Slave Labor
What Would a Slave Teach us About the Work of Christ?
A. God is Timely (Gal. 4:4)
To begin with, there is a temporal introduction, “but when the time had fully come,” an expression that connects this passage to the illustration of the minor heir entering into his full inheritance at the father’s preappointed time.
In the statement that God exapesteilen, sent forth [‘sent on a mission’] his Son, it is tempting to see an allusion to the title apostolos, ‘apostle’, over which there had apparently been controversy between the Jerusalem church and Paul.
For any Jew, whether it be Paul or a Judaizer, the chief relevance of such a phrase would be its correspondence with Genesis 3:15
God does nothing prematurely, but, foreseeing the end from the beginning, waits till all is ripe for the execution of His purpose
God marks the divine answer to man’s slavery under the law.
He came right on schedule, arriving on the earth when the time had fully come. Some suggest world conditions were ripe for the spread of the gospel.
The right time translates the Greek phrase “the fullness of time,” for which a variety of meanings has been suggested by various commentators.
Whatever meaning we can see in the expression, the main thing to remember is that the emphasis is on a time designated by God as appropriate for his act in order to assure man’s deliverance from helplessness and subservience to the Law and to those forces that are opposed to God (compare Phps “the proper time”; JB “the appointed time”; NAB “the designated time”)
The word translated sent forth demands study. It is exapostello (ἐξαποστελλο). The word apostello (ἀποστελλο) refers to the act of one who sends another with a commission to do something, the person sent being given credentials. Our word apostle comes from it. The prefixed preposition apo (ἀπο) means from, off. This means that the person sent is to represent the sender.
God marks the fact that divine intervention brought hope and freedom to mankind
As a human father chose the time for his child to become an adult son, so the heavenly Father chose the time for the coming of Christ to make provision for people’s transition from bondage under Law to spiritual sonship.
The expression the fullness of the time (Gal. 4:4) refers to that time when the world was providentially ready for the birth of the Saviour.
Christ’s birth at Bethlehem was not an accident; it was an appointment: Jesus came in “the fullness of the time.” (And, it is worth noting, that He will come again when the time is ready.)
This implies that God is in control of history and that Christ came in God’s timing (cf. Mark 1:15; Eph. 1:10; 1 Tim. 2:6; Tit. 1:3).
God’s appointed time had come, and man’s need of redemption had been proved to the full. Thus the eternal purpose of God and the preparation of the world had their fulfilment in the Advent of the Incarnate Son.
The Greek word translated completion is pleroma, indicating that Christ came at the perfect time.
The fullness of the time had come. Humanity, becoming more degraded through ages of transgression, called for the coming of the Redeemer. Satan had been working to make the gulf deep and impassable between earth and heaven. By his falsehoods he had emboldened men in sin. It was his purpose to wear out the forbearance of God, and to extinguish His love for man, so that He would abandon the world to satanic jurisdiction.
B. God is inTentional (Gal. 4:5)
Finally, in v. 5, two purpose/result clauses, both introduced by hina (“in order that”), describe the reason for the coming of Christ and the great benefit believers receive through faith in him (literally): “in order that he might redeem those who are under law” and “in order that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
Christ came for two purposes: First, he came to redeem those under law. Christ paid the price of his death to free us from the slavery of the law. Second, Christ came that we might receive the full rights of sons. These rights come as a gift, or they don’t come at all. Human effort can never secure them.
As son and heir, each Christian receives the Holy Spirit, the down payment of his or her inheritance (Eph. 1:14). The Holy Spirit moves believers to pray to God as Abba, Father. Abba is the equivalent of “Daddy.” It shows the closeness children of grace have with their Father. No slave of the law had such an intimate relationship. That intimate relationship comes through the Spirit not through the law.
The purpose of the Son of God becoming a human being and living under the Jewish Law is twofold: negatively, to redeem those who were under the Law, and positively, so that we might become God’s sons.
The term “adoption” should not be understood, however, as a legal term but as a religious term, in the sense that God gives us the status of sonship (see NEB) together with all its privileges
The word redeem is from exagorazo (ἐξαγοραζο) “to buy out of the slave market.”
Instead therefore of being children (immature ones, nepios (νεπιος)) under law, we became adult sons (huios (υἱος)) under grace.
We could paraphrase it “in order that we might be placed as adult sons.” Thus, we have presented to us the status of a person under grace as compared to that of a person under law. The latter is in his minority, the former in his majority, the latter treated like a minor, the former like an adult.
Notice that God’s purpose was both to ‘redeem’ and to ‘adopt’; not just to rescue from slavery, but to make slaves into sons.
We are not told here how the redemption was achieved, but we know from Galatians 1:4 that it was by the death of Christ and from 3:13 that this death was a ‘curse-bearing’ death.
So the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, witnessing to our sonship and prompting our prayers, is the precious privilege of all God’s children.
