Authentic Christianity Means Being a Child of God

How do I know and how do you know that you are saved, that you are a child of God, that you are a Christian? That’s what we’re going to talk about this morning as we think about authentic Christianity. You know, we’re studying through the book of Galatians, and in this particular series, and we’ve noted how that there was a problem in the churches of Galatia. Some false brethren had come in and taught them that they needed to be circumcised according to the law of Moses, or else they couldn’t be saved.

Well, Paul took great issue with this. In fact, he makes it very clear in Galatians chapter 3 that we’re saved by faith through Jesus Christ, and he’s been talking about that salvation in chapter 3, and he’s going to continue to talk about it because it’s through Him that we’re justified from all things that the law of Moses could not justify us from.

And why have we been thinking about authentic Christianity? Because there are so many today who would put forward a version of Christianity that is something other than what we find in the scriptures. And you may remember from chapter 1 that Paul made it very clear. If we preach any other Well, how do we fix what’s broken when we see so many counterfeit Christianities in the world today? How do we fix what’s broken? How do we fix what has been dilapidated, broken down, destroyed even in many, many ways?

Well, we’ve got to go back to the plan, right? If we have an old house that has suffered the perils of time and has been worn out, the roof maybe partially collapsed, and the insides have suffered wear and damaged one kind or another, maybe animals have gotten in and made nests where they shouldn’t have made nests, and we have big problems.

How do we fix it? We got to go back to the plan. And just like we need to go back to the plan to repair that structure, so also we need to go back to the plan to repair our spiritual situation. And that plan, of course, is the Word of God, the Bible.

Now, Paul has been laboring in the book of Galatians to teach us what authentic Christianity really is. And here, in Galatians chapter 3, verses 15 through 29, which is where we’re going to be today, he answers these questions. How do I know that I am saved? How do I know that I am a child of God? How do I know that I am a Christian? And he helps us to understand how to answer those questions.

You know, in a time when many are trying to answer these questions and certain personalities come on television and tell you, well, all you got to do is say this little prayer and everything will be fine. Paul doesn’t answer the question in that way. He doesn’t say to do that.

Look at what he says here in Galatians 3, in verses 15 through 29, because he gives us a definite answer, a way that we can know that we are saved, that we’re a child of God, that we are, in fact, a Christian.

Let’s look at what he says in this chapter as we think about authentic Christianity and that it means being a child of God. First of all, he says this, Christ is the beneficiary of God’s promise to Abraham. And maybe you remember God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 and verse 3.

And Paul is going to go all the way back to that promise. And then he’s going to bring us forward to Christ and show us how we’re involved in that whole situation. Let’s read Galatians 3, 15 through 18 to begin with. He says, “‘Brethren, I speak in the manner of men, though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, “‘And to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, who is Christ.'”

And this I say, that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant which was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Well, let’s unpack that a little bit. First of all, maybe you remember this promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 12, Verse 3, “…and in you,” he said to Abraham, “…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” How was God going to fulfill that promise? How is it that all the families of the earth would be blessed in Abraham? He says it again in Genesis 15, verse 4, “…behold, the word of the Lord came to him,” that is to Abraham, “…saying, this one shall not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body shall be your heir.”

And in Genesis 22 and verse 18, he says, “…in your seed all the families or all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” Now this was the promise that Paul is referring to here in Galatians chapter 3. And then he says this, the seed that God was talking about back there in Genesis 12 and in Genesis 15 and Genesis 22, That was Christ. That seed is Christ. The Apostle Peter affirms the same thing in Acts chapter 3, verses 25-26. He says, “…you are the 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.”

And so the blessing, the great blessing that God promised to Abraham that in your seed all the families of the earth would be blessed came through Jesus Christ and the work that He did in turning us away from our iniquities.

So Christ is the heir. He is the beneficiary of God’s promise to Abraham. Now think about the prophets and what they said, because this connects together and shows us that Christ is this heir. Christ is this beneficiary to the promise that God made to Abraham.

In Jeremiah 31, verse 34, Jeremiah prophesied, 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. Now, in the Old Covenant, they had a remembrance of sin every year. On that Day of Atonement, the High Priest would go into the Most Holy Place and sprinkle blood on the Ark of the Covenant, and they would remember their sins every year on this day.

What Jeremiah is saying here is that God was going to bring a day in which that wouldn’t take place anymore. That He wouldn’t remember sin anymore like He did under the Old Covenant, but that it would be forgiven. In Isaiah 53 and verse 10, the Lord tells us how He did that by placing those sins on His own offspring, on His own seed.

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.

So the seed was going to be the offering for sin, through whom forgiveness would come, and as a result, promise to Abraham would be fulfilled. Now Paul’s argument here in Galatians 3 is this. The law cannot change God’s promise to Abraham. It was made, that promise, it was made before the law came into effect. The law of Moses was 430 years after the promise that God made to Abraham.

