Galatians
4
New
American Standard Bible (NASB)
Sonship
in Christ
4
Now I say, as long as the heir is a [a]child, he does not differ at all from a
slave although he is [b]owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and
[c]managers until the date set by the father. 3 So also we, while we were
children, were held in bondage under the [d]elemental things of the world. 4
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a
woman, born under [e]the Law, 5 so that
He might redeem those who were under [f]the Law, that we might receive the
adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a
slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir [g]through God.
8
However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which
by nature are no gods. 9 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
[h]elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? 10 You
observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps
I have labored [i]over you in vain.
12
I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You
have done me no wrong; 13 but you know that it was because of a [j]bodily
illness that I preached the gospel to you the [k]first time; 14 and that which
was a [l]trial to you in my [m]bodily condition you did not despise or
[n]loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. 15 Where
then is [o]that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that, if
possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. 16 So have
I become your enemy by [p]telling you the truth? 17 They eagerly seek you, not
commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. 18 But
it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable [q]manner, and not only
when I am present with you. 19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until
Christ is formed in you— 20 but I could wish to be present with you now and to
change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
Bond
and Free
21
Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it
is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free
woman. 23 But the son by the bondwoman [r]was born according to the flesh, and
the son by the free woman through the promise. 24 [s]This is allegorically
speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai
bearing children [t]who are to be slaves; [u]she is Hagar. 25 Now this Hagar is
Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in
slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free; [v]she is our
mother. 27 For it is written,
“Rejoice,
barren woman who does not bear;
Break
forth and shout, you who are not in labor;
For
more numerous are the children of the desolate
Than
of the one who has a husband.”
28
And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But as at that time
he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to
the Spirit, so it is now also. 30 But what does the Scripture say?
“Cast
out the bondwoman and her son,
For
the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.”
31
So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, [w]but of the free
woman.
The
IVP New Testament Commentary Series
Enjoying
the Full Rights of Sons (4:6-7)
Now
Paul describes the way that children experience their full rights: Because you
are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts (v. 6). The change
from first person (we) to second person (you) shows that the adoption received
by those under law (v. 5) was also received by the Gentile converts. The
confession of faith of Jewish Christians is now the confession of Gentile
Christians. Though Gentiles were not under law in the same way the Jewish
people were, Paul's point is that they too were set free from the tyranny and
curse of the law by the sending of God's Son. And by faith in Christ, they too
have entered into a new relationship with God which involves the enjoyment of
the full rights of sons and daughters of God. Now their life is to be lived not
"under law" but "in Christ."
The
striking parallelism between God sent his Son and God sent the Spirit of his
Son rivets our attention on God's gracious initiative. Just as our position as
sons and daughters was secured by God's action in sending his Son, so our
experience as sons and daughters is the result of God's action in sending the
Spirit of his Son. We could do nothing to attain to the position of sons and
daughters; we can only receive the gift of adoption by faith. We could do
nothing to produce an experience as sons and daughters; the action of God in
sending the Spirit of his Son into our hearts enables us to enjoy our new
relationship with God our Father.
Paul
makes it very clear that there is only one condition for the experience of the
Spirit in our hearts: Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into
our hearts. There is no other prerequisite for this experience of the Spirit
besides receiving the gift of adoption. We do not need to go through a series
of steps, recite special prayers or meet extra conditions. God sends the Spirit
of his Son into our heart for one reason: because he adopted us into his
family. To view adoption and reception of the Spirit as two separate stages in
the Christian life tears apart the reciprocal relation of adoption and the sending
of the Spirit. Paul's unique title for the Spirit here, Spirit of his Son,
emphasizes the unity of the experience of adoption and the experience of the
Spirit.
Just
as verse 5 teaches us that the gift of adoption is ours when we receive it, so
verse 6 teaches us that the sending of the Spirit into our hearts is
experienced when we pray: the Spirit sent into our hearts is the Spirit who
calls out, "Abba, Father." Abba is an Aramaic word for
"father" used by a child in intimate conversation within the home.
When children addressed their father as Abba, they were expressing affection,
confidence and loyalty. One of the most remarkable aspects of the life of Jesus
was that he addressed God as Abba in his prayers and taught his disciples to do
the same. So striking and significant was Jesus' addressing God as Abba that
even in Greek-speaking churches Jesus' Aramaic word for Father was heard as the
believers called out to God in prayer. They called God Abba because the Spirit
of Jesus was assuring them within their hearts, the control center of their
emotions and thoughts, that they were children of the Father.
