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Benson Commentary Galatians 4:1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; Galatians 4:1-3 . The apostle, having established the consolatory doctrine that believers, in every age and country of the world, are heirs of the promises made to Abraham and to his seed, goes on in this chapter to answer an inquiry which he knew would naturally occur to his readers, but which, according to his manner, he does not formally state; namely, Since all believers, from the beginning, were heirs of the promises, as well as of the things promised, why were they not put in possession of the promises from the beginning, by sending Christ into the world, and introducing the gospel dispensation in the first age; that the promises, especially the promise of pardon and eternal life through faith, might have been published universally, and preserved for the benefit of the heirs in every age; and why were mankind left for so many ages to the direction of the laws of nature and of Moses, neither of which gave them any hope of pardon and eternal life? To this inquiry the apostle answers, that in not giving the heirs the knowledge of the promises, by introducing the gospel dispensation immediately after the fall, God treated them as a prudent father treats his son while under age. During his nonage, he does not allow him to possess the estate, of which he is the heir, because he has not discretion to use it aright; but keeps him in the condition of a bond-man. In the same manner, though believers from the beginning were heirs of the promises, God did not, in the early ages, put them in possession of them, by immediately setting up the gospel dispensation; because, in the first ages, the state of the world did not admit of either the universal publication of the gospel, or of its preservation. And that, as the heir of a great estate must be prepared by a proper education for managing and enjoying it, and is therefore in his childhood placed under persons who instruct him, manage his estate, and supply him with necessaries, till the time appointed in his father’s will for taking possession of his inheritance; so, to prepare believers for the actual inheritance of the gospel dispensation, God judged it proper to continue them for a long time under the bondage of the laws of nature, and of the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations, that by experiencing the hardships of that bondage, they might be the more sensible of the happiness which they were to derive from the liberty of the gospel. This is the sense of the three first verses, as appears by the following short paraphrase. Now — To illustrate, by a plain similitude, the pre-eminence of the Christian over the legal dispensation; I say that the heir — Of any estate, however large; as long as he is a child — Or is under age; differeth nothing from a servant — With respect to the free use and enjoyment of his estate; though he be lord of all — Proprietor of it all, by right of inheritance; but is placed under tutors — As to his person; and governors — ?????????? , stewards, as to his substance; until the time appointed of the father — When he shall be deemed of age, and be at liberty to manage his affairs himself. So we — The church of God, heirs of the promises; when we were children — In our minority, were not put in possession of the promises, by the introduction of the gospel dispensation, but, to fit us for it, were placed in bondage — In a kind of servile state; under the elements of the world — Under the typical observances of the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations, which were like the first elements of grammar, the ABC of children; and were of so gross a nature as hardly to carry men’s thoughts beyond this world. Seeing the apostle, in the close of the preceding chapter, declared that all who have put on Christ, (see on Galatians 4:27-29 ,) whether they be Jews or Gentiles, are Christ’s brethren, and heirs according to God’s promise, “it is evident that in this chapter, when he speaks concerning the heir, and describes the treatment which, by his father’s appointment, he receives during his minority, his discourse cannot be restricted to the Jews, as if they were the only heirs, but must comprehend the Gentiles also, describing their condition under the discipline of the law of nature, Galatians 4:8 . In like manner the persons in bondage to the elements of the world, ( Galatians 4:3 ,) and under the law, ( Galatians 4:5 ,) who are said to be bought off by Christ, ( Galatians 4:5 ,) must be the Gentiles as well as the Jews; because Jews and Gentiles equally were under the discipline [and curse] of law. And having been bought off by Christ, ( Galatians 3:13 ,) they were both of them, after his death, placed under the gospel dispensation, which is the discipline of sons. See Galatians 4:5 .” — Macknight. Galatians 4:2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Galatians 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: Galatians 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, Galatians 4:4-7 . But when the fulness of time — Appointed by the Father, ( Galatians 4:2 ,) and marked out by the predictions of the prophets for the accomplishment of this great event; was come — And we were arrived at the age proper for our entering on our adult state, and being put in possession of the promises, by the introduction of the gospel dispensation; God sent forth — From heaven