Freedom to Grow
Freedom: Part 4
July 26, 2026
Because you are sons and daughters, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son or daughter, and if you are his child, then you are also an heir through God.
~ Galatians 4:6-7
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In Galatians 4, Paul makes a radical theological move that is often misunderstood. He boldly declares that God sent the Spirit into the hearts of Gentiles so they too may cry “Abba, Father” and know themselves as children of God.
The tragedy is that Christians have sometimes used these words to claim their own status over and against the Jews, identifying themselves as the “new Israel.” It is no wonder some Christians today worry about being culturally replaced by other growing religious and ethnic groups. Instead of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us, we worry that others may do to us what we have done to others.
But Paul wasn’t talking about replacement. His claim is even more radical. He was not saying that Gentiles replaced the Jews as God’s children. He was saying that neither Jews nor Gentiles have a “biological” or exclusive claim on God’s household. Both are adopted into the same family by grace.
In 1797, Isabella Baumfree was born into slavery in New York. At nine years old, she was sold for the same price as a flock of sheep and taught that she “belonged” to a human family, not as a child, but as property. When her enslaver broke his promise of freedom, she walked away. When her son Peter was illegally sold to Alabama, she became the first black woman to win a lawsuit against a white man.
In 1843, she felt called by God to travel and proclaim the freedom of the Gospel. She took the name Sojourner Truth, a traveler who deeply understood the truth of who she was. She spent her life advocating for abolition and women’s rights because she understood Paul’s radical claim that whether slave or free, woman or man, every person ultimately belongs to God alone. Her identity in Christ was truer than what the law or the custom said about her.
Later in the chapter, Paul wonders why this message has made him an enemy of the people who once welcomed him. There is always a cost when we include “the wrong people.” Many of God’s beloved children still struggle for the recognition of their spiritual inheritance.
As followers of Christ, none of us can claim a greater birthright than anyone else. We are all adopted. We are all heirs. And we all belong.
Practice: This week, say it out loud.
Find one moment to tell someone, a family member, a friend, even a stranger, that they belong. Not that they are welcome if they meet certain conditions. Just that they belong, full stop. Notice what it costs you to say it and what it gives them to hear it.
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