From Slave to Son
Galatians 4:7

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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.

The man had been imprisoned for a long time. He was not behind bars, and he was not bound in chains—in fact, people had tried to keep him in shackles and stand guard over him, but with an unhuman strength he would break the chains and escape. And yet, despite every escape, he was still imprisoned, and he could not get away. He was a slave to forces far stronger than he, “for many demons had entered him” (Luke 8:30 ESV). He wore no clothes despite the scorching heat and the cold night-time temperatures. He no longer lived in a home but in the caves that made up the tombs for the people of the area, sleeping on cold stone at night. He no longer had the joys of human society but instead suffered under the domination of a gang of demons who had no greater joy than tormenting him. He was a slave. And he could not get away.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that kind of slavery is a terrible condition. To have your dignity taken away, to have your personality completely ignored, to be treated as a thing, an object, a tool for someone else’s income or pleasure—that is a terrible condition. But, you, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ are no longer slaves. As it says in Galatians, “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:7 ESV). Why, then, do you turn from your gracious heavenly Father who has made you his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ and instead try to live like slaves again? Why do you act like slaves when you are actually sons and daughters?

The movie “Hotel for Dogs” tells the story of a brother and sister, Andi and Bruce, living in foster care after their parents passed away. They’ve gone through a whole series of foster parents, but in each case the foster parents gave up on them. You see, Andi and Bruce have a little dog they brought along, and none of the foster parents wants to deal with the dog—particularly because it’s a small dog with a voracious appetite. Their latest foster parents—two washed up hippies with vain hopes of making it big in music—use the foster system as an additional source of income. They figure they can make more money if they limit how much food the kids eat. The pantry is under lock and key; the kids suffer under all kinds of restrictions; and the foster parents have no love whatsoever for the kids. The kids sneak around to get the food they need and food for their dog—even to keep the dog. They live in fear of getting caught doing something wrong. Is that you? Do you sneak around hoping God won’t catch you doing something wrong? Do you waste your time worrying about what God will do if you accidentally sin? My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you are no longer slaves. God did not adopt you as foster children that he can use to increase his income. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5 ESV). God the Father gave his Son, his perfect Son, into death on the cross to adopt you as his dear and precious sons and daughters. You are no longer slaves. You don’t have to sneak around and slink around hoping God won’t notice if you accidentally mess up. Unlike the fathers here this morning, your heavenly Father is perfectly forgiving.

What does it mean to live like a son? The children in “Hotel for Dogs” get to enjoy that experience. As the movie goes on, the kids create an amazing hotel for dogs in an abandoned building. Unfortunately, this whole scheme also gets them in trouble with Mr. and Mrs. Washed-Up-Hippie-Wanna-Be-Rock-Stars. There’s no one left. There’s just the group home. At the last minute, their social worker decides to adopt these kids. They’ve seen how loyal the kids are. They’ve seen that the kids need someone go guide them. So they adopt them. So now, instead of slinking and sneaking around to get food for themselves and their dog, they just ask. Instead of picking locks to have a snack after school, they just ask, because they know that their parents love them. It doesn’t mean Mom and Dad will always give them what they want, but they can ask, trusting that this couple will do good for them, because they have already done good for them. As for you, “because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6 ESV). You no longer sneak around hoping God will not notice you, in case you accidentally sin. Instead, by the power of the Spirit, you boldly call to your heavenly Father and lay your prayers before him and trust him to do what is best for you. He may not give you what you want, but he will do you good, because he’s already done you good by sending Jesus to take your sins away. Will not our Father, “who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, . . . also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32 ESV). So you and I who’ve been adopted as God’s sons and daughters go to him and tell him what you need and what you want, and we joyfully wait to hear back from him. You are no longer slaves.

What a difference this makes in the life of a Christian. We have a freedom that other people do not and cannot experience. Remember the story of the prodigal son? The younger brother asked for his inheritance, and so the father “divided his property between them” (Luke 15:12 ESV). When the younger son returned, after he had squandered his small fortune—yes, his small fortune—the older brother refused to celebrate with the father. “Look,” he says, “these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends” (Luke 15:29 ESV). So interesting. The father never gave him a goat so he could celebrate with this friends, because his father had already given him his entire share of the inheritance. The father had nothing else to give, because it all already belonged to the son. And yet the older son was still acting like a slave, like a hired hand, like a common laborer. He was working for pay, instead of working because his father had already given him an inheritance. Unfortunately, you and I sometimes look at the Christian life that way too. We relate to God as if he relates to us in a worldly way: tit for tat, going to find out who’s naughty and nice, gives as well as he gets. When you think of God this way, then you’re acting like a slave. You’re still acting like a slave. It’s like a child who’s got no legal rights and is no different than a slave. But that’s not who you and I are. That’s your former existence under the law. “You are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:7 ESV). It’s all already yours. Your gracious Father in heaven has forgiven all your sins. Although you were a child of wrath, he’s made you his son or daughter. In the state of California, parents who adopt must include their adopted in their will. God the Father has adopted you. He didn’t bring you into his house as a foster child and lock up the cabinet. He clothed you with his best clothe, set you next to his perfect Son Jesus, gives you a place in his house. The blessing that he promised through Abraham is already yours in Jesus Christ. You are his dear child, his dear son or daughter.

And that brings us back to the Gospel lesson, to the man who was imprisoned and held in slavery by a gang of demons who wanted nothing more than to torture and torment him. Jesus freed him. He cast the demons out of the man, commanded them to leave, and he set the man free. Jesus had permitted the demons to enter the herd of pigs nearby—when the pigs ran like lemmings off the cliff into the Sea of Galilee and drowned, the herdsmen went back to town, and the townspeople “came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind” (Luke 8:35 ESV). Did Jesus set the man free because the man had done something good? No! Did Jesus set the man free in exchange for some job the man had done? No! Jesus set the man free because the man could not set himself free. That’s how it is with you and me. You could not make yourself a child of God, so God adopted you. You cannot forgive yourself from God’s stead and climb into heaven on your own, but God gives you forgiveness and heaven through Jesus Christ. How did this new child of God live? He “went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him” (Luke 8:39 ESV). As children of God, set free from sin and claimed for an eternal inheritance in heaven, you and I have the same joy and privilege. We don’t have to slink around hoping that God will not see if we accidentally sin. Instead we take our sins and confess them to Jesus, and out of love, he forgives them. We don’t sneak around and let the words of our gracious Father go in one ear and out the other; we joyfully come to hear his word proclaimed in church, because that’s the word that reminds you that you were once a slave and you are now a dear son. You don’t keep it a secret. Why did the man who had been possessed by demons go out and tell everyone he had been set free? Because it was a wonderful thing. And so as children of God you and I also proclaim to one another and to the people around us that we have been set free, and my dear brothers and sisters, when we proclaim that, it breaks the chains that hold them. It gives them adoption as God’s dear sons and daughters. That is why our mission statement says, “Our mission is to hear and share the good news of the risen Jesus.” It’s in hearing the good news that we are reminded that we are not slaves who have to earn our way into heaven, and in sharing the good news we help others know they are not slaves who have to earn their way into heaven.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you are no longer slaves. God doesn’t deal with you with tit for tat, looking to see who’s naughty and nice so he can put coal in the stockings of the bad kids and candy in the stockings of the good kids. That’s not how it works. He has made you his son, his daughter, and he now forgives you for all your sins, and he gives you his Spirit to call on him. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.