Galatians 04 Round Two: Adopted

What if your deepest spiritual ache isn’t bad behavior but hidden orphanhood? We open Galatians 4 and discover why the gospel doesn’t just forgive; it adopts. Paul’s language is bold and tender at once: God sent His Son to buy our freedom so we could call Him Abba—Dad. That single shift turns faith from a contract into a family story, where love is the starting place and transformation flows from belonging.

We trace how this plays out in real life, from heartfelt stories of adoption to the subtle pull of legalism that lures us back into earning. Paul’s question hits home: why run to “weak and useless” principles when you’ve been named an heir? We unpack how spiritual disciplines change when you know you’re already accepted, why obedience is a response and not a requirement for love, and how shame loses power when identity is secure. The Hagar and Sarah allegory becomes a mirror: will we build with human effort or trust God’s promise? One route exhausts; the other frees.

By the end, you’ll have a clearer picture of sonship that speaks to prayer, Scripture, community, and daily resilience. Heirs don’t audition; they inherit. That truth reframes setbacks as formation, not rejection, and invites a steady confidence in God’s unfailing favor. If you’re ready to stop striving and start living from grace, this conversation will give you sturdy language, biblical insight, and real hope for your next step.

If this encouraged you, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs freedom today, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show. Then come tell us: where are you still trying to earn what’s already yours?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Adopted Into God’s Family
• 0:38 Community And Engagement Invitation
• 1:14 Stories Of Adoption And Being Chosen
• 3:32 Reading Galatians 4:1–7
• 5:00 Abba Father And Heirship Explained
• 6:29 Warning Against Legalism And Rituals
• 8:10 Paul’s Past With The Galatians
• 9:35 Allegory Of Hagar And Sarah
• 12:10 Saved By Grace, Growing In Freedom

