Heirs At Last | Sermon | The Grove Church, Port St. Lucie

Why Christ Is Your Only Long-Awaited Hope

Christian Freedom: Galatians, Week 10 | All sermons

"Christ the Son made us heirs."

Summary

In this message on Galatians 3:23-29, David Hancock, pastor of The Grove Church in Port St. Lucie, Florida, explains why God withheld the promised inheritance for so long and what changed when Christ came. Paul compares the law to a guardian set over an heir who has not yet come of age: the son owns everything and can touch none of it. When Christ arrived, the guardian's job ended. Everyone who belongs to Christ is justified, freed from the guardian, adopted as a royal son or daughter, united to Christ, robed in Him, and made an heir of everything God promised Abraham.

Key Takeaways

Christ justified us by claiming our sin as His own and crediting His perfect life to us.
He freed us from the guardian by giving us the Holy Spirit, so that following God becomes something we want rather than something we are forced into.
He made us royal sons and daughters who can run into God's presence at any moment, with no middleman.
He gathered a family where there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female, all one in Christ Jesus.

Read Galatians 3:23-29 (ESV)

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

Talk about it

1. Think of something you had to wait to come of age for: a driver's license, a bank account, the freedom to set your own curfew. What did the waiting feel like? What changed in you the day the restriction finally lifted?

The Ache and the Guardian: Why Does Life Feel Like It Was Not Supposed to Be This Way?

The sermon opened with something that unites believers and skeptics alike: a longing for more, an ache that insists this is not how things are supposed to be. There is no proof life should be different, yet everyone eventually says it should, and Scripture explains why. God promised Abraham a land, a people, and a blessing: Eden restored, the nations gathered as one family, and the very presence of God Himself. That one promise is the deepest, most desperate desire of every human heart, and sin cost us all three. Then the law came, and verse 23 says it imprisoned everything under sin, while verse 24 personifies it as a guardian set over an heir who had not yet come of age. The son was free, but not yet free. The inheritance was his, but not yet.

Talk about it

2. The sermon said the ache that life is not right is itself a clue: a memory of Eden, a home you have never been to but somehow remember. Where does that ache show up most in your life right now? Do you usually treat it as evidence that points to God, or just as pessimism to be managed?

3. The Bible gives an unpopular answer for why we lost paradise: sin, a bending of God's creation into something it was never meant to be. When things in your life are not as they should be, who gets blamed first: God, other people, or sin? What would honestly change if you took the Bible's answer seriously?

The Brother Comes Home: What Changed When Christ Came?

Verses 24 and 25 say the guardian's job lasted until Christ came; when He arrived, it was the older brother finally coming home. The sermon traced the steps Christ took to release the inheritance. He justified us, claiming our sin as His own and crediting His perfect life to us. He freed us from the guardian by giving us the Holy Spirit as our internal compass, so that following God becomes something we want rather than something we are forced into. He made us royal sons and daughters who can run into God's presence at any moment. He baptized us into Himself, so that because He died we have already died, and because He lives we already live. He robed us in Christ, the public sign that the inheritance is ours. And He gathered a family where there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female, all one in Christ Jesus. Together we stand as royal heirs.

THE SERMON'S ILLUSTRATION Before a license comes a learner's permit: mom in the passenger seat, a driving instructor with his own wheel and his own brakes. You are technically driving and not remotely free. That is what God's people felt like before Christ, but far worse. Now, the sermon said, you have a license to drive to God. No permit, no chaperone; just get in the car and go to Him.

Talk about it

4. The sermon kept returning to a refrain: Buddha, Gandhi, or Muhammad never claimed to be the Son of God, never claimed to live a perfect life and credit it to you, never claimed to give you the Spirit, and never rose from the grave, but Christ did. Which of those claims is hardest for you to take at face value? Have you ever wrestled with it out loud, or has it stayed hidden in a dark corner of your mind?

5. Justified, freed, adopted, united, robed, made an heir. Which of these do you live as though it were not actually true of you? What would this week look like if you acted on it being true?

Leave the Law Behind: Why Can Keeping the Law Never Get You In?

