THE ADOPTION AS SONS

GALATIANS 4:1-7

JULY 26, 1998

 

The enslaving depravity of man, religious and non-religious, is pictured in the opening verses of our text.  While the Judaizers in Galatia claimed special privilege through the Law, Paul explains that we are all under bondage to "the elemental things of the world."   

 

Paul paints the picture for Gentiles and Jews in this text, shifting slightly from the Law as a paidagogos, disciplining, restraining, and ultimately pointing us to the only sufficiency in Christ (Gal. 3:19-25), to the common plight facing all men, with or without the formalized Law.  All of us are held in bondage or a prison house by the Christless, idolatrous religions of human depravity.  Man's self-made attempts to get to God are futile; no self-effort can liberate him from his imprisonment to the elemental things of the world.  The spiritual darkness keeps men locked in their clutches with no way out. 

 

The concept of "the elemental things of the world" has given rise to various ideas by interpreters.  "Elemental" or "rudimentary" (stoichea) literally means 'in a row', as in the ABC's.  It is something which is basic or foundational.  He uses the image of a child who is an heir being in the same essential condition as a slave.  He has potential for an inheritance, but he has not yet received the inheritance.  The day can come only when his father has set it.  Until that time, "guardians and managers" keep him in check.  He cannot order them around.  He has no authority over them. 

 

Now Paul draws his comparison.  "So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world."  As "children" we were unbelieving and still held in spiritual bondage awaiting the day of liberation through Christ.  The perfect passive participle "held in bondage" demonstrates that we are trapped without any personal recourse.  And what held us?  Paul calls it "the elemental things of the world."  Some have interpreted this as the Law, relating this to Paul's previous discussion.  John Stott explains that it is the Law which has been twisted in its intention and purpose by the devil, so that we are only driven to despair and have no sense of hope.  Others suggest that this passage refers to man's own self-made religion which has behind it the evil spirits of darkness.  It is man's own version of how to achieve righteousness, a version that always ends in bondage.  Still others would suggest that this simply means that all men are under evil influences, religious and non-religious alike.  While Paul does not explain precisely what he means by this image, it is certain that he is picturing the spiritual bondage which all men dwell in apart from saving grace.

 

This sets the stage for our solitary Deliverer, Jesus Christ the Lord.  It is not the Law that delivers nor the acts attached to it, for the Law has no power to save.  It is not our self-made religious beliefs which save us, for we are all held captive by the spiritual forces of sin and Satan.  Our only hope is deliverance from outside of us through Jesus Christ by whom we are redeemed and adopted as sons.  Do you know Jesus Christ as your Redeemer from your bondage to sin?  Let us see the glory of our great Deliverer and what He has accomplished for us.  

 

I.  The Deliverer 

 

The emphasis which Paul makes is upon Christ our Redeemer.  He wants the Galatians to see again that it is not the works of the Law that delivers a sinner from bondage, but it is the work of Christ alone.  He shows the intervention of Jesus Christ as a work of God's grace. 

 

1.  His timing 

 

After building up the situation so that the Galatians understood that they were slaves to sin and to their own attempts at self-righteousness, Paul points to the gracious act of God in sending His Son on behalf of sinners.  "But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son."  We hear this same truth in the much loved verse of John 3:16:  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...."  The Gospels place a major stress on God sending Jesus Christ.  When Jesus was dialoging with the religious leaders in Jerusalem, He told them, "...the Father has sent Me" (John 5:36-38).  To the Pharisees Jesus testified, "...the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me" (John 8:18). 

 

The word "sent forth" conveys the idea of going from someone with authority to accomplish a specific task.  As a Person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ was sent forth to come into this world, bearing all the authority of the Godhead to accomplish the eternal, redemptive work of God on behalf of sinners.  In the ancient world, a king might send his representative to a city to convey a message or to carry on a work.  Often, as a sign of authentication, the messenger would carry a document stating his authority and task with the king's seal embossed upon it.  The sign of this seal would convey to the audience that this man had been sent by the king with all the authority of his throne to carry out his work. 

