From Slaves to Sons | Sermon | The Grove Church, Port St. Lucie

How Rule Breakers and Rule Followers Are Both Slaves

Christian Freedom: Galatians, Week 11 | All sermons

“The Father is the good life.”

Summary

In this message on Galatians 4:1–11, David Hancock, pastor of The Grove Church in Port St. Lucie, Florida, argues that the two paths people take to reach the good life, keeping the rules and breaking the rules, are really the same attempt to have the good life without God, and both end in slavery. Drawing on Jesus’ parable of the two sons, he shows that the older brother who obeys and the younger brother who rebels both want what the Father has rather than the Father Himself. The good news of the passage is that at the right time God sent His true Son, who became a slave to redeem us, adopt us as sons, and send the Spirit into our hearts crying, “Abba, Father.” The path into the inheritance is not rule-keeping or rule-breaking but a person, Jesus Christ.

Key Takeaways

The inheritance lost at Eden is three treasures, the land, the people, and the blessing of God’s own presence, and God Himself is the good life.
Rule-keeping and rule-breaking are two versions of the same sin, reaching for the good life without God, and both enslave.
At the fullness of time God sent His Son to become a slave under the law, redeem us, and adopt us as sons and heirs.
The Spirit of the Son cries “Abba, Father” from within us, so God stops feeling like a boss and becomes a good Father.

Read Galatians 4:1–11 (ESV)

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 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. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Talk about it

1. Ask most people what they want in life and the answer is some version of, I just want to be happy. Describe your picture of the good life; the scene you are working toward, saving for, or daydreaming about. Where do you think that picture came from?

Two Ways to Eat the Same Fruit: Why Are Rule Keepers and Rule Breakers Both Slaves?

The sermon began with the inheritance the heir is waiting for, a word whose roots run all the way back to Eden. Three great treasures make it up: the land, Eden itself, so rich in life that it cared for us; the people, an eternal family united to God and therefore to one another; and the blessing, the presence of God Himself. God is the good life, and to enter the good life is to enter the very life of God. But at the forbidden tree humanity attempted to have the good life without God, and all three treasures were lost. Ever since, we have tried to claw our way back down two paths, rule following and rule breaking, and Paul calls both of them the elementary principles of the world. They look like opposites; yet are two ways of eating the same fruit, and both enslave.

THE SERMON’S ILLUSTRATION Jesus told of two sons. The younger demanded his inheritance early, wasted it, and ended up eating beside the pigs; the older stayed home and slaved in the fields, keeping every rule so he would finally get paid. One broke the rules and one followed them, but listen to them talk and neither wanted the father; both wanted what the father had. Yet, the party began only when a son came home to the father himself.

Talk about it

2. The sermon named three treasures of the inheritance: the land, the people, and the blessing of God’s own presence. Which one do you ache for most? Be honest; when you imagine heaven, are you imagining God’s gifts or God?

3. Rule followers and rule breakers look like opposites, but the sermon called them two ways of eating the same fruit. Which brother are you more naturally: the younger, chasing the good life through freedom and pleasure, or the older, quietly keeping score so God will owe you? How would the people closest to you answer for you?

The Son Who Makes Us Sons: How Does God Turn Slaves Into Sons?

At the right time, like the day set by a father for his heir to come of age, God sent forth His Son. The true Son, who loved the Father above all else, was born of woman and born under the law; He became a slave like us and entered the prison our sin built, to redeem us, to ransom us with His very life. And redemption is not the end of the sentence: we receive adoption as sons. Because we are sons, God sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. The Christian is not a spectator watching the triune God in His dance of love, joy, and peace; the Spirit brings you into it. That is when God stops feeling like a formal boss and starts feeling like a good Dad, and the heart finally understands that God Himself is the treasure.

KEY WORD: ABBA To say Abba is to say God’s name as Father in the most intimate way. It is the younger brother walking home rehearsing a speech for his new boss, and finding himself at a party calling him Dad. The good life of God has not just been promised to you; it has been poured into you.

