Ahora on Telemundo

Galatians 4:1-7

Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. 2 They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. 3 And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world.

4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

So there was this guy that lived in Brazil. His name was Amador Aguiar. He built a bank and started making money, and more money. Along the way he has a family and adopts 3 children, all of them girls. He is an older man and near the end of his life he is a Billionaire he ends up marrying his secretary, she happens to be 40 years younger then him…   seriously, everyone says that this real life story is like a Latin American soap opera…

So finally he dies.

They family is called together to have the will read because that is what they do in soap operas… and his daughters are there to learn what they have inherited and his super young wife as well. As it is read it becomes apparent that the former secretary turned very young wife is going to receive everything, all of the Billions of dollars and his 3 daughters will not receive anything! The problem is that the man’s Lawyer steps in and says that this is not the Will that he set up with the man. Amador Aguiar had drafted a will giving a lot of his money to his daughter and some to his wife, but after he went into the hospital and was dying and on medication for some reason he decided to change the will and all of his money went to the wife, oh yeah, and the wife was the only one that knew anything about this new will. Straight up soap opera!

So the daughters, who have been daughters to this man have now been cut out of the will for the secretary that convinced a dying man 40 years older then she is, to marry her, and then rewrite his own will and give her everything… she is getting all the money. The daughters naturally argue this and take it to court and the courts want to give some money to the daughters…  so the young wife fights back saying that they are not really his daughters he had adopted them…    she even paid to have the man’s body exhumed (dug up) and tested for DNA just to prove that they were adopted and not really his birth children. The tests were accurate - he was not the birth father, he had simply adopted them.

When the court ruled, they ruled in favor of the girls, as they should have… because they are his daughters. You see, in Brazil the rule is that when you are adopted you really become part of that family, so what would rightfully belong to a daughter also rightfully belongs to an adopted daughter. And the girls got their Billions, to this day they are listed as some of the richest woman on earth, but there was a time when that money was theirs, but they couldn't spend a penny of it.   They were rich but they couldn't buy a cup of coffee because the money was still being controlled by someone else and they had not actually received their inheritance. The law that held up their money was so powerful that it held their money away from them. But the relationship that they had with this man, their father, that is what eventually gave them the right to have every penny of that money, the inheritance of their father.

It’s just like that with God. Just like it says in these first few verses of today’s passage that before Jesus came we were like those children, who’s money was being held up as a result of a law…  but eventually Jesus came and it is because of our relationship with Jesus that we can now lay our hands on the full inheritance.

Even though we are adopted children of God, we have access to the full inheritance and it is free to us now that we have the ability to have a relationship with Jesus. This passage is a great reminder that the law is a good thing to obey, but it does not bring freedom, the true freedom that we find in life is by having a relationship with Jesus.

Questions:

1.      Have you ever has something that was rightfully yours but had to be held up by some rule, system, or restriction like that until a certain time?

2.      How would our life with God be different if we were still “slaves” to the law?

3.      “And that’s the way it was with us before ________ came. We were like children; we were __________ to the basic spiritual principles of this world.”

4. Take a minute and journal about this passage.

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Written by Jeff