The choice before every listener is this: leave the prison and the guardian behind and step into the inheritance now, or keep treating the law as the way in. Every other path says keep the law and receive: Buddha says keep it and reach nirvana, Gandhi says keep it and achieve peace, Muhammad says keep it and submit and the promise will come. Christianity says you cannot; the law has already imprisoned you. But your older brother the King has come, and He died so the promise could be yours. The sermon pressed it into daily life: when you question how God feels about you after last night, when sorrow or fear imprisons you, when you wonder if you are allowed to draw near to God, when you face suffering or even death, and when you feel alone, in Christ each of those voices is answered.

WE BECOME LIKE WHAT WE MAKE SACRED We become like what we make sacred. Make the law sacred as your way in, and you never rise from the grave to inherit the promise. Instead make sacred the only One who rose; He put Himself under the law you failed to keep and died in your place so you can rise into His place.

Talk about it

6. The sermon was direct: make the law sacred and you never inherit the promise. What have you functionally made sacred lately: your performance, your reputation, your record of doing things right? How can the people around you tell?

7. The sermon named five moments: questioning how God feels about you, being imprisoned by sorrow or fear, wondering if you may draw near, facing suffering or death, and feeling alone. Which one is your moment right now? What would it mean this week to answer it as an heir instead of trying harder as a prisoner?

The Heart of It: What Did It Cost Christ to Make You an Heir?

Verses 23 and 25 hold a curious phrase: before faith came, and now that faith has come. Faith sounds personified, and it is; faith here is not first our believing but the event to believe in, the coming of Christ. And His coming cost Him everything. He had to reverse what sin did, and that is exactly what He did. He lost everything and rose to claim it back, so that everyone who puts faith in Him is swept up into Him and brought into all that is His: the love, joy, and peace of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The long-awaited promise has come true, and there is more still coming, because the Prince who became King will return, and everything sad will come untrue.

THE GREAT REVERSAL He was condemned so we could be justified. He was imprisoned to sin so we could be free. He became an orphan on the cross so we could be sons and daughters. He was baptized into death so we could be baptized into life. He was clothed as a slave so we could be clothed as royal heirs.

Talk about it

8. If you are skeptical, the sermon asked one thing of you: wrestle with this, because Christ's claims are unlike any other religion's, and if you are going to reject Him, at least know what you are rejecting. Where are you still wrestling? Who could you say that doubt out loud to this week? If you are a Christian, who can you pray for who is wrestling with belief in Christ?

9. Everything in this passage is received, not achieved. Christ did not wait for you to come of age on your own; He came to get you, at the cost of His life. When you go to God this week, will you come as a defendant making a case or as an heir coming home? What does it do to you to know the King is also your older brother?

Questions This Sermon Answers

What does "guardian" mean in Galatians 3:24?

In Paul's Greco-Roman world a guardian was not a kindly babysitter but a trusted slave assigned to watch, supervise, and even discipline the young heir of a wealthy family. The boy owned everything and could touch none of it until he came of age; then the guardian's position dissolved and the son stepped into his inheritance.

What does "before faith came" mean in Galatians 3:23?

Faith is personified here. It refers not first to our believing but to the event to be believed in, the coming of Christ. Before Christ arrived, God's people were held under the law; now that He has come, the guardian's role has ended and the inheritance is released to everyone who belongs to Him.

What is the inheritance God promised Abraham?

Three things: a land, a people, and a blessing. The land is Eden restored, the paradise we still somehow remember. The people are the nations gathered back together as one family without envy or strife. The blessing is the presence of God Himself. Sin cost us all three, and Christ restores all three.

Vision for the Christian Life

For the church to become a house of royal sons and daughters on the Treasure Coast: people who run to the Father without a middleman, wear their robes into a world that is not yet what it should be, and through the Spirit bring some Eden into every place they walk.

