Faith in Christ means we are adopted into God’s family

Paul continues Chapter 4, explaining that  faith in Christ makes us God’s heirs or children with a an inheritance., but Jewish law is a form of bondage.

4:1 My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property.^NRSV 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.

Paul’s application of the illustration reveals that when we were under the law, we were no better off than slaves. Though the law regards the child as the kurios (master, owner) of the estate, his experience resembles that of the servants. He lives under rules and discipline until he has achieved adulthood.

4:2 But they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father.^NRSV In this analogy Paul focused on the legal rights and status of the son, so he used the words epitropous (guardians, those who watch over the child) and oikonomous (trustees, those who watch over the inheritance), instead of pedagogue, as in 3:24. But Paul’s meaning was the same. The law performed its function of “keeping us out of trouble” and disciplining us during our “immaturity” until God offered us “maturity” through our acceptance of salvation by grace. Paul’s words imply that the time of this “coming of age” differed for every son. In Rome, the father set the time for his son’s coming of age and adulthood. So, too, God set the time for terminating our guardianship under the law and making us his children and heirs by faith. The date is the time of Christ’s coming into the world.

Faith, then, initiates the believer into maturity and full rights. Paul was dumbfounded that the Galatians would choose to revert to the state of discipline when Christ had given them freedom. They were behaving like a child who had inherited an estate but still insisted on remaining in a dependent, servile role.

4:3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.^NIV Paul alluded to slavery in order to show that before Christ came and died for sins, people were in bondage to whatever law or religion they chose to follow. Thinking they could be saved by their deeds, they became enslaved to trying—and failing—to follow even the basics. Applying the illustration directly to the Galatian believers, Paul pointed out that when they were immature spiritually (when they were nepioi—children, infants), they were like slaves (see 4:8).The basic principles of the world (stoikeia tou kosmou) has also been translated “elements of the world” (nkjv). This phrase has three main interpretations:

1. Some have interpreted “basic principles” to refer directly to the law of Moses, for Paul’s focus in this letter has been on the law and the believers’ relationship to it. While this interpretation agrees with Paul’s view that the law taken by itself leads only to slavery, the meaning must be much broader. As in Romans 2:12-16, Paul pointed to the conscience as a general means for God to reveal his standards. The Galatian believers had come from heathen backgrounds and had not grown up under the Jewish law. Although they had not been in slavery, they were becoming enslaved by turning from grace to the law.
2. Others have interpreted “basic principles” or “elements” to mean the four basic elements of Greek philosophy—earth, air, fire, and water. Later, these elements became associated with the gods and then with the stars and planets as well. Many pagan religions (and, at times, the Jewish people) worshiped stars and planets because of their supposed effect on human destiny. Thus, Paul may have lumped both pagan and Jewish religions under one banner by saying that when the people followed these “principles” or “elements” of the world, they were actually in slavery under Satan’s influence. This idea would parallel Paul’s claim regarding the real source of our struggles in the Christian life (see Ephesians 6:12). Yet this view is unlikely because of the context. Paul spoke about people who are under the law.
3. A third interpretation explains “basic principles” or “elements” as the elementary stages of religious practice, whether under the law of the Jewish religion, or the rites and rituals in any heathen religion (see also 4:9 and Colossians 2:20). In other words, the statement referred to any religious experience prior to accepting Christ as Savior.

The third interpretation seems most plausible. Paul was pointing out that trying to reach God through any religion or any worldly plan brings failure. The “basics” of the world (whether religious or moral) suggest that a solution is needed, but do not offer that solution. In fact, these “basics” can be used by demonic powers to give slavery a strong “religious” flavor. Paul compared religious rituals to slavery because they force a standard that people can never achieve. But, with the proclamation of the gospel, grace in Christ replaced those worldly religious practices.

4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.^NKJV Everyone was enslaved under the “basic principles of the world,” but . . . That little word offered hope to humanity. God’s intervention into human history changed the world.

