Galatians 4:1 - Meaning and Application

In this chapter, the apostle speaks plainly to those who listened to the Jewish teachers who praised the law of Moses as if it stood against the gospel of Christ. They were trying to bring believers back under the law’s burden. To correct their mistake, Paul continues the picture he began in the previous chapter, that of a child who is still under age. From that picture, he shows how much greater our blessings are under the gospel than under the law.

He first describes the condition of the Old Testament church. It was like a child who had not yet grown up, so it was treated like a child, kept in darkness and bondage compared with the fuller light and freedom we have now. It was truly a dispensation of grace, yet it was still, in comparison, a dispensation of darkness. As an heir, while still a minor, is under tutors and guardians until the time set by his father, so the Old Testament church was trained under the Mosaic system, though it did not fully understand its meaning at the time. As Paul says elsewhere, they could not see clearly where that system was leading, since it was passing away (2 Corinthians 3:13). But when the church has grown to maturity in gospel times, those things become very useful.

That former state was also a state of bondage. They were held under the basic elements of the world, tied to many heavy rites and ceremonies. These served as early lessons, like first school lessons, teaching and training them. Yet they also kept the people in a lower, more dependent condition, like a child under tutors and guardians. The church then had more of the character of a servant, required to do everything by God’s command without fully knowing the reasons. Under the gospel, however, service is shown to be more reasonable and more free. When the Father’s appointed time came, and the church was to come to full age, that former darkness and bondage were taken away, and a greater light and freedom arrived.

Paul then turns to the much happier state of Christians under the gospel (Galatians 4:4-7). When the fullness of time had come, the time the Father had appointed to end the law’s rule and set up something better, he sent his Son. The one chosen to begin this new order was none other than the Son of God, the only Son of the Father. He had long been promised and foretold, and at the right time he came for this purpose.

In carrying out this great plan, he was made of a woman, which speaks of his incarnation, his coming into human nature. He was also made under the law, which speaks of his submission to it. He, who was truly God for our sake, became man. He, who was Lord of all, accepted a servant’s place. One great purpose of this was to redeem those under the law, to free us from that heavy yoke and to establish gospel ordinances that are more fitting and easier to bear.

Yet Christ came for even more than deliverance from the ceremonial law. He came in our nature and was willing to suffer and die for us, so that he might redeem us from God’s wrath and from the curse of the moral law, which belongs to us as sinners. Still, freeing us from the law’s former bondage was one purpose of his coming, and a mercy that appeared when he was revealed. Then the church’s more servant-like state was to end, and a better state was to take its place.

He was sent to redeem us so that we might receive adoption as sons, that is, so we would no longer be treated as servants, but as grown sons who enjoy greater freedom and greater privileges than children under guardians. This fits Paul’s argument here. At the same time, it can also mean that gracious adoption the gospel often speaks of, the privilege of those who believe in Christ. Israel had been God’s son, his firstborn (Romans 9:4). But now, under the gospel, individual believers receive adoption. As proof and down payment of this, they also receive the Spirit of adoption, who leads them to pray and helps them look to God as Father (Galatians 4:6). Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father.”

Paul then ends the argument with this conclusion (Galatians 4:7): “You are no longer a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through Christ.” In other words, under the gospel, we are no longer in the law’s servitude. When we believe in Christ, we become God’s sons, accepted and adopted by him. And if we are sons, then we are also heirs of God, with a right to the heavenly inheritance, as Paul also says in Romans 8:17. For that reason, it is great weakness and folly to turn back to the law and try to be made right with God by works of the law.

From this passage, we can see the wonders of divine love and mercy toward us. We see the Father, who sent his Son into the world to redeem and save us. We see the Son of God, who humbled himself so deeply and suffered so much for that purpose. We also see the Holy Spirit, who graciously dwells in believers’ hearts for these blessed ends.

We also see the great and priceless advantages Christians enjoy under the gospel. We receive adoption as sons, which means believers have the great privilege of becoming adopted children of the God of heaven. By nature, we are children of wrath and disobedience, but by grace we become children of love.

We also receive the Spirit of adoption. Everyone who has the privilege of adoption also receives this Spirit, because all who are counted among God’s children share the life and nature of his children. He wants all his children to resemble him. The Spirit of adoption is always the Spirit of prayer, and it is our duty in prayer to look to God as a Father. Christ taught us to pray with that view, calling God our Father in heaven.

And if we are his sons, then we are his heirs. That is not how it works among people, where usually the eldest son inherits. With God, all his children are heirs. Those who have the nature of sons will have the inheritance of sons.