If A Son, Then An Heir Part 1

Reading of the Text

Galatians 4:1–5 ESV

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, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

We have discussed what it means to be in Christ and that to be in Christ also means to be Abraham’s offspring (Gal. 3:29), who are heirs according to the promise.

Despite the chapter division, we should view this as a continuation of 3:19-3:29, with the conclusion to those thoughts being chapter 4:7.

So now Paul expounds on what he means by heir, by painting a picture familiar to his audience, in contrast to the rigorous argumentation given in the previous text.

Galatians 4:1–3 ESV

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, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

Both Jews and Gentiles of the promise, those who are Children of Abraham by faith (heirs to the promise), were under guardians and managers. Though I prefer the King James, “Tutor and Governors” as it illustrates the teaching manner of which the “elementary principles” of the world guided God’s people prior to the “fullness of time” (v.4).

As heirs we were once too young to obtain the inheritance, so we were under tutors and governors as slaves to them until the date set by the father.

Who or what was the tutor and governors for the Jews and Gentiles respectively?

For the Jews, it was the law of Moses and for the Gentile it was the ordinances of pagan religion and of the civil law.

Why might Paul call the law of Moses “Elementary Principles of the world”, as if it were equal to pagan religion or secular civil law?

If we recall the office of the law or the purpose of the law, we can recall that the law can not save people.

Its purpose is to demonstrate the righteousness of God, his standard of conduct, and man’s conduct is contrasted against that by his own actions. This aspect offers no salvation, just knowledge of our own depravity.

Another purpose is to restrain evil actions, like civil law of pagans and secularists. While fear of punishment curbs outward behavior, it does not transform the nature of mankind. Within our mind we hold dark, evil, and perverse thoughts with the law binding our hands from moving forward with action out of fear, assuming that we do in fact fear the law and those who uphold it. In the case of the Jews it is beyond fear of the lawgiver and enforcer, but fear of the Lord himself.

These purposes of both the law of Moses and the laws of pagan and secular religion only offer worldly things as neither of them can change a man’s heart and deliver him from sin, nor justify him before God. By the other half of the gospel can the law have any value towards his salvation it can only drive him towards the promises, though that driving towards God is not a product of the law, but of the Spirit of God as Man in his fallen state abuses the law for his own purposes. These promises are, of course exclusively found in the word of God, however all men, regardless of worldview seek after salvation.

Romans 8:1–8 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

This passage reveals our need for the Spirit of God to dwell within us to free us from the bondage of our tutor, the law.

It also shows us that the law can not save those in the flesh, but that Christ and his work are necessary to save those who who are in Him, who were previously in the the flesh

Galatians 4:4–5 ESV

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

God sent his son, Christ Jesus, into the world at the proper moment in history, according to God’s providential oversight and divine wisdom.

“God sent forth his Son, born of woman” - Christ is both fully God, as member of the Godhead, and fully man, as he took on flesh, as Paul points out his deity and his humanity.

“born under the law” - Christ Jesus as God is not subject to the law of God, however he humbled himself and took on the form of man and subjected himself to the law, not just fulfilling the law (also proof of his deity), but as an innocent man takes on the sins of others and falls under the law’s condemnation on the cross, falling under the wrath of God in place of those who have faith in him

Christ’s purpose as God being sent as a man under the rule of the law was to be righteousness to those who did not have it by their own merit - this is imputed by faith - “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” - (Gal. 3:14)