BIG IDEA:
THE COMING OF CHRIST ELEVATED OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD TO THAT OF PRIVILEGED SONS AND HEIRS – that’s a Big Deal
INTRODUCTION:
What’s the Big Deal about Christmas? Secularists today continue to try to minimize Christmas. They do everything in their power to have the name of Christ blotted out from the very day that celebrates His great incarnation – the Word becoming flesh and dwelling with man; the arrival of Immanuel = “God with us.” What’s the big deal about a baby being born to the Virgin Mary (that’s a pretty big deal) and laid in a manger in the stable in Bethlehem? What’s the big deal about the shepherds in the local fields and the wise men from afar coming to worship this baby and bringing presents of great value?
There’s no question that Christmas is a big deal to all of the retail businessmen in our economy. Their whole year hinges on the amount of sales they can generate during this frenetic shopping season. Now we have the convenience of never leaving our couch but ordering anything we can imagine online and having it delivered to our door in a couple of days. Ask your friend who works for UPS – no question that Christmas is a big deal.
There’s no question that Christmas is a big deal to our Hollywood entertainers and the music industry. Every night there is one television special after another with the most bizarre people you can imagine associated with celebrating the holiday season. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Miley Cyrus twerking some obscene rendition of a popular Christmas carol. Most of the music centers around the secular icons of Santa Claus and Christmas trees and mistletoe . . . but even the sacred songs seem misunderstood as they are sung by cultic religious groups like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir – what do they know about the significance of Christmas?
Certainly our very calendar testifies to the fulcrum point in history of the arrival of Jesus Christ, the prophecied Son of David, the promised Messiah of the Jewish nation. We date everything by His birth – either B.C. – Before Christ . . . or A.D. — Anno Domini is Medieval Latin, translated In the year of the Lord – pretty impressive; no other individual has had that type of impact on the world. But the world remains blind to His true significance.
What’s the Big Deal about Christmas? The Apostle Paul unfolds it in our passage from Galatians for today. It changed everything with respect to our relationship to God the Father.
George Brunk: At this point Paul challenges the Galatians with an analogy. What do you want to be? Heirs or slaves? Being subject to the Law is like being minors in a household managed by guardians and trustees. For such minors, freedom is minimal indeed. But the redeeming action of the Holy Spirit has adopted the Galatians as children of God, which in turn has made them full heirs of God’s promises! So Paul is asking, “How do you want it? Do you want to return to being slaves managed by others, or do you want to be free adults who will inherit the best of God’s promises?” Paul tries to make the choice easy.
Nijay Gupta: The law belongs to a pre-adult stage of history and ought not to be carried forward into adulthood. That which once had a particular guardianship role is no longer in effect. That age of maturity clearly corresponds to the coming of Christ in time and history; thus, at the advent of a new era the law retires, so to speak, as trustee. That does not mean Paul jettisons the Old Testament, throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Absolutely not! But believers must think now about the law differently. In Christ, in the age of “faith” (pistis; 3:23–25), believers are called to a unique kind of freedom in their new life in God, free from obligation to the law and free from any other entity.
Kathryn Greene-McCreight: Chapter 4 includes some of the richest Christology in all of Paul’s writings, most explicitly in 4:1–7.
Thomas Schreiner: Galatians 4:1–7 restates from another angle the content of 3:15–29. The era under the Mosaic law and covenant is conceived of as a time of slavery (4:1–3). However, a new period in the history of salvation has now become a reality with the coming of Jesus Christ, and he has liberated his people from the slavery they were subjected to under the Mosaic law (4:4–5a). Therefore, believers in Jesus Christ are now God’s “sons”; indeed the gift of the Spirit demonstrates they are sons, and as sons they are heirs of the promise made to Abraham (4:5b–7). This section, then, concludes in the same way as 3:26–29. Believers through Christ Jesus are sons and heirs of the promise made to Abraham, so that observance of the Mosaic law is unnecessary.
