Word ministered by Brother Pedro Dong and transmitted by the Life for All Institute, live from the Church auditorium in São Paulo (São Paulo/SP), on 03/30/2025. Text not reviewed by the author.

We encourage you to watch the full message on the IVPT YouTube channel.

 

 

 

Gal 3:23-29

1. Why is the issue of justification so important? No man is justified by the law. However, Christ came so that we might be justified by faith. Without meeting the demands of God’s law, that is, His righteousness, there is no way for Him to give life to man, even if He wants to. Justification is a vital and crucial issue. Only with the coming of Christ, through His death and resurrection, were all the demands of God’s righteousness satisfied, bringing us the blessing of Abraham, and this blessing is the promised Spirit. Justification comes by faith, and through this Spirit, God can grant us His life today.
2. Before the coming of Christ, the people of Israel were under the guardianship of the law, which acted as a tutor, a caretaker of children. A child, while a minor, needs someone to care for them. In the same way, the law served as a tutor until faith came. However, when faith came, we were no longer subject to the tutor. Those who believed in Christ, were identified with His death and resurrection, and united themselves to all that happened with Him to satisfy God’s righteousness, were emancipated. They left the position of slaves to become children. We are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. The promise given to Abraham reaches us with a ultimate purpose: for us to be heirs, called to inherit the world together with Christ, and not just children.
   

   Rom 4:13-14; Gal 4:1-2

    

3. A child, as a minor, even if he is an heir, cannot assume responsibilities and, therefore, is no different from a slave. He remains under tutors and stewards. The tutor is the guardian of the children, and the steward is the administrator of the household, in charge of providing for all the needs of the family members. Likewise, the law exercised the role of protecting those under its guardianship and providing for their needs, but this was to last only until the time predetermined by the Father. This time was fulfilled with the coming of Christ to Earth. The Word dwelt among us and was full of grace and truth. Through the blood of Christ, a new covenant, a new Testament, was established.
   

   Heb 5:12; Gal 4:3-5
   

    

4. We were subject to the rudiments of the world. The elementary teachings of the law refer to rules of conduct based on human logic, but God wants to grant us something much greater. His purpose is to give life to man. He wants to make us His children and, when we are mature, to allow us to receive, as an inheritance, the promise made to Abraham and his descendants. If we are in Christ, we are among those who will inherit the fulfillment of this promise. When we believe in Christ, we leave the guardianship of the law and receive Sonship. We no longer live as slaves, but as sons.
5. The conference in São Bernardo do Campo was a milestone in the matter of emancipation. All churches, no matter how small, should not continue to live under guardians by thinking that they have little strength because they have few resources and a small number of people. They wait for someone to push them or for a guardian to show them the way. Yet, now Christ has come. We already have the blessing of Abraham, the promised Spirit, and God faithfully speaks to us through His word. We have everything at our disposal.
6. In Genesis 1:2, when the Earth was formless and empty, God used the word to restore it. However, before the word, He prepared the Spirit, who hovered over the waters. The Spirit of God was ready to go into action. He obeys the command of God’s word. When God spoke a word, it was a command, and the Spirit went into action. When God said, “Let there be light,” there was light. God made His Spirit available, and when He spoke, the Spirit acted, and what He said came to pass.
7. With the creation of man, another element entered the scene. In addition to the Spirit ready to act and the spoken Word, God performs His work when someone has an afflicted and contrite spirit, trembles, has reverent love, and believes firmly in His word by instilling it into their hearts. Thus, this word works through the Spirit to accomplish God’s work.
   

