Sons of God (4:1-11)

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, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might 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 our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. 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 elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. (4:1-11)

Continuing his basic argument that salvation is not gained by man’s merit or works but solely by God’s sovereign grace working through man’s faith, Paul further develops the analogy of a child becoming an adult (see 3:23-26). He compares the position and privileges of a child to those of a servant, with the figures of child and servant representing life under the law and the figures of adult and son representing life in Christ.

The analogy continues to contrast man before salvation, when, whether Jew or Gentile, he is under God’s law, and man after salvation, when he is in Christ. The central truths of 4:1-11 are that life under law is meant by God to be preparation for divine sonship and that trust in His grace brings realization of that sonship.

PREPARATION FOR SONSHIP: UNDER LAW

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, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. (4:1-3)

In the ancient world the division between childhood and adulthood was much more definitive than it is in most societies today. Although ancient customs varied, there was usually a prescribed age when a child, especially a boy, would officially come of age and take on the privileges and responsibilities of adulthood. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the Roman ceremony marking that change in status was called toga virilis, and the Jewish ceremony was (and still is) called bar mitzvah.

Until the age of twelve, a Jewish boy was under the direct and absolute control of his father. But at the bar mitzvah, observed on the first Sabbath after his twelfth birthday, the boy’s father would pray, “Blessed be thou O God who hath taken from me the responsibility of this boy,” and the boy would pray, “O my God and God of my father, on this solemn and sacred day which marks my passage from boyhood to manhood, I humbly raise my eyes unto Thee and declare with sincerity and truth that henceforth I will keep Thy commandments and undertake to bear the responsibility of my actions toward Thee.”

In ancient Greece a boy was under his father’s control until about the age of eighteen. At that time a festival called an apatouria would be held in which the boy was declared an ephebos, a type of cadet, with special responsibilities to his clan or city state for a period of two years. During the coming-of-age ceremony, the boy’s long hair would be cut off and offered to the god Apollo.

At the Roman ceremony boys would take their toys—and at a similar ceremony girls would take their dolls—and offer them in a sacrifice to the gods as a symbol of putting childhood behind them. It was to that custom that Paul alludes in his comment, “When I became a man, I did away with childish things” (1 Cor. 13:11).

The illustration of a child (npios, infant, one without understanding, or a minor) coming of age was therefore easily understood by both Jews and Gentiles to whom Paul wrote. They were well aware that as long as the heir was a child, he was under conditions that did not differ at all from those of a slave. As son and heir of all his father’s possessions and duties, a boy was the potential and rightful owner of everything that belonged to his father. But as William Hendricksen points out, he was only an heir de jure, not an heir de facto; he was heir by legal right but not heir in fact.

While a child, he was under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. Families would assign certain capable and trusted slaves to act as guardians (a general term for a person who cared for underage boys) and managers (house stewards) over the child until he was grown. Along with his tutor (paidaggos, see the discussion of 3:24-25), those family slaves would have virtually full charge of the child’s education, training, and welfare. The child was subservient to them and could do nothing without their permission and go nowhere without their companionship. For all practical purposes, the child did not differ at all from a slave under whom he was being trained. Just as a slave had masters, so he had masters.

But at the date set by the father, the child’s status changed radically. He was no longer simply an heir de jure but became an heir de facto. He was no longer a child or like a slave, but a responsible adult and citizen.

In a similar way, so also we, while we were under the law as unbelieving children, were held in bondage. For an unbeliever there is potential salvation and fulfillment of the promise given to all the world through Abraham (Gen. 12:3). But unless and until he spiritually “comes of age” through saving trust in Jesus Christ, every unbeliever is a kind of slave and is imprisoned under the elemental things of the world.

Elemental things is from stoicheion, which has the root meaning of “row” or “rank,” signifying foundational and rudimentary orderliness. It was used, for instance, of the letters of the alphabet, the elemental building blocks of writing.

Paul does not specify what the elemental things of the world represent, and Bible scholars have offered many suggestions. Some hold that it refers to the demon spirits who rule the present world system. Others say it refers to stars and therefore to pagan systems of astrology. Still others believe it refers to the basic, elemental things of human religion; and that interpretation seems appropriate in this context, especially in light of the fact that in 4:9 the same phrase is connected with the ceremonial rituals of human religion.