Argument from slavery to sonship (4:1–7)
A. The illustration: a slave while a minor (4:1–2)
B. Application of illustration (4:3–5)
- Enslaved under the elements (4:3)
- Sending of Son in fullness of time (4:4)
- Liberation of those under law (4:5)
C. Implication of illustration: sons and heirs (4:6–7)
I. (4:1-3) BEFORE CHRIST CAME — PREPARATION / RESTRICTIONS
A. (:1) A Child Lives Like a Servant
“Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything.”
Difference between legal position and enjoyment of all the privileges and responsibilities.
Like a trusteeship – money is there; protected; designated for you – but you can’t draw against it until you reach the age of maturity.
When you look at how people live – not much difference between a child and a slave
- Both told what they can and cannot do
- Restrictions
- But a child is being prepared for future independence
Look at that phrase “Owner of everything” – gives a little foretaste to what our position is as sons and full heirs
Right now we live as stewards … transitioning to living as owners of everything
David deSilva: The scenario that Paul imagines is likely that of the surviving minor child after the father’s death; the terms of the inheritance, the selection of the guardians, and the timing of the heir’s coming of age are all spelled out in the father’s last will and testament. The word here translated “guardian” can refer to the manager or steward of a household, estate, or similar unit, but it can also refer to the person granted legal care of and authority over some charge, the more likely sense here. The term rendered “steward” refers to the person entrusted with care or custodianship of the property. The two terms would not necessarily designate different persons, but only different functions, potentially of the same person, who might be guardian of both the minor’s person and his or her property.
Ben Witherington: Paul here seems to envision the death of the father and the appointment in a will of guardians and trustees, a normal Greek procedure. On the whole then, it would appear that Paul is alluding to practices in a cultural setting where Hellenistic law still determined such matters as adoption and inheritance. This analogy then was more likely to suit the background and clientele Paul would have found in south Galatia where the Greek influence was considerable than in north Galatia.
Alternate View:
Bruce Barton: To further illustrate the spiritual immaturity of those who insist on remaining under the law, Paul used an example from Roman law and custom. In ancient times, the “coming of age” of a son carried tremendous significance. This did not occur at a specific age (such as twelve or thirteen), as it did among Jews and Greeks; rather, the “coming of age” was determined by the father. In Rome this event was usually marked on March 17 by a family celebration known as the Liberalia. During this event, the father formally acknowledged his son and heir. The son received a new “grown-up” toga and entered into adult responsibilities.
B. (:2) A Child Chafes Under Supervision
“but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.”
Especially true of royal princes – they have no lack of guardians and managers
There is a date set by the father – His eternal decree
C. (:3) A Child is Restricted Under Bondage
“So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage
under the elemental things of the world.”
Benefits of maturity, as opposed to the restrictions of immaturity.
Look at all that was involved in the basic principles of the OT law – including all of the ceremonial and ritual cleansing regulations – to these the Pharisees and then the Judaizers had added even more restrictive elements; no freedom in having to obey all those regulations.
Scot McKnight: Once again, the Judaizers would have been offended at Paul’s rather disparaging view of the law. How can Paul, we imagine they might have asked, say the law was nothing but the “ABCs” of God’s revelation? I believe Paul has worked this out quite carefully: it is because he sees Jesus Christ as the climactic fulfillment of the Mosaic revelation. To revert to my typewriter illustration, the former era is nothing but a time when Jews hammered out their ABCs on a typewriter; the new era is a fulfillment of that machine and an entirely new agenda is in order: not just ABCs, but sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and books are now in order! That old typewriter (the law) is a “basic principle” compared to the fullness of the computer age (Jesus Christ and God’s Spirit)!
Warren Wiersbe: This word elements means the basic principles, the ABCs. For some 15 centuries, Israel had been in kindergarten and grade school, learning their ‘spiritual ABCs,’ so that they would be ready when Christ would come. Then they would get the full revelation, for Jesus Christ is ‘the Alpha and the Omega’ (Rev. 22:13); He encompasses all the alphabet of God’s revelation to man. He is God’s last Word (Heb. 1:1-3).
