Gal 3:27-4:7 The Promise and Its Fulfilment
3:23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
4:1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Our faith in Christ changes our standing with God and also our status.
• Paul paints us this beautiful status we have in Christ in this passage.
• We are transformed from being slaves to sin to becoming sons of God, from being children (immature) to becoming the sons and heirs of God.
• In the past, we lived under the Law which served as our guardian, instructing us on what we ought to do, but we were not able to keep it.
That was “before faith came” (3:23) - before we could place our faith in Christ.
• 3:23 “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.”
• We were held captive and imprisoned under sin UNTIL Jesus Christ came and when FAITH in Christ became possible.
So the Law played the role of a GUARDIAN and this was so until Christ came.
• 3:25-26 “25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
• Christ changed all that. His finished work on the cross freed us from the penalty and bondage to sin. We are justified by faith in Christ.
• We moved from living under the guardianship of the Law to living under Christ.
• 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
What has changed? Our STANDING with God has changed – we are made RIGHTEOUS.
• And our STATUS has changed because we are now RECONCILED with God.
Paul describes it in THREE ways in this text – the three “YOU ARE…”
(1) You are all SONS of God, through faith (3:26) – children of God
(2) You are all ONE in Christ Jesus (3:28b) – equal before God
(3) You are Abraham’s OFFSPRING (3:29) – heirs of the promise
(1) WE ARE SONS OF GOD – we are now children of God through faith in Christ.
• We see the BEFORE and AFTER that Paul paints here. Before we are like “children” under the guardianship of the Law.
• But now in Christ, we have “grown up” to be SONS of God.
• 4:3 says as children then, we “were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world” – we were like slaves imprisoned in sin and the sinful ways of this world.
• But now as children of God, we are freed to live like Christ.
And as sons of God, we who “were baptised into Christ have put on Christ.” (3:27)
• We become like Him, we can live like Him. We can behave like Him.
• This is a great honour and privilege, granted to us because of Christ.
• So why do we want to return to being a child and be enslaved again? Why return to something inferior?
• If we have put on Christ (and the righteousness and the freedom that came with Him), then why do we want to discard this and put on the OLD garment again?
This new status we have is made possible through Christ and it is extraordinary.
• 3:28 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
• Meaning, you are a Christian more than anything else – more than your race, social standing, your gender.
• All human distinctions are secondary and insignificant compared to the fact that you are a Christian, a son of the living God.
Revelation tells us people from all nations, tribes, peoples and languages stand before the throne in white robes praising God as the redeemed people of God.
• That’s who we are. We are Christians, the sons of God, the redeemed children of God. All other identities are less significant.
(2) WE ARE ONE IN CHRIST – all equal in the eyes of God
3:28 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
• No distinction, no one is more special than the other. We are all equal before God.
• It is so because we are all baptised into Christ and came through the same door.
• Borrowing Paul’s words in 1 Cor 12:13 – we are baptised into ONE BODY. 1 Cor 12:13 “13For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”
No one is superior to another in his standing with God. No one is more special to God because we are all special.
• A believing Jew is not more privileged before God than a believing Gentile (Greek), even though they might come from different backgrounds.
• A believing master does not rank higher than a believing slave (a free person) in the eyes of God. Both Philemon (owner) and Onesimus (slave) stand equal before God.
• There are no spiritual privileges in the Body of Christ because we all came through the same door of salvation.
• We are all sinners saved by the same Christ, cleansed by the same blood. We are all equal before God.
Eph 2:19 “19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…”
(3) WE ARE ABRAHAM’S OFFSPRING – heirs of the Promise
3:29And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
This is beautiful. It ties us back to the PROMISE God made with Abraham.
• God made a covenant with Abraham and promised that He would bless his offspring and through them, the nations of the world.
• That promise points generally to ISRAEL but more specifically to the ONE SEED that will come through Israel - Jesus Christ, the “son of David, the son of Abraham” (Mt 1:1)
Only Jesus Christ can make this possible, that the nations be blessed through Abraham’s offspring. God honoured His promise through Christ, the descendant of Abraham.
• The fulfilment was not in Abraham himself nor the nation of Israel but in Jesus Christ.
• Through His sacrifice on the cross, all nations of the earth can now be blessed.
To tell the Galatians, the Gentile believers, that they are “Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” is important.
• To show that we are all Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to God’s promise is significant because we are in God’s mind from the beginning, not an afterthought.
• The Galatians are not second-class citizens. God did not accept them only because the Jews rejected Christ.
• Not because Israel has been stubborn and therefore God opened the door of salvation to the Gentiles.
When God made the promise to Abraham, He had already in mind the people of the world, the nations.
• He was not thinking only of the Jews but the Gentile nations, the non-Jews.
• All who believe in Jesus, the seed of Abraham, will be saved and blessed.
• We are grafted into God’s family by His divine choice, not an afterthought, not a by-product of Israel’s rejection.