To
know at the deepest level of our being that God is our Father and we are his
sons and daughters is not the result of theological research or moral
achievement, but the result of God's sending the Spirit of his Son to speak to
us and to convince us that despite all our guilt, fears and doubts, the Father
of Jesus is our Father too. To know God as our Father in this way is not merely
intellectual apprehension of a doctrine, not merely warm feelings about God,
but a life-transforming conscious awareness of the reality of our intimate
relationship with God our Father.
Paul
is certainly not talking here about addressing God as Father in a formal
liturgy in which there is no real involvement of the heart and will and mind.
Nor is he talking about addressing God with an easy familiarity, as in prayers
where God is addressed as "Daddy" in a chummy, casual way with no
sense of awe or reverence. We must remember that when Jesus addressed his
Father as Abba in the garden of Gethsemane, he was expressing both confident
trust and willing obedience. " `Abba, Father,' he said, `everything is
possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you
will' " (Mk 14:36). So if the Spirit of the Son is moving us to call God
Abba, then we will be expressing the same confident trust and willing obedience
of the Son to the Father. All that Jesus did and said flowed out of his
relationship with his Father. His sense of identity (who he was) was not based
on his ministry (what he did), but just the reverse: he did what he did because
he knew who he was. Likewise, the witness of the Spirit within us that God is
our Father and we are his children is the center and fountainhead of all our
Christian life and ministry.
People
all around us are having identity crises. They are trying to find out who they
are. They go for therapy to discover their inner selves; they search for their
roots; they try to build their sense of self-worth on the foundation of their
achievements. But far more important than any of these ways of finding out who
we are, we need to experience the great gift of God the Father, the gift of his
Spirit who tells us that we are children of God our Father. This experience of
our identity before God is not necessarily a sensational or emotional
experience. It is simply an experience of the Spirit's inner witness as we pray
from our hearts to God.
We
should always be amazed that when we pray we are included in the conversation
of the Triune God. When we call God "Abba, Father," we are reminded
by the very word Abba that Jesus used this name for God the Father in his prayers.
We can address God as Father only because his Son gives us the right to do so.
And we can exercise our right to call God Abba only by the activity of his
Spirit within us who calls out, "Abba, Father." We call God Abba
through the Son and in the power of the Spirit.
We
will always find it difficult to explain the doctrine of the Trinity. But in
prayer we experience the life and love of the Triune God. What an amazing
privilege that we should be included in the conversation within the Trinity
through prayer!
Verse
7 sums up Paul's argument to this point: So you are no longer a slave, but a
son. The witness of the Spirit within convinces us that we are sons and
daughters, children of God. Sons and daughters are no longer "held
prisoners by the law" (3:23), "no longer under the supervision of the
law" (3:25) and no longer subject to guardians and trustees (4:2). Sons
and daughters are free from the control of the law. This does not mean that
sons and daughters are free to do anything. They are now under the direction of
the Spirit, who brings them into such close communion with God that they call
him Abba. Sons and daughters who live in communion with the Father under the
direction of the Spirit do not need the law to guide and discipline them. They
are directed by a far superior power: the power of the Spirit.
To
live under the direction of the law, as the Galatian believers were attempting
to do, was sheer folly. "You foolish Galatians!" You are sons and
daughters, not slaves. Why turn to the direction of the law when you have the
direction of the Spirit? The tragedy of the Galatian situation was that
believers who had entered into a love relationship with the Father by the
activity of the Spirit in their lives were now acting like slaves, not like sons
and daughters. They were relating to God on the basis of keeping his law rather
than worshiping and serving him in the freedom and power of the Spirit of his
Son. It is the same tragedy of the elder brother in Jesus' parable of the
prodigal son. Although he served his father dutifully, he never called him
"Father" or related to him as a son. He thought and acted like a
slave: "All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your
orders" (Lk 15:29).
I
have greater appreciation for Paul's argument here now that my two sons are
full-grown and no longer minors. I no longer attempt to restrict their behavior
with the set of rules they had to follow when they were still young. In fact,
if at this stage of their lives they responded to me simply on the basis of
keeping my rules, I would be disappointed. What I long for now is for them to
relate to me as mature sons. When they express love and respect to me simply
because that is the desire of their heart, I am deeply grateful and filled with
joy.
