Galatians 4: Christian Heirs
1 Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, 2 but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
The apostle “compares the church of God, under the OT, to an infant or child in its minority and nonage; partly with respect to their weakness in understanding, and want of the means of knowledge, comparatively to what we enjoy; and partly, with respect to the discipline they were under from their rigid schoolmaster, the ceremonial law." (William Burkitt)
“‘Now I say that the heir,’ to an estate, or one who has a prospect of an inheritance. No matter how great is the estate; no matter how wealthy his father; no matter to how elevated a rank he may be raised on the moment that he enters on his inheritance, yet until that time [appointed], he is in the condition of a servant. Until he arrives at the age [of accountability]. The word rendered ‘child’ (νήπιοι nēpioi) properly means an infant; literally, ‘one not speaking’ (νη nēinsep. un, ἔπος epos), and hence, a child or babe... [This one] ‘diiffereth nothing from a servant’ - That is, he has no more control of his property; he has it not at his command…— ‘though he be lord of all’” (Albert Barnes) — “But” this one “‘is under tutors’— as to his person— ‘and governors’— as to his substance until the time appointed of the father.” (Wesley) Even so, we spiritual Israelites were under such tutors and governors. “This is added because he that is always under a tutor or governor may hardly be considered a freeman.” (Geneva Study Bible)
“‘Even so we’— the church of God, ‘when we were children’ — in our minority, under the legal dispensation ‘were in bondage’ —.... under the elements of this world. The law is called elements, because by the law God instructed his Church as it were by 'ABCs of children'; and and were of so gross a nature, as hardly to carry our thoughts beyond this world.” (John Wesley)
“‘But” in these last days, He “afterward poured out his Holy Spirit most plentifully.” (Geneva Study Bible)—“‘when the fullness of the time had come,’— or at “the time ‘appointed,’ declared by the prophets Habakkuk 2:3; Daniel 10:14; Malachi 3:1etc... "The days when the new temple, built with living stones, should be exalted above the hills, and when all gentile nations should run to it, and be incorporated with the seed of Israel. This is the consequent conclusion, that the God of Abraham, who was faithful in calling Israel out of Egypt at the promised period, was equally faithful in sending his Son into the world, to redeem us from the bondage of servants, and give us the high prerogative of sons, being born [again] of God. John 1:12.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
“‘God sent forth His Son born of a woman’ thus a Kinsman— ‘born under the law,’ a Jew, and consequently under the Mosaic institutions, [being circumcised on the eighth day]— ‘to redeem those who were under the law,’ thus showing that they owe their redemption not to their Judaism, but to their Christianity— ‘that we might receive the adoption as sons.’“ (Abbott’s NT Comm.) God set forth the Last Adam, a life giving Spirit— Yahweh from heaven. (1 Cor 15:45-49)
“The apostle intimates that the law was not the science of salvation, it was only the elements or alphabet of it; and in the Gospel this alphabet is composed into a most glorious system of Divine knowledge: but as the alphabet is nothing of itself, unless compounded into syllables, words, sentences, and discourses; so the law, taken by itself, gives no salvation.” (Adam Clarke) It is the Last Adam alone who makes it all intelligible and quicken in the heart. (1 Cor 15:45)
In Adam, even the Jewish religion “prescribed no better sacrifices than the heathen religions ... could not cleanse the conscience of the sinner from the guilt of sin, afforded no assistance to enable men to obey it, and was utterly unable to procure pardon and eternal life for its adherents, being precisely the same as the heathen religions.” (MacKnight) Jesus “utters and declares many things at once, that is, that this tutorship was ended at His time, in order that curious men may stop asking why the schoolmastership lasted so long.” (Geneva Study Bible)
Look unto Jesus! We need not wait until the consummation to receive the adoption of sons, for “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore, you”— those baptized by water and the Spirit— “are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” Little Children , begin to speak to Jesus, saying “Daddy!”
Galatians 4:8 Then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. 9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
“Then, indeed,” while under the sensor of tutor and governors, “when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods.’— You paid religious homages unto idols; which are gods, not by nature and essence, but only in the opinion of idolaters.” (Matthew Poole)
“But now after that you are come to a true and saving knowledge of God in Christ, and know God as he is.” (Matthew Poole)— ‘or rather are known of God.’... ‘Alas,’ he cries, ‘have you come to this, that you no longer know God? What else am I to think? Nevertheless, God knows you.’...” (Martin Luther) “The pragmatic value of this correcting clause is to make the Galatians feel, not only what a wilful self-debasement it was on their part, but also what a slight put upon the Divine favours shown to them, that they should frowardly repudiate their filial standing to adopt afresh that servile standing out of which he had lifted his people. What was this but a high-handed contravening of God's own work, a frustration of his gospel?” (Pulpit Commentary)
“After all this, will ye turn again to the ineffectual rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law— rites too weak to counteract your sinful habits, and too poor to purchase pardon and eternal life for you?” (Adam Clarke) “‘But now’— how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? The observance of hebrew feasts reputed holy, as though you had forgotten the glory of Christ, and the fulness of the gospel.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
“It is not a fair interpretation of this to suppose that the apostle refers to the Sabbath, properly so called, for this was a part of the Decalogue; and was observed by the Saviour Himself, and by the apostles also.” (Barnes) For believers, it becomes part of their moral code.
