You're standing in the kitchen in front of the open fridge browsing for an appealing snack. Baseball cap on backwards, baggy jeans, T-shirt hanging out, 16 years old. You just passed your drivers test after learning the rules of the road left and right, and then during the road test nervously trying to please a perturbed Department of Motor Vehicles administrator ready to dock you for breathing too quickly. Sure, you're a little proud, and more than a little excited. Let's see, how will you ask for the keys? Do you say, "Dad, where are the keys?" or maybe, "I'm gonna take the minivan for a spin, mom." The phone rings. It's your dad calling from his car, instructing you to meet him in the driveway in 30 seconds. You wonder what's up as your dad pulls into the driveway in a sparkling, red, 1958 Chevy convertible with engine purring and stereo blasting. He turns it off, throws you the keys, and says, "It's Time for Your Inheritance, Son."

This is an event that falls under the category of the words in Galatians 4, "when the time had fully come." Those words mean more than the completion of a period of time - they mean another period of time is beginning. Those words acknowledge the past and anticipate the future. The time comes to be old enough to drive. The time comes for a slave to be set free. The time comes for Jesus to be born and earn heaven's inheritance for us. The time comes for us to spend heaven's inheritance as sons of God and heirs of the kingdom.

Time for the Son to earn it

The Christians in the Galatian churches to whom Paul wrote had already received this inheritance through faith. God handed over the keys to heaven's storehouse and all the treasures inside, such as deliverance from evil, forgiveness of sins, peace with God, strength to do what is right. But some of them wanted something better. They became convinced it would be more meaningful if they earned a more prominent status by obeying special religious laws and therefore attracting their own special attention from God.

"You foolish Galatians," Paul laments earlier in his letter, "Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified . Are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort" (3:1,3)? The goal is gaining the perfect pleasure of our Lord God. Seeking to attain the goal by obeying the requirements of the law - all the requirements to the letter of the law all the time - is utter foolishness. "Tell me, you who want to be under law, are you not aware of what the law says?" Paul demands (4:21).

Any armchair quarterback foolish enough to challenge Bret Favre to a throwing contest doesn't really know how good Bret Favre is. And any imperfect human being foolish enough to claim that he or she can keep perfectly every requirement of God's holy law (and on top of that some added religious regulations) doesn't know who much God's law really expects. Paul must explain to the Galatians, "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law'"(3:10). Snubbing their inheritance by faith and seeking a reward for their good works (which weren't perfect enough to be rewarded by God), some of the Galatians were bowing to the law as their new master, but it would only control them with fear and curse them with guilt.

Do you want to make the same appeal to God? Do you want God to judge you based on your achievements, performance, and success at perfectly meeting his every expectation? Probably not, but then why do we live as if we do? We don't pray as often as we'd like because we feel we haven't been good enough for God to patiently listen, much less give what we ask for. We make ourselves miserable trying to pay the price for a sin Christ has already forgiven. On the other hand, we feel closer to God during the Christmas season because of all our charity and kindness to others. "If righteousness could be gained through the law," Paul warns us and the Galatians, "Christ died for nothing" (2:21). When we determine how close we are to God on the basis of how moral, kind and faithful we've been, then we are telling Christ we don't need him. He may as well have never been born because we can do the job without him, thank you. The result? "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ," the Bible concludes (5:4). Without Christ as our master, we're slaves to the law's curse and control.

"It's Time For Your Inheritance, Son," a gracious heavenly Father promises foolish little children all too eager to accomplish alone what we cannot in any way accomplish alone. But first, he said it to someone else. "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son." In the days of Caesar Augustus while Quirinius was governor of Syria our inheritance gained miraculous value. It came time for the Son to earn it. "And became fully human," we will say in a few minutes in the Creed, because we believe what the Bible says, that Jesus the Son of God was "born of a woman." We believe what the Bible says, that Jesus the Son of God was "born under law." The baby Jesus is not some celestial, mythical god up in the clouds in his own little world above the law. He was born to be our helpful Brother! The baby Jesus is not some winter festival icon we pull out of a box the weekend after Thanksgiving and put up on a shelf only to pack him away again five weeks later. He was born to be our living Redeemer, "to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." "Redeem" isn't really a common word but its original meaning has to do with "buying something from the marketplace."