Dr. Wayne Barber: The word “elemental” there is the word stoicheion. Stoicheion means the ABC’s of something. It’s the basic set of rules that determines behavior, and begins to frame conduct and morality. Now what is he referring to? Many people wonder what these ABC’s are. There are a lot of opinions, but I think if you will let Scripture speak for itself, it tells you what it is. ABC, as he speaks of here, is religion of any sort, any form, any shape. Look down in Gal 4:9, and he uses the same term and defines what he’s talking about. He says, “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless,” notice how he categorizes them, “elemental things [stoicheion] to which you desire to be enslaved all over again. You observe days and months and seasons and years.” And he goes on to explain.
It’s clear as a bell what he is talking about. Why would you go back up under this old immature system called religion when you can walk in the adult privileges of being a mature son of God? Why is it that you would want to do that? You see, on one side there’s a relationship. On the other side there’s a religion. In the Gentile world religion and philosophy were carefully brought together. And whatever system that was, it had its own set of rules. In the Jewish world it involved a system of rabbinic teaching. Whatever it is, he says, religion of any kind, be it Islam, be it Buddhism, be whatever it is, you put it over here. It’s for the immature that need a set of rules and it doesn’t save you in any way, shape or form.
Ben Witherington: It would appear that Paul’s view is as follows. There are elementary teachings that are found throughout the world, and one form of these elementary teachings is the Mosaic Law. Jews were under one form of these elementary teachings while Gentiles were under another, but both shared a common condition of being enslaved and under subjection because of these teachings. For a Gentile Christian to submit to the Mosaic Law would be like going back under the elementary pagan teachings of the world, which they left behind when they became Christians. God has even liberated Jewish Christians from under the Law, these basic teachings which were appropriate for God’s people during the period of spiritual minority but not after the eschatological condition of new creation came to pass, not after Christ came. Therefore, Gentiles should not consent to submit to teachings which even Jewish Christians were no longer required to observe.
Rendall: The association of this word with n pioi [children] fixes on it the conception of a rudimentary training to which the world was subjected during its spiritual infancy by way of preparation for the Gospel of Christ and the dispensation of the Spirit. Before men could enter into the spirit of His teaching, they had to learn the elementary principles of religion and morality. Compulsory obedience to definite rules of justice and order was a necessary preparation for the freedom of the Spirit. This preliminary education was given to the Hebrews in the Ten Commandments and the Law, it was imparted to a wider world in Greek civilisation and philosophy, in Roman law and government, and in other forms of national and social life. These rudiments are disparaged in ver. 9 as weak and beggarly in comparison with the teaching of the Spirit, for Christian men ought to have outgrown their spiritual childhood. So, again, in Col. ii. 8, 20, they are condemned wherever their traditional hold on human society produces an antagonism to the higher teaching of Christ. But before the Advent they formed a valuable discipline for the education of the world.
David DeSilva: As literal children, Paul and his Galatian converts were exposed to precisely this kind of socialization into the rules and regulations imposed upon them as they were enculturated into systems of “foundational principles,” from whose stranglehold Christ freed them in principle and the Spirit works to free them in actuality. Paul may indeed offer the opposing pairs of Jew/Greek, free/slave, male/female as examples of stoicheia, “universal polarities that the Greeks and others thought to be the basis of the cosmos.” In his Metaphysics (1.986a 22–27), Aristotle identified twenty foundational stoicheia, articulated as ten pairs of corresponding opposites: (1) Limit and the Unlimited, (2) Odd and Even, (3) Unity and Plurality, (4) Right and Left, (5) Male and Female, (6) Rest and Motion, (7) Straight and Crooked, (8) Light and Darkness, (9) Good and Evil, (10) Square and Oblong. These became principal categories by means of which reality could be described, sorted, and otherwise ordered. . .