Rather, “‘Days’— The days here referred to are doubtless the days of the Jewish festivals. [There were ten high day sabbaths in the feasts of Israel, in which no manner of ordinary work was to be done.] ‘And months’— The festivals of the new moon, kept by the Jews. Numbers 10:10; Numbers 28:11-14. On this festival, in addition to the daily sacrifice, two bullocks, a ram, and seven sheep of a year old were offered in sacrifice. The appearance of the new-moon was announced by the sound of trumpets…. And times’— Stated times; festivals returning periodically, as the Passover, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles... ‘And years’— The sabbatical year, or the year of jubilee.” (Barnes) “I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.” “He tells them plainly, that they kept the ceremonial sabbaths, feasts and fasts, as if that law was obligatory, and still binding.” (William Burkitt) Paul "observed the Jewish feasts after his conversion (cf. 1 Cor 16:8; Acts 20:16). However he did so voluntarily, not to satisfy divine requirements. He did not observe them because God expected him to do so but because they were a part of his cultural heritage. He also did so because he did not want to cast a stumbling block in the path of Jews coming to faith in Christ ( 1 Cor 9:19-23; cf. Romans 14:5-6). In other words, he did so to evangelize effectively, not to gain acceptance.” (Thomas B. Constable)
Galatians 4:12 Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. 13 You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. 14 And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 15 What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? 17 They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. 18 But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. 19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, 20 I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.
Paul— the once overly zealous Pharisee— could well understand. Thus, he pleads, “As I have no other object in view than to promote your benefit, so it is proper that you should be prevailed on to adopt moderate views, and to lend a willing, obedient ear to my instructions.” (John Calvin)
“‘Brethren,’ beginning, as at Galatians 3:15, a new and gentler strain. — I urge you, ‘Be’— Omitting the interpolated italic words, we render, ‘Become as I, because I as you.’”(Whedon) “Meet me in mutual love. For I am as ye were — I still love you as affectionately as ye once loved me.” (John Wesley) “Or become as I— no longer a legalist, as once, Philippians 3:5; Philippians 3:8.” (John Trapp)— ‘Because I as you,’— am zealous for the law. But Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4)
“‘As I have in my life among you cast off Jewish habits, so do ye; for I am become as ye are,’ namely, in the non-observance of legal ordinances. ‘The fact of my laying them aside among Gentiles, shows that I regard them as not at all contributing to justification or sanctification. Do you regard them in the same light, and act accordingly.’ His observing the law among the Jews was not inconsistent with this, for he did so only in order to win them, without compromising principle. On the other hand, the Galatian Gentiles, by adopting legal ordinances, showed that they regarded them as needful for salvation. This Paul combats.” (Jameson, Faussett, Brown)
“‘You have not injured me at all.’ How doth the apostle say they had not injured him at all, when it is manifest they had defamed him? Answer. He had forgiven them.” (Matthew Poole) The only way to be injured by another is to harbor resentment and ill will. Moreover, it was only them who were in eternal danger of judgment. But this reproof was no “private spirit of revenge,” as if he “had some particular displeasure against their persons for some personal injury done” unto them; “all which groundless suspicions it is our duty to labour to wipe off.” (William Burkitt)
Repent of erroneous doctrine only. Embrace again that blessed doctrine by which you had been saved. “‘You know that because of’— or better, ‘through’— ‘physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first.’ That is, notwithstanding bodily weakness, and under great disadvantage from the despicableness of my outward appearance.” (John Wesley)
“'And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed?' The blessing enjoyed was assurance of eternal salvation, yea the salvation itself... and for this they were, at one time, eternally grateful, giving him great honor among them. But now it seemed to him that he had become their enemy for telling them the truth of God. “They”— these wolves in sheep‘s clothing— “zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.”
Galatians 4: An Allegory from the Law21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24a which things are symbolic.