The
consequence of being a son is inheritance: Since you are a son, God has made
you also an heir (v. 7). The Galatian believers had been told that they must be
related to the descendants of Abraham through observance of the law in order to
inherit the promises God made to Abraham. But Paul has now demonstrated how
faith in Christ makes one a child of God and so an heir of God. None of us can
make ourselves children or heirs of God. Only God can make slaves into sons and
daughters, and sons and daughters into heirs.
The
promise of inheritance is the promise of the Spirit. Paul said in 3:14 that the
blessing of Abraham came upon the Gentiles: they received the promised Spirit.
What greater inheritance could there be than the presence of the Spirit of God,
the Spirit of his Son, within our hearts? The Spirit of his Son not only
assures us that we are beloved children of the Father; he also makes us like
his Son. We are most like the Son of God when we totally identify with him in
Gethsemane and are able by his Spirit to pray "Abba, Father." When
Christ prayed "Abba, Father" in Gethsemane, he was expressing
complete trust in his Father and his willingness to endure the cross in
obedience to his Father. He was looking ahead with confident, obedient trust to
both the cross and the resurrection. When we are sure of our adoption by the
witness of the Spirit within, we will also be living in the power of the
inheritance of the Spirit, who is in the process of making us like Christ in
his death and resurrection. Every day something of his cross will be seen in us
as we die to self. Every day something of his resurrection life will be seen as
he lives through us. One day, after a final death and a final resurrection, we
will be completely like him. That is our inheritance as the children of God.
I
once heard a son speak at his father's funeral service about his inheritance.
He said, "The greatest inheritance my father left me was not what he had
but what he was. He was a man of integrity; he was humble and often admitted his
own failures. He was generous and compassionate. Above all, he was a man of
deep faith in God. That's the inheritance that I most treasure, the inheritance
of the character of my father." As children of God, we can say the same.
Our greatest inheritance is not the abundance of things the Father gives us,
but the character of his Son which the Spirit of his Son is forming within us.
IVP
New Testament Commentaries are made available by the generosity of InterVarsity
Press.
“Costly
grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift
which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is
costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to
follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is
grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it
condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is
costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price',
and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace
because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but
delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
The Cost of Discipleship
The
Bible Panorama
Galatians
4
V
1–5: ADOPTION Paul states that through redemption Christians are adopted by God
as His sons. An adopted child is brought from one family into another. We have
been brought from the ‘family’ of condemnation to the ‘family’ of salvation in
Christ. As such we are heirs who inherit His eternal blessings.
V
6–7: ABBA Paul is quick to point out that this is not only a legal position,
but that God’s Spirit works in our hearts so that we know Him spiritually and
directly as ‘Abba Father’. ‘Abba’ literally means ‘daddy’. We are not slaves,
but sons and heirs.
V 8–16: ASTRAY Paul applies this truth and
tells them of his concern, because having been saved by faith in Christ
according to God’s promise, they are now putting themselves into bondage by
observing days, months, and seasons. They seek to fulfil unnecessary legalistic
requirements either of a past and extinct ceremonial law, or of man-made laws.
Paul observes the difference that this has made to their former conduct towards
him. Previously he had been encouraged by their love and their caring warmth.
Now he feels treated as an enemy because he insists on God’s truth about
salvation.
V
17–20: APOSTATE The comparison between the false apostles, who seek to exclude
the Galatian Christians from the grace of God, and Paul’s fatherly concern is
obvious. Nevertheless, he is prepared to act as a good father and reprimand
them if necessary.
V
21–31: ABRAHAM Paul refers to scriptural history. Abraham and Hagar (a slave)
had a son, Ishmael. Abraham and Sarah, his wife, had the son God promised,
namely Isaac. Paul illustrates two distinct and opposing covenants of law and
of freedom, represented by the two different relationships, which underline
what he teaches the Galatians in this chapter. As Isaac inherited God’s promises
to Abraham, so we inherit God’s promises magnified to repentant sinners in
Christ. Thus we are the free ‘children of promise’ and are born of the Spirit
of God. We do not become God’s children of promise through enslavery to the law
or our works.
The
Bible Panorama. Copyright © 2005 Day One Publications.
Yours
by His Grace
Blair
Humphreys
Southport,
Merseyside
January
14th 2014
