In chapter three the Apostle Paul stressed that justification (both initial—salvation, and sustaining—sanctification) is totally a matter of faith apart from works. He argued the matter from the Galatians’ own experience and from the historical record of Abraham in the Old Testament. In this chapter he continues the theme that by faith alone in Christ alone those who were once under the bondage of the law are now free from it. They have been “redeemed” to receive the “adoption of sons,” and are therefore fully matured “sons of God” and “heirs of God” (of His eternal promise and blessings) “through Jesus Christ.”

Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

In continuing his argument for faith over legalism, the Apostle Paul uses an analogy quite common in that day. He drew from Roman and Greek custom the relationship of a father and son. The following words Paul uses in describing this relationship are definitely listed as follows:

The picture is of a father who intends on turning over control of his estate to his son when his son reaches maturity. But as long as the son is still a minor (child), his status is that of a slave. His life is completely controlled by guardians and stewards. A “guardian” attends to the welfare of the child’s person. A “steward” attends to the child’s property. Thus, although the inheritance is surely his, the son does not enter into it until he has fully grown up—a time which is arbitrarily determined by his father.

Kenneth S. Wuest in his Galatians in the Greek New Testament, put it this way: “The ‘elements of the world’ refer here therefore to the first principles of non-Christian humanity; in the case of the Jew, to the symbolic and ceremonial character of Judaism and its legal enactments, and in the case of the Gentile, to the ceremonial and ritualistic observances of the pagan religions.” The idea is that as long as a person is under legalism which is a “first principle” of religion—both Jewish and pagan, he is a slave to it and has no hope of freedom. This is the condition of a person without Christ. This was the condition of the Galatians before they came to Christ.

Galatians 4:4-7

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Paul now refers to the “fullness of the time,” which, true to his analogy, was that moment in time selected by God the Father to set forth the only event that would enable humanity’s immature children, who were slaves under various forms of legalism, to be established as mature sons—full heirs of God’s promise and blessings. This was when the Creator of the universe (Jesus Christ), from His position outside the dimension and constraints of time, entered time for the sake of His creation to do everything necessary for mankind to become mature sons and heirs of God.

Paul affirms the Deity of Jesus Christ in his statement, “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman.” If Jesus Christ had only been a man, it would be gratuitous to say that he was “born of a woman.” How else could mere man be born? Not only that but his mention of “woman,” apart from combining it with “man,” was a reference to the “virgin birth”—a miraculous event that only God could perform. Paul therein specifies Jesus’ unique person and unique mode of birth. Why a virgin birth? In the Bible the virgin birth was first alluded to in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed . . . .” Normally the word “seed” refers to man’s seed, but in this verse the “woman’s seed” is specifically mentioned. One of the most prominent verses stating the virgin birth is Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” The fact of the virgin birth is uncontested, at least if one accepts God’s Word as authority. But again the question, why? Primarily because the “life of the flesh is in the blood” (Genesis 9:4) and the sin nature of man was (and is) passed down from Adam through the blood line of man (Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22). The sin nature brings spiritual death and Jesus Christ could not be tainted with the sin nature; therefore, it was necessary that He be born of a virgin.

Paul also states that Jesus Christ was born “under the law.” Only in this way could he voluntarily be subject to the law. He gave the law, but in condescending grace He placed himself under it in order that He might magnify it in His life and bear its curse in His death. And why did Jesus Christ do this?

Jesus Christ came by the seed of woman, lived a sinless life in accordance with all law, bore all mankind’s sin in Himself on the cross, paid the penalty-price for man’s sin by submitting to both spiritual and physical death, was buried and in three days rose from the grave—all in order to redeem mankind. The word “redeem” is from the Greek word exagorazo, which means “to buy out of the slave market.” What slave market? It is the slave market of sin and all that sin entails. First, it entailed a death penalty.

Second, it entailed bondage. As Paul described in verse 3 of this chapter, the law, both Jewish and pagan, only brings bondage (slavery). Wherein chapter 3 Paul primarily speaks to the death penalty of sin, but here in this chapter his main thrust is to the bondage of sin.

Because Christ redeemed (bought out of the slave market of sin) mankind, any person may by faith alone in Christ alone be placed by God into the position of an “adult son.” Paul uses the Greek word, huios, for “sons,” which refers not to an immature child but to a mature or adult son. Instead of being children (nepios, immature ones) under law, believers become adult sons under grace.

At the sake of being redundant, it is important to note that upon faith alone in Christ alone a person receives the “adoption as a son,” that is, he is legally placed into a relationship with God as an “adult son” who has every right to the inheritance of a naturally born son. Therefore “through faith in Christ,” the believer is (1) no longer under the death penalty of sin and is (2) no longer under the bondage of sin. He has been made free from spiritual death and free from the slavery sin imposes. But more than this, he now has the same inheritance as befitting Jesus Christ. Even though a person by means of the “new birth” becomes a child (Gk. teknon) of God spiritually (John 1:12), at the same time (as is the argument in this passage) he is legally placed as and is legally considered an “adult son” with all the privileges and responsibilities of that position—and he is just as much a heir of God’s fortune as Jesus Christ Himself.

