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November 11, 2009

Fight Club Notes on Galatians 4:3-7 • From Slavery to Sonship

Fight Club ’09

Round 4 • Galatians 4:3-7 / “Adoption: From Slavery to Sonship”

3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (ESV)


I.  The Gospel Has Legal, Relational, Existential and Eschatological Aspects 

  • Justification
  • Adoption
  • Sanctification
  • Glorification

II. How does human adoption work?  How is this an analogy for spiritual adoption?

III. A Key Passage in the Bible- Galatians 4:3-7 

  • v. 3- Before sonship (“Formerly”- v. 8)
  • v. 4- The fullness of time
  • v. 5- Redemption (I am no longer a servant/slave!)
  • v. 6- The Spirit —> “Abba”
  • v. 7- An heir of God
  • * See also Ephesians 1:3-14

IV. Implications and Applications...

  • What are symptoms of spiritual orphanhood or slavery?
  • What will it mean for me to “live like a child”?
  • How does spiritual adoption deal with issues of identity?
  • How does it relate to prayer? (read A Praying Life by Paul Miller- wow, what a great, helpful book!)
  • Where am I on the slave vs. son continuum?

Filed under  //   adoption   fight club   galatians   sonship  

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September 9, 2009

The Freedom to Fail

Each month I attend the North Georgia New Church Network, a group of church planters and church planting coaches who meet to consult with, pray for and equip each other as missionaries to our small part of the world. During our prayer time at our last meeting, we were challenged to confess a particular fear that robs us of joy, peace and hope. My confession was the fear of failure—the fear that the church plant I am about to lead will crash and burn. But my fear really is much deeper than failure, which actually is just a fruit of a deeper root issue. I really fear what will happen to my name. My reputation. However, the gospel teaches me that in light of the cross, my name is already mud. The cross says that I have failed far worse than I think! In fact, I'm such a mess that Jesus had to live and die for my failure.

But you know, I'm okay with being a failure in the past. But I don't like having to be helpless, weak and needy now. I want to move past my own present and complete need for a Savior-Sanctifier-Empowerer. But that is what the gospel gives me. Through the sheer grace of God in Jesus, I have been given a new reputation and identity that cannot be smeared: I am an extravagantly loved, forgiven, propitiated, justified, redeemed, adopted son of the King. Knowing that gives me a radical freedom. Freedom from the judgement and penalty of sin, and freedom to pursue wild adventures that can only succeed if God allows. And so, whether the church grows to maturity, or withers and dies, either way, by sheer grace, I am an extravagantly loved, forgiven, propitiated, justified, redeemed, adopted son of the King. That's what Paul says so clearly when he writes in Romans 8, "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons..."

In the gospel, there is freedom to fail. So in these next weeks, months and years, I am pursuing the risky adventure of church planting, taking God up on his promise.

Filed under  //   adoption   failure   freedom   identity   sonship  

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