By Jim Barnette, Ph.D.
Samford University and Brookwood Baptist Church, Mountain Brook
I Am a Child of the King
Galatians 4:1–7
In Galatians 3:26–29, Paul explains to the Church that there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female.
All believers are one in Christ Jesus. And because we are now the true children of Abraham, we are heirs of God’s promise.
In Galatians 4:1–7, Paul drives home this point with a twofold metaphor. First he references a minor child who will one day be heir but who is not free to exercise the status he actually has until the legal age. Second he uses the example of a slave who is adopted as a son with full rights of freedom.
Before Christ, we were on the outside looking in. (1–3)
In spite of the darkness of the world before Christ, God had in view a future time for our deliverance from the law. Christians, like an immature child, were under control of the law, but even worse, Christians were in a state of slavery to “the elemental spirits of the universe” (vv. 8–9). The point of verse 3 (and vv. 4–7) is that Gentiles as much as Jews are under bondage. By “elemental spirits,” Paul is referring to those transcendent cosmic powers that oppress humanity. The evil powers had commandeered God’s good law, just as they had taken over God’s good creation. As a result, all people were under the same oppressive slavery.
We are adopted by Christ into His family. (4–5)
“The fullness of time” was set by God Himself; it was not the result of developments in human history.
“God sent His Son”: The liberating event was God’s in Christ. It was not a matter of human beings adopting a new attitude or resolving to follow spiritual principles. In sovereign freedom God acted at the time and in the manner of God’s own choosing. “God sent His Son” points to Christ’s pre-existence, deity, incarnation and saving mission. “Born of a woman” speaks to the historical event of Jesus’ birth. For Paul the reality of Jesus’ humanity was vitally important for us. One who was not like us could not redeem us. One who did not share our humanity could not become Our Savior.
“That we might receive adoption”: For Paul human beings are not “naturally” children of God but become God’s children by the free grace of God’s act in adopting former slaves into His family.
We experience the benefits of God’s family through His Holy Spirit. (6–7)
As His adopted children now the redeemed can call to “Abba,” using Jesus’ distinctive word for His heavenly Father. “Abba” is the childlike “Daddy” in Aramaic, denoting intimate love and assured freedom — as against the strictures of oppressive legalism.
To conclude, the result is to be a son not a slave — and if a son then an heir, made so by the grace of God. Such is His tenacious and tender love in spite of humanity’s treatment of His Son. Martin Luther commented that if he were God and the world had treated him as it had treated God, he would have kicked our planet to bits. We can give thanks that Luther was not God.
Instead, in what the great preacher Philips Brooks called “the stubborn obstinacy of well-placed affection,” God came to us in Jesus. This amazing mystery is best summarized in the words of John the Beloved Apostle: “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.”
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