Galatians 4

Galatians 4:1

D. Children and Sons (4:1-16) 4:1, 2 The picture is of a wealthy father who intends to turn over control of his wealth to the son when he reaches maturity. However, as long as he is still a child, the heir’s status is like that of a slave. He is continually told to do this and not to do that. He has stewards who manage his property and guardians in charge of his person. Thus, although the inheritance is surely his, he does not enter into it until he has grown up. 4:3 This was the condition of the Jews under law. They were children, being ordered around by the law just like slaves. They were in bondage under the elements of the world, meaning the elementary principles of the Jewish religion. The ceremonies and rituals of Judaism were designed for those who did not know God the Father as He is revealed in Christ. An illustration might be found in a child learning the rudiments of spelling by using blocks, or learning to identify objects by means of pictures. The law was full of shadows and pictures, appealing to the spiritual senses by means of the physical and external.

Circumcision is an example of this. Judaism was physical, external, and temporal; Christianity is spiritual, internal, and permanent. These externals were a form of bondage to the children.4:4 The fullness of the time refers to the time appointed by the Heavenly Father when the heirs would become of age (see v. 2). In this verse we have, in a few words, a marvelous statement as to the deity and humanity of the Savior. He is the eternal Son of God; yet He was born of a woman. If Jesus had been only a man, it would be gratuitous to say that He was born of a woman. How else could a mere man be born? The expression, in our Lord’s case, witnesses to His unique Person and the unique mode of His birth. Born into the world as an Israelite, He was therefore born under the law. As Son of God, the Lord Jesus would never have been under the law; He was the One who gave it. But, in condescending grace, He put Himself under the law that He had made, in order that He might magnify it in His life, and bear its curse in His death. 4:5 The law demanded a price from those who failed to keep itthe price of death. Before God could bring men into the wonderful position of sonship, this price had to be paid. So the Lord Jesus, coming into the world as a member of the human race and of the Jewish nation, paid the price which the law demanded. Because He is God, His death was infinite in value, that is, it was sufficient to pay for any number of sinners. Because He was Man, He could die as a substitute for man. Govett says: Christ, by nature Son of God, became Son of man, that we, by nature sons of man, might become sons of God.

Wonderful exchange!As long as men were slaves, they could not be sons. Christ delivered them from the bondage of the law in order that they might be adopted as sons. Notice here the distinction between becoming a child of God and a son of God (compare Rom_8:14, Rom_8:16). The believer is born into the family of God as a child (see Joh_1:12). The emphasis here is on the fact of divine birth, not on the privileges and responsibilities of sonship. The believer is adopted into the family as a son.