 

In the same manner, Jesus declared that "on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal" (John 6:27-29).  Our Lord Jesus did not come to earth to start a new religion.  He did not come to gather a few followers in hope of success.  He came with all the authority of the Godhead to accomplish our redemption and carry out God's eternal plans for redeeming His people!  The seal of the Father was upon Him to carry out His saving work on behalf of sinners. 

 

Paul declared that Jesus came at just the right moment in history, "the fulness of the time."  In the centuries prior to Christ's entrance into humanity, there was no panic in heaven over the affairs of men.  God's timing is always perfect.  The idea conveyed is that the Sovereign Lord worked in history to bring about just the right setting for His Son to be born.  John MacArthur points out that the time was right religiously for the Jews had cast off their idolatry which characterized them prior to the Babylonian captivity.  The time was right culturally for Alexander the Great had established his Greek culture and its language to solidify the world, making it ready for communication.  And the time was right politically as Rome had established her pax Romana or Roman peace, opening the door for the gospel messengers to travel freely throughout the vast empire, carrying the good news of Jesus Christ [MacArthur's NT Commentary, 107].  It was God who orchestrated history through His acts of providence in order to send His Son at just the precise moment of "the fulness of the time." 

 

2.  His identity 

 

Paul identifies the Redeemer as the Son of God:  "But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son."  We have a Trinitarian teaching within this text, for here we find the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working to accomplish the salvation of sinners.  The Father is seen as the One sending the Redeemer.  It is His work to choose out a people for Himself, a work which He accomplished before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-6; Acts 2:39; John 6:37, 44, 65; 17:2, 4, 6; I Peter 1:2).  Jesus Christ is the One sent forth by the Father to accomplish the work of redemption through laying down His own life at the cross (I Timothy 2:5-6; II Timothy 1:8-10; Titus 2:13-14; Romans 3:21-26).  The Holy Spirit applies this work by regenerating sinners, sealing them in Christ, and securing them for the day of final redemption (Titus 3:5; Acts 2:38; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30).   

 

This same "Son" who was sent forth by the Father was the very One prophesied of in the Old Testament. In the second Psalm, we find a clear Messianic prophesy which Paul builds upon in our text: 

I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, 'Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee.  Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession.  Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware (Psa. 2:7-9).

It is this Son whom the Father sent into the world.  It is Him in whom "all the fulness of deity dwells in bodily form" (Col. 2:9).  It is Him before whom the angels of God worship (Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 5:11-12).  It is Him whom the Scripture declares, "Thy Throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom" (Hebrews 1:8).  It is Him to whom belongs all power, riches, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing (Revelation 5:12). 

 

See what the Almighty has done for poor sinners!  He sent forth from the perfections and glories of Heaven, His own Son!  This Son is infinitely glorious, yet to redeem us, He left His exalted throne to dwell among men.  It was not mankind that called Jesus from Heaven.  It was God Himself, according to His great mercy and wondrous purpose, who sent forth His Son to accomplish our redemption. 

 

3.  His entrance 

 

This Son has come into the world, not in the radiance of His eternal glory but clothed with humanity.  "But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law."  Here we have a succinct statement of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.  We must travel to other texts to discover the full compass of our Lord's virginal conception and birth.  But here the emphasis is upon His humanity.  As Martin Luther put it, "He signifieth that Christ was true and very man of womanhood" [Galatians, 231]. 

 

The language of His humanity like ours is quite clear, for Paul states that He was "born of a woman," rather than "born through a woman."  The difference is important and one that has caused great debate through the centuries.  For what is at stake is His genuine humanity which is necessary for our redemption. 

 

The ancient Docetics denied that Jesus had a human body at all, stating that His body was merely ghost-like or a phantom.  They could not conceive of God touching matter which they construed as evil.  Some Gnostic Christians taught that "Jesus brought with Him a celestial body from heaven, passing through Mary as a drop of water goes through a pipe" [T. George NAC, 303].  A similar view was embraced by some early Anabaptists in which they claimed that Jesus "took nothing of His substance from Mary" [T. George, Theology of the Reformers, 281]. 

