Galatians Archives - Marissa Henley

God Sent His Son to Adopt You {No Matter What Monday}

December 17, 2018 by Marissa Leave a Comment

What comes to mind when you think of Christmas? Smiling family members sitting by a lighted tree, a fire roaring in the fireplace, hands wrapped around mugs of hot cocoa as you sing “Joy to the World” together? Kids dashing downstairs at dawn to find everything they ever wanted under the tree? Or maybe you think of the family members you’ll be missing this Christmas because you’re separated by distance, disagreement, or death. Perhaps your Christmas memories are painful, your current holiday situation is stressful, or your joy is clouded by the sadness of friends and family who are walking through the holidays without a loved one.

No matter where your family falls on the spectrum from delightful to dysfunctional, Christ was born to redeem you and bring you into God’s family.

“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)

This is why Jesus came. Not just to heal the blind and change water into wine. Not only to tell us how to love others. Not to start a new religion. He was God’s Son, born of a woman to redeem those who were under the law. We were living under the curse of our inability to keep God’s law, so Jesus came to redeem us with His perfect life and to die in our place.

And as He redeemed us, we were adopted into God’s family. As God’s children, we are loved fully and perfectly. Not because we are good children, but because we have a good Father. No matter how messy our earthly family interactions get, we can rest in our Father’s love demonstrated to us in our redemption and adoption through Christ.

No matter what you face this week, you have been redeemed and adopted because God sent forth His Son.

God Made You His Child and Heir {No Matter What Monday}

October 29, 2018 by Marissa Leave a Comment

One night before bedtime, my daughter was stalling in one of my favorite ways—by showering me with compliments from head to toe. As she moved from my hair to my clothes, she mentioned my wedding ring with the “fake diamond in it.” I laughed and corrected her, “No, Sweetheart, that’s actually a real diamond.” Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. “Mom!” she exclaimed. “You’re rich! You should take that to someone to sell it and buy me an American Girl doll!”

Sometimes I feel the same way when I see the riches of God in display in His Word. The riches of the Father’s mercy (Ephesians 2:4). The riches left by the Son when He took on flesh (2 Corinthians 8:9). The Holy Spirit richly poured out through salvation in Christ (Titus 3:5-6).

My jaw drops and my eyes widen when I think that the One who has everything would choose to make me His child and provide me with an eternal inheritance. My Savior sacrificed it all to redeem me and purchased my salvation with His blood.

Last week we saw in Galatians 4:4-6 that God has given us the privilege of calling Him our Father. In the next verse, Paul tells us even more about our status as children of God:

“So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:7).

Because God made us His children by His grace, we are promised an inheritance that is imperishable and kept for us in heaven (1 Peter 1:3-4). Romans 8:17 tells us that we are co-heirs with Christ, and we can only imagine what His inheritance must be like!

God’s abundant provision for us isn’t just the riches of eternal life with Him. He also gives what we need each day. In Matthew 7, we read that just as earthly parents give their children what they need, our heavenly Father will do the same for us. There’s nothing we need that He doesn’t have. He’s rich, remember? He will not withhold any good thing from us (Psalm 84:11).

No matter what you face this week, God has made you an heir to the riches of His grace.

We Call God Our “Abba! Father!” {No Matter What Monday}

October 22, 2018 by Marissa Leave a Comment

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 a teenager, 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 that God has given us, His adopted children, the unique privilege of calling Him our Father:

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

In these verses, 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 are adopted children because God sent forth His Son to redeem us. Just a few verses earlier, Paul tells the Galatians that “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (3:26). Our adoption as sons is a free gift of God’s grace given to us on the basis of faith in Christ.

God also sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Romans 8:15 tells us that we cry “Abba, Father!” because of the Spirit of adoption given to us. Because God the Father has sent both His Son and His Spirit, we can cry out to God with confidence and know that He hears the pleas of His children.

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

No Other Gospel: A Recap of The Gospel Coalition National Conference

April 6, 2017 by Marissa Leave a Comment

I didn’t know what to expect at my first national conference for The Gospel Coalition, but I didn’t expect to be crying in the first ten minutes.

As the worship leaders played the first few chords, the words on the screen seemed unnecessary. More than 8,000 worshippers from all over the globe began singing together, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” Joining in such a beautiful offering of praise to our Almighty God brought tears of joy. It wasn’t quite Heaven—I could feel the pain of my sore foot and the congestion of a lingering cold. But it was a preview of the life to come, and I can’t wait.

The conference theme, “No Other Gospel,” highlighted the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation. The plenary speakers taught through the book of Galatians and spoke about a few of the Reformers. I’ll share some highlights from the talks on Galatians (and the workshops I attended), so grab a Bible, turn to Galatians, and let’s do a quick fly-by of what God taught me through these insightful and knowledgeable speakers.