“The Judaizers were talking about being ‘sons of Abraham,’ which in a [physical] sense they were; and the thunderbolt in the next verse is that ‘Abraham had two sons; which kind were the Judaizers?’” (Burton Coffman) And what kind of children were they making of the members of the Church of God? I believe there is a widespread misinterpretation of who is a Jew or a child of Abraham. Romans 2:28-29 is treated as gloss by many theologians— “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” (Romans 2:28-29) This is an everlasting truth.
“‘Tell me, you who desire to be under the law’ - Ye who desire to incorporate the Mosaic institutions with Christianity, and thus bring yourselves into bondage to circumcision, and a great variety of oppressive rites. ‘Do you not hear the law?’- Do ye not understand what is written in the Pentateuch relative to Abraham and his children. It is evident that the word law is used in two senses in this verse. It first means the Mosaic institutions; secondly, the Pentateuch, where the history is recorded to which the apostle refers.
‘For it is written’ - Viz. in Genesis 16:15; Genesis 22:1, etc., ‘that Abraham had two sons’— Ishmael and Isaac— ‘the one;’ Ishmael, ‘by a bond maid,’ Hagar; ‘the other,’ Isaac, ‘by a free woman,’ Sarah. ’But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic.’— They are to be understood spiritually; more being intended in the account than meets the eye. Allegory, from αλλος, another, and αγορεω, or αγορευω, to speak, signifies a thing that is a representative of another, where the literal sense is the representative of a spiritual meaning; or, as the glossary expresses it, ἑτερως κατα μεταφρασιν νοουμενα, και ου κατα την αναγνωσιν· ‘where the thing is to be understood differently in the interpretation than it appears in the reading.’” (Adam Clarke)
24b For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— 26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27 For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.” (Isaiah 54:1) 28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
“The two covenants’ “First the Egyptian slave, ‘which gendereth unto bondage,’ ‘which is from Mount Sinai.’ But this testimony reminds him of Jerusalem which now is in miserable bondage. But then, high above all, the apostle’s spirit rises to another Jerusalem, where the fetters fall from the soul of every slave that sets foot upon that soil. ‘Jerusalem which is above is free.’” (Bishop Alexander)— ‘which is the mother of us all.’ All the churches in Asia, which consisted of Jews and Gentiles were of the Jerusalem above, the mother of all true Christians. “Why ‘Jerusalem above’? (a) Her Supreme Head is above. (b) The Head of the Church not only rules the Church from above, but represents her above. (c) Again, the laws of the Church are from above; her laws of righteousness and her dogmas of faith. (d) Her inheritance is above. Her dower is not earthly honour, earthly riches, earthly endowments and establishments.” (Rev. A. Nicholson)
“The God of glory had appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran (cf.Gen.12 and Acts 7:1-60), and promised him, ‘I will make you a great nation’ (Genesis 12:2). This was confirmed in Genesis 15:4. Yet at 85 years of age, Abraham had no son. In Genesis 16:1-16, both Sarai's and Abram's anxiety about this prompted them to devise a plan to seek to fulfill God's promise. They could not wait for God to fulfill this in His own way and His own time. Interposing their own ingenuity, Abram had a son by the bonds-woman, Hagar.
How striking a picture of Israel seeking to obtain the promise of God by their own righteousness, by their law-keeping! Going about to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God (Romans 10:3). So Abraham, going about to establish God's promise in his own way, showed no real faith in the promise being altogether God's promise. Hence, the son of the bonds-woman was born after the flesh. The whole affair was of fleshly devising and no fulfillment whatever of the promise of God. The son of the bonds-woman cannot enjoy the full liberty of the son's place: he is really himself in bondage, a servant. How plainly it answers to ‘Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children’ (v.25). Mount Sinai in Arabia is a symbol of this bondage, a symbol of the Law and of great distance between God and the people (Exodus 19:18-24; Hebrews 12:18-21).
Thus the Law is the standard by which man's work is measured, and if depending on his own work, the result is bondage. No one can make himself free or keep himself free. Freedom must depend on the work of God. ‘If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed’ (John 8:36). So, for the child of promise, Abraham must depend entirely on God.
Isaac is this child of promise, born to Sarah when she was 90 years old, and Abraham 100, when their bodies were virtually ‘already dead’ (Rom 4:19), and any natural hope of childbearing long gone. But it was God who intervened in sovereign grace to fulfill His own word. Sarah is the free-woman, in intimate relationship to Abraham, who is a type of God the Father, and Sarah a type of the godly remnant of faith according to grace in Israel, from whom Christ came (typified in Isaac), when all natural hope of blessing was gone. Isaac then is a beautiful picture of Christ, the promised Seed, who came to earth, not on account of man's successful law-keeping or any such thing, but on account of the unbreakable promise of God, fulfilled by grace alone.” (L. M. Grant)
“For it is written: ‘Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor! For the desolate’— she that is destroyed and laid waste— ‘has many more children than she who has a husband.' (Isaiah 54:1) He shows that in this allegory he has followed the steps of Isaiah, who foretold that the Church should be made and consist of the children of barren Sara, that is to say, of those who should be made Abraham's children by faith, and this only spiritually, rather than of fruitful Hagar, even then foretelling the casting off of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles.” (Geneva Study Bible) "‘Now, we, brethren,'— Galatian believers in Jesus— 'as Isaac was, are the children of promise.’ We have been baptized into Christ and therefore have firm assurance, based upon His promise, that He will save us at His Second Coming for His people.
