Message Highlights

• Paul uses three vivid pictures—a child-heir, an adopted son, and a slave to false gods—to show that the Law was never meant to be permanent. It was a guardian for a season, not a destination.
• In Christ, believers have moved from restriction to full sonship. They’re not servants trying to earn favor—they’re heirs who already have it.
• Returning to law-keeping as a means of approval is a step backward. Legalism robs us of the freedom, security, and joy that Christ has already secured for us.

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Conversation Starter

Think of something you’ve gone back to—a habit, a diet, a routine—knowing it didn’t really work before. What made it feel appealing again?

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Core Discussion Questions

Connection Question What stood out to you from today’s message about the difference between living as an heir versus living like a slave?

Context Question Before today, how did you understand the role of the Law in the Old Testament? Did you see it as something negative, something necessary, or something else?

Clarity Question How did today’s message clarify or change the way you think about the relationship between grace and obedience? Is there a tension you’re still working through?

Application Question Anthony identified three ways we can drift back into performance-based faith—confusing growth with performance, living like a slave when God has called us sons, and returning to things that never gave us life. Which of those hit closest to home for you this week, and what would it look like to live differently?

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Additional Questions (if time allows)

• Paul says the Spirit in us cries out “Abba, Father.” What does it tell you about your relationship with God that the Spirit uses that word—not “Lord” or “Master,” but Father?
• Anthony made the point: “Grace will produce works out of you, but you cannot add your works to grace.” What’s the practical difference between those two things in everyday life?
• Do you tend to approach God more like a Father you trust, or a boss you’re trying to keep satisfied? What shapes that in you?

Exploring the Scripture

Main Scripture: Galatians 4:1–11 (CSB)

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Background and Context

Paul wrote Galatians to a group of churches he had planted in the region of Galatia (modern-day Turkey). After Paul left, false teachers—often called “Judaizers”—came in and began insisting that faith in Christ wasn’t enough. To be truly right with God, they argued, Gentile believers also needed to keep the Jewish Law, including circumcision and the observance of special calendar days.

Paul’s response wasn’t gentle correction—it was an alarm. He called it a “different gospel” (Galatians 1:6–7) and said the stakes were high enough to warrant strong language. The entire letter is a defense of grace: the idea that a person is made right with God through faith in Christ alone, not faith plus anything else.

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Where Galatians 4:1–11 Fits

By the time we reach chapter 4, Paul has already argued from his own conversion story (chapters 1–2) and from Scripture itself (chapter 3) that grace, not the Law, has always been God’s design for salvation. Now he uses three metaphors to illustrate what life under the Law actually looked like—and why it was only ever meant to be temporary.

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A Son That Is An Heir

The first metaphor draws on Roman legal practice. When a father died, his minor child was the legal heir but didn’t yet control his inheritance. Until the father’s appointed time, the child lived under guardians and managers—treated, in many ways, like a servant. This wasn’t punishment; it was preparation. Paul applies this to Israel’s life under the Law: real heirs living under real restriction, waiting for the right time.

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That time came when God sent his Son. Jesus was born under the Law so he could bear the curse of the Law on behalf of those who couldn’t keep it (Galatians 3:13). By doing so, he didn’t just rescue people from condemnation—he opened the door to full adoption as sons and daughters of God.

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The Adoption Language

The “adoption as sons” in verse 5 carries significant weight in its first-century context. Roman adoption wasn’t primarily about taking in a child who had nowhere else to go. It was a legal act that conferred full inheritance rights. An adopted son had the same standing as a biological one—sometimes even more, because the adoption was deliberate and irrevocable. Paul’s readers would have understood immediately: this isn’t a provisional arrangement. It’s permanent.

The proof of that adoption, Paul says, isn’t law-keeping—it’s the Holy Spirit. The Spirit within believers enables them to relate to God as Abba—an Aramaic term of intimacy that Jesus himself used in the garden (Mark 14:36). This kind of direct, relational access to God was not available under the Law. The Law defined obligations; the Spirit establishes relationship.