Every Christian is a son immediately and is brought into the inheritance of which he is an heir. Thus the instructions to Christians in the NT assume no infancy among the saints. All are treated as mature sons. Adoption in Roman culture differed from that in modern life. We think of adoption as taking someone else’s child to be one’s own. But in the NT, adoption means putting believers into the position of mature sons with all the privileges and responsibilities of that position. 4:6 In order that those who are sons of God might realize the dignity of this position, God sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to indwell them. The Spirit creates an awareness of sonship, causing the saint to address God as Father. Abba, Father is a familiar form of address, combining the Aramaic and Greek words for father. No slave could address the head of a family in this fashion; it was reserved for members of the family, and expresses love and confidence. Note the Trinity in this verseSpirit, Son and Fatherin that order. 4:7 The believer is no longer a slave; he is not under the law. Now he is a son of God. Since Christ, as God’s Son, is the heir of all God’s riches, the Christian is an heir of God through Christ. All that God has is his by faith. In rabbinical schools in Israel today a student is not allowed to read the Song of Solomon or Ezekiel 1 until he is forty years old. The Song of Solomon is considered too sexually explicit for a younger mind, and Ezekiel 1 contains a description of the glory of the ineffable God. The Talmud tells that when a certain person under forty began to read Ezekiel 1, fire came out from the page and consumed him. What this shows is that a person under law is not considered a man until he is forty. (The well-known bar mitzvah at age thirteen only makes a Jewish boy a son of the covenantthe meaning of the term and thus responsible to keep the law.) Up to the age of forty the Orthodox man is considered a minor. Not so with believers under grace. The moment they are saved the whole inheritance is theirs. They are treated as adult, mature sons and daughters, and the whole Bible is theirs to read, enjoy, and obey. In light of these truths Harrison’s exhortation is very appropriate: Child of His love, all things are yoursHe tells you this in 1Co_3:22-23 to arouse you to a realization of riches beyond your utmost powers of imagination to comprehend. Consider the universe. Whose is it, but His and yours? Then live royally. 4:8 The Galatians had once been under bondage to idols. Before their conversion, they had been heathens who worshiped idols of wood and stone false gods. Now they were turning to another type of bondagebondage to the law. 4:9 How could they excuse their conduct? They had come to know God, or, if they didn’t know Him in a deep experiential way, at least they were known by Him, that is, they were saved. Yet they were turning from His power and riches (of which they were heirs) to weak and poor things, the things connected with the law, such as circumcision, holy days, and rules of diet. They were again putting themselves in bondage to things that could neither save nor enrich but could only impoverish them. Paul labels the law and all its ceremonies as weak and beggarly. God’s laws were beautiful in their time and place, but they are positive hindrances when substituted for the Lord Jesus. It is idolatry to turn from Christ to law. 4:10, 11 The Galatians were observing the Jewish calendar with its Sabbaths, its festivals, and seasons. Paul expresses fear for those who profess to be Christians, yet seek to find favor with God by legal observances. Even unregenerate people can observe days and months and years. It gives some people intense satisfaction to feel there is something they can do in their own strength to win God’s smile. But this implies that man has some strength, and hence, to that extent, he does not need the Savior. If Paul could write in this manner to the Galatians, what would he write to professing Christians today who are seeking to attain holiness by legal observances? Would he not condemn the traditions brought into Christianity from Judaisma humanly ordained priesthood, distinctive vestments for the priest, Sabbath-keeping, holy places, candles, holy water, and so forth? 4:12 Apparently the Galatians had forgotten their gratitude to Paul when he first preached the gospel to them. But he addresses them as Brethren in spite of their failures and his fears for them. Paul had been a Jew under law. Now, in Christ, he was free from the law. So he says, Become like me delivered from the law and no longer living under it. The Gentile Galatians had never been under law, and were not under it now.

Thus the apostle says: I became like you. I, who was a Jew, now enjoy the freedom from law which you Gentiles always had.You have not injured me at all. It is not exactly clear what Paul had in mind here. Perhaps he is saying that he had no feeling of personal injury as a result of their treatment of him. That they should have turned away from him to the false teachers was not so much a blow at him personally as a blow at the truth of God and thus an injury to their own selves. 4:13 The gospel was first … preached to them in physical infirmity. God often uses weak, despised, poor instruments to accomplish His work in order that the glory will be His and not man’s. 4:14 Paul’s illness was a trial to himself and to those who listened to him. However, the Galatians did not reject him because of his physical appearance or because of his speech. Instead, they received him as an angel of God, that is, a messenger sent by God, and even as Christ Jesus Himself. Since he represented the Lord, they received him as they would receive the Lord (Mat_10:40). They accepted Paul’s message as the very word of God. This should be a lesson to all Christians concerning their treatment of the Lord’s messengers. When we receive them cordially, we receive Him in the same way (Luk_10:16). 4:15 When they first heard the gospel, they acknowledged what a rich blessing it was to their souls. So great was their appreciation that they would have given their own eyes to Paul, if it were possible. (This might be an indication that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was an eye disease.) But where is this sense of gratitude now? Unfortunately, it has vanished like the morning dew. 4:16 What accounted for their changed attitude toward Paul? He was still preaching the same message, earnestly contending for the truth of the gospel. If this made him their enemy, then their position was dangerous indeed.

Galatians 4:17

E. Bondage or Freedom (4:17-5:1) 4:17 The motives of the false teachers differed from Paul’s: they wanted a following, whereas he was interested in the spiritual welfare of the Galatians (4:17-20). The false teachers were zealous in their efforts to win the affections of the Galatians, but their motives were not sincere. They want to exclude you. The Judaizers wanted to cut the Galatians off from the Apostle Paul and from other teachers. They wanted a following, and sought to form a sect in order to get it. Stott warns: When Christianity is turned into a bondage to rules and regulations, its victims are inevitably in subjection, tied to the apron strings of their teachers, as in the Middle Ages.4:18 Paul says, in effect, I do not mind others fussing over you, even when I am absent from you, as long as they are doing so with pure motives and for a good cause.4:19 By calling the Galatians his little children, Paul would remind them that it was he who had pointed them to Christ.