In Colossians 2:8 Paul warns: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” Here Paul clearly associates “elementary principles of the world” with deceptive human tradition and philosophy. The heart of Jewish religion during New Testament times was the system of rabbinic traditions that had superceded and stifled the revealed truth of the Old Testament. In the Gentile world of that day, human philosophy and pagan religions were closely interrelated. And both Jewish traditions and pagan religions centered in man-made systems of works. They were filled with rules and regulations, the obeying of which were thought to make a person right with deity. The elemental things of all human religion, whether Jewish or Gentile, ancient or modern, inevitably involve the idea of achieving divine acceptance by one’s own efforts. And they are elemental in that they are only human, never rising beyond the mundane to the divine.

John Wesley was an honor graduate of Oxford University, an ordained clergyman in the Church of England and orthodox in theology. He was active in practical good works, regularly visiting the inmates of prisons and workhouses in London and helping distribute food and clothing to slum children and orphans. He studied the Bible diligently and attended numerous Sunday services as well as various other services during the week. He generously gave offerings to the church and alms to the poor. He prayed and fasted and lived an exemplary moral life. He even spent several years as a missionary to American Indians in what was then the British colony of Georgia. Yet upon returning to England he confessed in his journal, “I who went to America to convert others was never myself converted to God.” Later reflecting on his preconversion condition, he said, “I had even then the faith of a servant, though not that of a son.”

Wesley tirelessly did everything he could to live a life acceptable to God, yet he knew something vital was missing. It was not until he went “very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street” one evening that he discovered and claimed true Christian life. “I felt my heart strangely warmed,” he wrote. “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” Things were no longer elemental for Wesley. He had entered “the heavenlies.”

REALIZATION OF Sonship

But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might 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 our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. 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 elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. (4:4-11)

In these 8 verses Paul plunges into the source, the confirmation, the consummation, and the obligation of the divine sonship realized by those who have personal faith in Jesus Christ.

ITS SOURCE

But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (4:4-5)

The source of divine sonship is the true Son, Jesus Christ. Just as a human father in ancient times set the time of his son’s coming of age, so did God the Father set the time to send forth His incarnate Son to earth as man’s Redeemer. It was in the fulness of the time that Jesus Christ came, exactly as and when the Father had established.

Even the most godly Jews of the Old Covenant died without receiving the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. “All these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised” (Heb. 11:39). Like believers of every age, they will ultimately receive the fullness of the promise. But during their lifetimes they too lived as heirs de jure, not heirs de facto.

When God sent forth His Son, He provided the guarantee that those believers and all others would become joint heirs with the Son. Those who under the law are no better than slaves (4:1) will receive full and complete adoption as sons.

The fulness of time refers to the completion of the period of preparation in God’s sovereign timetable of redemption. When the law had fully accomplished its purpose of showing man his utter sinfulness and inability to live up to God’s perfect standard of righteousness, God ushered in a new era of redemption. When He sent forth His Son, He provided the righteousness for man that man could not provide for himself.

When Jesus was born, everything was right for the coming of the Messiah. First of all, the time was right religiously. During the Babylonian captivity, Israel once and for all forsook the idolatry into which she had so often fallen. Despite their many other sins and failures, including the national rejection of their own Messiah, no significant number of Jews has ever again turned to idolatry.

Also during the Exile, Jews developed synagogues, which they used as places of worship, as schools, and as courts. In addition to that, they at last had the completed Old Testament, assembled by Ezra and others after the return from Babylon. Those features facilitated the proclaiming of the Messiah’s gospel among the people of Israel.

Second, the time was right culturally. Christians who propagated the gospel during the first several centuries had a common language with those to whom they witnessed and with whom they worshiped. Alexander the Great had thoroughly established Greek culture and language throughout the known world, and these continued their dominating influence long after Rome succeeded Greece as world ruler.

Third, the time was right politically. Rome had instituted the pax Romana (Roman peace), which provided economic and political stability. The apostles and other early preachers and teachers could travel freely and safely throughout the empire and could do so on the magnificent system of roads built by the Romans.

