One teaching that sets Christianity apart from all other belief systems, including that that attempt to mimic or imitate Christianity, is that found in the biblical doctrine of salvific adoption. The apostle Paul specifically addresses that very doctrine in fourth chapter of Galatians. “But when the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (vv. 4-5).
One reason why adoption was such an affront to the Jewish legalists who had duped the Galatians into subjecting themselves to the Law, as well as to all Christian cult groups today, is that it placed the adoptee at the mercy of the One doing the adopting. It was based purely upon His own timing, purpose, and grace. There was nothing the adoptee could add to the process, including his own opinion on the matter. One could not earn their own adoption through any meritorious effort.
God’s adoption of the Galatians made Paul all the more incredulous when it came to their willingness to place themselves back under the curse of the Jewish law, as well as their old pagan ways (“elemental things of the world), which Paul alludes. What made Paul even more astounded was the fact that prior to he arrival of the Jewish legalists was the fact of his reception by the Galatians. They had received as Jesus Christ himself! But now, they had turned on him—because he told them the truth?
NEXT: Galatians 4:17-5:1 — The Arab-Israeli Analogy