• We were on His mind when He first made that promise to Abraham. We are children of the PROMISE. We are adopted into His family as sons by His divine choice.
The truth is, the Word of God tells us we are all on His mind even before the foundation of the world. That’s how precious we are and how much God loves us.
John Stott describes the Christian life this way. He says we experience a 3-dimensional change – height (vertical), breadth (horizontal) and length.
• Height is our reconciliation with God, the One who made a covenant with man.
• Breadth is our relationship with others in Christ, we become one with one another.
• Length - we join the rest in the family of God, the long line of believers throughout the course of time, before and after.
We are the SONS of God, ONE in Christ, and children of the PROMISE.
---------------
Finally, in 4:1-7 Paul adds in a FINAL picture or illustration – from being SLAVES to sin (world) to living now in freedom because we are adopted as SONS.
• He continues the contrast for one final time – from talking about Law and grace, obedience and faith, under a guardian and now in Christ, living like children in the past to now being grown-up children of God…
• Now the final picture (gal 4) – SLAVERY to ADOPTION into the family of God.
Before, we were living under guardians and trustees until we reached adulthood, which in Roman custom is “until the date set by his father” (4:2)
• When a child is a minor in the eyes of the Law, Paul says his status is no different from that of a slave with no freedom to decide anything even though he is the future owner of the estate.
• As a child, he makes no decisions until he becomes an adult, and then he is freed to take up responsibilities.
• 4:3 3In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world (likely referring to the pagan ways of the world).
• 4:4-5 4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
God changed our sinful state when He sent Jesus Christ into our world.
• We were freed from being slaves to worldly ways but are now given the freedom to live like Christ.
• Formerly in spiritual immaturity like children but now as sons of God knowing our rights and all that we have inherited in Christ.
And all this was made possible by divine intervention – God sent forth His Son (4:4), and then God sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts (4:6).
• 4:6-7 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
• We are restored in our intimate relationship with God. Abba is the Aramaic word for “Father”, like the English word “dad”.
God did TWO “sending” – His Son and His Spirit.
• Jesus said the same in John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
• The coming of the Spirit is not something we strive for. He is the gift of God to every believer of Christ because he belongs to Him, as sons of God.
The Galatians were no longer slaves but sons and heirs. No longer enslaved but freed by Christ from the prison of sin.
• Like slavery in those days, Christ paid the price to redeem us from slavery and set us free. There is nothing we can do to change that reality.
Believe in Jesus Christ today. Do that when we still can.
• God has done everything He could to redeem us, by sending Jesus into our world and also His Spirit into our hearts when we believe Him.
• We can be blessed today because this has been God’s desire for us. He loves you. Jesus has come not to condemn us but to save us.
Are we still in doubt of His love for us?
---------------------
CONCLUSION
I want to share with you this thought as I close.
• Paul expresses to us the PROMISE of God and the TIMING of Christ’s coming – “when the fullness of time had come” (4:4)
• When we look at the context of Christ’s coming, we can see how PERFECT that timing was – politically, economically, socially and culturally… (we’ll not discuss that today).
God made the promise 2000 years before Christ’s comes. God fulfilled His promise.
• The wait was long but it came true. It was fulfilled at the right time.
• In expressing it, Paul highlighted the TIMING of Christ’s coming.
• 3:19 “19Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions UNTIL the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.”
• 3:23 “23Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned UNTIL the coming faith would be revealed.”
• 3:24 “24So then, the law was our guardian UNTIL Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”
• 4:4-5 “4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
Everything depended on God, from start to finish, from the promise and its fulfilment.
• Nothing regarding the fulfilment was dependent on Abraham, his descendants, Israel as a nation, or any surprising turns of events in history.
• God made the promise and He will fulfil it, on His own.
• Gen 12:1-3 1Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Everything revolved around God; Abraham simply had to believe and obey God.
• Even so, Abraham’s faith wasn’t rock solid and steady but he kept it.
• He did not live to see the fulfilment of everything God had said, but his faith set in motion the plan of God.
That’s my final thought - God can be trusted. His promises are true. His Word is sure. He fulfils His will in His own time. A time, you can be sure, that is perfect and right.
• So let us trust Him as Abraham did. We do not have all the answers to life – to the WHYs, WHENs and HOWs of life’s problems…
• But we know WHO He is and we can trust Him.
PRAYER:
Abba Father, thank you for bringing us out of darkness and into Your wonderful light, changing us into the likeness of Your Son. Thank you for your great love for us, in redeeming us and making us your sons and heirs with Christ.
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for Your presence in our hearts. We know we belong to Christ today and by Your help, we shall live like Him today.
We praise You Lord for all that You’ve done, in Jesus’ Name, AMEN.
You can listen to the sermon with slides at https://youtu.be/8TZtm6n1Dfs
Earlier sermons are available at https://tinyurl.com/KTCC-EnglishService