Discussion Questions for Small Groups: Galatians 3

Think of something you had to wait to come of age for: a driver's license, a bank account, the freedom to set your own curfew. What did the waiting feel like? What changed in you the day the restriction finally lifted?
The sermon said the ache that life is not right is itself a clue: a memory of Eden, a home you have never been to but somehow remember. Where does that ache show up most in your life right now? Do you usually treat it as evidence that points to God, or just as pessimism to be managed?
The Bible gives an unpopular answer for why we lost paradise: sin, a bending of God's creation into something it was never meant to be. When things in your life are not as they should be, who gets blamed first: God, other people, or sin? What would honestly change if you took the Bible's answer seriously?
The sermon kept returning to a refrain: Buddha, Gandhi, or Muhammad never claimed to be the Son of God, never claimed to live a perfect life and credit it to you, never claimed to give you the Spirit, and never rose from the grave, but Christ did. Which of those claims is hardest for you to take at face value? Have you ever wrestled with it out loud, or has it stayed hidden in a dark corner of your mind?
Justified, freed, adopted, united, robed, made an heir. Which of these do you live as though it were not actually true of you? What would this week look like if you acted on it being true?
The sermon was direct: make the law sacred and you never inherit the promise. What have you functionally made sacred lately: your performance, your reputation, your record of doing things right? How can the people around you tell?
The sermon named five moments: questioning how God feels about you, being imprisoned by sorrow or fear, wondering if you may draw near, facing suffering or death, and feeling alone. Which one is your moment right now? What would it mean this week to answer it as an heir instead of trying harder as a prisoner?
If you are skeptical, the sermon asked one thing of you: wrestle with this, because Christ's claims are unlike any other religion's, and if you are going to reject Him, at least know what you are rejecting. Where are you still wrestling? Who could you say that doubt out loud to this week? If you are a Christian, who can you pray for who is wrestling with belief in Christ?
Everything in this passage is received, not achieved. Christ did not wait for you to come of age on your own; He came to get you, at the cost of His life. When you go to God this week, will you come as a defendant making a case or as an heir coming home? What does it do to you to know the King is also your older brother?

Related Messages in This Series

Watch or listen anywhere: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | SoundCloud

Pastor David Hancock is the Lead Pastor of The Grove Church in Port St. Lucie, FL, a church where believers and skeptics wrestle honestly with faith and doubt.

Wrestling with a question this raised? You can text in your question on any Sunday and hear it answered after the sermon. Or come sit with people asking the same things. Plan Your Visit

Read the full sermon manuscript

Imagine your father is wealthy beyond limits. He has a castle, a giant estate, the surrounding neighbors are amazing, but he and your older brother are far away, on an important, dangerous, and secret adventure to help the world, and you are too young to go. So he put a guardian in place to raise you. But your identity must remain a secret. Under the guardian you can't live in the castle, you don't have access to the bank account, and can't be known by great neighbors. You must wait until you become of age and more importantly your older brother returns. That, in a way, is like the biblical story leading up to Christ, and shows how there is a great inheritance that can't be received until Jesus 1st comes into the world.

We are in our series called Christian Freedom in Paul's letter to the Galatians. And today we see why the promised inheritance was withheld for so long from God's people. And why today, you have access to what God's people didn't have access to for thousands of years. We live in a great time, and my goal is that today you would leave here delighted in the time that you live, and enjoy the inheritance you can now live into.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

Before we started the Grove, when I was going to other churches to fund raise, I would tell the leaders of these churches that our dream is be a place where believers and skeptics have authentic community and honest conversations about faith and doubt. They would almost always ask, aren't you worried that if you have skeptics who doubt, it will cause Christians to question their faith?

I said, no, I've found the opposite is true. If you can create an environment where expressing your doubts is celebrated, it means Christians can finally take all the doubts they have kept hidden in a dark corner of their mind and heart, and talk about them, and it's then they stop being stagnant and come out with stronger faith.

And over the years of wrestling with faith and doubt, I've found something that unites all of humanity, believer and skeptic alike, no matter your religious or nonreligious background. What is it?

Longing for more. An ache and deep awareness this is not how things are supposed to be.

From physical suffering, to a child's sickness, to injustice on the other side of the world. Even natural disasters, failed marriages, or emotional pain from war.