29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. 30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
“‘But as he'- Ishmael- 'who was born after the flesh'—whose birth had nothing supernatural in it, but was according to the ordinary course of nature, ‘persecuted him’— Isaac, who was born after the Spirit— who had a supernatural birth, according to the promise,... The persecution here referred to is that mentioned Genesis 21:9. It consisted in mocking his brother...” (Adam Clarke) “‘Persecuted him’— By cruel mockings and real injuries, challenging the birthright and deriding the covenant, etc. Moses’s word, מצזחק, Genesis 21:9, holds forth, that Ishmael did not only himself mock Isaac, but made others also to mock him, exposing him to their jeers.” (John Trapp)
“‘Even so it is now’—So the Jews, in every place, persecute the Christians; and show thereby that they are rather of the posterity of Hagar than of Sarah.” (Adam Clarke) “The Jews persecuted Paul for preaching the gospel. They opposed the gospel and all those who believed in Christ.” (Arno Gaebelein) But also there is another aspect- “he that was born after the flesh—by the common course of nature— persecuted him [born] after the Spirit— by the virtue of God's promise and after a spiritual manner.” (Geneva Study Bible) There is a brand of natural born Christians, according to the flesh in the church. They were born Christians but their theology is works-based and they, along with many Jews, persecute and ridicule born-again Christians. They support diversity of belief, except for that of the remnant. They are determined to silence them. “For what do Papists persecute us for else, but because we reject their justification by works? They poisoned their own Cardinal Contarenus, for that he declared himself sound in this point, by a book that he set forth some four years before the Council of Trent.” (John Trapp)
“We read, Genesis 21:10, that when Sarah saw Ishmael mocking at her son Isaac, she was not able to bear it, but speaketh to her husband Abraham, saying: ‘Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even Isaac.’ The principal design of the apostle seems to be, by that type of the ejection of Ishmael out of Abraham’s family, to let them know the mind and will of God:
1. Concerning the exclusion of the law from a partnership with Christ and the gospel, in the justification of sinners before God.
2. Concerning the rejection of the Jews, upon the calling of the Gentiles.” (Matthew Poole)
“What does this imply in the present case? Why, that the present Jerusalem and her children shall be cast out of the favor of God, and shall not be heirs with the son of the free woman— shall not inherit the blessings promised to Abraham, because they believe not in the promised Seed.” (Adam Clarke) “In like manner will God cast out all who seek to be justified by the law; especially if they persecute them who are his children by faith.” (John Wesley) “So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.’ The church of the Gentiles was not typified in Hagar, but in Sarah; from whence the scope of the apostle is to conclude, that we are not under the law, obliged to Judaical observances, but are freed from them, and are justified by faith in Christ alone, not by the works of the law.” (Matthew Poole) “Thus the apostle, from their own Scripture, explained by their own allegory, proves that it is only by Jesus Christ that they can have redemption.” (Adam Clarke) “We by no means procure and call back again the slavery of the Law, seeing that the children of the bondmaid will not be heirs.” (Geneva Study Bible)
Judaiazers "had pleaded the prophecies as all the rabbins still do, that the gentiles were to be proselyted to judaism. These arguments the apostle here rebuts by affirming, that the spiritual Jerusalem is the mother of us all. Her sons are heirs, not of Jerusalem about to be destroyed, but of the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away... Those ministers of our own times, and of our own nation, who plead for the unqualified return of the jews to Jerusalem, had better weigh St. Paul’s arguments. Do not certain sermons tend to retard the conversion of that interesting nation, now wandering on the face of the earth, by holding out to them a hope that they are to be gathered to their own land in a state of unbelief.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
Israel occupied the Land in the OT, first Israel was carried into captivity and disperses a a people. And then faithful Judah, even little Benjamin, went into captivity for a season failure to allow the land to rest, according to the law or torah, but at the time of Paul, probation was ended. It was after the sixty-two prophetic weeks and Messiah had been cut off, but not for Himself, and the holy city and the sanctuary were soon to be destroyed by the Romans. See Daniel 9:16-27. The promises to Abraham pertain to spiritual seed being gathered to New Jerusalem.