4:5 redeem The Greek word used here, exagorazō, is a legal term meaning “buy out.” The idea is that Christ’s death has bought freedom for those who are enslaved to the law.
The reasons “God sent His Son” are twofold (again both reasons are introduced by hina, “in order that”; cf. 3:14). First, He came to redeem (exagorasē) those under Law.
Second, Christ’s Incarnation and death secured for believers the full rights of sons (“the adoption of sons,” KJV). All the enjoyments and privileges of a mature son in a family belong to those who have entered into the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work.
Paul has told us who came—God’s Son; he has told us when He came and how He came. Now he explains why He came: “to redeem them that were under the Law” (Gal. 4:5). Redeem is the same word Paul used earlier (Gal. 3:13); it means “to set free by paying a price.”
Jesus came to set us free. So, to go back into the Law is to undo the very work of Christ on the cross. He did not purchase us to make us slaves, but sons! Under Law, the Jews were mere children, but under grace, the believer is a son of God with an adult standing in God’s family.
A long, involved and expensive legal procedure, once enacted adoption afforded several special rights and privileges: (1) all debts were cancelled; (2) all criminal charges were dropped; (3) they could not be legally put to death by their new father; and (4) they could not be disinherited by their new father.
These two final clauses couple together two gracious purposes of God in the scheme of redemption, (1) the obliteration of a guilty past, (2) divine adoption with the blessings which sonship entails.
The verb “redeem” does scant justice to the Greek here, for Paul refers to the practice that allowed slaves to obtain their freedom by purchasing it. Humanity is no longer enslaved because it has been purchased (cf. 1 Cor 6:20; 7:23); indeed, it has been adopted as children of the household.
Thus, it was necessary for Jesus to die; to redeem (Gk exagorazō, “set free by purchase”) sinners out of the slave market. A second great difference is that Christians receive adoption as sons instead of being a son of the bloodline.
C. God works to change Titles (Gal. 4:7)
the proof that we have the ‘inner witness’ of the Spirit within our hearts; that in itself convinces us that we are children, not slaves. The Greek ei, if, does not imply any doubt; NIV is correct in translating ‘since’. As surely as we are children, we are God’s heirs by his own gift; the two concepts are inseparable to Paul.
Paul concludes that the Galatians were no longer slaves but were sons and heirs. Thus, under grace we have progressed from being slaves to being sons and heirs. Grace is adulthood. Law is childhood. With the privileges of adulthood, why regress back to the law
The clause you are no longer a slave implies at least two things: (1) Sonship includes freedom from bondage; one who has been made a son of God is no longer under the bondage of the Jewish Law or of any other force in the world
The use of the word “heir” reminds one of Roman law, where all the children, whether sons or daughters, natural or adopted, inherited alike
Paul reminds his readers that each one of them, as a son, enjoys the full privileges of sonship and will receive from God everything that he promised to Abraham. The addition of the expression “through God” reminds Paul’s readers of two things: (1) their sonship is a gift from God alone and not through any effort or merit on their part; and (2) since it is all from God, then God will certainly see to it that whatever he has promised to his sons will be realized.
So that no longer are you a slave but a son, and since (you are) a son, (you are) also an heir through God.20
Galatians 4:7
διὰ θεοῦ
so that you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, also an heir through God.
Instead of “through God,” which is attested by a significant combination of early manuscripts, some early manuscripts and related later witnesses have “of God through Christ,” including Christ in the process of becoming an heir (see also Gal 3:17). A few other forms occur in later manuscripts: “through Christ” or “through Jesus Christ.”
Verse 7: So, Paul concludes this stage of his argument, … you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir. And this changed status is through God. What we are as Christians, as sons and heirs of God, is not through our own merit, nor through our own effort, but ‘through God’, through His initiative of grace, who first sent His Son to die for us and then sent His Spirit to live in us.
To conclude, Paul declared that the Galatians were no longer slaves, but were sons and heirs. The plural forms in verse 6 were replaced by the singular forms in verse 7 thus making the application to the reader direct and personal. In God’s family, sonship carries with it heirship (cf. Rom. 8:17).
“Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God” This is a FIRST CLASS CONDITIONAL SENTENCE, “since you are sons” (TEV, NIV). The Spirit removes our slavery and bondage and establishes our sonship (cf. Rom. 8:12–17). This assures our inheritance (cf. 1 Pet. 1:4–5).
“through God” The KJV reads “through Christ.” Older Greek manuscripts have “through God.” This emphasizes God as the originator and initiator of grace (cf. John 6:44, 65 and Gal. 4:9). Several manuscripts have variations but manuscripts P46, א, A, B, and C* have “through God.” Of all the many variants, this one seems to be the most unusual and probably the source of all the others.
Paul’s appeal to those in the churches in Galatia was that the person who tries to be justified before God by works is a slave to the Mosaic law. But he who is justified by faith in Christ is no longer a slave, but a son, with full rights as an heir to God’s infinite treasures.