 

But Paul wrote that Jesus Christ was "born of a woman," that is, of the very substance of humanity.  The phrase used is a common Jewish expression denoting in simplicity one's status as a human being (e.g., Job 14:1, T. George NAC, 302).  What Paul is stressing is that Jesus had an actual human body like ours and faced the same sort of trials and perils we face as humans, yet without sin.  This was necessary if He was going to bear the punishment due to humanity.  I think John MacArthur sums it up well when he wrote: 

He had to be fully God in order for His sacrifice to have the infinite worth necessary to atone for the sin of mankind.  He also had to be fully man in order to represent mankind and take the penalty of sin upon Himself in man's behalf.  It was man who sinned, who was under the curse, and who was condemned to render his life forfeit to God.  Jesus therefore could not have substituted for sinful man on the cross had He not taken upon Himself "the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:7).  He had to be God to have the power of Savior, and He had to be man to have the position of Substitute [NT Commentary, 108].

As one "born under the Law," Jesus came as a man living in submission to the divine law, a law which He completely fulfilled.  Again, the language used here is in parallel to "born of a woman."  He was born into Judaism, was circumcised, fulfilled the Law by perfect obedience, in order that He might qualify to redeem us from the penalty of the Law.   

 

4.  His task 

 

His task was clear from the start:  Jesus Christ came as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).  So many in our day place emphasis on the example Jesus gave for us to live our lives.  While He certainly gave the perfect example, that was not why He came to earth.  If your view of Jesus Christ leaves out or demotes the priority of His redemptive work, then you have failed to understand why Jesus came to earth.  He came that He might redeem sinners from the curse.  He came for the cross, to bear the wrath of God on our behalf.  This redemptive task of our Lord is clearly seen throughout Scripture.  I think we are enabled to see this clearly by the image both John the Baptist (John 1:29) and John the Apostle used to describe Christ:  the Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 5:5-14; 7:9-17; 12:10-12).  In the events leading to the conquering return of Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, John uses the redemptive title, the Lamb.  The word focuses upon Jesus Christ's substitutionary death.  Everything is secondary to the work of Christ at the cross propitiating God's justice for us.  

 

II.  The Deliverer's work 

 

It is not the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ that saves us.  It is His work at the cross that saves because He is both God and man.  Some people will satisfy themselves that they are Christians because they believe that Jesus is God and that Jesus became a man.  While this is certainly essential to saving faith, it is not the end of the object of our faith.  We must trust in what Jesus Christ accomplished on our behalf if we are to be saved. 

 

The text shows two specific areas of the Deliverer's work.  "But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that [Greek, hina] He might redeem those who were under the Law, that [hina, in order that] we might receive the adoption as sons."   

 

1.  To redeem 

 

The word "redeem," comes from the common terminology of Paul's day.  It goes back to the marketplace where slaves were regularly sold.  It literally means 'to buy out of the marketplace' or 'to ransom from slavery'.  The slave had no way of personal deliverance in this case.  He was held in bondage, hoping that someone might redeem him.  Redemption involved a price and a person to pay the price. 

 

The language is very clear.  Jesus Christ is the person who comes as our Deliverer to pay the price of our redemption.  And the price He paid was the offering of His own life in a bloody death on our behalf.  The price demanded to deliver us was the full measure of God's wrath.  Jesus' death was not to inspire us to live better lives.  It was not to teach us to be sacrificial.  His death was necessary for us to be saved, for divine justice must be satisfied; the condemnation by God's law must be judicially fulfilled. 

 

The focal point of Jesus Christ being sent by the Father was to exercise His work as redeemer.   

 

God's Law necessitated this.  That is why the emphasis is upon Christ being "born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law."  It was not One who had nothing to do with the Law nor One who ignored the Law that could serve as our redeemer.  For we who are under the curse of the Law as sons of Adam and law-breakers, cannot remove ourselves from the Law's condemnation.  God's justice demands satisfaction toward those who have broken His Law.  So only the one who has obeyed the Law, who alone as a human being never came under the Law's curse, could deliver us.  The cost was bearing the penalty of what we deserve in His own body at the cross.  God's justice demands that His wrath be satisfied against sinners. 

