No Longer a Slave, but a Son
September 24
No Longer a Slave, but a Son
Matthew (Tolu) Olowoyeye
Founder · The Berean
Galatians 4:7
Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
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Paul marks the great change in status that the gospel brings: "you are no longer a slave but a son." There is a world of difference between a slave and a son in the same household. A slave works for wages or out of fear, never sure of his place, always one failure away from dismissal, with no claim on the inheritance. A son belongs by birth, secure in his father's love, an heir to all that is the father's. And Paul says that in Christ we have been moved, permanently, from the one category to the other, from slave to son, with all that sonship means.
So much joyless Christianity comes from living as slaves when we have been made sons and daughters. The slave-hearted believer serves God anxiously, trying to earn a security he already has, dreading rejection, working for acceptance rather than from it. But the gospel says that status is settled: you are not a slave hoping to be accepted; you are a child, already accepted, already an heir. Everything changes when service flows from secure sonship rather than fearful slavery.
You are no longer a slave. Serve God today not to earn His love, but because you already have it as His child.
Take Into The Day
Check the spirit of your service to God today. Are you working anxiously, like a slave trying to earn acceptance? Shift it: you are a son or daughter, already accepted. Serve today from that love, not for it.
Prayer
Father, in Christ I am no longer a slave but Your child, and an heir. Forgive me for serving You anxiously, as though I had to earn what You have already given. Let me serve today from the security of being Your beloved son, not for acceptance, but from it. Amen.
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