Galatians 4:1-7 (NIV)
What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
The context of this section (3:15-4:7) must be kept in mind in order to understand Paul’s point. As children of Abraham, by grace through faith in Jesus, we are heirs to the covenants and promises that God gave to His chosen people through their history.
However, when an heir is a child, naïve, uneducated in the ways of the kingdom, and liable to be draw aside after sparkly temptations, the law is put into place as a supervisor and schoolmaster for both instruction and protection.
This is the true function of the law and commandments in the life of a new Christian. They help us to understand God’s character, so that our lives can be lived in accordance with it. They list sins to be avoided as well as positive actions and attitudes to be pursued, and so help to shape character and thought patterns. This is essential, because we all come into the kingdom having been warped and tarnished by the world and its ways.
But Jesus came to the people God had prepared by the law, not to give them more or better laws and commandments, but to provide real salvation, transformation, and spiritual maturity so that they could be directly taught and moved by God’s Spirit living in them, so that we, His people, no longer need the threat of punishment to motivate us to obey.
As mature Christians, whose hearts have been molded and shaped into the image of Jesus, we are then able to live legitimately holy and productive kingdom lives. So we are no longer under the tutelage of the law, and we can receive the “full rights of sons”, and all the blessings, rights and responsibilities that go along with that lofty title. Thus, as “sons”, filled by the Holy Spirit who relates us to God as legitimate children, we are no longer slaves to the law, but we obey God’s commandments consistently, almost instinctively, from a purified heart and mind.
Father, You’re right! The way the chapter divisions were inserted, it is very easy to read these seven verses without the context of what goes before them. Thank You for this clarification, which makes everything so much logical and understandable. And thank You for our adoption into your family, which changes everything in our lives here and now as well as in our future. Amen.