This point is augmented in Romans 8:16 & 17, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” What does it say? It says believers as “children of God” are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Creator of all (John 1:1-3) and the One who will inherit all (the earth, the universe, all of it) very soon (Revelation), will also share all of it with the children of God—all believers who have accepted Him solely by faith.

Jesus is never designated as teknon (child) or teknon Theou (child of God), but always ho huios, the Son, the Son of God or the Son of Man. Believers are called both tekna Theou, children of God (John 1:12; Romans 8:16, 17, 21: 9:8; Ephesians 5:1; 1 John 3:1, 2, 10; 5:2), and huioi, sons (Romans 8:14, 19; Galatians 3:26; 4:7, 7; Hebrews 12:7). By faith alone in Christ alone a person becomes both a child of God through spiritual birth and a mature son of God by legal adoption. Both transactions emanate from the sacrifice (the penalty-price paid) by Christ on the cross of Calvary.

Because of this placement into a position as a mature (adult) son, the Holy Spirit now resides in every believer and allows the believer to address God as “Abba Father.” This is a unique Aramaic expression of relationship that denotes intimacy and trust. It is much akin to the expression of “daddy,” in today’s culture. It confirms the very close and personal relationship each believer has with God through Christ. Additionally, it confirms the fact that each believer is a joint heir with Jesus Christ. But to be an heir with Christ also obligates the heir to the responsibilities of this unique relationship. These responsibilities are capsulated in one of the Commandments given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai.

In both Exodus 20:7 and Deuteronomy 5:11 the command is such, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” This command is often interpreted as using God’s name inappropriately in verbal expression, thereby making it oral vulgarity. Actually the scope of the command is much broader than this. As the children of Israel were identified with the God of Creation, they in turn were responsible for bearing His name. Along with this came the obligation to honor and magnify that name. They were to do this in both word and deed. Their attitudes, conduct, responses and words all reflected their relationship with God. In all of these they either lived up to God’s name and honorably represented Him; or, by not doing so, they took His name in vain.

It is the same for the Christian today who, as an adult son of God, has the responsibility of living up to the name of God and his Savior, his joint Heir, Jesus Christ. In all matters of life and in all expressions of life, which is to say in all aspects of his life, he should not take the name of God in vain. All facets of his life should honor and magnify God. Why?—because he has been placed into a most favored position. He is no longer in bondage to any legal system, he is free and he is an heir to God (and all that it entails) in Jesus Christ.

This same expression of “Abba Father” also used by Paul in Romans 8:14 & 15, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’” Paul explains that the intimacy prompted by the indwelt Holy Spirit (“Spirit of adoption”) comes to those who are “led by the Spirit of God.” This is not salvation, but a state of sanctification that all believers may possess. How? They may routinely and continuously possess it by (1) confessing all known sin (1 John 1:9) and (2) by faith-accepting the Spirit’s leadership in their life (Colossians 2:6). It is then that a believer is able to live fully in accordance with his position as an adult son of God.

This passage employs a few very interesting words, which in their original (Greek) form have the following definitive meanings:

The Apostle Paul, in absolute amazement, asks a rhetorical question of the Galatians. He essentially asked, “How is it possible with your background when you had no intuitive or full knowledge of God and you were enslaved to unreal gods, but now personally and experientially know God, which is that He personally and experientially knows you, that you turn back to a system of enslavement that is utterly powerless and destitute—so completely insufficient to meet your present and eternal needs?”

The direction the Galatians were taking simply stunned (flabbergasted, confounded) Paul. Before they were slaves to a pagan system which dictated their very life and which provided them no temporal or eternal solace and hope. He came into contact with the Galatians and their paganism in the southern region of Asia Minor called Lycaonia (Acts 14:9-18). This experience and others led him to proclaim in no uncertain terms that the gods of the pagan world to be “demons” (1 Corinthians 8:5, 6, 10:19, 20; Colossians 2:15). Having experienced the grace, the forgiveness and the richness of God’s salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, it was impossible for him to conceive how anyone would go back into bondage under any philosophical system of legality.

This was especially true for the Galatians since they had in an experiential or personal way come to know God. Paul is doubtlessly speaking of their salvation experience.

