Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts …
Summary: In this passage, Paul gives us a different twist on what it means to have God’s Spirit in us.
Continue reading “Galatians 4:6a – The Spirit of His Son”Galatians 4:4b – Father and Son
… God sent his Son,
Summary: In today’s passage, we have four words that capture the essence of a mystery surrounding our God.
Continue reading “Galatians 4:4b – Father and Son”Matthew 5: 2 — Who is Jesus? Part IV
Son
… and he began to teach them.
Summary: Jesus’ role as a “son” defines him in an entirely different way from who he is as a God, Creator, and King.
Continue reading “Matthew 5: 2 — Who is Jesus? Part IV”Freedom
The past couple of days we have been talking about what it means to be a slave to sin. Jesus has made the case that anyone who sins is a slave to sin. It seems to me that the concept of being a slave to sin has a lot of ramifications. One of the most obvious ramifications of being a slave is that a person no longer has the freedom do what they think is right. A slave must do what he or she is told to do, there really is no choice.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8: 36
Continue reading “Freedom”Slave or Son?
By the time this discussion between Jesus and the Jews happens, Jesus is well known as one who speaks his mind and backs up what he says with amazing miracles. The culture at that time included a large number of slaves, people who were servants of someone. How they came to be servants or slaves varied greatly. Some were born into slavery, some were conquered peoples. Some actually came into hard times and sold themselves into slavery as a means of staying alive. Regardless of how they came to be in the service of someone else, a slave was not part of the family.
Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
John 8: 35
Prior to this Jesus says, “…everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” Well, that would have to include everyone except Jesus. While Jesus is very careful about not confronting people directly in situations like this, he clearly means that everyone on the planet is a slave to sin, and technically has no place in God’s family. Unlike the slaves, the son cannot not be part of the family.
Continue reading “Slave or Son?”