The following story told by British journalist Godfrey Talbut may help. "A Catholic priest, who had become very deaf in his advancing years, had formed the habit of asking those erring members of his flock who came to his enclosed stall to write their penitences on a slip of paper, instead of speaking them to him. The practice worked fairly well until one day when the father heard a heavily-breathing man enter the visitor's side of the confessional and fumble for a few moments as a small, crumpled piece of paper was passed through the curtain into the old cleric's hand. The confession read: "Two cans of beans. Quarter pound ham. Cans of Coke. Four fish filets. Bread rolls. Toilet paper. Large coffee. Soap. Butter." The priest studied the note for a puzzled minute or two and then silently passed the slip back. Suddenly, there came an agonized voice from the stall beside him: "Mother of God, I've left my sins at the [marketplace]."

And guess who buys them there? Jesus Christ. What payment does he offer? His perfect obedience to the law - what we tried but couldn't do. With it he buys our sins and redeems us from slavery to the law. The time for the Son to earn our inheritance came, so God sent him. For us. To earn an inheritance that is ours by faith. Therefore, our Father rejoices in this verse from Isaiah, "Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me" (Isaiah 63:8). So now that our inheritance has been earned, it's time for the sons to prove its true worth by spending it!

Time for the sons to spend it

A friend of mine was discussing schools with a coworker who asked, "Do you send your kids to a private school?" "Yes," my friend answered, whose children attend one of our Lutheran Elementary Schools. "Too bad," the coworker responded." "What do you mean?" "Well, I was forced to go to a private school and got religion crammed down my throat." Have you talked to people who resent religion like that? They usually remain away from church and along with it away from God. But I attended a private school, too. I was forced to memorize Scripture, sing hymns, study Bible stories, and put on Christmas programs for doting adults, and I don't feel any resentment. I feel blessed.

Even if your story is different, I hope you feel the same way. Why? Because of how we were taught. When it came to procedures of school we were treated as slaves - forced to comply with the rules (no chewing gum, recess is over when the bell rings, no running in the hall) - or face the consequences of punishment. But when it came to the practice of our Christian faith we were treated as sons - privileged recipients of blessings, richly rewarded with God's love, responsible but with freedom of expression - and there was no "do it or else" slavery. I'm convinced that this is the reason why some resent religion today. They were taught it as slavery, a bunch of rules. "Be good and God will like you. Do bad and God will punish you." Rather, true religion is about rights. We have a Father who gives us those wonderful rights when he says, "It's Time For Your Inheritance, Son."

"You are no longer a slave, but a son;" Paul writes to us all, "and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir." Whether you resent your religious upbringing or not, rejoice in the riches of your inheritance from God, earned by his Son and enjoyed by his sons, believers like us. Spend that inheritance freely, because it will never run out! Live not as slaves but as sons. Serve God, obey his commandments, worship Him, and love those who are hard to love because there is joy in being God's child. Endure hardship not as slaves fearful of God's revenge but as sons, filled with the Holy Spirit's comforting presence. Cry to the creator of the universe like a daughter to her daddy, "Abba, Father" - a term of endearment expressing confidence in our Father's compassion and trust in his tender love. Teach your children and nieces and nephews about Jesus Christ and his love, not as a bunch of rules but as blessings and rights from heaven!

It's here! The time has fully come. There came a time for the Son to earn our inheritance, and he did. There now comes a time for us to spend our inheritance. And we will. Whether we need to spend the righteous will power to say "no" to sin or spend eternity in heaven with Jesus and all believers - we will always have enough, because our inheritance will never run out. Amen.

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