Everyone eventually says that it shouldn't be this way.

How do we know that? There really isn't proof life should be different, yet we insist on it. Why? The answer is in our verses.

The word Promise has been occupying our attention the few weeks now. Three words describe this promise God has made to us: A land, people, and blessing.

This one promise is the deepest most desperate desire of your heart.

And we don't have it so something in us aches and cries out, life is not right.

We need our land, people, and the blessing back.

The land is Eden. There is something in you that still remembers paradise. Your home you have never been to, but you somehow remember. The proof you know it's there, is that you insist something is wrong here. There is no reason you should think that, life has always been like this, unless there was an Eden where it wasn't. This land of delight where everything was good.

What happen to it? How did we lose paradise. The bible gives an unpopular answer. Sin. The bible keeps insisting that sin is why you ache and cry out this isn't right.

The suffering isn't because of God, it's because of sin.

Sin is a bending of God's creation into something it isn't meant to be.

Sin also means we lost our people. Friendship lost, families divided, heartbreak, relational pain; this is all the product of sin. The more sin grows the more divided we become.

And last sin means we lost the blessing. What's the blessing? It's the very presence of God. God is love, joy, peace, and strength. To lose God is to lose the happiness and flourishing we are made for. And to lose God is to lose being known and loved by the only one who makes you know everything is going to be okay.

Yet God made a promise to Abraham to restore the lost land, people, and blessing.

God said to Abraham, Go to the land I will show you. The readers immediately think of Eden.

Then God says, I will make you the father of many nations. That's the people united back together without envy, jealousy, or strife. Unity and flourishing among every nation.

And God says through you, Abraham, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

So the picture is of a world where everything is as it's supposed to be, and together we have laughter, joy, and love. Fellowship at the table of all nations.

And God Himself sits with us at the table.

This picture is the deepest, most desperate desire of your heart.

And God promised to Abraham He would restore it, even if it costs God His very life.

The Promise has been guaranteed.

But 430 years after the promise, the law was given. The famous 10 commandments. A beautiful law written in stone by the very finger of God. The surrounding nations looked in awe at the beauty and wisdom of the law.

But the law, this path to human flourishing, caused a big problem. Two problems.

1st verse 23 tells us it imprisoned us. Why? It revealed sin and sin, and therefore the law imprisoned us and everything under sin. This eternal prison keeps us from the promise. The promised inheritance is just outside of the prison, out of our reach, forever.

2nd problem is that the law is personified as a guardian. What is a guardian? Not what you think.

In the Greco Roman world, the culture Paul was writing into, a guardian was a slave. A very specific kind of slave. A trusted slave assigned to watch, supervise, and even discipline the boy of a wealthy family.

The boy was an heir to all that belonged to his father, but wasn't yet free to use it how he wanted. He had no access to his inheritance or freedom; he was under the guardian's control. The son is free but not yet free. The inheritance is his, but not yet.

He must come of age, and when he does, the guardian's position dissolves, and the boy steps into his inheritance.

So we have two pictures of the law. One is negative, and one is neutral.

How do the two relate?

Think of the relationship of the law as a prison and guardian like this:

When I was young, my mother drove me everywhere. I was at the mercy of where she wanted to go. On the way to school, there a curb she hit a least once a week, and I always said, Mom, stop hitting that curb. Be quiet David. I was ready to drive myself. I wouldn't hit the curb, and then I could go wherever I wanted. I'd be free. That's the prison.

But finally, the day came, and I got my learner's permit. But I wasn't free. I had to ask my mom to come with me if I was going to drive anywhere. On the way to school, my mom now sat in the passenger seat, and I now hit that same curb I thought I never would. I still do to this day sometimes.

Worse, when I went to driver's ed, in the car, the teacher in the passenger seat, had a wheel and even brakes. If I went too fast, he hit the brakes; if I didn't turn the way he wanted, his wheel would take control. It was so annoying. I wasn't free at all.

I was still 15.

That is what God's people felt like before Christ, but far worse.

