FOMO or FOBO
To be free is to be a child of God

Recap and orientation

“Foolish Galatians” (Ga 3:1)

Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? (Ga 3:6)

…  all who rely on works of the law are under a curse (Ga 3:10)

we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (Ga 3:14)

…  in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith (Ga 3:26)

…. you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise (Ga 3:29)

Recap and orientation

 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Ga 4:7)

…  you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, 

how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? (Ga 4:9)

Recap and orientation

Gal 4:18-20
¹⁸ It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, ¹⁹ my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! ²⁰ I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

Know you are children of promise (v21-23)

²¹ Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. ²³ But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

Two sons

Hebrews 11:11

11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

John 8:33

“We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 

John 8:37

I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

John 8:39-40

If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.

Matthew. 3:9

‘do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham’

Trust in God’s promises (v24-27)

24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,

       “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;

break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!

       For the children of the desolate one will be more

than those of the one who has a husband.”

Exodus

Left Egypt -> Passed through water -> 40 years in the wilderness -> Failed to overcome temptations

Matthew

Left Egypt -> Passed through water of baptism -> 40 days and 40 nights in wilderness -> Overcome temptations from the devil

Expect persecution and stand firm (v28-31, 5:1)

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹ But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. ³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” ³¹ So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

In Gen 21:8-9

And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”

Summary

Know you are children of promise

Trust in God’s promises

Expect persecution and stand firm

Galatians 5:1

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

2 Corinthians 6:9–10

 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.