   Heb 4:1-2; 1 Thess 2:13

    

8. God sent His Spirit, ready to work miracles, and gave a word, but those who received it did not hear it with faith. Thus, this word did not benefit them, that is, the Spirit did not work in them. The opposite happened with the Thessalonians. They received the word of the apostles as the word of God, and it worked effectively in them, because they believed. If we believe, the word works. This is the principle of God’s work.
9. Today we are in the phase of emancipation. We are no longer restricted by a guardian. Perhaps our Christian life depended on someone to give us a push, and if he removed the pressure, we would regress. Today, all of the churches need to learn that we have been emancipated. We all have the word. There is a large team to write the daily immersion notes and battle cries. We have the IVPT to transmit the messages. The churches have the word at their disposal. If we understand that it is not man’s ability that does the work of God, rather the word, then it does not depend on whether we are more or less capable. If we receive the word with faith and allow it, through the Spirit, to do its work, something will happen in our church.
10. Individually, we are also emancipated. We may feel that we are not as spiritual as some other brothers, but 2 Peter tells us that we have all been given like precious faith. We all have the same potential, because we have been given the same portion of land to work. It is up to us to cultivate it so that it will produce for the Lord.
11. Every church has the same potential. The Lord has given us several tools to help us, and we can use them to transform the situation of our churches. Through the troops, captains and senior stewards (TCS), we can carry out “Come and See,” Family Mission, the Welcome Center, Connected Women and Men of Prayer to reach and care for people. We also have immersion pamphlets, war cries, BookExpo, GPC and international missionaries. We have everything at our fingertips. In addition, we can ask each other for help. It is a matter of having the courage to make things happen.
    
12. Testimony of Brother José Roberto from Bebedouro, SP: “Our church had about 10 brothers and sisters and our meetings were a bit weak and slow. Another brother and I decided to take action to establish a House of Teens. Since we are two older brothers, we scheduled a meeting to do war cries, but due to the lack of younger people, they were still quite bad. We called two young people who lived on the same street by inviting them to a youth event, but they themselves were the young people. They came, and we did war cries together. We believed in the word that we had heard and didn’t want to stay still. At that time, another boy, the son of an acquaintance, said he wanted to see me. I went to talk to him and invited him to the youth event. We did the war cry with him, still within our limitations, but he liked it. The following week, he brought his mother, and she participated. At that meeting, the colporteurs who worked in the area were also there. His mother really liked it, especially the war cry. At the next meeting, he brought four more friends. At the next meeting, seven more. They contacted a neighborhood to bring five more. When I went to get them, there were 16. So today we are taking care of 40 young people, 20 of whom are already established. Our church has quadrupled in size. We are following this direction. It is believing like Abraham.”
13. All churches can be emancipated. If we believe in the Word, it works miracles among us through the Spirit. In Bebedouro, there were no teenagers. Two older brothers invited two teenagers to a youth event, even though it was just them. Then, they invited another one, and the Spirit worked miracles. Today, they take care of 40 teenagers. In Sertãozinho, where there was only one family, they did not feel like “poor little things,” but fought and now there are about 20 people. In Morro Agudo, there were only a few and now there are 50. These are examples that we can leave behind the attitude of dependence, because we have the Word and the Spirit, which can work miracles.
14. When all churches adopt a new attitude and allow the Spirit to work miracles, the Lord will be able to do much in every city. Individually, we all have potential. Let us not waste it. Collectively, let us work with the word the Lord has given us by using the tools available, so that the churches will prosper. This is the blessing of Abraham. It is the promised Spirit who does the work for us.
    

    Gal 4:4-5; Mt 1:18, 20-21; Rom 8:3; Luke 2:22-24, 27

     

15. Jesus is the Only man who was born of a woman, and in Him there is no sin. The law has no power to deal with our flesh and our sin. Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh so that through His crucifixion He could crucify sin in the flesh. He was born under the law to redeem those under its tutelage, so that they might receive Sonship.
    

    Gal 4:4-7

     

16. The Greek word for “Sonship” is “huiothesia.” “huios” means “mature son,” and “huiothesia” refers to the right of this mature son. Some versions translate it as “adoption of sons,” but we are not adopted sons of God, but legitimate sons, born of Him. First, God gives us the reality of being sons, and the ultimate goal is to be His heirs.
    

    John 3:6-7; Rom 8:16; John 1:12

     

17. Those who belong to Christ have become children of God, not only in right but also in fact. When we believed in Jesus, we were regenerated by the Spirit; the life of God entered us, making us His children.
    

