that we are adopted children because God sent forth His Son to redeem us (Galatians 4:4-5). God also sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. 

Paul tells us Romans 8:15 tells us that we cry “Abba, Father!” because of the Spirit of adoption given to us. He goes on to say, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16). Because God the Father has sent both His Son and His Spirit, we can have confidence in our status as adopted children of our heavenly Father. 

No matter what you face this week, we have the privilege of calling God our “Abba, Father.” 

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God’s Word describes many ways that His free gift of grace changes our lives. If we are united to Christ by faith, we receive all that He secured for us through His life, death, and resurrection: redemption, forgiveness, eternal life, and more. We’ve been looking those gifts for the past several weeks. 

One of my favorites of all the benefits we receive from Christ is our adoption as sons and daughters of God. And over the next month, we’ll take a deep dive into adoption in Galatians 4. 

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5)

Apart from Christ, we are under the law and separated from God because of our sin. But God, in His grace and mercy, sent His Son to redeem us so we could be brought into God’s family. In 1 John 3:1, we read: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” Because of the lavish love of the Father, He sent His Son to make us His children. 

We receive this adoption by faith. Just a few verses earlier, Paul told the Galatians that “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (3:26). Our adoption as sons and daughters is a free gift of God’s grace, given to us through faith in Christ. 

If our adoption is an act of God’s free grace, then we can’t earn it, and we can’t lose it. He doesn’t love us as His daughters and sons because we’re loveable, because we’re good children, or because we bring something valuable to the relationship. Notice how Galatians 4:5 says we “receive adoption.” We are passive recipients, not earning or working for our adopted status. 

Adoption is one-sided—a Father welcoming a child and giving the child all the privileges and rights that come with being part of the family. We are adopted because of the love the Father has for us and because He graciously sent His Son to redeem us. 

No matter what you face this week, you’ve been adopted by God’s free grace. 

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