Such an understanding of the stoicheia tou kosmou well suits the fact that Paul considers the Torah itself to be a representative of this group. Torah quite obviously has a dimension of “fundamental instruction” regarding the way the world worked, investing this instruction with an aura of divine legitimacy. Its regulation was built upon binary oppositions that resemble (and in some cases include) other well-known pairs of stoicheia—Jew and Greek, male and female, even slave and free. It, too, had a cosmic dimension, instructing those under it to observe particular signs in the sky and regulate their lives accordingly (i.e., by observing sacred days and seasons, and setting them apart from ordinary days, on which to attend to other business), thus giving celestial bodies like sun and moon authority over the human sphere.
Understanding the stoicheia tou kosmou here to represent the “world [kosmos]-defined regulatory principles [stoicheia]”—which, though impersonal, confront the individual as a suprasocial being with a life and power of its own—also aligns well with the further uses of these two morphemes (stoich– and kosmos) in Galatians. Paul will direct those liberated from these “regulatory principles” to “regulate themselves by” (better, “walk in step with,” stoichōmen) the Spirit (5:25). He will also declare himself dead to the world (kosmos)—by which he means not the world as God’s creation but the world as “present, evil age,” a collection of systems ruling not on behalf of God but in place of God—and the world to him on account of Christ’s cross, pronouncing the “new creation” (which stands in stark contrast to the order that has taken hold over the first creation) to be the only thing that now has value (6:14–15). Those who are in agreement with him on this point—who “regulate themselves by” (again, better, “walk in line with,” stoichēsousin) this rule (6:16) and reject the paired stoicheia of “circumcision” and “uncircumcision” (6:15)—are those upon whom he wishes grace and mercy at the end of his discourse and whom he names “God’s Israel” (6:16).
The stoicheia, then, are the guiding powers and principles of this age, the building blocks (metaphorically speaking) from which the kosmos as “present, evil age” (1:4) is composed—which have contributed to perverting and corrupting the present age. These “elementary principles” divide the world and all that constitutes it, creating the categories, hierarchies, and evaluations that guide, limit, and constrain human beings in their thoughts, behaviors, and interactions, keeping them in a form of ideological and systemic bondage. They include, especially, all that contributed to the internal and external divisions among human beings, the power differentials across those divisions, and the ideologies that sustained those divisions and power structures. Living “under the elementary principles of the world” (4:3) is on the same level and of the same kind as living “under a curse” (3:10), “under law” (4:4, 5); “under a pedagogue” (3:25), “under guardians and custodians” (4:2), and, finally, “under sin” (3:22). From his present vantage point in experiencing God’s dealings with humanity, Paul sees that this existence was a prolonged state of being enslaved.
Alternate View:
Kathryn Greene-McCreight: The term “elemental spirits” will reappear at 4:9 to refer to the reality that binds the Galatians to their former pagan identity. These elemental spirits fall into the same category for the Galatians as does the circumcision that the Third Party wants to impose on them—a formal equivalent of their relapse into paganism. While these elements are “weak” (4:9), they have the power to enslave (4:3). They are lower cosmic powers; they are “godlings.” Being less than God, they cannot ultimately oppose God. They do, however, oppose the freedom of the Galatians.
II. (4:4-5) FULCRUM POINT = THE COMING OF CHRIST
These 2 verses are the heart of the message.
Timothy George: When we analyze these verses in terms of their structure, we find four central ideas brought together within a single literary unit.
- To begin with, there is a temporal introduction, “When the time came to completion,” an expression that connects this passage to the illustration of the minor heir entering into his full inheritance at the father’s preappointed time.
- Next there is the announcement of God’s supernatural intervention in the mission of Jesus Christ, “God sent his Son.”
- This sending formula is followed immediately by two parallel participial constructions describing the condition and status of the incarnate Son: He was “born of woman” and “born under the law.”
- Finally, in v. 5, two purpose-result clauses, both introduced by hina (“in order that”), describe the reason for the coming of Christ and the great benefit believers receive through faith in him (literally): “to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
Thus in a remarkable way Paul brought into focus here both the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christology and soteriology can never be separated; where one is inadequate, the other will always be deficient. In this passage Paul united these twin peaks of evangelical doctrine under the controlling rubric of God’s gracious initiative and divine purpose.