Talk about it

4. The sermon said the Spirit does not just inform you that God is your Father; He makes you feel it, crying Abba from inside your own heart. When you pray, does God feel more like a formal boss or a good Dad? What do you think has shaped that?

5. The sermon gave evidence that the good life has gotten into a person and is pouring out: love for enemies, joy in prayer and Scripture and gathering, a sorrow that can no longer swallow the joy. Where do you see any of that pouring out of you? Where is it conspicuously missing?

Stop Acting Like Slaves: Why Do We Return to Slavery After Being Set Free?

Paul is afraid he labored over the Galatians in vain, because after tasting the inheritance they are turning back to the weak and worthless elementary principles. Traveling teachers had arrived saying, if you want the inheritance you must keep the rules; they were manufacturing older brothers. When Paul mentions observing days, months, seasons, and years, he is likely being deliberately ambiguous, calling out the religious calendar and the pagan one in a single breath. The question he asked them still rings today, for Christian and skeptic alike: why do you keep hunting for the good life through rule following and rule breaking when it is found in the Father? The call is to follow Christ, a person, the only path into the inheritance. The cost is leaving behind every other rule-following religion and every pleasure you secretly worship. The reward is your papers of freedom.

THE PRACTICAL TEST When you go to God in prayer, are you going to enjoy God, or are you going to Him crying out for something you want more than Him? Be honest; your prayers are proof of what you really believe the good life is.

Talk about it

6. The sermon named the older brother in the pew: using church attendance, serving, doctrinal correctness, or simply being good as leverage with God, and quietly resentful when rebels discover Christ and find a love, joy, and peace you do not have. Where has that resentment shown up in you? What is it costing you and the people around you?

7. The sermon also said indulgence, consumption, entertainment, and pleasure are not really rule breaking; they are acts of worship, a desperate attempt at the good life without God. Which one is your liturgy? What has it actually delivered?

The Heart of It: What Did It Cost Christ to Bring You Home?

The sermon ended where Paul always ends: at the cross. Christ was the true Son, the one who actually owned everything and never spent a single day chasing the good life without the Father, because the Father was His good life. Yet on the cross the true heir became like a slave to make slaves into sons. He felt what it is to be unclaimed, cut off from every comfort of His Father’s face; He was made to be sin though He had committed none, so the full horror of what sin deserves would fall on Him and not on us. The cross is not the story of a Father being cruel to His Son. It is the story of the Son loving the Father, and you, enough to walk through hell so you could walk into your inheritance. The robe is yours, the ring is yours, the party is yours, because Christ lost it all and rose to receive it back, carrying you with Him.

THE TRUE OLDER BROTHER In the parable, the older brother refused to leave the field to welcome the wanderer home. Christ is the older brother the story was aching for: the one who left home, became like an orphaned slave, and chased you down to bring you back into what is yours. That is why it had to be Christ. There is no other way.

Talk about it

8. The younger son never earned back his sonship; he simply returned home, and everything that was the father’s was his again. What would returning home actually look like for you this week? What would you have to stop earning, and what would you have to simply receive?

9. The sermon said the perfect Son felt as far from God as you can be so that you never will. When you look at the cross, do you mostly see a doctrine, or a Brother who walked through hell to get you home? What would change in your prayers this week if you came to enjoy the Father rather than to negotiate with Him?

Questions This Sermon Answers

What does “Abba, Father” mean in Galatians 4:6?

To say Abba is to say God’s name as Father in the most intimate way. It is the younger brother walking home rehearsing a speech for his new boss, and finding himself at a party calling him Dad. The good life of God has not just been promised to you; it has been poured into you.

What is the inheritance in Galatians 4:1–11?

The inheritance is three great treasures whose roots run back to Eden: the land, a place so rich in life it cares for you; the people, an eternal family united to God and to one another; and the blessing, the presence of God Himself. God is the good life, so to enter it is to enter the very life of God.

What are the “elementary principles of the world” in Galatians 4?

They are Paul’s name for both rule-keeping and rule-breaking, two attempts to reach the good life without God. The law can be used as leverage to make God owe you; idols and pleasures can be made ultimate. Paul calls them weak and worthless because neither delivers the inheritance, and both leave you enslaved.

