Forms are a part of life, beginning in childhood. I remember all the school and medical forms of various kinds which had to be signed “by parent or guardian.” I think being adopted must have made me more sensitive to the distinction between parent and guardian, and I remember the feeling of discomfort that some children did not have parents but lived with other adults who were involved in their lives in some way. In my young mind, I thought it was a sad situation for someone to have a guardian, not yet realizing that it might be saving the child from a worse fate. However, from an early age, I recognized how blessed I was to have the parents who chose me to be theirs.
Galatians 3:24-25 talks about the Law being a “guardian” until Christ came. And with his coming, we were justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the authority of a guardian, but through Christ we are SONS of God.
A guardian has some authority, but only a parent has full legal rights in the life of a child. A guardian has the best interest of the child at heart but is not connected to a child in the same way as a parent.
The same principle is true of the Law. It provided guidelines and instruction for well being and flourishing, but then something better came. And once it had come, in the fullness of time, we became sons and daughters, heirs, with all the rights children have when they fully belong to parents.
“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” (Galatians 4:6-7).
Sons and daughters. Adopted. Heirs.
That is who we are.
Life By The Way 