Lynne Baab

Freed to become an heir, parts 3 and 4

Lynne Baab • Thursday May 21 2026

Overall theme for the next few months: God’s law is love

Lesson 9: Freed to become an heir, parts 3 and 4 (Galatians 3:19–4:7)

Key verse: “In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.” Galatians 3:26.

God always desired relationship

Paul does not understand the law to be a bad thing. He views it as imperfect, temporary, and necessary for a limited time. The rules of the law did indeed bring safety because murder and violence were kept in check by the law’s rules. The law did indeed teach about God’s holiness and desire for connection with the people of Israel. However, the blessings of the Gospel are so much more powerful than the law. Adoption into God’s family brings the gift of relationship with God and others. The Holy Spirit poured into our hearts brings guidance, wisdom, empowerment to address God in a personal way and adopt God’s values.

In Galatians, Paul expresses the great themes of the Christian faith. The God who made us also sent Jesus to redeem us. The Spirit of Jesus brings us into relationship with God and with others. We don’t have to prove ourselves in any way. Slavish obedience to the law is unnecessary because we have grown beyond it through God’s gift in Christ. Proving ourselves through success, excellence, beauty or any other form of conformity to standards or rules is completely unnecessary. We can rest. We can pause and rejoice in God’s gifts to us. We can experience peace. We can exult in freedom. We can take a deep breath in the midst of a world that tells us to validate ourselves and excel at all costs.

Some critics of the Christian faith argue that the Trinity was invented long after New Testament times. They are right that the name “Trinity” was first used around A.D. 180 by Theophilus of Antioch. However, the work of the three persons of the Trinity is visible throughout the New Testament. Galatians makes clear that the first person of the Trinity was active in the people of Israel for millennia, teaching them and keeping them safe through the law. The work of Jesus is central to the New Testament, and Galatians emphasizes Jesus as redeemer, the One who sets us free from the effects of sin and from the tyranny of the law. We see the Holy Spirit here as the One who brings Jesus’s presence into our inner beings and draws our hearts toward God in loving, grateful relationship.

The triune God breaks down barriers, making us one with each other. “No longer Jew or Greek” is relevant to the conflict described in Galatians, and “all of you are one in Christ Jesus” comforts and challenges us today (Galatians 3:28). All of this comes only through God’s grace.

How do you see the three persons of the Trinity at work in your own life? In the lives of people you love?

Stepping into the world

Some Christians did not or do not have comfortable relationships with our parents. Some of us were abused. Some of us simply felt disconnected. Some of us cannot bring ourselves to use “Father” as a name for God. This family language Paul uses is challenging for us. Those of us with family wounds have to look deeply at Paul’s argument here to extract the gems that the passage holds.

The biggest blessings described in this passage relate to acceptance and belonging, relevant topics for everyone. These gifts come from the freedom from sin and evil given to us in Jesus. We are accepted because of God’s love for us, not because of our achievements in any area of life. We are welcomed into a circle of relationship, and the Holy Spirit plays a significant role by turning our hearts toward God and helping us to talk to God in comfortable, intimate language. The Holy Spirit also guides us and empowers us so that we can love the people in our lives and walk with Jesus into the world, seeing human need through the eyes of the One who took on human flesh because he loved us so much.

The gift of relationship, oneness and freedom from slavery to the law presented in Galatians can be described in so many ways, including family and many other helpful metaphors. From the perspective of those of us with difficult families of origin, the church often overuses the language of family to describe what God desires for the people of God. Some ancient theologians describe the Trinity as a dance or a circle, and we are invited into the dance and the circle.

This Triune God so vividly described in Galatians 3 invites us to see that all barriers between people have been broken down in Christ. People of different ethnicities are one in Christ, as are people who live with diverse socio-economic realities. Gender differences are also bridged in Christ. Many congregations try to make this oneness real through providing space for food pantries, advocating for refugees, establishing vegetable gardens on church property for people who live in apartments, and a host of other ministries that build bridges between people who might not connect otherwise. Bridge-building is another helpful metaphor for God’s work inside us and between people.

We don’t have to obey rules in order to become the people God created us to be. We can help each other draw near to Jesus, relying on the power of the Holy Spirit, to experience well-being, connection, freedom, and love. 

Where and how do you experience the joy of the dance of the Trinity? In what settings is God calling you to be a bridge builder? 

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Next week: What is required for salvation? Illustration by Dave Baab: Port Townsend, Washington.

Book highlight: My 2025 book tells one aspect of my personal story — Almost Peaceful: My Journey of Healing from Binge Eating.

This lesson appeared in the Fall 2023 edition of The Present Word adult Bible study curriculum published by the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Used with permission.

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Lynne M. Baab, Ph.D., is an author and adjunct professor. She has written numerous books, Bible study guides, and articles for magazines and journals. Lynne is passionate about prayer and other ways to draw near to God, and her writing conveys encouragement for readers to be their authentic selves before God. She encourages experimentation and lightness in Christian spiritual practices. Read more »

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