 

The language of redemption points back to our helplessness to secure salvation through any merit or self-effort.  If there had been another way for us to be saved, you can be assured that the Son of God would not have gone to the cross!  His death was not accidental nor unintentional.  It was purposed before the worlds were created.  The entire scenario was acted out by divine design (Acts 4:27-28). 

 

Do you see that your only hope is in Jesus Christ and His bloody death?  It is not our good works or our baptism that redeems us from the Law's curse.  It is only the perfect Lamb of God dying in our place before God's wrath that procures redemption for us.  And indeed, His death was effective in securing our redemption. 

 

In redemption we still dwell in a legal realm, for the slave is legally bound to his master until the price of redemption is paid.  Upon the satisfaction of that price, the slave is freed.  This pictures our forgiveness and deliverance from sin.  But the Apostle wants us to understand that there is more.  God could have simply redeemed us and that would have been infinitely more that we could ever deserve.  He does not stop with redemption.  He also adopts us as sons! 

 

2.  To adopt 

 

The other "in order that" clause tells us the positive side of Christ's redemptive work.  He came to not only deliver us from the penalty that weighed upon us under the curse of the Law, but also to bring us into a relationship as sons.  "God sent forth His Son...[in order] that we might receive the adoption as sons."   

 

Paul has dealt extensively with the legal aspects of our salvation as he expounded the truth of our justification in Christ.  That in itself is incredibly glorious!  To think that God would send His Son to bear my guilt before His judicious wrath is virtually incomprehensible!  These Galatian believers who were struggling with their salvation were reminded anew of the work of Christ that alone satisfies God's demands in justifying sinners.  How thankful they must have been as they considered this truth again. 

 

But now the Apostle adds to the magnificence of justification and redemption.  He states that we are adopted as sons.  Imagine that!  God sent forth His Son to not only redeem us who have lived in rebellion against Him, but also to procure for us sonship in His family!  We who have been enemies of God are now, by faith in union with Jesus Christ, adopted into God's family as sons! 

 

I recall an incredible news report several years ago about a family that adopted a man as their son after he had killed their daughter.  It was an unbelievable show of love and forgiveness from a human standpoint that they would bring this man into their own family.  But when we consider what God does in adoption, it makes this act pall in comparison.  For He has adopted a whole race of God-hating enemies into His family!  And our enmity was not by one act but it was bound up in our natures and continually demonstrated in our actions.  God sent forth His Son so that He might secure a group of rebellious, hateful, wicked sinners to be His sons and daughters through adoption! 

 

We are reminded by this word "adoption," the great truth that we do not adopt ourselves, nor do we outline to God the terms of adoption.  Adoption comes as a divine act out of the abundance of His mercy, grace, and love.  Do you realize that God could have chosen simply to redeem us from sin and that would have been enough?  To be free from sin's dominion and curse would be glory enough.  But God goes still farther.  What more can He do for undeserving sinners than to bring them into His own family? 

 

Thomas Watson, one of the Puritans who wrote A Body of Divinity, describes the "wonder of God's love in adopting us." 

[It is a wonder] that God should be at so great expense in adopting us.  When men adopt, they have only some deed sealed, and the thing is effected; but when God adopts, it puts him to a far greater expense; it sets his wisdom to work to find out a way to adopt us.  It was no easy thing to make heirs of wrath, heirs of the promise.  When God had found out a way to adopt, it was no easy way.  Our adoption was purchased at a dear rate; for when God was about to make us sons and heirs, he could not seal the deed but by the blood of his own Son.  Here is the wonder of God's love in adopting us, that he should be at all this expense to accomplish it [235].  

III.  The Delivered 

 

What does it mean to be adopted into God's family?  Why is it important for us to have an understanding of this truth?  The strength to press on in the demands of life are wrapped up in the truths which the Apostle unfolds for us in this passage. 

 

1.  New status 

 

Verses 5-7 repetitiously tell us that we are sons through our union with Jesus Christ by faith.  Jesus came forth from God "that we might receive the adoption as sons.  And 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 must not live as believers with the attitude of slavery.  The context of the Judaizers pressing their legalism upon the Galatians comes into play at this point.  For the very idea of reverting back to rules and regulations for their standing with God put the Galatians into a position as slaves.  Paul assures them, "You are no longer a slave, but a son."  'You are not in the same position that you've been in for all these years, enslaved to the devil, enslaved to your evil passions, enslaved to the bondage of your sin nature.  You are now a son.  That changes everything.  Your status has changed.  You are no longer one of God's enemies.  You are one of His sons!' 

