God Sent The Spirit Of Jesus Into Our Hearts

“Now I mean that the heir, as long as he is a minor, 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. So also we, when we were minors, were enslaved under the basic forces of the world. But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son, then you are also an heir through God.” Galatians 4:1-7 NET

The picture we have from Paul is that he is looking at the Jewish people who were under the law as the heirs, the guardians, and managers of the law itself until the appropriate time Christ came and set His people free from the guardians and managers so they could move into their entire inheritance. It is the same with us. Paul says that we were enslaved under the basic forces of the world, which would be laws, rules, and ordinances, not necessarily the Aaronic law. The world itself has its hold upon us even without the Aaronic law, constantly telling us we do not measure up or we have somehow failed God’s standard; it is also known as the law of sin and death. Jesus, in His triumphant act, came and fulfilled the Aaronic law and defeated the law of sin and death so we could move into our true inheritance as fully formed sons and daughters of the Father.

But there is a caveat, we do not inherit the promises of God wholesale without a death on our part; there is a sacrifice that needs to be paid for this inheritance, and that sacrifice is the death of our old natural man and its desires. It is up to us to make this sacrifice, to die to self and the promotion of our will to the flames of sacrifice. It is when we recognize that as Jesus died, we must also die from our own way and self-promotion that the spirit of Christ can live within us, promoting His agenda for our lives and for His kingdom, that we begin to partake of the treasures of God’s inheritance as we first experience His peace and joy as it takes root within us.

Notice that Paul says, “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, who calls “Abba! Father!” Amazingly, Paul identifies the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God’s Son; that should dispel any doubt about who the Holy Spirit is. As the Spirit of Jesus enters our hearts (minds), He takes possession of the surrendered mind of the believer and declares that this is His home, where He lives, and the surrendered mind of the believer is now the temple in which He rules. It is interesting that the forehead to the side of the eye socket is called the temple! Christ in us calls out to the Heavenly Father from our heart (mind), declaring Abba! Father! We are captivated by the fact that the Son of God resides within us and now calls us sons, and we inherit everything that Jesus inherits, but here is the amazing part, Paul says that ‘all things’ were created by Him and for Him. (Colossians  1:16) If that is the case and we inherit the ‘all things’ that Christ has created. We need to become prepared for what is coming and be ready as sons and daughters of the King to receive a Kingdom not made with hands, and live lives totally submitted to our Lord so we can be ready for His return, a return that we should anticipate with a sense of urgency and anticipation.

Part of growing into this new relationship with Christ is to become deeply formed in this life by reflecting on our relationship with Him in all that we do. It’s not easy becoming deeply formed, but it is necessary. It is different for each person, but similarities are common, like quiet time to reflect on the Lord and listening for Him to speak; in our minds and in the written word, this is also known as silent time. Spending time in the scriptures with deliberate moments deconstructing each phrase or words so you can understand the speakers and put yourself into the headspace of the ancient near eastern hearers of the biblical times, and begin to see how the narrative speaks to you. This journey is not just beneficial; it’s necessary for our spiritual growth and development.

The purpose of the Galatian letter was to call the believers in Galatia out of superficiality by not allowing the Aaronic law to define their relationship with Jesus, but instead by fully trusting Jesus who sacrificed and paid the full price of the atonement on our behalf, so that we might be firmly established as sons and daughters of King Jesus. Jesus arose from the grave and defeated the claim that Satan had on all humanity because of Adam’s fall in Eden, Jesus is now the second Adam who completed what the first Adam could not do.

Feel the power within and listen closely. The spirit of Jesus dwells in us, calling out to the heavenly Father, "Abba, Father," claiming us as His personal friends and co-heirs with Him before His Father. This is what Paul is defining: we are all sons and daughters of our heavenly Father, because of Jesus.

Stephen Barnett