How can I tell if I actually love God or just what He gives?

When you go to God in prayer, are you going to enjoy God, or are you going to Him crying out for something you want more than Him? Be honest; your prayers are proof of what you really believe the good life is.

Who is the true older brother in the parable of the prodigal son?

In the parable, the older brother refused to leave the field to welcome the wanderer home. Christ is the older brother the story was aching for: the one who left home, became like an orphaned slave, and chased you down to bring you back into what is yours. That is why it had to be Christ. There is no other way.

Vision for the Christian Life

For the church to become a house of returned sons and daughters: people who go to God in prayer to enjoy the Father rather than leverage Him, and whose love, joy, and peace spill out until rule keepers and rule breakers alike find the road home to the Father through our lives as free sons.

Discussion Questions for Small Groups: Galatians 4

Ask most people what they want in life and the answer is some version of, I just want to be happy. Describe your picture of the good life; the scene you are working toward, saving for, or daydreaming about. Where do you think that picture came from?
The sermon named three treasures of the inheritance: the land, the people, and the blessing of God’s own presence. Which one do you ache for most? Be honest; when you imagine heaven, are you imagining God’s gifts or God?
Rule followers and rule breakers look like opposites, but the sermon called them two ways of eating the same fruit. Which brother are you more naturally: the younger, chasing the good life through freedom and pleasure, or the older, quietly keeping score so God will owe you? How would the people closest to you answer for you?
The sermon said the Spirit does not just inform you that God is your Father; He makes you feel it, crying Abba from inside your own heart. When you pray, does God feel more like a formal boss or a good Dad? What do you think has shaped that?
The sermon gave evidence that the good life has gotten into a person and is pouring out: love for enemies, joy in prayer and Scripture and gathering, a sorrow that can no longer swallow the joy. Where do you see any of that pouring out of you? Where is it conspicuously missing?
The sermon named the older brother in the pew: using church attendance, serving, doctrinal correctness, or simply being good as leverage with God, and quietly resentful when rebels discover Christ and find a love, joy, and peace you do not have. Where has that resentment shown up in you? What is it costing you and the people around you?
The sermon also said indulgence, consumption, entertainment, and pleasure are not really rule breaking; they are acts of worship, a desperate attempt at the good life without God. Which one is your liturgy? What has it actually delivered?
The younger son never earned back his sonship; he simply returned home, and everything that was the father’s was his again. What would returning home actually look like for you this week? What would you have to stop earning, and what would you have to simply receive?
The sermon said the perfect Son felt as far from God as you can be so that you never will. When you look at the cross, do you mostly see a doctrine, or a Brother who walked through hell to get you home? What would change in your prayers this week if you came to enjoy the Father rather than to negotiate with Him?

Related Messages in This Series

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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

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Imagine a party. Your family and friends are all there. The table is set, the meal is amazing, there is laughter, singing, and dancing; no one is left out, suffering has ceased for the moment, sadness has been put on pause. There is love, joy, and peace in the room. What caused of the party? The Father’s long-lost son has come home.

This is the small picture of the good life everyone wants. Ask someone what they want most in life, they will often say, I just want to be happy and for all those I love to be happy. No matter their background, age, religion, ethnicity, or where they are from everyone wants this. That’s not debated, but the question humanity has been wrestling with since the beginning is what’s the way to the good life? There are two paths the world takes: rule-keeping and rule-breaking. While those sound like opposites, they’re the same thing. And both paths lead away from the good life toward slavery.

We are in our series called Christian freedom from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Today, my aim is that you would leave behind your rule following and rule breaking and discover the only path into the party.

“I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 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. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.” (Galatians 4:1–11, ESV)

Our verses talk of heirs who are waiting to receive an inheritance once they come of age. The main idea of the verses is the path to the inheritance, but before we discover the path, we must look at what the inheritance is.

This word inheritance is deeply rooted in Scripture and the roots go all the way back to Eden.

From the beginning we learn there are three great treasures the inheritance gives the children of God: land, people, and blessing.