 

Adoption declares a new status for the child of God.  It means that we have a new name.  We are now "children of God," rather than children of the world.  We are sons of light and no longer sons of darkness.   

 

The believer also has a new nature.  Natural adoption cannot do this.  A man can give a child his name but he cannot give him his nature.  Yet in our adoption as sons, we have been given a new nature in Christ.  Thomas Watson wrote, "Whom he adopts, he anoints; whom he makes sons, he makes saints.  When a man adopts another for his son and heir, he may put his name upon him, but he cannot put his disposition into him; if he be of a morose rugged nature, he cannot alter it; but whom God adopts he sanctifies; he not only gives a new name but a new nature" [233].  Think of this my friend.  God showed us mercy by redeeming us from slavery.  But he has shown us unmeasured love by adopting us as His sons and daughters. 

 

Do you think upon your new status as a child of God?  We must live in this reality day by day.  We can find comfort and rest in this truth as we meditate upon it.   

 

2.  New assurance 

 

For those who are redeemed and adopted, "And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'"  Here is the wondrous assurance granted by the witness of the Holy Spirit.  Notice what he tells us, for this is at the heart of our assurance as a believer.  There is a definite, experiential reality that those who have been redeemed and adopted by Christ will have the witness of the Holy Spirit assuring them of their relationship to the Lord.  Some would short-circuit the biblical means of assurance by having you repeat a prayer or depend upon a date written in a Bible.  Do not rest your eternal hopes upon something so flimsy!   

 

Quite simply, Paul is saying that all who have been adopted as sons have received the Holy Spirit or "the Spirit of His Son," so that He might dwell within the believer and give to him a consciousness of God as Father.  "It is something that happens in their innermost being and is not a minor disturbance on the surface of life" [Leon Morris, Galatians: Paul's Charter of Christian Freedom, 131].  The believer has a deep sense that he belongs to the Father and that he has the right as a son to call upon the Father.  This stands in contrast to the typical picture of the stern, cold, sterile deities of Paul's day.  None of these people would have considered calling one of their former gods, 'father'.  Yet now, because of the Spirit's indwelling, the believer has an assurance that "I am His and He is mine."  The deep longings within his heart are for the Father.  He cries out to the Father as a little child would cry out to his own earthly father.   

 

Do you have this deep, inner witness of the Spirit in your own life?  My friend, if you do not know this consciousness of the Father, then I appeal to you to seek the Lord to make sure of your own adoption as a son!   

 

3.  New claim 

 

Our text lays one more claim to those who are redeemed and adopted into God's family.  "Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God."  There's more ahead!  All the riches of belonging to God will one day be unfolded for the child of God.  When the world attempts to lure you into its snare, tempting you with temporal delights, cast your glance ahead to the inheritance that is yours as a child of God.  You are not meant to claim the world and its deceitful dainties as your inheritance.  You are to see that you are an heir through God's gracious acts on your behalf through Christ. 

 

We understand some of the importance of this truth by the way it is used in our own day.  Have you noticed how newspapers will track the course of some young person who is an "heir" to a fortune?  They are called an "heir" or an "heiress," pointing to the fact that their lives are now influenced and shaped by what will one day be completely their own.  These people are not just 'plain Joe' or 'plain Jane'.  They are seen in light of their future inheritance and they live with a consciousness of that inheritance. 

 

Paul is telling us to live like sons not slaves.  Live as those who have an inheritance through God.  Be identified with your future and not trapped by this temporal world.  Understand that whatever you face in this life, the inheritance laid up for you is grander than anything you can imagine!  

 

Conclusion 

 

Have you been adopted as a son?  This adoption takes place only when we have turned from our sin and embraced Jesus Christ and His merits by faith.  He laid down His life that we might receive His name and His nature as sons of God.  Through faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, you who are yet at enmity with God can become His child.

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