A. Timeframe –
“But when the fulness of the time came“
Marking the completion of the old era and the dawn of a new era
- Fullness in terms of Prophecy
The details had been incrementally unfolded by way of progressive revelation …
Starting with the very basic intimation in the early chapters of Genesis of the seed of the woman that would come to reverse the Fall and recreate Paradise.
- Promise to Abraham
- Promise to David
- Virgin birth – Isaiah
- Bethlehem birth – Micah 5:2
- Fullness in terms of Advantageous Time to Preach the Gospel
Alistair Begg:
- Marked by Expectancy in the Jewish world – looking for a Messiah; when will these prophetic passages come to fruition?
- Marked by Security – Roman Empire – established peace and security; built roadways that made possible movement
- Marked by Clarity – Greek language for communication across national and ethnic boundaries
- Marked by Futility – particularly in the religious realm; looking for religious experience that was real and satisfying
Howard Vos: “The fulness of the time” occurred when world conditions were most auspicious for the coming of Christ and at a time appointed by the Father. Perhaps at no other point in world history could Christ and the church so effectively have swept onto the human stage.
Culturally the Greeks had prepared the way for the coming of Christ and the church by providing a culture and a language which were adopted by Rome and spread throughout the Mediterranean world. Greek was the lingua franca of the Empire and could be understood by those who had access to New Testament literature and preachers of the gospel,
Politically Rome had prepared the way by uniting the Mediterranean world under one government and one citizenship. Ease of movement in that part of the world, facilitated by the marvelous Roman road system, is readily appreciated by the contemporary traveler who has no end of trouble with passports and visas; in fact, some countries in the Mediterranean area are periodically closed to him.
Religiously the Jews had made preparation by their preaching of monotheism in some one hundred fifty synagogues located throughout the Empire and by their anticipation of a Messiah who could solve the world’s problems. Within Judaism, too, a preparation for the coming of Christ occurred as the law did its work and it became increasingly evident that no one could keep the commandments; the law “concluded all under sin.” The philosophers made a religious contribution too, in a negative sort of way. They cast doubts on the old pagan systems of religion and looked for some sort of unifying power behind all of the old polytheistic systems of the day. At the most opportune time “God sent forth his Son.” God took the initiative according to a divine plan. He sent His Son on the divine mission of providing salvation. The fact that He sent forth His Son demonstrates preexistence of the Son. Taking on human form so He could identify with fallen humanity, the Son was born of a woman. Born “under the law,” He perfectly kept that law, fulfilled it, and ultimately paid its curse for all mankind.
- Fullness in terms of God’s Timetable and Decree
Donald Guthrie: In the context it is clear that his thought is still centred on servitude to the law and the most reasonable assumption, therefore, is to regard the “fullness” as the limit of God’s testing time under the law, during which the hopelessness of man’s servitude was fully demonstrated. Paul is convinced, as the early Christians were generally, that the coming of Christ was not by accident but by divine appointment.
- John the Baptist came as a forerunner to announce that the time had come
- Jesus preached that the time had come as well – Mark 1:14-15 “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’”
B. Divine Plan –
“God sent forth”
Sending out from a previous state
Implies the pre-existence of the Son from all eternity
John 3:16
Nijay Gupta: The mention of the Father’s dispatching of his Son is intended to be a climactic statement in the grand storyline that Paul narrates. This is an important theological affirmation that the Galatians need not anticipate a further fulfillment of their Christian faith in circumcision or anything else.
C. Qualifications to Redeem
- Fully God – “His Son”
- Fully Man — “born of a woman“
Phil. 2 – demonstrates how Jesus humbled Himself
Clark Pinnock: The humanity of Christ is one of the underdeveloped doctrines of orthodox Christianity. We have been so zealous to preserve a good testimony to the deity of Christ that we have often allowed His humanity to become unreal and obscured. Yet the New Testament is eager to stress God’s self-disclosure in our flesh and history. The chief Christological heresy it had to combat was docetism, the denial of His full humanity. Paul teaches that God entered fully into the conditions of human life.”