The point being is that the Galatians were born again. And this experience was a direct result of the grace of God making Himself known through Jesus Christ to them. This comparison again reinforces the fact that there are only two existing “paths to God” existent in this world from its creation. One is conceived by man; the other is directly from the heart of God. One is utterly false and leads to despair and eternal doom; the other to complete fulfillment, contentment and eternal life. That which is false is centered on man’s ability to earn through works the approbation (approval) of God. That which is true is dependent totally on the work of God. Man’s part, if one wishes to term it as such, is only to accept it by faith. It is not what man does for God; it is what God has done for man. It is not man’s ability to grasp God; it is God’s ability to grasp man. It is never man’s love for God; it is God’s love for man. It is never anything of man; it is all of God. Why? It is because man is incapable of doing anything acceptable for God, since he is by nature sinful. If man was ever to be saved from his condition and an eternity in hell, then God would have to do it for him. And the wonder of it all is that God did just that by sending His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty-price for man’s sin on the cross so that by faith alone in Christ alone man could be saved.

The student of God’s Word must always keep these two “paths” in mind as he approaches the fast sea of doctrine contained in canonized Scripture and the realities of his earth-bound experience. The sure test of proper interpretation rests on whether or not the concept agrees with or contradicts God’s message of grace, which is without the works or efforts of man. If the student finds that his interpretation places the emphasis on man and his ability either to be saved or to be kept saved, then he should know that he must restudy and rethink the issue. Correct doctrine focuses on and magnifies God—never man.

The Galatians were turning back to a legalistic system, a system of slavery, of bondage. Even though it was not paganism, the Jewish system of “dos and don’ts” was now, particularly in light of the cross, the same thing. Even though the ritualism employed in Judaism foreshadowed and pointed to the cross, now, after the cross, all such practices were empty and could only enslave the believer, separating him from the freedom in Jesus Christ.

The days, months, seasons and years that the Galatians were observing, were those which the Mosaic Law required Israel to observe, e.g., Sabbath days, monthly recurring events (Isaiah 66:23; Numbers 29), or reference to the celebration of the appearance of the new moon (Numbers 10:10, 28:11). “Seasons” refers to the celebrations not limited to a single day, such as the Passover, Feast of tabernacles, and to the feast of the fourth, fifth, and seventh months (2 Chronicles 8:13). It appears that from Galatians 5:1 the Galatians had not yet adopted circumcision but, as the Judaizers were ever-convincing them to participate in various Jewish requirements, they were slowly being sucked into an ever-increasing morass of legalism. Having possibly been persuaded to adopt the festivals and perhaps the fast days, the Galatians were now being swayed to adopt circumcision. Paul’s concern over the matter was he had wasted much of his time and energy in showing them the correct way.

The practical application for the Christian is to take to heart the key ingredients of Paul’s message to the Galatians. God sees the heart—the motivations and intent of man in coming before God. He is less concerned with the routines and rituals. It is far more important that man wherever he is comes honestly before God—as he lies in bed, as he walks the field or in any place—rather than to think that he gains merit by simply showing up and attending church on a regular basis. It is so easy to view the routines and “expectations” established by a local church as being innately holy and worthy of merit. It is not how many times a believer goes to Sunday school and church, goes to prayer meetings, gives to the plate or prays out loud that counts with God. God only recognizes the motivation undergirding such things that are done. If a Christian resorts back to legalistic requirements after salvation in order to achieve the approbation of God, he then resorts to paganism, which accrues no spiritual and eternal benefits whatsoever for him. The believer must always be aware of and guard against becoming “religious.”

In this passage Paul becomes more personal, more touching, in his appeal to the Galatians to maintain their freedom from law. He reminds them how they enthusiastically received him and the Gospel he had once proclaimed to them. He tells them of his longing once again to be with them in order that he might speak to them personally.

He addresses them as “brethren” and then exhorts them to become like him, since he had become like them. Whereas once he was under the legalism imposed by Judaism, he became free from it in Christ. He became free of the law, just as the Gentiles were free from the Jewish law. Having done this, he now implores the Galatians once again to embrace the freedom that is in Jesus Christ. Not to do so would not be to Paul’s injury. No, it would be to their injury to revert back to legalism and snub the freedom that is in Jesus Christ.

He reminds them that even though he had a physical infirmity when he first came to them, they received him anyway both earnestly and passionately. They received him as if he was an angel of God, even as if He was Jesus Christ Himself. They completely overlooked his physical condition.

He then asked them a question, “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” Man is defensive when faced with the truth about himself. Prior to salvation, there are a hundred, if not more, excuses when one faces the reality that he is a sinner and has no eternal hope. The same dynamic works on the believer when faced with the truth of sin in his life. Excuse after excuse after excuse is subconsciously and consciously generated by the mind in an effort to avoid the truth of God’s indictment. In the case with the Galatians, as they faced the truth, they too would sooner blame Paul than themselves.