Or take the boy in our story, who has great wealth, but couldn't touch or enjoy any of it. The great neighbors, the bank account, the castle, it was his but not.

Why? He is still under his guardian, but when he comes of age, and his big brother comes home, then it all becomes his to enjoy.

That is the world before Christ.

Verse 24 tells us that when Christ came, it was like the big brother coming Home. Paul insists that none of the promises can be inherited until Christ comes.

Why does Christianity have to keep insisting on Christ being the only way into the life that all of humanity longs for? Why not Buddha, why not Gandhi, why not Muhammad, why not Zeus, or any of the Greek gods popular in Paul's day? And why can't it just be that God looks down at us and sees us trying hard and forgives us for trying hard?

Because of the law. The law imprisoned all of us and kept us from the promise of land, people, and blessing. We needed the Son of God himself to come to keep the promise He made to Abraham by doing whatever it takes to set us free, even if it cost the Son of God His life, and it did. The Son of God died to set us free.

The title Son of God isn't a title people placed on Jesus to make him into something he wasn't. He claimed to be the Son of God the long awaited brother who would come to release us and release the inheritance. He claimed to be this.

Buddha, Gandhi, or Muhammad never claimed to come from Heaven and be the Son of God equal to the Father, but Jesus did.

Let's follow the journey Jesus took to release us from the prison and release the inheritance.

The 1st step is in v. 24: He came that we might be justified by faith.

What's that mean? To be justified means to be made right with God. It means that all the sin that is keeping us from the promise no longer can. How is that possible? How is it that the very thing that caused us to lose the land, people, and blessing no longer has the power to keep us from it? Because Christ came into the prison of sin, he claimed our sin as His own, took responsibility for all we did, and then took His perfect life, yes, perfect, Christianity insists he lived a perfect life, and he credited that perfect life to us.

Buddha, Gandhi, or Muhammad never claimed to be perfect and take your sin and give you perfection, but Christ did.

None of your efforts can claim to achieve perfection, but Christ gave it to you by faith.

2nd Step is to free us from the guardian. But come on, are we really mature enough to be so free? I don't know about you, but I'm really good at making a mess of my life. I'm really good at hitting curbs.

Is it wise for God to release us from the guardian? Probably not, but God has a plan. Over the last few weeks, we have discovered the promised inheritance is the Holy Spirit given to us to dwell in us. We have come of age and God gave us the Holy Spirit to be our internal moral compass, teaching us how to live and empowering us to do it.

The Spirit gives you the conviction of what is right and the strength to do what is right. That means following the ways of God has become more instinctual.

You are no longer forced to love others; you want to because the love of God is in you.

Buddha, Gandhi, or Muhammad never claimed to be the one who gave you the Spirit to live within you, but Christ did.

And the Spirit can't be earned by being good. The Spirit is your power and path to live into the good ways of God. You must rely fully on Christ.

His third step is to make us into sons. Vs. 26 says in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God, through faith. Here is where the guardian imagery breaks down a little. Sin exiled us, we were no longer sons. Yes, all of humanity is the children of God, but we lost our sonship and became orphans. But Christ came to restore us to sons, but not just any sons, royal sons and daughters.

We are children of the King, because Christ the Prince came to get us back.

That means you can go running into the presence of God at any moment of any time. You don't need a priest to pray for you, you are sons and daughters of the living God.

You have a license to drive to Him. No learner's permit, just go get in the car and drive up to God.

Buddha, Gandhi, or Muhammad never claimed to be the son of God who was orphaned to restore your sonship, but Christ did.

None of the good things you have done in your life will turn you into a son, it's all by faith in your big brother, the Son of God who came to get you and let you sit beside Him as an adopted son or daughter of God.

4th step is breathtaking. Vs. 27 says we were baptized into Christ. This is unity. Some of the most common phrases in the NT is in Christ, with Christ, and through Christ. We have been brought into the very life of God. The son's relationship with the Father becomes yours. And even more. This unity means all that He did you have already done. Because He died, we have already died. Because He lived, we already live. Eternity has already started for the Christian. We stand as something eternal in a dying world. A beacon of hope.