The land was Eden, the delightful place, the heavenly country where the trees sing, the hills dance, the mountains march, and the rivers clap their hands. Everything there is filled with unusually rich life. So rich in life that the land took care of us. You don’t fight it to survive; it gives you all you need.

The 2nd treasure is people. This is your family. Not of blood, but of something deeper. The people united to God who are therefore united to you. Your eternal family, the people you are made for. With them, there is no jealousy, envy, or strife. Your people.

The 3rd treasure is the blessing. Now this is the heights of the good life. It’s the presence of God. God is love, joy, peace. He is life. Think of creation like this: God is triune. 3 persons, one God. Each filled with love for the other, delight in the other, and at peace together. A picture of the good life itself.

When God made the world, it wasn’t because he was lonely and was hoping humanity could give him more love, joy, and peace. It was Him overflowing with the good life of love, joy, and peace. That’s why everything was good.

Let me say it the purest way possible. God is the good life, to enter the good life is to enter the very life of God.

But the land, people, and blessing were lost.

Where did this good life go? It became like a mist. Something we are now unable to hold. Everything in you wants to get back. You reach for it, scratch and claw for it through hard work, rule following rules, chasing love, seeking pleasure, and when you can’t find it, you use whatever you can to escape from the reality that you don’t have it.

How did we get here?

Humanity did something that imprisoned us from the good life.

We bit into the forbidden fruit. That bite was not just a bite.

It was an attempt to have the good life without God.

The snake promised us it to us.

Now the snake was not simply a snake; there is a Hebrew play on words that should make us think of a fallen angel. Something evil.

We ate, and the fallen angel slithered away with a wide, sharp-toothed grin.

The good life was gone. We got exactly what we ate of. A life without God.

The land lost, the people divided, and the blessing pulled away.

Humanity has tried to get it all back using two paths: rule following and rule breaking.

What Paul is about to show us is that these are two versions of trying to get the good life without God. Two ways of eating the same fruit.

Paul calls rule following and rule breaking the elementary principles of the world.

And these elementary actions keep us enslaved.

1st rule keeping. Verse 4 talks of those born under the law. Here he is talking about the 10 commandments, and the rules that flowed from those commandments. Now, to be clear, the commandments were beautiful; they kept God’s people flourishing, but also enslaved, because the law proved them to be sinners. People chasing the good life without God. In a way, that is what every sin is.

To be born under the law is to be born into slavery.

In verse 2, Paul says the son is no different from a slave when he is young. He has guardians and managers watching him until the date set by his father.

Paul has been describing the law in the last three sermons as a prison, a guardian, and a manager. What’s the guardian? Not what you think.

The image in the Greco-Roman world is of a slave, a trusted slave, who was appointed to watch over the son of a wealthy family, and even discipline him if needed. Because he is being watched by a slave, he is like a slave, until he comes of age and receives his inheritance.

Paul says, the law can only enslave you.

Now why is this? Well, when you make a good thing an ultimate thing, that thing enslaves you. Make sex the God of your life, and you become enslaved to it. Make drugs the God of your life, that high, you become addicted to it.

Interestingly, if you make the law, a good thing, an ultimate thing, you become a slave to the law.

Following God’s law is good and right, until you make it the ultimate thing. The way into the inheritance.

Paul is saying rule-following is another form of eating the apple. Why? You are using it to get the good life and avoid Christ. Christ is the one who came to make our way back into the inheritance. But if you try and follow the rules to get in, you are avoiding Christ, avoiding a savior.

You think, if I do enough, I can say to God, “God, you owe me; now give me the thing I want most.” It’s a way to sidestep around God and Christ and to get the good life without God.

Rule following is evil is you use the law as a way to avoid God.

So what’s the other way to avoid Christ? Breaking the rules.

Now, let me slow down because it’s a bit complicated.

Any God that is not the true God is called an idol.

But these idols or gods of the pagan religions had laws themselves.

Some looked like sex cults; others called people to sacrifice their children so the rains would come. This looks like rule-breaking to us, but to them it was rule-following and devotion.

Paul picks up this theme and calls them the elementary principles of the world, He says that this rule-breaking is really devotion to the god of your life.

