Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” This is my favorite verse in the Bible. I was first impacted by it in high school and its significance only grew in my college years as my view of God shifted from someone I had to constantly please and impress, to a Father who wanted to open up to me a wide expanse.
“Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount
Galatians 4:8-9“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”Paul is writing to the Galatian churches in the area we now know as Greece. Jewish Christians
Galatians 4:6-7 “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” You can often tell the state of a relationship by the titles we use. This is particularly true when referring to our fathers. Here’s how I interpret the following monikers: “Father” – formal, distant or even strained,
Galatians 4:1-5 “I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman,
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” A mediator is someone brought in to a conflict to negotiate between two parties with the goal of healing and reconciliation. Because of sin, humanity severed it’s relationship with a holy God, and a mediator was needed to bring about
