MARCH 26, 2023
THE APOSTLE’S DEFENSE OF HIS DOCTRINE (PART IV)
INTRODUCTION:
1. Paul is defending the true doctrine of the Gospel.
2. Since there is only one true Gospel, and since it had been so faithfully preached to the Galatians, and since they had openly received it, the Apostle attributes their sudden disobedience to the bewitching of false teachers.
I. HE EXPRESSES HIS ASTONISHMENT OVER THEIR CHANGE. (VERSE 1)
II. HE PRESENTS STRONG ARGUMENTS CONFIRMING THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF THE GOSPEL. (VERSES 2-9)
III. HE DEMONSTRATES WHY JUSTIFICATION BY WORKS IS IMPOSSIBLE. (VERSES 10-14)
IV. HE STRESSES THE COVENANT ARRANGEMENT OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH, WHICH CANNOT BE DISANNULLED BY THE LAW WHICH CAME 430 YEARS AFTER. (VERSES 15-22)
V. HE EXPLAINS THE PURPOSE AND FUNCTION OF THE LAW AS IT PERTAINS TO THE STATE OF THE CHURCH BEFORE FAITH CAME, AND AFTER FAITH CAME. (VERSES 23-29)
VI. THE APOSTLE GIVES A FIGURATIVE ILLUSTRATION OF THESE TWO STATES OF THE CHURCH BEFORE AND AFTER FAITH. (CH. 4_1-7) Many Galatian believers had become charmed by the Judaizing teachers so that they saw something very appealing in what was now an obsolete Mosaic system. Not only were they fascinated with the ceremonies and forms, but also the idea of a merit system appealed to their pride. Paul had endeavored to remind them of the wonderful advantages and blessings they would be exchanging for a religion which was never designed to give them what they were seeking. The Apostle, who loved them and watched over them, used the appropriate remedy. He stripped away the splendor with which the Judaizing teachers had surrounded the legal economy, and fully unfolds its nature and design. He distinctly shows that it was an introductory, imperfect, and temporary dispensation. What these converts (most of them Gentiles) had been led to believe was very dignified, was in their case degradation, and rather than taking them forward, was really going backward. According to his most recent analogy, it would be like forfeiting the full rights of mature sonship, in order to return to minority status under the care of a custodian. It would be to exchange the liberty of full sonship for the bondage of a servant or slave. He illustrates the principle he has just laid down by a domestic analogy, showing that it would not be more unnatural or absurd for a child who had arrived at majority to insist on being again subjected to the restraints of his minority (which was little different than a servant) than it would be for them, after experiencing the glorious freedom as children of God, to voluntarily subject themselves to the servitude of the Mosaic institution.
A. THE FIGURE USED FOR ILLUSTRATION. (VERSES 1, 2)
1. The example was familiar to both Jews and Greeks. In these families, the son, though destined ultimately to inherit and take possession of his father’s property, was while yet a minor in a state not superior to that of a servant. He was obliged to rise, go to bed, to work, to rest, to study, etc., according to the will of his custodian. Like the servant, he was altogether as a person under the authority of a master.
2. The schoolmaster was one who had custodial care of children. The word rendered tutors denotes those who had guardianship. Governors were house-stewards to whom the management of domestic concerns were entrusted.
3. The condition of the minor son was thus to be born patiently. It was much to be preferred to rejection. Trying as it may have been, it was preparing the son for a higher position. Likewise, to be kept and instructed and prepared under the law was a condition to be thankful for. However, it was certainly not a state of being to be held on to once the ends had been gained for which one was being prepared.
B. THE APPLICATION OF THE FIGURE. (VERSES 3-7) “Even so.” The Apostle is saying, “Analogous to the manner in which human fathers manage the preparation of their sons is the manner in which the Heavenly Father conducts the discipline of His children.”