Each of those factors was in some unique way a key to the spread of the gospel. God’s timing was perfect.

When God’s propitious time came, He sent forth His Son. Son does not refer to Jesus’ divine essence. He was not by nature eternally subordinate to God the Father but was equal to Him, yet He willingly submitted Himself to the Father during His incarnation, as an obedient son does to an earthly father. It seems that Jesus had not been eternally subject to the Father but was subject only during the time of His humanity. Paul makes that fact clear when he refers to the kenosis (emptying): “Although He existed in the form of God, [He] did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7). Jesus is eternally “the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3).

Some 900 years before Jesus was born God prophesied, “I will be a Father to Him, and He shall be a Son to Me” (Heb. 1:5; 2 Sam. 7:14), indicating that in eternity past that, though there were always three persons in the Trinity, there were not yet the roles of Father and Son. Those designations apparently came into being only at the incarnation. In the announcement of Jesus’ birth to Mary, the angel Gabriel declared, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; . . . the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:32, 35; emphasis added). Son was a new name, never before applied to the second person of the Godhead except prophetically, as in Psalm 2:7, which is interpreted in Hebrews 1:5-6 as referring to the event of His incarnation. John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Only when “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” as “the only begotten God” (John 1:14,18) did He take on the role and function of Son.

Born of a woman is not intended to be an exclusive statement emphasizing the absence of a man, and thus does not so much refer to Jesus’ virgin birth, important as that great truth is, as to His complete humanity. He was fully man, born of a woman like all other men, yet He was fully God. Otherwise He could not have been Savior of the world. He had to be fully God in order for His sacrifice to have the infinite worth necessary to atone for the sin of mankind. He also had to be fully man in order to represent mankind and take the penalty of sin upon Himself in man’s behalf. It was man who sinned, who was under the curse, and who was condemned to render his life forfeit to God. Jesus therefore could not have substituted for sinful man on the cross had He not taken upon Himself “the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). He had to be God to have the power of Savior, and He had to be man to have the position of Substitute.

Jesus not only came to earth as a man but was born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law. As Paul explains in Romans, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom. 8:3-4).

Like every other man, Jesus was born under the Law. Like every other Jew, He was under obligation to obey and be judged by conformity to God’s written Law in the Old Testament; but unlike any other Jew, He satisfied the requirements of that law by living in perfect obedience to it. And because He lived in perfect obedience, He was able to redeem all other men who were under the Law but not obedient to it, provided they had saving faith in Him.

As explained in chapter 7 (under Gal. 3:13), redeem is from exagorazo, which literally means to buy out or buy back and was used of slaves whose freedom was purchased. Through payment of the required price, slaves were redeemed and became free men, and, more than that, they received adoption as sons (cf. Rom. 8:15, 23; 9:4; Eph. 1:5; 3:14-15). That completed their liberation.

Huiothesia (adoption) is a compound of huios (son) and thesis (a placing) and refers to a man’s giving the status of sonship to someone who is not his natural child. Because men are not naturally the children of God, they can become His sons only by divine adoption. In the Roman world adoption was an honored custom that gave special dignity and family membership to those who were not born into a family. Often a wealthy, childless man would adopt a young slave, who would trade his slavery for sonship, with all its concomitant privileges.

ITS CONFIRMATION

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (4:6)

God confirms believers as His adopted sons through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of His Son. They not only have the knowledge of sonship through the truth of God’s Word in their minds but the very essence of sonship through His indwelling Spirit in their hearts. A human father cannot give his own nature to an adopted child, but God can and does by sending His Holy Spirit to dwell within the hearts of believers.

The Lord tells His children that He “has blessed [them] with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” that “He chose [them] before the foundation of the world, that [they] should be holy and blameless before Him,” that “He predestined [them] to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself,” and that “in Him [they] have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of [their] trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon [them]” (Eph. 1:3-5, 7-8). But when believers experience trying circumstances or fail to live in obedience to God, it is easy for them to doubt their exalted position as His children.

One of the ministries of the Spirit to the sons of God is to enable them with full confidence to cry out to Him, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit offers subjective ministry that confirms the objective truth of Scripture. Declaring that same message to believers at Rome, Paul wrote, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:14-16).

