There was a problem in Galatia, People had forgotten about the truth of the Gospel. They had come to think, or been taught by false teachers, that God’s salvation was not a complete and thorough act of God’s sovereignty and grace alone, but it needed our help, our effort to either cause it, complete it or sustain it.
Now it must be clear that Paul has not yet discussed what the Christian life should look like in terms of conduct and lifestyle, that’s coming. What Paul is trying to is simply to drive the point home, over and over again, Salvation is by Faith, and that Faith is the work of the Holy Spirit. When we teach with our words, as the false teachers were doing, or with our example of aloofness and legalism, like Peter was, that salvation can be accomplished, helped or maintained by works, we miss the mark.
He has used the example of the Galatians’ own experience, Abraham, even the law itself to drive home his point that Salvation is, and always has been on the basis of God’s Grace to a sinful mankind.
Paul is now going to use the metaphor of a family relationship, that of a child:
Verse 1 & 2
"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."
Before we believed in Christ as our Savior, we were as slaves- we were even referred to as slaves to sin; only there was a difference. You see a slave has no future, but a child of the king is different; even though he has a status that is like a slave, he is destined for something more. What were the guardians and managers? It was the Law and the Prophets, the revelation of God that was bringing us the point where the Spirit of God accomplishes faith in our heart.
And what a statement of the sovereignty of God: when are we saved? When we believe in God. Well, when is that? The date set by the Father. This truth of the absolute control God has over all things should not make us feel trapped, or give us a fatalistic view of the future, no; it should drop us to our knees and thanking God that His choice of us included nothing of our merit, for we had none to offer. It was God, through His Son, that placed the value on us.
Isaiah 45:9-13
"Woe to the one who quarrels with his maker-- an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, "What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say "He has no hands’?
Woe to him who says to a father, "What are you begetting?’ Or to a woman, "To what are you giving birth?
Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his maker: "Ask me about the things to come concerning My sons, and you shall commit to me the work of My hands.
It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands and I ordained all their host.
I have aroused him in righteousness and I will make all his ways smooth; He will build My city and will let My exiles go free, without any payment or reward," says the LORD of hosts."
Now, in our way of thinking, it is assumed that an heir is not in control of the estate until the death of the father. That is often how we think of it, in terms of receiving what our parents had in their “last will and testament”. However, in Middle Eastern cultures, a son can become an equal with the father in terms of land and wealth of the estate. It is at a certain age, or a particular point in a young man’s life when the father decides that he is able to bear the estate. We see this in the proverb of the Prodigal Son. That son had the “right” to a division of the estate and wealth.
But, before that time, we were not seen as heirs, but as children who were under control of others.
Verse 3
"So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world."
I think that there are two aspects to the “bondage” here. The first was the Jews, who were being held captive by the false philosophy of the rulers of the time; that is that keeping the law, and the traditions, in outward form, would insure righteousness. Jesus over and over again confronted the false idea of keeping the law, that following all of the multitude of regulations that the leaders had heaped upon the law, that doing these things would accomplish salvation. It was, and always had been by grace alone that people were saved, whether the Jew, the Gentile, in ages past, present or future.
The second aspect will come up in verse 8, be looking for it.
But what is the solution?
Verse 4
"But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,"
At just the right time, Christ came. This in itself is an entire study, how events in the world lead to a perfect time for Christ to come and start his Church, for the Son of God, the second member of the divine trinity, to come into the world.
Charles Spurgeon, on December 21st, 1884:
“Christ was really and truly of the substance of his mother, as certainly as any other infant that is born into the world is so. God did not create the human nature of Christ apart, and then transmit it into mortal existence by some special means; but His Son was made and born of a woman. He is, therefore, of our race, a man like ourselves, and not man of another stock. You are to make no mistake about it; he is not only of humanity, but of your humanity; for that which is born of a woman is brother to us, be it born when it may. Yet there is an omission, I doubt not intentional, to show how holy was that human nature, for he is born of a woman, not of a man. The Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin, and "that holy thing" was born of her without the original sin which pertains to our race by natural descent. Here is a pure humanity though a true humanity; a true humanity though free from sin.”
Why was that important? The following verse alludes to the reason:
Verse 5
"so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."
Now, who is under the law? Everyone. Not just the Jews, all mankind is under the law. For the law stands to condemn every single sin. Past present and future. Christ Jesus was the only person who was born into and under the Law’s domain, but without sin. The power of the law is judgment, But there is no judgment in Christ’s case. In fact, because Christ Jesus is also the eternal God, the creator, he can do something about the judgment of sin, he can take that judgment upon Himself; for all sin will be punished, either on the cross of Jesus Christ, or on the unbeliever in hell.
So when our sins are judged in Christ, we can be adopted as children of God! But there is more:
Verse 6 & 7
"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."
We have been adopted by God, to be called His children. But then He goes beyond even that, He sends his Spirit, the Spirit of His Son, into our hearts. What he has done is not only make us legally His children; He has now made us by nature His children, as we have His Spirit within us. What is our response to this? It should be to lift our eyes to heaven and cry out “My true father!”
In my job as a homicide detective, I am always looking for DNA evidence. In fact I have a cold case “Jane Doe”, that is an unidentified body, murdered in 1977. My only hope of identifying that victim is to match DNA with a family member. Imagine what God has dome for us, he has adopted us into His family, then it is as if He actually changed our DNA to make us not just legally His children, but by nature His children!
We are no longer slaves, but sons of God, and even heirs.
Verse 8
"However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods."
Here is the other aspect of the “elemental things” It is man who always tries to create a works oriented system of worshiping bugs, the earth itself, an image of man or even a corrupt view of God. These are seen by Paul as bondage.
The problem is, that The Jews in Galatia were drifting back to a works-oriented system, and those Gentiles among them would have seen it and thought, “Oh sure, Christianity is really quite simple, it’s the same as worshiping bugs, only you work for something they just call “Lord” instead of a dung beetle!” Can you see why Paul was outraged by this attitude? People were back to a man-created form of worship. One that leaves out God’s Grace and inserts man’s efforts in regard to salvation.
Verse 9
"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?"
Can you see how utterly offensive this really is? To so pollute the worship of the Almighty God into something that is indistinguishable from other religions.
And even in his disgust, Paul cannot but help to remind the reader, who really is responsible for our salvation, did you see it there? “you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God” If chapter 2 did not convince you in that God is absolutely sovereign, even over our salvation, Paul’s going to remind us again.
You have been forgiven, saved and redeemed, you have been adopted as sons, and you have even been given the very nature and Spirit of God within you. Why would you now think that following God is merely a set of dos and don’ts that will merit favor with God, which will increase you’re standing in relationship to a salvation you already possess? Again, Paul is not speaking to the Christian life, which he will get to later, he is still specifically on the topic of Salvation by grace alone.
Paul then gets specific with the problems:
Verses 10 & 11
"You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain."
What was in the observance of days and months and years that was a problem? Is it alright to celebrate Christmas? How about someone’s birthday? God has no problem with setting apart days of remembering. However, when we think that the Christian life is merely a set of outward instructions, where as God sits in heaven checking off your list of acts; good deeds and church attendance, so that you can merit salvation; this is the very essence of heresy. Paul fears that they are too far gone into this wrong thinking. However there is some hope, for the Galatians and us. Paul took effort to write to them, and us today, to warn us that our efforts do not merit God’s grace. That God has adopted us and given us His very nature by the gift of the Spirit. “Abba, Father!”
All bible quotes from NAS Bible
