No More a Servant, But A Son – Galatians 4
‘Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.’ — Galatians 4:7
A strange thing was happening in Galatia. Former idol-worshippers who served false gods and false religion had left those idols to worship the true and living God, but then they were turning to a new form of bondage, bondage to keep the Mosaic law.
This happens today when people realise they need the Lord, come to faith in Christ, but they also get saddled with a whole list of rules and regulations that they also much keep to stay right with God. They trade one form of bondage for another.
The child of God is not a servant or slave. The child of God has all the privileges of adult sonship with the freedom, the rights, the privileges, and the inheritance that brings. The son of God is given the Spirit of God that changes him or her from the inside out, without any external rules or laws imposed on them.
Those who are free in Christ and sons of promise will be ridiculed by those under bondage like Ishmael ridiculed Isaac. But we should never return to any form of bondage, including the bondage of the law. We should stand fast in the liberty that Christ gives (Gal 5:1).
What aspects of your Christian life are you doing out of guilt, fear, shame or bondage? What un-Biblical rules are you labouring under? You are free from all of them. You are a son. You have the Spirit of God. You are an heir. You are now free to live in the power of the Spirit and the liberty of Christ.