Galatians 4: What It Truly Means to Be an Heir of God Today

From the sermon preached on July 19, 2026

Galatians 4 answers a question most people carry quietly: once you belong to God, are you really secure, or are you still on probation? Paul's answer is that a believer is no longer a servant waiting to prove themselves, but an heir of God who already has full standing in the family. That shift, from waiting to belonging, is what this passage is really about.

Pastor Greg Freyer opened this sermon, titled "The State of the Heir," by pointing out that Galatians 4 sits at the halfway point of Paul's letter to the Galatian churches. For weeks, Paul had been correcting false teachers who told new believers that faith in Christ was not enough on its own. Galatians 4 is where Paul finally describes what a true heir of God actually receives once the waiting is over.

Paul begins Galatians 4 with a picture from everyday life in the ancient world. A child born to inherit his father's estate was, legally speaking, no different from a servant while he was still young (Galatians 4:1-2), living under tutors and guardians not because his father doubted him, but because he was not yet ready to carry the weight of what was coming. The heir of God, Paul says, starts in that same position.

Pastor Greg illustrated this with his own son, admitting he would never hand a four-year-old an inheritance, not out of a lack of love, but because the child could not yet handle it. Paul makes the same point in verse three: before Christ, "we were in bondage under the elements of the world." Whether under the Jewish law or under pagan superstition, everyone starts out managed rather than free.

Pastor Greg also points to the story in Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son, as a picture of what happens when an inheritance is claimed too soon. The younger son took his portion, wasted it, and ended up longing for the food given to his father's servants. It is a sobering picture of what an heir of God looks like when maturity has not caught up with position.

The sermon's honest point is that becoming an heir of God does not happen because a person finally earns it. It happens on the Father's timing, not the child's impatience. A small, honest step for today is simply naming, in your own words, what you are still waiting on God for, and asking whether you are trying to rush what only He can appoint.

Galatians 4:4-5 marks the turning point of the passage. "When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Pastor Greg pointed out that Jesus was not becoming the Son here; He was always the Son, sent at the appointed time to be born under the very law He would fulfill.

Spiritual adoption, in this passage, is not the drawn-out process modern adoption often is. It is a change in legal status the moment someone trusts Christ. Pastor Greg compared it to a redemption scene, someone stepping in at a slave market to buy a person's freedom outright, except here the purchase results in sonship rather than servitude.

Pastor Greg made this personal by describing life before and after his own children, admitting that quiet dinners out became rare. When children come into the picture those nice dinners often become few and far between, but the children are worth the loss of those dinners. Spiritual adoption works the same way; it reshapes daily life around a new relationship, not just a new label. Once someone experiences spiritual adoption, Paul says plainly, "don't go back" to trying to earn what has already been given.

The honest step here is small: stop rehearsing the old scorecard. If you grew up thinking love from God had to be earned, spiritual adoption means laying that scorecard down today, on purpose, even if it takes practice.

Galatians 4:6-7 brings the passage to its climax. "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." Pastor Greg explained that calling God Abba Father was the same intimate word a small child would use running to a parent, not a formal or distant title.

This is where law and grace stop being theological categories and become personal. Under the law, a person is managed by rules and never fully at rest, but under grace, the Spirit Himself testifies inwardly that the relationship is settled (Romans 8:15-16). Pastor Greg described walking in the door after a long week and hearing his own daughter shout "Daddy, daddy, daddy," and used that same familiarity to describe how God wants to be approached.

The law and grace contrast also shows up in security. Jesus promised His followers would never perish and that no one could pluck them from His hand (John 14:6, John 14:16); that is not a reward for good behavior under the law, but a settled promise that comes with grace. Pastor Greg was honest that this had been a hard week for him personally, and that even then, God's goodness had not moved an inch.

The step for today is simple and searching: notice which voice you are actually listening to this week, the voice that says "prove it" or the voice that says "you belong." Naming that honestly, even privately, is where change starts.

Galatians 4 uses the image of a household to explain something that would otherwise stay abstract: what changes the moment someone moves from managed child to full heir. The chapter's turning point is Galatians 4:7, where Paul states plainly that the one who was a servant is now a son, and if a son, an heir of God through Christ.

This contrast is not meant to shame anyone still working things out. It is meant to describe where the waiting ends, and where a settled relationship with God begins.

Life in Gisborne rarely slows down long enough to ask questions this deep. Between work, family, and just getting through the week, most people do not have the time or the appetite to sit with something as searching as sonship and inheritance. That kind of tiredness is real, and it is not a character flaw; it is just what a full week looks like here.

Whether you are around Mangapapa, out toward Kaiti, or anywhere else across the Tairāwhiti region, Bay Light Baptist Church gathers each Sunday at Mangapapa School Hall on Rua Street. Nobody is expected to have it figured out before showing up. It is simply a place to sit, listen, and see what a settled relationship with God actually looks like in ordinary, unhurried terms.

Galatians 4 is a picture of a Father who does not leave His children managed and waiting forever. In Christ, the waiting ends, the fear lifts, and what remains is a son or daughter fully secure, calling God Abba Father without hesitation. That is the settlement Paul describes, and it is offered the same way today.

If you would rather start with a conversation before you ever walk through a door, Pastor Greg is happy to have one; join us here.

If you want to take a next step toward Bay Light, plan your visit here.