Philip Ryken: God the Son was “born of woman” (Gal. 4:4). Whereas the word “sent” implies his eternal deity, the word “born” declares his true humanity. Jesus had an ordinary birth. To say that a human mother gave him birth is to say that God the Son became a human being. This is the doctrine of the incarnation: God became man. What better way to emphasize the true humanity of Jesus Christ than to say that he was born of a woman?
When Jesus was delivered by the Virgin Mary and laid in a manger, God the Son took on our flesh and our nature, with all its temptations and aggravations. The Christ who came to save is the God-man; he is one person in two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. In the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin” (A. 22). And it was just because Jesus is a true man that he can be our Savior.
- Fully Obedient to God’s Law — “born under the Law“
Under obligation to keep all the requirements of the law and establish righteousness.
Our Substitute to bear the full penalty of the law.
David Platt: Jesus was born not simply a man, but more specifically a Jewish man who grew up in a Jewish home, attending the Jewish synagogue. He perfectly fulfilled all the demands of the law of God. If Jesus had not been righteous, He would not have been able to redeem unrighteous men.
Adoption requires someone who comes at the right time and someone who has the right qualifications. There’s one more requirement that should be mentioned: Adoption requires someone who has the right resolve. You don’t adopt accidentally; you adopt purposefully.
D. Mission = Accomplishing Redemption
“in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law“
to pay a ransom to secure somebody’s freedom.
to purchase somebody off the slave block.
- Deliverance from bondage to the law
- Deliverance to something better = sonship and full heirship
E. Goal = Full Sonship (Implied Heirship)
“that we might receive the adoption as sons“
- Adoption is a beautiful thing – both for the parents and for the child.
- Usually a very expensive process.
- Brings someone into a new family unit with full rights and privileges.
David Platt: We have been adopted, and the blessings we receive are staggering. Three blessings in particular are worth mentioning.
- First, we have an eternal Father.
- Second, our adoption by God means that we have an eternal family.
- Third, in addition to having an eternal Father and an eternal family, we have an eternal home.
Craig Keener: What may be more relevant than details of ancient adoption procedure is what Paul wants his audience to understand. Why would they resort to circumcision to achieve a status that they already possess? Would not any right-thinking person be envious (cf. possibly 3:1) of their status and the Spirit-experience that confirmed it? To capture some of the thrill that Paul’s words convey, compare the words of a philosopher from this era: “If Caesar adopts you, no one will be able to endure your conceit, but if you know that you are a son of Zeus, will you not be elated?”
III. (4:6-7) AFTER CHRIST HAS COME – FULFILLMENT / ENJOYMENT OF PRIVILEGES
Robert Gromacki: “How can a person know that he is a son? What are the evidences of the fact that he is no longer a spiritual child under legal supervision? The opening causal clause (“because ye are sons”) introduces the reader to two spiritual realities that will exist in the life of every genuine Christian. They are results of sonship which actually confirm that position.”
A. New Privileged Experience of Full Sonship
“And because you are sons“
B. New Privilege of Intimacy (through the indwelling Holy Spirit)
“God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!'”
John MacArthur: Abba is a diminutive of the Aramaic word for father. It was a term of endearment used by young children of their fathers and could be translated ‘daddy’ or ‘papa.’ The Holy Spirit brings us into a personal, intimate relationship with our heavenly Father, whom we may approach at any time and under any circumstance, knowing that He always hears us and lovingly cares for us, because we are truly His own.
Howard Vos: The Greek of verse 7 is much more expressive than the English: “So that (as a result of Christ’s redemptive work on your behalf and His implanting the Spirit in your hearts) you are no longer (though you once were) a slave (in bondage under the law) but an adult son; and if an adult son (rather than one who is still a minor under certain controls), then an heir (enjoying a marvelous new spiritual heritage) through God [the preferred Greek textual reading].” “Through God” is very instructive. The entire Trinity has been involved in making the believer a son and an heir: the Father sent the Son who gave Himself to redeem us, and the Father implanted the Spirit in our hearts to act as a seal and an earnest (Eph 1:13-14) of our inheritance and aid us to live like sons of the King.