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The Bondage Of A Slave

Verses 8–11 take a sharp turn. The Galatians were Gentiles who had once been enslaved to pagan religion. Now Paul is saying that returning to law-keeping—even Jewish law-keeping—would be the same kind of step backward. He calls the “elementary things of the world” weak and worthless (v. 9). They weren’t evil in themselves, but they belonged to an earlier stage that Christ had surpassed. To go back was to exchange a living relationship for a dead system.

Paul’s fear in verse 11—that he may have “labored over them in vain”—reflects genuine pastoral concern. This wasn’t just theological error. It was a practical abandonment of the freedom Christ had purchased.

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Study Questions

Verses 1–4… A Son That Is An Heir

Review the content above, “A Son That Is An Heir.”

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Hebrews 11 is nicknamed “The Hall of Faith” because it highlights the great faith of numerous Old Testament figures (including Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc.). It illustrates that righteousness has always come through faith rather than works.

• What do the verses in Hebrews 11:13-16, and 39-40 tell us about the “legal heirs” of the Old Testament who had to wait for their inheritance while living under “guardians and managers” (aka the Law)? 
• How was this inheritance revealed to them through the Old Testament prophets? Reference 1 Peter 1:10–12. 
• What does Matthew 13:16–17 teach us regarding our position today in comparison to these Old Testament believers?
  
  

In verse 3 when he speaks of being “enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.” 

• Cross reference this verse with Colossians 2:8 to help gain insight into his meaning. 
• In direct contrast, how does Colossians 2:9-15 describe the way in which Jesus brought an end to this enslavement?
• How does the warning provided in Colossians 2:20–23 directly reinforce the themes we’ve been seeing throughout our study of Galatians?

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Verse 4 points out two necessary requirements that had to be met in order for Jesus’ sacrifice to completely atone for our sins and for both the Law and the promise to reach fulfillment.

• Why was it necessary for Jesus to be “born of a woman,” or in other words, to become fully man while still being fully God (Philippians 2:5–8)? Reference Hebrews 2:14–17. 
• What does it mean that Jesus was born “under the law?” Why was it essential for Him to perfectly fulfill the Law through complete obedience in order to redeem those who were under it? Reference Hebrews 7:26–28, Hebrews 9:13-14, Hebrews 10:10–14, Romans 5:18–19, and Romans 8:3-4.

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Verses 5–7… An Adopted Son

Review the content above, “An Adopted Son.”

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The type of adoption Paul references in these verses is one in which we do not come to God bringing our talents, gifts, and abilities. We come with nothing. That’s the adoption Paul is describing—and it’s why works cannot be added to it. (Keep in mind the example Pastor Anthony provided this week comparing the adoption of his daughter, Courtney, to that of the young boy, Ghee.)

• What does it reveal about the almighty God of the universe that He describes our relationship with Him using the language of adoption rather than simply forgiveness or legal pardon (1 John 3:1-2 and 2 Corinthians 6:18)?
• What all is included in the sonship and inheritance which are granted to us as believers and followers of Jesus? Reference Ephesians 1:3-14.
  
  

The intimate relationship we now have the opportunity to have with God did not exist under the Law. The proof of our adoption is not in law-keeping or in our performance.

• Read Romans 8:14–17. How does Paul describe the Spirit’s role here? What is the connection between the Holy Spirit and our assurance of sonship?
• If a believer already possesses full sonship—secured by Jesus’ sacrifice and confirmed by the Holy Spirit—why do we often revert back to performance mode, even when we know we can never earn our own way?

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“Abba” is a term of endearment which could be translated as “daddy” or “papa.” 

• How does knowing that we can cry out to our Heavenly Father in such a way (as Jesus did while in distress in Mark 14:36) confirm the fact that we are full sons of the living God? 
• How does this provide us with comfort and confidence? 

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Verses 8–11… The Bondage Of A Slave

Review the content above, “The Bondage Of A Slave.”

