Comparing the Son and a Servant
Gal 4:1-11

3-25-07 

In Chapter Four, Paul uses three examples to convince the Galatians that they do not need to go back under the law in order to be saved or to stay saved.  The first example is in vss. 1-11, the example of a son who is like a servant until he is old enough to receive the inheritance.  The second example is in vss. 12-20, the example of Paul himself.  And the third example is in vss. 21-31, the allegory of Hagar and Ishmael compared to Sarah and Isaac.  Today we will study the first example.

Briefly stated, this example is a very simple illustration of a common truth.  When a child is born into a household, he is too young to be trusted with the family inheritance and so he is under tutors and governors who instruct him and look after him.  He has to abide by the laws they impose on him.  In that capacity, he is much like a servant, because he cannot rule; he is under the rule of those who are training him.  However, at some point in time he is grown and trained enough to be able to inherit the family assets and to manage them.  Suddenly, he is no longer under those who trained him.  In fact, they are under him.  And he certainly would not subject himself to the rules he had followed when he was a little child.

Likewise, the Jews in the Old Testament were like the child being raised under tutors and governors.  They had to follow the law the same way a child has to follow the house rules.  When Jesus came and fulfilled the law, the Jews, as little children, had now come to full age, whereby they could receive their inheritance.  By receiving Jesus Christ as their Savior, they would be adopted and inherit the promises that they could not obtain as long as they were servants under the law.  Instantly, like the child who had come of full age, they were no longer under the law.  Thus, it would be foolish to expect saved Jews to go back under the law.  That would be as foolish as an heir subjecting himself to the same rules that he had followed as a child.

Now we will simply run through the verses to be sure that we understand the details of the verse in light of the example Paul has given.

1 – The saved Galatians in this example are compared to “the heir” because of Gal 3:29.

2 – The “tutors and governors” are likened to the law, and “the time appointed of the father” is likened to the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 – As children, they were “in bondage” under the law [Rom 8:15, Gal 5:1]; where the law is described as the “elements of the world” [Co, 2:20-22].

4 – “The fullness of the time” is a reference to the time of the coming of the Lord [Mk 1:15].  Jesus was “under the law” when he came [Matt 5:17; Lk 2:27; Lk 10:25-28; Matt 19:17].

5-7 – Jesus came to “redeem” us from the curse of the law [Gal 3:13] and to give us “the adoption of sons” whereby we cry “Abba, Father,” and become an “heir of God,” [Rom 8:14-17].

8 – Before they were saved they “knew not God” because the way to know God is to receive his Son [Lk 10:22; Jn 14:9].  Their service then, under the law, was to men, “unto them which by nature are no gods.”

9 – To be saved is to be “known of God,” [2 Tim 2:19; Matt 7:21-23].  To be back under the law is to be in “bondage” to “the weak and beggarly elements,” [Rom 8:3].

10 – The law comprised the observance of “days, and months, and times, and years,” [Col 2:16; Num 28-29].

11 – Paul’s fear was that he may have “bestowed upon [them] labor in vain.”  His concern was that they might not be saved, or at least that they were not responding as saved children of the Lord.

So, the first example is complete and Paul has made a worthy case for why these Galatians should not be back under the law.

 

 

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