When the fullness of the time had come, God sent Jesus to earth. Why did Jesus come when he did? The “why” may be unanswerable, except that God knew it was the right time, the “fullness.” Several factors present in the Roman Empire certainly aided the quick spread of the message of the gospel. The Greek civilization provided a language that had spread across much of the known world as the main language for all people. The Romans had brought peace throughout their empire and built a system of roads that made land travel quicker and safer than ever before. The Jews were expectant, eagerly awaiting their Messiah. Messianic fervor was at its height. Into this world came Jesus.

Ultimately, the term “fullness of time” refers more clearly to the time of Christ’s arrival rather than to a climate caused by other events that somehow made Jesus’ birth inevitable. Just as a Roman father would set the date for his son to reach maturity and attain freedom from his guardians (4:2), so God had set the date when he would send forth His Son to free people from the law, to become his children (see 4:5). Guided by a sovereign God, historical events worked in harmony to prepare for the predecided moment of Jesus’ arrival on earth. God chose the exact time (see also Psalm 102:13; Mark 1:15; and Ephesians 1:10).

The reference to Jesus as “sent” indicates his preexistence as well as his endorsement by God in the overall plan of salvation. The sending also clarifies the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. The former lovingly sends, while the latter obediently goes. This act of divine sending is mentioned forty-one times in the Gospel of John (for example, see John 3:16-17; 17:18; see also Romans 8:3-4 and 1 John 4:9-10). At the conclusion of that mission, Jesus prefaced his own “sending” of us into the world by claiming, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go . . .” (Matthew 28:18-19 niv). Jesus successfully submitted to his Father’s authority. Therefore, God gave him authority over us, both to rescue us and to send us out into the world.

Jesus was born of a woman—he was God yet also human (Genesis 3:15; Luke 1:26-38; John 1:1, 14). Paul balanced his amazing claims about Jesus’ divine nature with his reminder of Jesus’ human character. Born under the law, Jesus was a human; thus he was voluntarily subject to the structured universe that he had created (John 1:3-5) and that had been marred by human rebellion. More significantly, Jesus lived as a Jew, subject to God’s revealed law. In keeping with this, Jesus was both circumcised and presented at the temple (Luke 2:21-32). Yet while no other human being has been able to perfectly fulfill God’s law, Jesus kept it completely (Matthew 5:17; Hebrews 4:15). Thus, Jesus could be the perfect sacrifice because, although fully human, he never sinned. His death bought freedom for us who were enslaved to sin, offering us redemption and adoption into God’s family.

4:5 To redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.^NIV Jesus was himself born “under the law” (4:4) so that by his living and dying he could accomplish two purposes: (1) to redeem those under the law and (2) to allow those “redeemed” people to receive the full rights of sons.

To “redeem” means “to buy back” (see 3:13). “Redemption” was the price paid to gain freedom for a slave (Leviticus 25:47-54). Through his life, Jesus demonstrated his unique eligibility to be our Redeemer. Through his death, Jesus paid the price to release us from slavery to sin. When Christ redeemed “those under the law,” he did not redeem the Jews alone. His death set people free from bondage to any law or religious system (see 4:3)—offering, instead, salvation by faith alone. But because the law was God’s clearest revelation of his justice, being born under the law and keeping it perfectly proved that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. He took upon himself the curse the law required in order to set believers free of that curse.

In these verses, Paul continued to respond to the foolishness of the Galatians. If Christ had fulfilled the law, taking upon himself the curse of the law, and had freed people from the law, why would the Galatians try to keep requirements already fulfilled by Christ? The question appears again plainly in 4:9. Meanwhile, Paul was building a case that would make the question entirely rhetorical.

Redemption had an ongoing purpose—”that we might receive the full rights of sons.” Until Christ redeemed us (that is, paid the ultimate price by taking the penalty for our sins), we could never have been acceptable to God. In our sinful state, God could have nothing to do with us. Even our good works or religious rituals could bring us no closer to a relationship with him. But when Christ “bought us back,” he gave us freedom from the slavery we faced before and brought us into a new relationship with God the Father. Our new position in Christ goes beyond mere acceptance by God. So close is that relationship that Paul called it huiothesian (sonship) or “adoption as children” (nrsv) or “full rights of sons.” In Roman culture, a wealthy, childless man could take a slave youth and make that slave his child and heir. The adopted person was no longer a slave. He became a full heir to his new family, guaranteed all legal rights to his father’s property. He was not a second-class son; he was equal to all other sons, biological or adopted, in his father’s family. That person’s origin or past was no longer a factor in his legal standing. Likewise, when a person becomes a Christian, he or she leaves the slavery of trying to please God through works and gains all the privileges and responsibilities of a child in God’s family.