In other words, everyone worships something. Believer, skeptic, even the atheist worships.

Agnostic writer, David Foster Wallace, from his 2005 commencement speech, “This Is Water, said, “There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” He continues by explaining that worshiping money, beauty, power, or intellect will eventually consume you, because none of them can bear the weight of ultimate devotion.

Paul has been calling the law a prison that enslaves if you use it to get to the good life. This agnostic has just done the same thing with anything we make ultimate.

David Foster Wallace is agreeing with Paul.

Whatever you make ultimate in your life, it tells you the path to the good life.

Make sex ultimate, and it will tell you how to use it to find the good life. That could be through sexual conquests or finding your identity in your sexuality.

You can make success that path to the good life. If I work hard, I will achieve more, and I will feel good about myself, and I will have the good life. I’ll have money, possessions, comfort, control of my life. The way is hard work.

Now, I’m about to give you a generalization but it helps make the point.

If you talk to someone who is very progressive, they would call someone very conservative evil, and someone very conservative might call someone very progressive evil, but both might be equally avoiding God.

Both in fact are evil if they are using their ideology to get to the good life.

Paul’s point is that outside of Christ, whether you are rule-following or rule-breaking, you aren’t free to enjoy the inheritance because you are chasing the good life without God.

There’s a parable Jesus tells that is a perfect picture of what Paul is saying.

There are two sons. The younger son says to His father, give me my share of the inheritance now. In that culture, that is essentially saying to the father, die already, I care nothing for you, give me what’s mine.

Surprisingly, the father gives it to him, and the younger son rides off into the sunset with his inheritance. But in short time he loses it all and finds himself eating right beside pigs to survive.

He says to himself, even my father’s slaves live better than this. I’ll return home and become one of my father’s servants.

His plan is set. Only when he gets into town, before he gets a word out to his father, his father runs and meets him, embraces Him, gives Him a robe on his back, a ring on his finger and throws him a huge party so all the town knows the son is back, and though he was lost, now he is found. He was blind but now sees. I can only imagine eating, drinking, laughter, celebration, singing, and dancing.

Now, during the party, the older brother, out in the field, hears about the party for his younger brother and refuses to go to the party. The father comes out to get him, now listen to what the older brother says: all these years I’ve been slaving for you and you never once threw me a party.

Slaving for you. He sees himself as a slave, doing what is required so he can finally get paid. He cares nothing for the father either.

While the younger brother saw the good life as receiving the inheritance, going out into freedom, pursuing pleasure, breaking the rules.

The older brother sees the good life as receiving the inheritiance from the father by following the rules.

Neither sees the good life as being with the Father.

Both will never get the inheritance until they understand the point of Jesus’ parable that life with the Father is the good life. Not what he has but himself.

But humanity has been doing this from the beginning.

But who will change us?

Paul says, at the right time, like the son waiting to receive his freedom when he comes of age. At the right time, God sent the true Son, who loved the Father above all else. Not what He could give Him but Him. The Son became like us, born of woman, born under the law. Which means he became a slave like us. In fact, He entered the prison our sin put us in, though he knew no sin. Why? To redeem all of us under the law. To redeem means to pay the cost, pay the penalty, to ransom us with His very life.

He paid the penalty for us wanting the good life without God. To give us what?

Adoption as sons again. This is us coming of age. Becoming heirs.

And as sons, verse 6 says we receive the Holy Spirit.

Notice vs. 6 God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba! Father!,

To say Abba! Father! Is way to say God’s name as father in the most intimate way.

It would be like the younger brother being welcomed back. He was ready to see his father as a boss, but now at the party he is calling him Dad.

Here is what just happened to the Christian. The Trinity is the very life of God. The life of love, joy, peace, strength, comfort, happiness.

When the Spirit is deposited into your heart, you aren’t just a son who watches the triune God in His dance of love, joy, and peace. You are brought into it.

That is when you experience God not like a formal boss but like a good Dad.

The good life of God has gotten in you and your heart finally understands God is the treasure.

See the problem has always been our hearts.