As mentioned in the previous chapter, 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.

“In Him, you also,” Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:13-14). The fact that a believer has an intimate relationship with God, and can confidently cry out to Him as Father, is beautiful and magnificent proof of sonship. Those who have the status of divine sonship through the Son also have the essence and the assurance of it through the Spirit, who draws them into intimate communion with their heavenly Father.

ITS CONSUMMATION

Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. (4:7)

The consummation of divine sonship is given in the promise of joint inheritance with Christ. The ultimate outcome of our relationship is inheritance of the Father’s estate. In the spiritual realm, a person who believes in Jesus Christ is no longer under the law, no longer its slave. Because he is now in the Son, he is himself a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. Just as it was in the ancient laws of adoption, so it is in the family of God—sonship means heirship.

Because believers are God’s children, they are “heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). What an incomprehensible truth: that by giving ourselves to Jesus Christ in faith, God gives us everything His Son possesses!

ITS OBLIGATION

However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. 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 elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. (4:8-11)

The gracious gift of sonship is free, but it brings serious obligation. Great blessing carries great responsibility (Luke 12:48). But the believer’s great responsibility is not to the ceremonial and ritual features of the law, from which salvation sets him free. It is that truth that the Galatian believers had forgotten under the seductive influence of the Judaizers.

Paul reminds those believers of the time, when they did not know God and were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. Before they came to Christ their religion was that of works, and they were slaves to various man-made gods that were actually no gods at all. The unredeemed are slaves not only to the law but also to idols.

Several years ago, I visited a very large Buddhist shrine. Scores of men and women, and even some children, were bowing down to a giant stone image of Buddha, reciting prescribed prayers, going through various incantations, and making offerings of incense and food. My heart broke because of their spiritual darkness and hopelessness. I wanted to shout, “Why are you doing all this? Don’t you know that image is only a piece of stone carved by men? There is no god here. Buddha can’t help you. He himself is long dead—physically and spiritually—and will eternally remain dead. If you continue to trust in him, you too will die and forever remain dead.” There are many false gods men put their trust in, but none can save.

While those people were pitiable because of their ignorance of God, they were also condemned because of their rebelliousness against God. “That which is known about God is evident within them,” Paul says of such people; “for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. . . . For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:19-21, 25).

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, Paul asks in bewilderment, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you once gave your devotion? Why do you desire to be enslaved all over again? Now that you are sons, he asks the wavering Galatians, why do you want to go back into slavery? Now that you are free adults through faith in Christ, why do you want to revert to your childhood servitude under the law?

Among the weak and worthless elemental things to which some of the Galatians were returning was the ritualistic observance of days and months and seasons and years. During his ministry in Galatia, Paul doubtlessly gave believers the same warning he gave to the church at Colossae: “Let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col. 2:16-17). “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world,” he continues, “why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’ (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence” (w. 20-23).

In his commentary The Message of Galatians, John Stott mentions the wonderful account of John Newton, author of the beloved hymn “Amazing Grace.” Newton was an only child and lost his mother when he was seven. At the age of eleven he went to sea as a sailor and became involved in the inhuman African slave trade. Soon hardened by his evil surroundings, he outdid his companions in immorality, vulgarity, and blasphemy. But when he was twenty-three his ship was caught in a severe storm, and when he began to fear for his life he cried out to God for mercy and was marvelously saved. Not wanting ever to forget the depths of sin from which he had been rescued by God’s grace, Newton later inscribed the words of Deuteronomy 15:15 above his mantel: “And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.”

Unlike John Newton, the Galatian Christians did not remember what they were once like, and Paul was inexpressibly disappointed with their immaturity and lack of discernment. He was not able to fathom how they could so quickly forget their former bondage in unbelief and so easily surrender their new freedom and blessings in Christ. I fear for you, he lamented, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.

How sad for such a faithful servant of the Lord to believe that all the life-threatening, sacrificial service he had given in behalf of the people of Galatia was worthless. All the travel, illness, loneliness, struggles, even the stoning he received in Lystra that left him for dead, was for nothing if they reverted to their old slavery.

No wonder this is such an impassioned epistle. The thought of all that effort being void compelled Paul to write as he did.