1. We have God’s elect in the state of their minority, as it were, “in bondage under the elements (rudiments) of the world.”
a) When the Apostle says, “even so we,” of whom is he speaking? Clearly he speaks of the family of God, the church.
b) When he speaks of them as being “children,” we are to understand he means children under age, not yet of age to receive their rightful inheritance.
c) “Under the elements (rudiments) of the world” refers to the state of the church under law. Just as an immature child is governed by rules and regulations, so also before the drawing of the light of the Gospel, we were in bondage to “the rudiments of the world.” (See Col. 2:8; Heb. 6:1)
d) “Elements of the world” not only speaks of elementary or rudimentary means of preparation, but of the external nature of the observances, as compared to the internal and spiritual nature of Christ’s Kingdom. (John 1:16, 17; Luke 17:21)
2. We have next the state of mature sonship in to which the church is brought, and the means by which it was done. (Verses 4, 5)
a) “The fullness of the time” or “the full time,” i.e. when the time appointed of the Father had fully arrived. When the fullness of the time was come, then “we,” that is, the church, the family of God, obtained the adoption of sons.
b) “God sent forth His son.” Christ’s coming supplied the basis of freedom for man. He had existed already from eternity with the Father, (John 1:1; 8:58, etc., etc.) but when the time was fully come for His arrival, God sent Him forth.
c) Many preparatory arrangements had come to pass. In this connection think of: The full development of the Jewish nation from which Christ would come; the scattering of the Jews throughout the world, thus synagogues were established in many places; the Greek language was spoken throughout the civilized world; the Roman road system, and to some extent, the enforcement of Roman peace. But God alone knows why in His inscrutable decree Christ would come at the exact moment that He did.
d) “Made of a woman.” This was according to the original promise (Gen. 3:15); and many prophetic announcements. (Isa 7:14, etc.) He was the virgin born Son of God. He must, for sake of His mission, be both God and man, for He came to redeem fallen mankind, and bring them back to God. He must therefore be fully man, but a sinless man. (Heb. 2:14-16; 7:26, 27; I Pet. 3:18)
e) “Made under the law.” Not only was He under personal obligation to keep the law, but He was also duty- bound (a duty to which he voluntarily bound Himself) vicariously to bear the law’s penalty, and to satisfy its demand of perfect obedience.
f) “To redeem them that were under the law.” The law under which Christ was made is the law under which the church was placed before His coming, and from which it was necessary that she be delivered in order to the obtaining the adoption of sons. Christ was therefore made under that law in order to redeem His church.
3. The consequence and proof of this favorable change of condition. (Verses 6, 7)
a) The redeemed are now sons, not minors, but majors. They have reached maturity, and with it freedom. It is remarkable that the Apostle says to these weak, foolish, erring Galatians that even they are sons of God, the Father of their Lord Jesus Christ.
b) Now because they are sons, God the Father, having adopted them as sons, has sent forth the Spirit into their hearts. By receiving the Spirit, they became conscious of their sonship. (Rom. 8:15) Note: all three persons of the divine Trinity are prominent in this passage in their harmonious cooperation in the great matter of man’s salvation.
(1) God sent His Son to buy back His chosen ones from the bondage of sin.
(2) The Son became one in nature with those who were in bondage, in order that He might redeem them, and restore them.
(3) God sent the Spirit of his Son in order that He might not only dwell with us, but in us, in our very hearts. (John 14:17)
c) It is only natural that the Spirit dwelling within these hearts impels them to joyfully cry out to our great and loving Benefactor, jubilantly calling Him, “Father.” The text reads: crying “Abba! Father!” (Compare Rom. 8:15, 16)
(1) Paul, a Hebrew of the Hebrews by birth must have loved to use the Hebrew word for Father, “ABBA.’
(2) Naturally, in writing to a church, the greater part of which were non-Jews, he translated into the Greek, pater, “FATHER.’
d) Now addressing each redeemed and believing soul, the Apostle says, “Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
(1) Once a soul has trusted to Christ’s sacrifice as the only ground for salvation, he draws near to the throne of grace addressing God as ABBA! FATHER! He is no longer in bondage, no longer a slave, but he is a son, and what’s more, he knows he is a son.
(2) “…and if a son, then also an heir.” He is heir of salvation, which to claim is to admit that it is not his own achievement, but a gift of grace. He is heir of all things through Christ. (See I Cor. 3:21-23) In other words, he is “an heir of God through Christ.” (Compare Rom. 8:15-17)
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