Buddha is still in His grave, Gandhi never came out, and Muhammad is in the earth, but Christ lives, and because He lives, we live.

5th step is we put on Christ. This is the ceremonial robe that the Greco-Roman world would recognize as the sign and seal that a son was coming into his inheritance. We are now robed in Christ as a sign that we are royal sons. A public sign of the promise is ours for the world to see. All that is Christ's is ours.

And the 6th step, we look around at our growing family who, with us, wear the robe. That's vs. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, slave or free; all of us, not just free sons like in the Greco-Roman culture, but all who call on the name of Christ are robed.

Now, 7th step, we stand as heirs according to the promise.

The long-awaited promise has finally come true. The land, people, and blessings are inherited and restored.

It's love, rest, peace, and eternal, never-ending joy that starts making its way into you and our world now.

Is there more to come? Yes. That's why we all still ache.

There is one last thing Christ must do. Our older brother, the prince who becomes King, must return. And when He does, there will be no more crying, pain, or death. Everything sad will come untrue, and we will fully run into the promise of the land, people, and blessing. God will be with us as our God, and we will know pure joy.

You have all been called into this. You can leave the prison and guardian behind and become free sons in royal robes with a heavenly inheritance now. But you must leave the law behind. What do I mean? How do you do that?

Buddha says keep the law and achieve nirvana, Gandhi, keep the law and achieve peace on earth, Muhammad, keep the law, submit to god and you will get the promise.

Christianity says, You can't; the law has already imprisoned you.

But your older brother the King has come, to die so the promise can be yours.

Put your faith in Him not what you do.

Let me say it this way, we become like what we make sacred. Buddha, Gandhi, and Muhammad all made following the law sacred, as the way in. Make the law sacred and you never rise from the grave and inherit the promise.

Instead make sacred the only one who rose from the grave. He put Himself under the law that you failed to keep and died in your place so you can rise into His place.

I know this is confrontational, but there is too much at stake to remain quiet about this. The deepest, most desperate desire of your heart for the land of delight, the people who become your family, and the blessing of the joy, peace, and love of God is all available in Christ and Christ alone.

Wrestle with this. It's worth wrestling through. His claims are so different than any other religion. If you are going to reject Christ, at least know what you are rejecting.

But beyond wrestling with the claims, there is the emotional side of faith in Christ.

When you question how God feels about you, in Christ who justified you, you can trust that no matter what you did last night, God loves you.

When the world imprisons you in sorrow, despair, and fear, in Christ, you are free from those prisons and He gives you His Spirit to lead you into joy, hope, and peace.

When you question if you are allowed to draw near to God, in Christ, you can be royal sons of God who can ask God for anything. If He doesn't give it to you, remember, he isn't just a gracious King; He is a wise Father, so if he withholds something from his children, it's out of love.

When you face suffering or even death, turn to Christ and remember you are united to Christ. No matter the difficulties you face, because He has faced it all, even death, and gone through, He will bring you through with Him.

And when you feel alone, don't forget, we are united together. You have an army of people who have your back, heirs according to promise, brothers and sisters in Christ.

Something interesting is found in vs. 23 and 25. It says before faith came and now that faith has come. Faith sounds personified. What's going on there? It's talking about the event of Christ. Faith here isn't about your belief but the event to believe in. The coming of Christ.

But it wasn't just that He came. He came to fulfill the promise, and it would cost Him His very life to keep the promise. It cost Him everything.

He had to reverse what sin did. And that is just what He did.

He was condemned so we can be justified.

He was imprisoned to sin so we would be free.

He became an orphan on the cross so we can be sons and daughters.

He was baptized into death so we could be baptized into life.

He was clothed as a slave, so we can be clothed as royal sons and daughters.

He lost everything and rose to claim it back so that when we put our faith in Him, we can be swept up into Him, united to Him, and brought into all that is His.

Most importantly, we are brought up into the very life of God. All the love, joy, and peace of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are now ours because we have the Spirit in us, are united to the Son, and are adopted by the Father.

This is all yours. And all glory, honor, and praise belong to Christ.