No Longer a Slave, but a Son

There are spiritual truths which sometimes we do not see too clearly when we first become a Christian. There are truths which will affect our whole attitude in our going about to live our Christian life. And so we should know them. This truth that we will studying now is one of them; the truth that we are God's sons and daughters through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. What does God do for us when we believe in the Lord Jesus? Well, He forgives all of our sins and He imputes to us the righteousness of Christ to our legal standing. This is the doctrine of justification. But He does something else. Verse 5 says that when we believe in Jesus we receive the adoption as sons.
This is a truth which is more personal yet. By faith in the gospel we are brought into real spiritual union with Jesus Christ. And God deals with us very personally in our hearts, as His sons and daughters, for Christ's sake. So at this time, we want to think about this truth together. What are the two great benefits which come to us as Christians because of the fact that we are spiritually adopted by God and are now His sons and daughters? These verses tell us 1st – That God sends forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. And then 2nd – That because of this sending of the Spirit, we become heirs of God through Christ. These are the wonderful truths that we want to think together about for the next few minutes.