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While we started off as slaves, we have become actual heirs through Christ’s sacrifice. Verse 7 puts it very simply, So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. According to the notes in my Bible, under Roman law, an adopted child was guaranteed all legal rights to his Father’s property, even if he was a former slave, he was equal to the other sons. By being adopted by God through His son we are full heirs.
So here’s random thought about stuff I’ve been thinking about lately that ties into Paul’s teaching.
The church today (and throughout history) really enjoys going around telling an unbelieving world how they should act. How their morals suck and should be in line with ours. But what a tragedy! Not only does it preach a false gospel, but it does exactly the opposite of what the apostles did.
When Paul, Peter, John, Silas…all those guys went out to talk to folks, they considered their audience. When speaking with unbelievers, they brought them the gospel, the good news of being set free. They didn’t tell them all the bad stuff they were doing. They simply told them about Jesus, because that was the point of Jesus. You can’t save yourself from your crap. The only time we see Paul talking about moral behavior or giving guidance on how to live is when he is speaking to believers in the churches. He was speaking to people who were already living in a paradigm of an understanding of Jesus, who are living within the context of a relationship with him. The things Paul taught made sense to them. But he knew that stuff wouldn’t make sense, nor was it even appropriate to tell unbelievers, because they would just look at you the way they look at the church now. There’s no way for unbelievers to understand a believer’s behavior without Jesus, because it’s impossible without him. Again, that’s the whole point of the gospel. It’s putting the cart before the horse. Behavior changes as Jesus changes our hearts. When Paul talked to the Corinthian philosophers, he didn’t tell them what they were doing was wrong (the whole “unnamed god” thing). He introduced them to Jesus. It was only to the church in Corinth that he instructed them on moral behavior….but a moral behavior as a result of their understanding that they had been set free by Jesus…that they didn’t need to seek their justification or acceptance by society by partaking in activities that were destructive physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Just some thoughts.
“Those heretical teachers go to great lengths to flatter you, but their motives are rotten. They want to shut you out of the free world of God’s grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important.” – This verse explains the phenomenon throughout the church’s history. They were already inundated with this from the beginning.