Sonship through the Son
Bible Passage: Galatians 4:4-7
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: December 28, 2025
In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,
A couple of weeks ago, we went on a tour of the Pabst Mansion in Milwaukee. The Pabst Mansion is the home Frederic Pabst built back in the 1800’s. It is a grand Victorian mansion typical of what some would call “The Gilded Age.” Upon entering the mansion, one stands in a grand entry area. There is a beautiful grand staircase that ascends three stories. I noticed another set of stairs in the home. This set was around the back of the home, by the back door. It was just an enclosed narrow staircase. It was the servants’ staircase. Only members of the Pabst family and their distinguished guests used the grand staircase; the servants the other.
There is a big difference between being family and being a slave. It is this profound truth that is the thrust of our text this morning. The apostle Paul writes the Galatians about a change in their status. Paul wants them to remember that in their relationship to God, they are not slaves. They are sons! Children of God, with all the rights and privileges that go along with a child of God. And most importantly, Paul writes to them about how this change has happened. It happened because of Christmas. It happened because God’s one and only Son came into this world. And our Sonship Comes through the Son.
Paul writes as he does because something was happening with the Galatians that can so easily happen to us all. The Galatians were beginning to slip into a “slave” mentality with God. They were beginning to feel that in order to have a good relationship with God, they needed to be good and obedient. They needed to “perform.” They imagined what God wants is dutiful, compliant slaves. “Do the Ten Commandments and God will be a nice, happy Master.”
That’s a frustrating way to live, isn’t it? To view God as an unrelenting “boss,” an unreasonable “foreman,” always demanding more, always demanding better. It’s a recipe for guilt. It’s a recipe for shame. It’s a recipe for an unhappy life. This is not the life God intends for you. He wants to free you from this “slave mentality.” This “freeing” is redemption.
So here is what God did. When the time had fully come…when the time was just right for God to fulfill, or “fill full,” all those promises he had made…God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law. (v. 4-5) God, because he is God, is not “under law.” God did not give the Ten Commandments to himself. He is the Law-Giver. He makes the Laws. He enforces the Laws. He is, we might say, “over the Law.” But in the person of Jesus, God puts himself “under law.” The true Son of God takes on flesh and thus obligates himself to keep the Law HE himself gave to humanity!
He does this to redeem those under the law. That’s you and that’s me! We are born under the law. We have an obligation to keep God’s Law perfectly. But we fail, miserably. So then we try harder to please God. And we fail some more. And so on. Jesus came to free us from this hamster-wheel of try-fail, try harder-fail! He says, “I will keep the Law and give you the credit!”
Paul does not mention it in our text, but here we have to mention the other thing the Son born of a woman did to redeem us. He also took the guilt of our failures and shortcomings onto himself and took the punishment we deserved! There is the full redemption story! Jesus lived for us! Jesus died for us! To “redeem” us from slavery!
Paul puts it this way: So that we would be adopted as sons. (v. 5) Adoption is a beautiful thing. A person who has lost father and mother for whatever reason is taken into the home and family of another. They are given a new life, a new identity, and a new name. This is what God has done for you through his Son. You are not some cosmic little orphan with no one to love you. God has loved you! He sent Jesus to redeem you from your orphan-life! He has given you a new life. He has given you a new identity and new name. You heard your new family name when you were baptized. “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Ah, this is who loved ME! This is who CHOSE me! This is who adopted ME!”
Paul says about the Holy Spirit, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to shout, “Abba, Father!” (v. 6) “Abba” is the Aramaic word for “father.” If I show up at the main entrance of Buckingham Palace and try to get in, I will be detained. If I tell them, “It’s okay, King Charles is my father,” they will call for a psych-consult. Yet through God’s Son, Jesus, you can approach the throne of the King of heaven and say, “Abba. Father.” This is what a child in the family gets to do!
Finally, Paul says, And if you are a son, then you are also an heir of God through Christ. (v. 7) Children are heirs. They inherit what belongs to their father. You are an heir of God. God’s holy heaven will be YOURS one day! Heavenly glory will be YOUR glory one day! You will use the grand staircase of heaven, not one around back for the servants! Not because as a slave you have earned it. But because through Jesus it is your inheritance!
There is a story in the Bible that makes this point most memorably. Jesus tells the story of the rotten son who moves away from home and squanders all he has on wild living and prostitutes. Then he wants to go back home. As he makes his homeward way, he rehearses the speech he will say to the father he offended. I will…say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men. (Luke 15:18-19) Essentially, he is saying, “Don’t take me back as a son, take me back as a slave.” But when he meets his father, the father will have none of it! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. (Luke 15:22-24) He wanted him as a son, not a slave! So it is with your Father in heaven. He will have you as a son, not as a slave. And this sonship is ours only through the Son.
Amen.