    Gal 3:14, 16

     

18. Once we became children, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” Just as the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed, who is Christ, the blessing of Abraham has come to the Gentiles in Jesus Christ, so that we might receive the promised Spirit. We have received this promise because we have been included in Christ. We are united, identified, and clothed with Him. Every promise given to Christ belongs to us. This is the blessing of Abraham.
    

Gal 4:7

 

• God freed us from slavery and emancipated us through the coming of Christ. All we need to do is believe in Him. He does not demand much from us, just faith. Abraham, unlike Lucifer, did not show great natural ability before God, but he became an important figure in the Bible because he had simple faith.
• In Genesis 6, there was great confusion, which brought violence and evil to the Earth. The contact of the fallen angels with the daughters of men open the eyes of humanity to the existence of beings of superior power. After the flood, fearing divine punishment, Nimrod emerged and sought independence from God. From then on, cities emerged with structures that allowed man to live without God.
• Society is sustained by tripod: sustenance, entertainment and security. Nimrod sought independence from God. Through the knowledge of angelic beings, idolatry arose, spreading throughout all the nations of Abraham’s time.
• In the midst of a benumbed generation, where no one sought the true God, Abraham lived in discontent. I believe that he saw the whole situation and had a simple heart to seek the true God, and so God appeared to him, and he trusted completely. Abraham believed in God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. What God requires of man is that he believe in His word.
• Paul says in 1 Corinthians that God did not choose the powerful of this age, nor the wise. Rather, He chose the foolish and despised things. God does not demand so much of us. Of course, it is good to get a higher education, but if we do not have this opportunity, faith is for us too. God has never made faith elitist. What we need is a correct and humble spirit, like Abraham’s. God revealed Himself to him, and he set out according to God’s word. In order to believe, we need the word. God needs to reveal Himself and speak in order to generate faith. Thus, when we believe, things happen. That is how God works.
  

  Gal 4:8-9; Rom 14:5; Col 3:16-17

   

• The Gentile Galatians did not know God and worshiped idols, which are not gods; but now that they knew God, how could they return to those same weak and powerless elementary principles? Did they want to be enslaved by them again? Under the influence of the Judaizers, the Galatians observed days such as Sabbaths, new moons, months that were sacred to the Jews, festivals such as Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, and years such as the Sabbatical years. Treating certain periods as more sacred than others was typical of Jewish law and pagan religions. However, it is not an essential characteristic of the Christian faith.
  

  Gal 4:11-12

   

• In the midst of so many struggles and persecutions, Paul preached the gospel to them, and they received Christ by grace. Now it seemed that all their work was being lost, as they returned to enslaving themselves to Jewish religious rules. Because of their being rebuked by Paul, the Galatians even thought he had a problem with them, but his real concern was with the truth of the gospel. By returning to the rudiments of the world and religion, they were making the preaching of the gospel vain.
  

  Gal 1:14; Num 9:15-23

   

• Paul had been extremely zealous regarding Judaism and the traditions of his parents. In Judaism, there are traditions about the application of God’s law in various situations. They have a system of jurisprudence created by rabbis. All of this exists because they rejected the living word of God through the prophets. God is the one who should apply the law to various situations. Without depending on the voice of God, they began to depend on jurisprudence created by human courts. We are God’s people. It is He who defines how His law is applied and gives us direction. In Numbers 9, the people marched according to the word of God that came through Moses. Without the living word of God, man creates traditions to know how to apply the law. In Jesus’ time, His disciples were accused of not washing their hands before eating, but Jesus responded by saying that the accusers used traditions and ended up breaking the law.
  

  1 Cor 9:19, 23; Gal 4:12

   

• Paul had such a zeal for the traditions, but God called him by grace and revealed His Son to him, so that he might preach Him among the Gentiles. To win the Galatians, Paul became like them, and now he asked them to be like him: freed from the law.
  