(If you want more than an overview, full videos of all plenary sessions are available here, thanks to The Gospel Coalition!)

From Galatians 1, John Piper taught us that because Paul’s authority and apostleship come directly from Jesus Christ, the gospel that Paul preaches is Christ’s gospel. To turn from the gospel (salvation by grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone) is to turn from Christ. How could we leave the One who gave Himself to deliver us? And yet, that’s exactly what we do if we alter, add to, or subtract from the gospel. The truth of the gospel must be precious to us, because Christ is precious to us.

Sandy Willson exhorted us from Galatians 2 to be both tender-hearted and bold as we defend the gospel. He reminded us that the gospel isn’t just something we assent to intellectually—it’s something we commit our whole selves to. He said we have “as much right to heaven as Christ does”—shocking, yet true—because we are dressed in Christ’s righteousness. And he spoke of the beauty of God’s love on display in our justification by faith.

Peter Adams opened Galatians 3 and taught that we either live by law or by the promise. He said that the law says, “do, do, do, don’t, don’t, don’t,” but God’s promise says, “I will.” He exhorted us to consider that the key to the Christian life is hearing with faith. Our hearing is a gift, and we shouldn’t waste it on meaningless words. We need to read the Scriptures and hear them preached, because faith without hearing and hearing without faith are both futile.

From Galatians 4, D.A. Carson contrasted slavery and freedom. We were enslaved by the law as we tried to attain a righteousness of our own. Christ achieved that righteousness for us, setting us free. When we abandon the gospel, we are choosing slavery. We’re saying that Christ’s work on the cross isn’t sufficient. When we embrace the freedom we have in Christ, we experience a “blessed slavery” to the One who loves us and gave Himself for us.

Thabiti Anyabwhile spoke from Galatians 5 about three concerns Paul has for churches who are losing the gospel and the effective solution. When we add any requirement for salvation other than Christ’s righteousness, we fall into legalism, which leads to self-righteousness. We become “spiritual cannibals who devour each other.” Instead of attacking others, we need to attack our own sin. The solution to the problem of division and legalism in the church is to focus on the gift of freedom in Christ. We don’t use our freedom as an excuse to indulge our sinful nature, but rather use it to serve and love others. He concluded, “Live free and glorify the God who set you free.”

Finally, Tim Keller taught us from Galatians 6 about our heart condition that seeks vain glory. We enter relationships with others seeking to build ourselves up at their expense. We are desperate for a reason to boast in ourselves. But to be a new creation is to boast only in Christ. We boast in what Christ accomplished for us in His perfect life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection. We boast in what Christ endured on the cross. He endured God’s wrath so that we might hear, “Well, done, good and faithful servant.”

As much as I loved the worship and plenary sessions, the workshops also offered outstanding teaching in a smaller, more intimate setting. I scribbled notes furiously as Gloria Furman took us on a whirlwind tour of Ephesians, “the story of what God has done in Christ.” Her new book, Alive in Him, looks like a fabulous guide to one of my favorite books of the Bible.

Jen Wilkin taught Psalm 139 from a perspective you don’t often hear at women’s events. She asserted that this psalm isn’t meant to teach us about ourselves; it’s meant to teach us about the Lord. We saw our God high and lifted up as she walked through the psalm, pointing out God’s omniscience, limitlessness, eternality, omnipresence, transcendence, self-sufficiency, self-existence, omnipotence, sovereignty, immeasurability, and immutability. She encouraged us to not cling to the truth that we’re precious because God loves us, but rather that the One who loves us is precious. (Her book None Like Him provides great further reading on this topic. I’ve read part of it and highly recommend it.)

In the final workshop, I heard Sarah Walton and Kristen Wetherell speak from their new book, Hope When It Hurts. They have both experienced a great deal of physical suffering and spoke about how the hope we have in Christ brings peace and comfort. They outline six struggles that sufferers face and how the promises of God’s Word speak into those struggles. They also addressed how we can walk alongside others in their suffering. They recorded the workshop and you can view the video on their Facebook page. I also recommend their book, a devotional for those who are hurting.

It’s hard to summarize in one post all that I learned and experienced in the 48 hours I spent at this conference. I walked away thankful that my salvation has been fully accomplished by Christ. I walked away humbled and encouraged to hate my sin and love others, not the other way around. I walked away joyful because of the freedom I’ve been given and eager to use it to glorify the God who redeemed me.

And I walked away eager for more . . . The Gospel Coalition’s women’s conference will be June 14-16, 2018, in Indianapolis. Who wants to go with me?