Authentic Christianity Means Being a Child of God

1. Read: Galatians 3:26-29

2. About the Text:

1) Authentic Christianity is about restoring God’s plans and purposes in our lives.

2) How do I know I am . . .

a. Saved?

b. A Child of God?

c. A Christian?

3) Paul answers these questions in Galatians 3:15-29.

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. God’s promise to Abraham

1) “?And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).

2) “And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir’” (Genesis 15:4).

3) “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Genesis 22:18).

2. The “seed” or “offspring” of this promise referred to Christ.

1) “You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities” (Acts 3:25-26).

2) “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).

3) “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; ??He has put Him to grief. ??When You make His soul an offering for sin, ??He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, ??And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand” (Isaiah 53:10).

3. The Law of Moses cannot annul this promise that God made to Abraham.

1) Covenants cannot be annulled or modified once ratified (15).

2) It came 430 years after the promise, so the promise preceded the law (17).

3) If inheritance is by law, it isn’t by promise.

1. The law was added because of transgressions to preserve the nation for the Messiah/Christ.

1) “If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you” (Exodus 15:26).

2) ““Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).

3) “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).

2. The law could not give spiritual life.

1) Because everyone sinned and violated the law which demanded death.

2) “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).

3) “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

4) “Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful” (Romans 7:13).

5) We need Christ to have spiritual life!

3. The law was our “tutor” to bring us to Christ.

1) This is the Greek word paidagogos.

2) It means “little boy leader.”

3) Referred to a family slave that would take children to school and bring them home.

4) Very similar to our modern day bus drivers.

5) Paul’s point is that the law had a goal, and the goal was Christ.

1. We are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

1) Christ is the seed of Abraham.

2) Christ is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham.

3) If we are in Christ Jesus, then we are joint-heirs with Christ.

4) This makes us children of God through faith in Christ.

5) “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:15-17).

6) We do not need the Law of Moses to be saved by faith.

2. What is the proof that we are in Christ Jesus?

1) Those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

2) “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).

3. Those who have been baptized have identified with Christ—He is their identity now.

1) This is why Paul says verse 28.

2) Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, female, etc. is no longer our identity.

3) We are all one in Christ; He is our identity.

4) To own Christ as our identity means to be the child of Abraham.

5) To be the child of Abraham means that we are heirs of God’s promises to Abraham.

4. Being saved by faith does not exclude baptism, to the contrary, it is what proves that we are saved by faith.

1. We can be children of God today because…

1) Christ is the Beneficiary of God’s Promise to Abraham

2) The Purpose of the Law was to Bring us to Christ

3) We Put on Christ in Baptism

2. Invitation