Thomas Schreiner: The logic of Paul’s argument seems strange, for he seems to suggest that first believers become God’s sons and then God sends the Spirit to them to confirm the sonship that already exists. It is mistaken, however, to derive a chronological order from what Paul says here. The main point in this paragraph is that believers are sons and heirs. Hence, the verse begins with the declaration that believers are God’s sons. They are truly members of Abraham’s family.
Paul introduces the sending of the Spirit to confirm that they are truly the sons of God. He is not intending to say that the Spirit being given after sonship is a reality. The point is that the Spirit confirms, authenticates, and ratifies their sonship.
C. New Privileged Expectation of Full Heirship
“Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son;
and if a son, then an heir through God.”
Bob Deffinbaugh: Far from producing a greater spiritual maturity, being under the Law was proof of the opposite—immaturity. The theology of the Judaizer was that grace alone was not sufficient to save (cf. Acts 15:1) nor to sanctify (Gal. 3:3). Their solution was to add law to grace. In other words, the Law was necessary to produce godliness and maturity in the life of the Christian, whether Jew or Gentile. Paul nullifies this theology by associating the Law with childhood and immaturity. He describes the period during which Israel was under the Law as the time when they were children (Gal. 4:3) It is necessary to restrict and confine a child because children are too immature to make wise decisions. We do not let our children make important decisions, because they are neither wise nor mature enough to do so. Thus, by associating the Law with the immaturity of a child, which requires tutors, custodians, and stewards, Paul indicates that the need for rigid rules and regulations is the mark of immaturity. How then do the Judaizers dare to promise a higher level of spirituality through a return to the Law?
Ben Witherington: We have here in vs. 7b a first-class and real condition. Paul is quite convinced that the Galatians really are already sons and heirs. This is why he is so exercised to head off their attempts to move in a nomistic direction. In order to accomplish this aim he knows it will not be enough to appeal to reason, and so in what follows in Gal. 4.8ff. Paul will rely more on pathos than on logoi so that his acts or persuasion will have their intended effect.
Nijay Gupta: Paul concludes this passage (4:1–7) by contrasting roles in the household: slave and son. It is as if two paths lay before the Galatian believers—one leads to enslavement and the other to freedom and sonship (see vv. 21–31). The Galatians formerly were enslaved to the stoicheia tou kosmou (vv. 8–9; cf. 5:1). In their initial faith in Christ, they experienced freedom and new life in the Spirit (3:1–5). To be compelled to be circumcised and live under the law would be to give up that freedom and voluntarily trade away their sonship to become slaves again.
Why does Paul spend so much time developing a conception of Christian sonship and inheritance? Theologically, Paul wanted to underscore two things.
- First, his household and family language is all about belonging. Sadly, so many things in the world then and now are about reinforcing systems and tiers of access, acceptance, and inclusion. In the Roman world, what family you are a part of made a big difference in terms of honor, power, and provision. Paul wanted these gentile Galatians to know, really know, that they were warmly embraced in the great household of the one God, not as second-class citizens but 100 percent as family.
- The second point is related. Paul’s familial and household imagery reinforces his focus on what I call the “Christ relation.” Paul did not want to tell the Galatians simply that they were children of God. He taught them that through the Sonship of Christ they fully participate in deep communion with the Father—they have been brought near (Eph 2:13). This became possible only through the love of the Son who gave himself for sinners (Gal 2:19–20).
George Brunk: The final phrase, through God, does not seem to attach smoothly to any single element in the sentence. So it must apply to the entire preceding statement, to the whole process of liberation from slavery and incorporation into God’s family. It underscores that this is a divine rather than human work, a theme that is dominant in the letter from 1:1 onward and is focused in the Spirit-flesh contrast, beginning in 3:1-5.
CONCLUSION:
Rom. 8:12-17