And those covenants, those promises cannot be annulled or modified once they are ratified. That is, when God’s made that promise, when God ratified that promise in Genesis 22 to Abraham, it was set in stone at that point, could not be changed. And so 430 years after the promise, the law came. But the promise preceded the law. And Paul’s point is, if salvation comes through the law of Moses, it can’t come through the promise that God gave to Abraham.

And God’s promise to Abraham would be annulled by the law of Moses. And so that promise, which God made, has to be fulfilled outside of the law of Moses. So point number one, Christ was the beneficiary of the promise to Abraham. Now, secondly, the purpose of the law was to bring us to Christ. Let’s read together Galatians 3 here in the next What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now, a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if there had been a law given, which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.

But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith, which would afterward be revealed.

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. All right. Well, let’s think about this for a minute. So what was the purpose of the law of Moses? If salvation doesn’t come through the law of Moses, why did we even have the law of Moses? Well, it was meant to preserve God’s people so that He could fulfill that promise through them. In Exodus 15, verse 26, There, God said to His people, if you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight and 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.

So there was healing promised, preservation was promised, but they had to keep God’s law to do that. Think about Exodus 20, verse 12, “…honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” So there’s a commandment with promise. Honor your father and mother. Why? So that you can be preserved.

Deuteronomy 30, verses 19 through 20, there Moses says, “…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, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice, holding fast to Him, for He is your life, and the 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. Preservation. This is about preservation.

Now, as we think about the preservation for the nation of Israel, we also understand this, that the law, while it gave physical life, could not give spiritual life. In Romans chapter 3, verse 20, the apostle Paul wrote, By the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. How did they know what was right and wrong? The law taught them. And it taught them that they had sinned, and then it taught them that everyone was guilty. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 3, verse 23.

Paul concludes in Romans 7, verse 13, he says, “…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.

So the law was given so that mankind could know what sin is, and that we could understand how sinful sin is, and how it affects God. The law could not give spiritual life. Only Christ could give spiritual life. And so the law was our tutor.

This word tutor is the Greek word, which literally translated means a little boy leader or a little child leader. You see, back then, if your child went to school, you would send a servant with your child to escort him or her to school and he would make sure that the child got to school safely And that He returned home safely. That was the role of the Piedigogos. It’s very similar to our modern-day bus drivers. And so, the law was our bus driver to take us to Christ. The goal was always Christ. That was the purpose of the law.

And when we understand that the law was to bring us to Christ, we then ask our question, How do I know I’m saved? How do I know I’m a child of God? How do I know that I have eternal life?

Paul makes it clear here in Galatians 3, verses 26 through 29, We know that we’re a child of God when we put Christ on in baptism. Now Christ was the heir. Christ was the one who inherited the promise. He was the beneficiary. In your seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And Paul says the seed was Christ. And so in Christ, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

What was that blessing? Peter told us what it was. Forgiveness of sins. Now look, Galatians 3, 26-29 says this, For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, Now, here’s the argument that Paul makes. Christ is the seed of Abraham. He is the fulfillment of the promise, of the blessing that God gave to Abraham.

And if we are in Christ Jesus, then we take Christ’s identity. And we are then heirs of the promise that God gave to Abraham. And so this makes us children of God through faith in Christ and joint heirs with Christ.

Now, how then do we become joint heirs with Christ? How do I become a child of God? Romans 8, 15 through 17 says, For you do not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption. Adoption.

By whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. How do I become, how do I identify with Christ? How do I become a child of God? How do I know I’m saved? 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, we were buried with Him.

He said, “‘By the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life.'” How do we know we’re saved? You can know you’re saved if you were baptized. How do you know you’re a child of God? You can know you’re a child of God if you were baptized. How do I know? Baptism identifies us with Christ, puts us in the family of God, makes us heirs, joint heirs with Christ and recipients.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. That’s what baptism does. It makes us one in Christ Jesus, that we can identify with Christ and know that we’re in the family of God.

We can be children of God today because Christ is the beneficiary of God’s promise to Abraham, because the purpose of the law was to bring us to Christ, and because when we’re baptized into Christ, we put on Christ, we identify with Him, and since He is the heir, we become heirs.

Since He is the child, we become children. Since He is the perfect, sinless Son of God who was saved by God, resurrected from the dead, we then receive forgiveness of sins and we have the hope of the promise of the resurrection as well.

We can be children of God today and you can know that you’re saved. You can know that you’re a child of God by being baptized into Christ and identifying with Him. Maybe there’s someone this morning who has been thinking about this, who at this time would like to know that he or she is a child of God, know that he or she is saved.

This morning, you can know for sure by hearing the Word of God and believing it, repenting of your sin, confessing Jesus as Lord and being baptized for the forgiveness of your sin, to join the family of God, to become an heir, a joint heir with Christ, and to be the recipient of the blessing of Abraham. Know that you’re saved today. We can help you do that right now while together we stand and while we sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!