It was the Judaizers that were rigorously courting the Galatians, but to no good. They sought converts among the Galatians, to exclude them from the truth of grace and love in Jesus Christ, so that their energies might be misdirected to the support of legalism and those who promoted it. Paul cries out to the Galatians, as his “little children.” After all he introduced them to grace. He introduced them to Jesus Christ. By his labor (God working through him) he brought them through the “new birth” to their present eternal relationship with God. Now he was experiencing the same birth pains for them again. But now it is for the purpose of having “Christ formed” in them. And herein is the key to sanctification.

Paul speaks to what it means to live a productive spiritual life. Christ saves a person by faith alone, but there is life after the salvation experience. The believer, just as before the salvation experience, has choice. He may opt to live apart from his Savior, which brings later shame and loss of rewards; or, he may opt to live in accordance with the principles established by God for a victorious spiritual life.

To live the life in accordance to God’s way is to have Christ formed in the believer so that He may live out the victorious spiritual life through the believer. This is tantamount to being filled with (controlled by) the Holy Spirit. You ask, “What are the principles a believer must live by to assure this result?” There are two primary principles. First, one needs only to confess any known sin in his life (1 John 1:9), and second, he must accept the control of the Holy Spirit in his life by “faith alone” (Colossians 2:6). When this is done, he may say (by faith and not by feeling) with the Apostle Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Paul then expresses his desire to be with his Galatian “children,” so that he may be more attentive and conciliatory. He is perplexed about the Galatians (regarding their need once again to enter a system of bondage and how he might deal with them over this matter) given all that he has heard, and he would very much like to face these issues head on and in person.

The more a student of God’s Word studies the entire Bible the more he understands that “the New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.” In verses 21-31 Paul gives us an example of this truism. Here he recounts in capsule-form the history of Hagar and Sarah, wives of Abraham (Genesis 16), and utilizes this actual historical account, as God had intended from the beginning, in an allegorical (symbolic) fashion to demonstrate the present status of law and grace.

He specifically addresses those Galatians who desire to be subject to the law. The definite article “the” is absent before “law” in the Greek text, which indicates that it refers to law as a principle of life, not necessarily the Mosaic Law. To them he rhetorically asks, “Do you not hear the law?” These Galatians desired to be under law once again, but did they even understand all “being under law” involved and demanded? Of course they didn’t, so Paul attempts to enlighten them.

Ishmael was born by “natural generation” of the bondwoman, Hagar; but Isaac was born miraculously (according to the promise of God) of the freewoman, Sarah. Paul says that this actual happening in history past was symbolic (an allegory—a story of fact or fiction in which there is a hidden or symbolic meaning) of the fact that the law was superseded by grace.

The two wives represented two covenants. Hagar represents the covenant of law, which was given at Mount Sinai. The word “Hagar” in the Arabic language means “rock,” and the Arabs called Mt. Sinai “the Rock.” The covenant of law produced slavery; thus Hagar, a slave-girl, was a fitting type of the law. Paul likens her to earthly Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish nation, and the hotbed of legalism—the center of the apostate observance of Judaism. Just as slave Hagar bore children that by birth became slaves, so the followers of legalistic Judaism are in bondage to law. Because Hagar’s children and their children do not belong to the covenant people, Israel, it was a particularly stinging characterization made by Paul to link unbelieving Israelites with Hagar rather than Sarah.

Sarah represents the covenant of grace and thereby corresponds to the “heavenly Jerusalem,” which speaks of the freedom of grace, which is by faith alone in Christ alone, and is the “mother” of all believers, both Jew and Gentile. Paul then quotes from Isaiah 54:1, “Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.”

Paul then assures the Galatians (in verse 28 some of the best texts have “you” instead of “we,” but in either case the Galatian believers are included) that they are not like Ishmael (the son of the slave woman), but are like Isaac (son of promise) and born miraculously, that is, by the Holy Spirit. He assures them that their standing before God in not on the basis of physical descent from Abraham, but upon the promise made to Abraham which applies to all who accept Jesus Christ solely be faith apart from works.

Paul goes on with the story to demonstrate that it has always been the case that those born of promise are persecuted by those born of the flesh. Ishmael mocked Isaac and in this Paul saw clearly the eternal enmity between the flesh and the Spirit. He says that just as it was then, it is today. The Galatians were experiencing this very mockery at the hands of the Judaizers. This has always been true. The religious crowd will always mock and castigate those who live by faith alone. Satan’s favorite method of blocking man from heaven and of wrecking the testimonies and spiritual lives of believers is by convincing them all that law and not grace is God’s accepted way. To believe in legalism is to correspondingly give vent to pride, for only man in his pride will accept the premise that he must do what is necessary (works) to accrue the approbation of God.

Paul concludes the chapter by directing the Galatians to the Scriptures, which clearly state that law and grace cannot be mixed. It is impossible to inherit God’s blessings on the basis of human merit or efforts. Paul assures the Galatian believers that they are children of the freewoman (grace) and have no more part with the bondswoman (law).