4:6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”^NIV This verse and the next are central in the apostle’s entire argument. Focusing again on the Galatians, Paul added you are sons, that is, God’s children, part of God’s family. Paul almost seems to say, “Because you’re God’s kids, start acting that way!” Despite their doubts and confusion at that time, God still regarded the Galatian believers as his children. How did Paul know this? How could the Galatian believers claim this?

• But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. (Romans 8:9-11 nrsv)

Having the Spirit of Christ means that we belong to Christ. Faith in Christ includes the reception of the Holy Spirit as part of the same transaction between us and God (see Ephesians 1:13-14). We do not experience Christ’s redemption apart from receiving his Spirit. “The Spirit of his Son” is a unique expression for Paul. It appears only in Galatians and shows Christ’s full deity and the total interaction of the Trinity.

A person cannot have a personal relationship with laws or rituals. But believers have an intimate relationship with God. *Abba is an Aramaic word for “father.” It was a very familiar, endearing term used by a child when addressing his or her father at home, perhaps like the English “Daddy.” Christ used this word in his prayer in Mark 14:36. Paul may have added pater (Father) simply as a translation of the word Abba, but he may have also been pointing to deeper issues than simply the freedom to be familiar with God. Before, when we were enslaved to the “principles” (4:3), we had no access to God. But now, as God’s adopted children, we can approach him with love and trust. Notice that it is the Holy Spirit, not we, who calls out Abba, Father. The Spirit cries out to the Abba on our behalf (Romans 8:26-27), and we cry to the Abba with the Spirit (Romans 8:15). Taken together, the  two terms convey the delightful fearlessness of a little child with the honor of a respectful son. He gives us the Spirit, not for us to display our spirituality, but so that we may witness to our adoption into his family. As God’s adopted children, we share with Jesus all rights to God’s resources. As God’s heirs, we can claim what he has provided for us—our full identity as his children.

How do the sending of the Spirit and adoption work together? Neither one occurs logically or chronologically prior to the other. God’s work of adopting us and sending his Spirit is an inter-woven relationship, reciprocally entwined.

The doctrine of the Trinity implicit in these verses must not be missed. Salvation is accomplished through the work of all persons of the Trinity. God the Father sent both God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God the Son, by his death on the cross, allowed us to have the position as God’s children; God the Holy Spirit, by entering into believers’ hearts, gives us the assurance of that experience. The Galatians were being encouraged by the Judaizers to pursue what they in fact already had. No wonder Paul was astonished. It was as if the Galatians were believing door-to-door salesmen who were offering to sell them tiny shares of the inheritance they had already received!

4:7 So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.^NRSV To conclude his argument from this analogy, Paul explained briefly that each Galatian believer was no longer a slave to any law or religious ritual or even to Satan. Instead, each person had entered into God’s family, being adopted as a child. Belonging to God as his child also means being an heir, for God has promised the inheritance of eternal life and his riches and blessings to all his children. We need no further preparation. No system can fill in or stand in for Christ. Being a child and being an heir are inseparable realities in God’s family. Paul wrote to the Romans:

• For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:15-17 nrsv).

Note the change from the plural in 4:6 to the singular in this verse. The focus on each individual believer drives the point home. Not the Galatians only, but all believers, including you who read these words, can claim this incredible promise: You are no longer a slave but a child, and an heir of all God’s promises! For a Galatian to follow the Judaizers would be the same act as if a son and heir removed his birthright and returned to slavery.

The two words through God emphasize Paul’s source for his teaching and his assurances. The promises come through God and God alone. Paul’s teaching of these doctrines also came through God and God alone. Believers who trust in Christ’s sacrifice have the Holy Spirit and thus can have the same assurance. Our privileged position comes through God.

Thank you Jesus!

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Source:  Bruce B. Barton et al., Life Application Bible Commentary – Galatians, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1994), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: “GALATIANS 3:1-4:7”.