He is undergoing birth-pangs again for them, not this time seeking their salvation, but rather that Christ might be formed in them. Christlikeness is God’s full objective for His people (Eph_4:13; Col_1:28). 4:20 This verse might mean that Paul was puzzled as to the true status of the Galatians. Their defection from the truth had left him with doubts. He would like to be able to change his tone and speak with certainty and conviction about them. Or perhaps he was perplexed as to their reaction to his Letter. He would rather be speaking with them in person. Then he could better express himself by changing the tone of his voice. If they were receptive to his rebukes, he could be tender. If, however, they were haughty and rebellious, he could be stern. As it was, he was perplexed about them; he could not tell what their reaction to his message would be. Since the Jewish teachers made so much of Abraham and insisted that believers must follow his example by being circumcised, Paul turns to Abraham’s domestic history to show that legalism is slavery and cannot be mixed with grace. God had promised that Abraham would have a son, even though he and Sarah were too old, naturally speaking, to have children. Abraham believed God and thus was justified (Gen_15:1-6). Sometime afterward, Sarah became discouraged, waiting for the promised son, and suggested that Abraham should have a child by her slave-girl, Hagar. Abraham followed her advice, and Ishmael was born. This was not the heir promised by God, but the son of Abraham’s impatience, carnality, and lack of trust (Gen. 16). Then, when Abraham was one hundred years old, the child of promise, Isaac, was born. Obviously this birth was miraculous; it was made possible only by the mighty power of God (Gen_21:1-5). At the customary feast in observance of the weaning of Isaac, Sarah saw Ishmael mocking her son. She thereupon ordered Abraham to expel Ishmael and his mother from the home, saying, The son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely, with Isaac (Gen_21:8-11). This is the background for the argument which the apostle now takes up. 4:21 Law in this verse is used in two different senses. The first refers to law as a means of attaining holiness, and the second to the OT books of the law (Genesis through Deuteronomy), particularly Genesis. Paul is saying, Tell me, you who desire to obtain favor with God by law-keeping, do you not listen to the message of the book of the law?4:22, 23 The two sons were Ishmael and Isaac. The bondwoman was Hagar, and the freewoman was Sarah. Ishmael was born as a result of Abraham’s scheming intervention. Isaac, on the other hand, was given to Abraham by promise of God. 4:24 The story is symbolic; it has a deeper meaning than at first appears. The real significance of the events is not expressly stated, but is implied. Thus, the true story of Isaac and Ishmael represents deep spiritual truth, which Paul now proceeds to explain. The two women represent two covenants: Hagar the covenant of law, and Sarah the covenant of grace. The law was given at Mount Sinai. Strangely enough, the word Hagar in the Arabic language means Rock, and the Arabs called Mt. Sinai the Rock.4:25 The covenant given at Sinai produced slavery; thus Hagar, a slave-girl, was a fitting type of the law. Hagar represents Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish nation, and the center for the unsaved Israelites who were still seeking to obtain righteousness by keeping the law. These, together with their children, their followers, are in bondage. For Paul to link unbelieving Israelites with Hagar rather than with Sarah, with Ishmael rather than with Isaac, was a stinging characterization. 4:26 The capital city of those who are justified by faith is the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the mother of all believers, both Jew and Gentile. 4:27 This quotation from Isa_54:1 is a prediction that the children of the heavenly city will be more numerous than those of earthly Jerusalem. Sarah was the woman who for so long was barren. Hagar was the woman who has a husband. In what way are we to understand the eventual triumph of Sarah, or the heavenly Jerusalem? The answer is that the children of promise include all those, Gentiles as well as Jews, who come to God by faithmany more than the children of Hagar who abide under the law. 4:28 True believers are born not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. It is not natural descent that counts, but divine miraculous birth by faith in the Lord Jesus. 4:29 Ishmael mocked Isaac, and it has always been true that those born of the flesh have persecuted those born of the Spirit. Consider the sufferings of our Lord and of the Apostle Paul at the hands of unsaved men. It may seem to us a trivial offense that Ishmael should mock Isaac, but Scripture records it, and Paul sees in it a principle that still abidesthe enmity between the flesh and the Spirit. 4:30 Let the Galatians then appeal to Scripture, and they will hear this verdict. Law and grace cannot be mixed; it is impossible to inherit God’s blessings on the basis of human merit or fleshly effort. 4:31 Those who have trusted Christ have no connection with the law as a means of obtaining divine favor. They are children of the freewoman, and they follow the social condition of their mother.