Today, we pick up in the middle of Paul’s loving appeal to the Galatians, pleading with them to stay firm in the gospel of grace rather than being swayed by false teachers to add practices of Judaism to be accepted by God. As Paul expressed his heart to them, we learn the Spirit’s heart for all of us. Last week, we saw how God wants us to stay simple in our relationship with him, relating to Him as our Father.

Sunday Teaching: An Advancing Gospel Community—Partners Together (4:10-23)

We are in the middle of Paul's theological case to the Galatian church. After he had brought them the gospel, they had begun to drift from it. False teachers were telling them they needed to attach the practices of Judaism to their new faith in Christ. Soon, these brand-new Gentile Christians were acting out Old Testament practices in an attempt to become accepted in God's sight. All this was abhorrent to Paul—he referred to it as a gospel contrary to the one they had received, a distorted gospel, a different gospel, one worthy of a curse on all who proclaim it (Galatians 1:6-9).

After asking, Do I think God is my Father? the second question this text leads us to ask should be, Do I feel God is my Father? These verses tell us that God is discontent with only positioning us as his sons or us merely thinking we are his sons—he also wants us to feel we are his sons. He puts his Spirit in believers, and the Spirit within us cries out to God, “Abba, Father!”