Our current world is unsettled. Do you agree? It’s calling everything into question — from health and safety to history, politics, ethics, social justice, gender and race. It feels so unsettling to be this unsettled. What is of legitimate concern? What isn’t?

The sports world sure should understand this. Season starting and ending have fogged up. What’s fair, good, right and what’s not has too. We feel the unrest.

Indeed, questions of legitimacy permeate life.

Has your team, group, social class, country, ethnicity, skin color been illegitimately questioned? Have you questioned the legitimacy of others?

God’s Word says bold things to a very unsettled world. Galatians 4:4-5 bangs a particularly strong drum. These are words we need to hear: God sent His Son … that we might receive the full rights of sons (“rights of sons” is spiritually going to both males and females in Christ).

LEGITIMATE SONSHIP: “Full rights as sons” are ours in Christ. God our Father leaves no doubt about how legitimate we are before Him because of Christ. He has no caste system. He’s committed to acceptance, adoption, redemption, restoration. 

So we dine at His table, robe in His righteousness, rest in His love, and anchor deep in His justice satisfied. The doubt the world casts on our legitimacy can never stick. Who you belong to makes all the difference in the world.

GIVEN, NOT EARNED: Our sonship, our adoption as sons, is God’s idea. God gives rights. (When we do, we often royally screw it up, parceling it with prejudice.)

God’s not interested in us proving our own worth. He’s interested in us bringing our worship. We “receive” sonship. It’s divinely conferred, not competed for (John 1:12).

GIVEN FOR ALL: The message of Galatians is that salvation is for all. No one is not eligible. No people group is excluded (Galatians 3:26–29). Christianity is a most inclusive religion. And the presence of God’s Spirit in us proves our family membership no matter our earthly origin or color (Galatians 3:6).

LEGITIMATE HEIRS: Our “full rights as sons” means our nobility and inheritance now go unquestioned. We operate from royalty and have full confidence in a full inheritance to come. In a world that doubts any one’s legitimacy, this is really good news!

An unsettled world needs a settling message like this – God sent His Son … that we might receive the full rights of sons. What a totally legit word!

Reflect: What do you do when your legitimacy is questioned before God and others? Are you settled in your worth (your nobility and inheritance) because you believe what God says about you, because of what He’s done for you? Do you make others feel safe, secure, accepted, even equal in your presence? 

A prayer to consider: LORD, thank You for Your pledge of “full rights of sons” for all of us who trust and follow You. What encouragement! What an inheritance! In Christ I am forever, totally legit before my Heavenly Father.

Settle my sense of worth that wobbles sometimes, and help me love and settle others too in Your Name. Amen.