Jesus deals with the legal problem and redeems, but He also puts His Spirit in us to transform us. Now we have come to know that God the Father is the prize.

To have the good life without God is to not have the good life.

To have Eden without the Father is to not have Eden.

The good life has gotten into you and is pouring out of you.

That isn’t abstract.

Now you start loving even your enemy as Christ loved and died for you while you were still his enemy.

You start having joy and pleasure from God in prayer, and reading His word, and gathering here. It’s not that what is sad doesn’t make you sad, but the sorrow can’t swallow the joy, the joy slowly begins to swallow the sorrow.

The good life of God has gotten into you and pouring out of you.

In the parable the younger son never earned back his sonship, he simply returned home, and all that was the Father’s was his again.

That is what Paul is calling us to do through faith in Christ.

This message is to the Galatian church. What happened there is that Paul is saying in verse 11 that he is afraid he labored over them in vain? Well in verse 9 Paul tells them, though they have already stepped into the inheritance, now they are returning to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, which slaves you want to be once more.

What does that mean? Well, in Galatia, after Paul left to start more churches, a group of traveling teachers came in and said, look, if you want the inheritance than you have to follow the rules.

They are trying to create a bunch of older brothers.

So Paul says to them, why are you returning to slavery? Trying to obey the law is a weak and worthless path; you don’t get the worthy inheritance.

In verse 10 when he says you observe days, months, seasons, and years this can refer to both the religious Jewish calendar or the pagan calendar. He is likely being ambiguous here so as to call out both the older and younger brothers.

The question Paul asks still rings today to all of you, Christian and skeptic alike. Why do you keep trying to find the good life through rule following and rule breaking? Don’t you know it’s found in the Father?

Stop acting like slaves and become the sons you are called to be.

Follow Christ. He, a person is the only path into the inheritance. Not rule-following or rule-breaking, but a savior.

The cost is to leave all other rule-following religions behind. The cost is to leave the pleasurable things you worship and believe will give you the good life, and to follow Christ.

The reward is your papers of freedom. Like coming of age and receiving what was always yours.

Can you imagine what it would feel like to spend your whole life as a slave, and finally not just get free but be adopted by God as Father and enter into the inheritance of the very life of God. How amazing!

But let’s ground this into something more practical.

Many of you right now are using church attendance, serving others, doctrinal correctness, or simply being good as leverage for the inheritance. And you are quietly resentful when you see rebels discover Christ and have love, joy, and peace. You see them having something you don’t have and are angry. Why? You are the older brother. Leave that life behind. You are exhausting yourself and everyone around you.

Some of you are using indulgence, consumption, entertainment, and pleasure as a way to reach for the good life without God. I want you to know, this is very religious of you, though some might call you a rule breaker; it’s more of an act of worship, a desperate attempt to find the good life without God.

Here is a practical test. When you go to God in prayer, are you going to enjoy God, or are you going to God crying out for something you want more than Him?

If you are honest your prayers are proof you want the inheritance more than Him.

Don’t lie to yourself. You do.

So what do you do? Look to Christ, the one who redeems and deposits the Spirit in you to change your very heart.

He was the true Son. The one who deserved the inheritance, who actually owned everything, who had never spent a single day chasing the good life without the Father, because the Father was his good life. He loved him above all else.

On the cross, the true heir, who owned everything, became like a slave to make us sons.

He felt what it is to be unclaimed. Unwanted. Cut off from every comfort of his Father's face.

He was made to be sin, though he had committed none of it, so that the full horror of what sin deserves wouldn’t fall on us but Him.

He was forsaken and cried out to God “why?” It was then that the perfect son felt as far from God as you can be. The full weight of death and hell.

He felt in that moment like He would never see the Father’s face again.

The cross is not a story of the Father being cruel to His son.

It’s the story of the Son loving the Father and you enough to walk through hell so you might walk into your inheritance. Into life with the Father.

The robe is yours, the ring is yours, the party is yours, because on cross Christ lost it all and rose to receive it back, carrying you with Him.

He is the older brother who chased you down, became like an orphaned slave, to bring you back into what is yours. That’s why it had to be Christ. There is no other way.