The other week I posted application questions from the section in Galatians where Paul is dealing with this question:  How can you, those who have been redeemed by Christ, who are adopted as sons and daughters, and who are full heirs of the promise, go back to slavery to the law again?  One of the possible answers that we considered was: Because I never understood how God sees me in Christ.  My view of God is slavish not sonish; lawish not gracious; marked by earning God’s love not resting in His love.  From now on, I want to find out more and more about what is true about me in the gospel and how I can live in the freedom purchased for me by the power of His Spirit within me.

In this post, I’m really not wondering if lawish (or sonish for that matter) is a word!  I’ve actually been more interested in what that looks like in our lives.  What are the lawish moments?  Do they surround us more than we even know – in our relationships, in our marriages, in our parenting?

I recently read the following in a book by Paul F.M. Zahl that was very helpful!  He gives two examples from everyday life about the reach of the law into our lives.  Enjoy!

“Maybe you write a lot of e-mails. Take this Dilbert exercise: do you ever find yourself fretting over the wording of an e-mail? You over-correct it; you make mistakes at the keyboard; you keep going back to make sure it’s right. When this happens, you can be sure that the person to whom you are writing is a figure of the law in your life. The person to whom you are writing has some kind of judging power, and it is this power that puts your e-mail under threat. I recently did an inventory of the e-mails I wrote on a particular day, and I noticed that three of them had caused me discomfort and vacillation. Each of the three was written to someone who in my mind was potentially accusatory. On the other hand, the messages that came naturally and were even on the fun side of my work, these flowed like water. In those, I was responding to grace – in the others, to law.

Consider your wardrobe. Whether you are a woman or a man, how you look is probably at least a little important. Most of the time appearance seems to matter very little to me. I wear the same old corduroys and polo shirt and loafers. In the winter I wear a blazer, and in the summer I wear a seersucker jacket. Every so often, however, I take more pains. But it is rarely love that causes this checking up. When I take pains with my clothing, it is almost always out of law. I know this because it is so uncharacteristic. I watch my lapel pins, afraid that they may signal a controversial cause. I may look too “preppy,” or maybe my tie is not acceptable – no outrageous “Jesus” ties allowed, and also none that stem from questionable organizations like a college eating club or a Protestant fraternal organization. In my case, grace is there when I am not worried about the way others will size up my appearance. Law is present when I begin to second-guess myself.”

I’m not guessing anyone is rushing to put the seersucker jackets back on, but can you relate to these examples?  Are there other ways that someone’s expectation of you, and not God’s, is affecting your life?  Write me back if you can think of others.

Eric

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.  Galatians 4:4-7

J.I. Packer is 84 years old.  He has loved and known the Lord for decades.  He is a theologian who has led evangelicalism through some of her deepest battles for truth over the last 50 years.  He is a prolific author, powerful theologian, beloved professor and  godly man.  So, when a man like this draws our attention to that which he believes is most important for us to know, we should listen and think carefully about it!   The following are his thoughts about the importance of the doctrine of adoption in the life of the Christian. These come from his chapter in Knowing God called Sons of God.  I would encourage you to read this entire chapter, and then go back to the beginning of the book and re-read this classic.  I read this book again last year and have plans to read it once a year!  Enjoy these quotes.

“What is a Christian?  The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father…Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption…The truth of our adoption gives us the deepest insights the New Testament affords into the greatness of God’s love.  Were I asked to focus the New Testament message in three words, my proposal would be – adoption through propitiation.”

“You sum up the whole of New Testament teaching in a single phrase, if you speak of it as a revelation of the Fatherhood of the holy Creator.  In the same way, you sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father.  If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father.  If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means he does not understand Christianity very well at all.  For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God.  ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God.”

“Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification….That justification‐by which we mean God’s forgiveness of the past together with his acceptance for the future‐is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel is not in question. Justification is the primary blessing, because it meets our primary spiritual need. We all stand by nature under God’s judgment; his law condemns us; guilt gnaws at us, making us restless, miserable and in our lucid moments afraid; we have no peace in ourselves because we have no peace with our Maker. So we need the forgiveness of our sins, and assurance of a restored relationship with God, more than we need anything else in the world; and this the gospel offers before it offers us anything else…But this is not to say that justification is the highest blessing of the gospel.  Adoption is higher, because of the richer relationship with God that it involves….Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship‐he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.”

J.I. Packer