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's word together. Well hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Galatians chapter 4, almost like Galossians. I don't know what that means. Galatians chapter 4. If I were to give this one a title, it would be Adopted. The awesome thing to know that because of the grace of God, we have been adopted into the spiritual family. And it's an awesome thing. We're going to talk about that in just a moment. But of course, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, subscribe to the YouTube channel. Make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast. And also where we all gather together is at the Facebook group, the Bible Breakdown Discussion. And I'm going to tell you something, the more we dig, the more we find. And I can't wait to hear how some of you engage with this, especially when it comes to the idea of no longer considering yourself a spiritual orphan, but knowing you have been adopted into the family of God and knowing what that means. Ephesians says we have now been called joint heirs with Christ. We are spiritual royalty because of what God has done in all of us. And I think that's an amazing thing. As you're getting your Bibles ready in Galatians chapter 4, I love talking to people who have a heart for orphans. The reason why is because I see so much of the character of God and the way they talk about the orphans in their life. Now, that doesn't mean that they're perfect, of course not, but you hear the love that they have. I talked to a guy one time and he said, you know, when I when I see this foster child that I'm in the process of adopting, I don't see a foster child. I see my child. I see someone that I have the opportunity to love. I think that's amazing. I was talking to a guy one time, and he had this opportunity to adopt this young lady, and he and his wife were so excited, and you could tell that she really kind of had warmed up to the wife, but was very intimidated and very shy around the husband. And it broke the husband's heart because he loved that little girl. And one day he realized it's because she doesn't realize what's going on here. And he finally um decided what he was going to do, and he he wrote her a letter and they had a ceremony together. And in the letter it talked about how much he loved her and how much he appreciated her, and and then they had this ceremony, and the ceremony was this this idea of her becoming his daughter. And I love the phrase he said. He said, You know, my other kids, they they didn't have a choice, they were born into my family. But you know what? You were chosen. Out of all the kids in all the world, I chose you. So never feel like you're less than, because I didn't have a choice with all them. I'm stuck with them, you know, you know, tongue in cheek, giant joke, I'm stuck with them. But everybody I could have chose, I chose you. And he said, when that started to kind of really dawn on her, he said, you could see her whole face change. And she went from thinking that she was unloved and unwanted and kind of a second class citizen in the family to almost feeling like she was first in line and say, Yes, right, I am chosen. And he said it just changed her whole dynamic. What would it look like in your life if you realize that there's no such thing as second-class citizens in the kingdom of God? You have been chosen by God, chosen to be one of his children. I think we'd never have another bad day if we realized just how truly loved we really are. So let's dive into this together. Galatians chapter 4, verse 1, and just as talk about as Paul is grappling with helping this Galatian church understand how truly loved they are by God. Let's read this together. Verse 1 says this think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not better off, not much better off than the slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father has. They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age the father has set. That's the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children. We were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world. But when the time was right, God sent his son, born of a woman, subject to the law. But God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us at his very as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, prompting us out to call out, Abba Father. Now you are no longer a slave, but God's own child. And since you are his child, God made you his heir. Now, first of all, that Abba father, that word Abba is an Arabic word, which simply means dad. So he's saying, Dad, my father. It's a term of endearment. It's in terms to say that it's not just an official term, but it's a term of knowing. It's the difference between when my girls are mad at me and they will say, Hey father, as opposed to when they were little, when they would say, Daddy, carry me. It's a term of endearment. And he's saying, so now we don't have to have just a formal relationship with the king of the universe, but we can go up to him and call him heavenly father. And he's saying, since you were now his child, you have been grafted into the promise given to Abraham. And now you are his child. You've never been more loved than you are right now. God's word continues in verse 8, and he says, Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that didn't even exist. So now that you know God, or should I say, now that God knows you, why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? Are you trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years? I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing. Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things, for I have become like you Gentiles, free from those laws. You do not you did not mistreat me when I first preached to you. Surely you remember that I was sick when I first brought the good news to you. But even though my condition tempted you to reject me, you did not despise me or turn away. No, you took me in and cared for me as though I were an angel from God, or even Christ Jesus Himself. Where is that joyful and grateful spirit you felt then? I'm sure you would have even taken out your own eyes and given them to me if it had you had deemed it possible. Have I now become your enemy because I'm telling you the truth? Those false teachers are so eager to win your favor, but their intentions are not good. They are trying to shut you off so that you will not pay attention to anything other than them. If someone is eager to do good things for you, that's all right. But let them do it all the time, not just when I'm with you. Oh my dear children, I feel as though I am going through labor pains for you again. As they um and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives. I wish I were with you right now so I could change my tone, but at this distance, I don't know how else to help you. In other words, Paul is saying, you've been freed by serving Christ. Why are you now trying to earn salvation? Why are you trying to earn God's favor? We don't live for favor, we live from a position of favor. So now when we walk towards sinlessness and we get rid of all those things in our life, it's because we have been accepted by God, not so that we can be accepted by God. Verse 21, tell me, you who want to live under the law, do you know what the law actually says? The scriptures say that Abraham had two sons. One was with his slave wife, and one was with his freeborn wife. The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God's promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God's own fulfillment of his promise. These two women serve as an illustration of God's two covenants. The first woman, Hagar, represents Mount Sinai, where the people received the law that enslaved them. Other words, the Ten Commandments. And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law. But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our spiritual mother. Isaiah said, Rejoice, O childless woman, you who have never given birth, break into joyful shout, you who have never been in labor. For the detestable woman has now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband. And as you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. But you are now being persecuted by those who want to keep the law, just like Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted, has he persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit. But what do the scriptures say about that? Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the free woman's son. So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, we are children of the free woman. So other words, what he is doing is he is talking about Abraham. Abraham was promised that he was going to have a child one day. But he and his wife Sarah couldn't have a child. And they were waiting for God's promise, but then they got impatient. And so they said, I tell you what, you've got a servant named Hagar. Let's see if she will marry me too, so that we can have a child through her. Now, should they have done that? No. It caused all kinds of problems, and the Middle East is still in a mess because of those problems. But they did it anyway. Well, as they did it anyway, they ended up having a child, but that was through their own human effort, and it wasn't blessed by God. God finally came to them later and said, I'm going to keep my promise, and I'm going to let you have a child through Sarah. And they did. But now they had two competing ideologies. And what uh Paul is saying is that's a great example of what's going on. It's both were trying to get close to God. One is trying to get it through human effort, the other is trying to get there by understanding we can't get there on our own. And he's not saying the law is bad. He's just saying the way they have idolized the law, saying that's the only way I can get to God is by being perfect. He's saying that's where they've missed it. And what can that say for us today? What that can say for us today is to realize that you have been adopted into the family of God. You can't earn salvation, but you can receive it by grace through faith. Now, what he's going to talk about in the next couple of chapters is that doesn't mean that we now have a free ticket to sin. We're talking about how you receive salvation. And then after you receive salvation, God wants to grow you toward freedom every day, but not so that you can be acceptable to him. It's because you are acceptable to him. It would be like if one of your kids came in and they had been playing outside and they were all dirty, but they came home to you at the end of the day. You didn't say, well, go clean yourself up and then come in the house. No, no. You say, come on in the house, because in the house is where the shower is. Come on in and now we'll get you cleaned up. And that's what he is saying. He's saying you don't have to get your life right. You don't have to clean yourself up and then God will receive you. God will receive you just like you are. He loves you just the way you are. He just loves you too much to let you stay that way. He wants you to find freedom in every way. But it all starts with receiving Christ. And I want to tell you right now, you've never been more loved than you are right now. God has not given up on you. God has not decided you are unreachable or whatever the enemy wants to tell you. You're only as bound as the lies you're willing to believe. Instead, believe the truth. And that is, if you're a Christ follower, you have been received into the family of God. I don't want you to spend the rest of the day thinking about that. You are now a joint heir with Christ. You are spiritual royalty, and God has a plan for your life. Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much that you are for us more than we can imagine. You're with us in all things. I pray, God, that as we walk after your goodness, you'll help us more and more every day to realize we've never been more loved than we are right now. We have been adopted into your family. We're joint heirs. We're heirs to the promise. We've been seated in heavenly places spiritually with you. And we celebrate you today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And well, don't forget, God's word says in Galatians 2, we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. Jesus wants a relationship, not a contract. And at the end of the day, it's all about Jesus. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Galatians chapter 5.