Full-Grown Children in Christ

"26For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3: 26)

When we read "children" in this verse, we need to understand that Paul is not referring to toddlers, but full grown sons.

Paul writes to the Ephesians:

"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will" (Ephesians 1: 5)

Paul then writes to the Galatians:

"6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." (Galatians 4: 6-7)

Now, Paul explains to them that the Law brings men back to an infantile stage:

"8Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. 9But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." (Galatians 4: 8-10)

"Weak and beggarly" describes the Law, and the word "elements" suggests ABCs or the building blocks, like the toys which little children play with.

What does Paul write about toys:

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (1 Corinthians 13: 11)

In Chapter 13 of First Corinthians, Paul is talking about God's love for us, not our love for God, since we have no love to give of ourselves.

We are full-grown sons in Christ, sons of God because of His great love for us (1 John 3: 1)

No longer under law but under grace, we allow Him to lead us from within:

"10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

 

11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

 

12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

Full-grown children do not need rules on the outside, because they are ruled from within by God's Holy Spirit.