Why would someone who has been set free ever choose to return to bondage?

In Session 4 of The Book of Galatians: The War Within, Pastor Adam Aziz walks through Galatians 4 and unpacks Paul’s passionate warning to believers who were being tempted to return to the very system Christ had already delivered them from.

Paul reminds the Galatians that they are no longer slaves, but sons and daughters. Through Christ, they have been adopted into the family of God, given the Spirit, and made heirs according to His promise. Yet somehow, they were beginning to turn back to empty religious systems, rules, and patterns that could never give them life.

In this session, we explore:

• The difference between living as a slave and living as a son

• What it means to receive the Spirit of adoption

• Why Paul says, “Abba, Father”

• The danger of returning to old systems after experiencing freedom

• How religious performance can become another form of bondage

• Why knowing God is greater than simply knowing about God

• Paul’s concern that the Galatians were turning back to “weak and beggarly elements”

• The contrast between promise and bondage

• What Hagar and Sarah reveal about law, grace, slavery, and freedom

• Why believers must refuse to return to what Christ has already delivered them from

The tragedy of Galatians 4 is not that the Galatians had never experienced freedom. It is that they had experienced freedom and were considering going back.

You are no longer a slave. You are a son. And once Christ has brought you into freedom, there is nothing worth going back to.

Study notes and additional resources are available at www.adamandolivia.com/deeper.