  Gal 4:13-16

   

• On his first journey with Barnabas, Paul had an unspecified illness when he preached the gospel to them. It was probably an eye disease. The brothers did not treat him with contempt or disgust, but welcomed him as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. What had happened to their joy? Had he now become an enemy for telling them the truth?
  

  Gal 5:11

   

• Paul suffered persecution from the Jews for preaching the cross of Christ and that man no longer needed to follow circumcision and the law. For Paul, it would not have been difficult to avoid so much suffering. All he had to do was reconcile his preaching with circumcision and the law. Following that path, the church in Jerusalem, which had experienced miracles in its beginning, fell into a negative situation because, in order to avoid being persecuted by the Jews, it reconciled faith with circumcision. If we preach circumcision, Christ died in vain. Thank God, Paul was faithful and continued to fight for the truth of the gospel.
  

  Gal 4:17

   

• The Judaizers flattered the Galatians in order to isolate them and make them their followers. Through their disastrous influence, which brought in the legalistic practice of Jewish law, the Galatians lost their love for the apostle and their appreciation for his word, as well as their spontaneity, joy and hospitality. Since this is a spiritual struggle, it is amazing how love, appreciation and affection quickly turn into enmity, hatred and opposition.
  

  Acts 20:29-30

   

• The Judaizers’ strategy was to isolate the Galatians from Paul, and consequently from the word he preached. They competed for the Galatians’ attention and care, as the apostle had already foretold in his words to the elders of Ephesus: “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And that, among yourselves, men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”
  

  Gal 2:5, 14

   

• Paul was very faithful to the truth of the gospel. If he had given in even a single inch regarding the truth of the gospel, perhaps that word would not be among us. Likewise, we have received many attacks. They pointed at me by saying that I insisted too much on the prophetic word and was exalting myself. If I had given in at that time, perhaps we would be on a different path today. In such times, we must be faithful to the truth of the gospel. Even noticing the change in the attitude of the Galatians, Paul was incisive and undiplomatic, so that the truth of the gospel would remain among them. His attitude provoked enmity on the part of some.
  

  Gal 4:18

   

• Paul meant that their zeal should not be merely out of affinity for him, but rather for the truth of the gospel. Zeal for a person may be only out of friendship, or for the favors he may grant to satisfy personal interest or ambition. However, we should be zealous for those who fight with a pure heart to preserve the truth of the gospel among us, with a view to preserving it.
  

  Gal 4:19-20; 1 Cor 4:15

   

• Through his preaching, as a spiritual father, Paul fathered the Galatian believers. He truly considered them his children, and that is why it must have been so difficult for him. He was also like a mother who suffers labor pains to give birth to a child. He suffered again because the Galatians had regressed, that is, had fallen from grace to the law.
  

  1 Pet 1:23; Matt 13:19-23

   

• When we believe in Jesus, we are regenerated by the divine, incorruptible seed, through the Word of God, which is living and permanent. God’s new creation is not part of the corrupt world, and therefore the seed is not corruptible. The divine seed is sown through the word in the heart, as soil where it germinates, takes root, grows and bears fruit. The human heart is very precious to God, because it is the very soil. This is why the enemy of God fights so much for it and desires to occupy it with the world, sustenance, the greed of the flesh and the pride of life.
  

  Eph 5:25-27

   

• Once the divine seed has entered us, it cannot remain inactive. Satan will do everything he can to get in the way, but God wants good soil. The Christ who has entered us needs to grow and expand until He conquers our mind, will, and emotions. Today, Christ sanctifies His church through the washing of the water by the word. We still have impurities in our hearts, and we need this washing of the word, which will result in a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish.
• The apostle’s aim was to make them heirs of the blessing promised to Abraham, and, through the promised Spirit, to attain full Sonship. It is for this purpose that the Lord has redeemed us from the law and led us to live by grace, so that Christ may be formed in us and grow, conquer our souls, dwell in our hearts, and make us His heirs of the promise given to Abraham. We shall inherit the world, for Christ is the Son who will inherit it. The overcomers will reign with Christ in the coming kingdom for a thousand years, and we want to share in this part of the inheritance.