No Longer a Slave, But a Child
“So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” Galatians 4:7
Have you ever had a teacher that was really scary? You know the kind of teacher who never jokes around and who isn’t afraid to call you out in front of the whole class if you make one little mistake?
I had a terrifying Latin professor my junior year of college. He had a long gray beard and always wore the same tattered corduroy sport coat with suede elbow patches. The class started out with about 20 people and by the end of the first week there were about 10 of us. Every day I walked in scared that I wouldn’t know the proper conjugation of a verb, or would stumble while reading aloud. If you didn’t do your translation for the day, he would literally yell at you and tell you to leave the class.
I think when most of us think about God, we picture someone sort of like my old Latin professor. Temperamental. Cranky. Volatile. We picture a God who is just waiting for you to mess up so he can yell at you and kick you out of class. Well, maybe we don’t picture him just like that, but we often do respond to him in that way. We tip-toe around him. We try to cover over some bad things we did, hoping he won’t notice. Essentially, we are scared of him.
I want you to imagine a scenario with me. You’ve committed a heinous crime (bear with me here)…say, you actually murdered someone. Okay, now you’re on trial and standing before the judge and he’s a bit intimidating. And you know you’re guilty and so does he. This is going to be bad. Oh, and the person you murdered was his son. Yeah. This is going to be really bad. But then the verdict comes, the gavel swings, and the judge proclaims, “Not guilty!” You stop squinting and slowing look up. The judge is smiling, and he says it again, “Not guilty.”
As you’re trying to think of a way to pay this judge back for his unbelievable mercy and grace, you hear him calling you to approach the bench. You think that he’s going to tell you that was all one big joke. But that’s not it at all. He tells you that he wants to adopt you. What? He wants you to be part of his family. Incredible. He says he doesn’t want you to ever have to be afraid again. He wants to protect you and love you and shape you into what he knows you were meant to be.
If you are Christian, then this is essentially your story. And you know what? God is not some mean teacher looking to flunk you. He already knows everything about you. He’s seen the worst there is. And he has said, “I forgive you and love you, and I want you to be my child…you are now a part of my house and I’ll never throw you out!”
You don’t have to tip-toe around God, terrified you might make him mad. The Bible says that you can boldly approach the throne of grace! Why? Because he’s your Father, and He loves you.