GALATIANS (19): From Slavery to Sonship (Galatians 4:4-7)

These wonderful verses describe how God the Father has saved us by His grace in (1) sending forth His Son into the world to redeem us (v4-5), and (2) sending forth His Spirit into our hearts to regenerate and indwell us and lead us into our full inheritance (v6-7). We discuss what ‘the fullness of time’ means (v4), and how these verses claim that Jesus is the God-man, born of a virgin (Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14), who lived a sinless life, fulfilling the Law perfectly (v4), in order to redeem us from the curse of the law, that we might be set free from bondage to external law, by being placed (adopted) as sons (‘huios’) of God. Upon this legal basis, God then also immediately sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, regenerating our spirits in the New Birth, making us actual sons of God, who cry out from our spirit: “Abba, Father!” (v6). Therefore, we are no longer slaves, but sons, and heirs of God and His full blessing of salvation through Christ (v7).