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In Christ, both Jews and Gentiles have something far better: freedom instead of slavery, grace instead of restraint, and life instead of powerless religion. 

• What are the defining differences between living under the slavery of the law and possessing true freedom in Christ? Reference 2 Corinthians 3:4–11, 17-18, Romans 8:1–2, Hebrews 8:7-13, and John 8:34–36. 
• The term “freedom in Christ” is sometimes used to justify sin. Why is this a completely inaccurate use of the phrase and what does it truly look like to live as one who has true freedom in Christ? Reference Romans 6, 1 Peter 2:16, Romans 7:4-6, and James 1:25.

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Paul’s warning to the Galatians was not about returning to their own pagan past, but about adding Jewish religious observances to their faith: traditions that belonged to an earlier and inferior time. 

• Why does Paul treat this as such a serious problem? What does that say about the sufficiency of Christ?
• Where do you see modern equivalents—ways people use religious routine or spiritual performance to measure their standing with God instead of resting in Jesus’ finished work on the cross?

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The Galatians weren’t just theologically confused—they were doing what people have always done: choosing the familiar over the free. Paul was appalled that they would choose to enter back into bondage by trading sonship for slavery and grace for rules. 

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In a similar manner, after God freed the nation of Israel from Egypt, they quickly longed to go back. Freedom felt uncertain while slavery felt comfortable.

• What had the Israelites personally witnessed when they were brought out of Egypt? Reference Nehemiah 9:9-15, Psalm 78:12–16 and 43–53, and Deuteronomy 4:34-35.
• Even after witnessing and experiencing the mighty hand of God repeatedly in such miraculous ways, what did the people do? Reference Exodus 14:10-12, Exodus 16:2–3, Numbers 11:4-6, and Numbers 14:2–4.
• Like Israel, we can romanticize what once bound us. But God didn’t set us free in Christ to send us back into bondage, weakness, and slavery. What can we learn and apply from Israel’s poor example? 

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Pastor Anthony told us that “Grace will produce works out of you, but we cannot add our works to grace.” 

• Have you ever traded one type of slavery for another? How can we guard against this? 

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Living It Out

Don’t Confuse Spiritual Growth with Spiritual Performance: 

• The Spirit produces fruit, the flesh produces effort. Has your obedience become a way to earn approval instead of expressing love? If so, how can you change this? 
• Pastor Anthony said, “Anything added to Christ eventually replaces Christ.” Why is that true and how does this potentially play out in our lives? 
• There’s a real difference between legalism and obedience—but they can look almost identical from the outside. What’s the internal difference? How do you tell which one is driving your choices?

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Stop Living Like a Slave When God Has Made You a Son: 

• “An heir can live like a servant and a son can live like a slave.” Have you ever found yourself in this predicament? 
• How can we avoid allowing fear, pressure, and performance to dictate our steps instead of the Holy Spirit? 
  
  • Are you currently experiencing freedom, security, adoption, strength, and joy in Christ? Or do you feel as if you are trapped in bondage, weakness, and slavery? 
  • Is there an area of your life where you relate to God through fear, pressure, or performance rather than trust? What would it look like to approach that area differently—not with less discipline, but with a different motive?
  • Anthony challenged the room: “Do I obey God because I trust him, or because I’m afraid of what happens if I don’t?” How would you honestly answer that right now? Does fear or trust tend to drive your obedience?

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Don’t Go Back to What Never Gave You Life: 

• Rules feel controllable, grace requires trust. Have you ever thought that religion felt safer than grace? Are you more comfortable in your rules rather than just trusting God? 
• What “elementary things” do you reach for when faith feels uncertain—religion, routine, rule-keeping, people’s approval? Bring that honestly to God and ask him to reorient your heart toward what Jesus has already done.

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Prayer Focus

Galatians 4:7

So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

Take a moment to rejoice in what this means: as God's son, you're an heir of the Most High. Give thanks to God for making you His son.