into our world; his Son — Miraculously made, or rather, born, as the word ????????? may, with equal propriety, be translated; because, although Christ, as to his body, or his human nature in general, might be said to have been made of a woman, and of the seed of David, ( Romans 1:3 ,) yet as he was the Son of God, sent forth from the Father, he was not made at all, much less of a woman. See on Hebrews 1:3-6 ; Hebrews 7:3 . Or the clause may be read, made flesh of a woman, namely, of a virgin, without the concurrence of a man. Made under the law — Under its discipline, in all its rigour; subject not only to the precepts, but to the curse of the law, even the Mosaic law; to redeem them that were under the law — From the curse of it, which he bore in their stead, and from that low, servile state in which they were before; and that he might bring them into a happy liberty from any future obligation to observe its ceremonial institutions. It must be observed, however, that the apostle had not only the Jews in his view here, but the Gentiles also, as is evident from Galatians 4:8 , where they are addressed in particular. The law from which all are redeemed, or bought off, was not the law of Moses alone, but the law of nature, as a rule of justification: see note on Galatians 3:13 . From both these laws, with the religious institutions attached to them, Christ hath redeemed mankind by his death, that he might place them under the gracious dispensation of his gospel. That we — Whether Jews or Gentiles, who believe; might receive the adoption of sons — Might stand related to God, not only as his people, his true and spiritual worshippers, his subjects and his servants, but also as his sons and daughters; might be peculiarly near and dear to him; made partakers of his nature, favoured with his special guidance, protection, and care; might have continual liberty of access to him and intercourse with him; might have all our wants, ghostly and bodily, supplied by him here, and might be constituted joint heirs with his beloved Son of the heavenly inheritance hereafter. See on John 1:12 ; Romans 8:14-17 . Observe, reader, it is the privilege of true believers in the present life to have the assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, protection from their spiritual enemies, assistance in times of trial and temptation, and the certain hope of eternal life. And because ye are thus made his sons — By adoption and regeneration; God hath sent forth — From heaven, as he sent forth his Son from thence; the Spirit of his Son — The very same Spirit of truth, holiness, and consolation, which dwelt in his Son; into your hearts — To take up his abode there; crying, Abba, Father — Enabling you to call God your reconciled Father in truth and with assurance, and to call upon him both with the confidence and temper of dutiful children. The Hebrew and Greek word signifying father are here joined together, to express the joint cry of Jews and Gentiles. Wherefore thou — Who believest in Christ, and art a true member of the gospel church, whether born a Jew or a Gentile; art no more — No longer; a servant — As formerly, in a state of bondage, whether to the legal dispensation of Moses, or to the law of nature, and the ceremonial institutions attached to it, by custom or divine appointment; but a son — Of mature age; and if a son, an heir of God — Entitled to the everlasting inheritance, and even to the enjoyment of the all-sufficient God himself; through Christ — Through his sacrifice and intercession, and my interest therein by faith. Galatians 4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Galatians 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Galatians 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Galatians 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. Galatians 4:8-11 . Howbeit — ???? , but, or however, that ye Gentiles may not foolishly reject, neglect, or forfeit your privileges, as the sons of God, you ought to remember what your condition was while under the elements of the world, and compare it with your present happy state: that then, when ye knew not the one living and true God, ye did service — Performed many degrading, burdensome, irrational, and abominable acts of worship and service, unto them which by nature are no gods — “This is a true description of the idols worshipped by the heathen, for either they had no existence, being mere creatures of the imagination; or, if any of them existed, they were dead men, or evil spirits, or the luminaries of the heavens, [or other creatures of God, as most of the idols of Egypt were,] deified by human folly: and being destitute of divine perfections, they were utterly incapable of bestowing any blessing whatever on their worshippers.” But now, after ye have known the only true God — And his mind and will; or rather are known of God — Are acknowledged, approved, and accepted, as his children; how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements — Weak, utterly unable to purge your conscience from guilt, and to inspire you with filial confidence in God, or to change your nature, transform you into his likeness, and to enable you to do and suffer his will: beggarly, or poor; that is, incapable of enriching your souls with such wisdom, holiness, and happiness, as ye are heirs to, or to give you a hope of a blessed immortality after death; whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage — Though of another kind: now to these elements, as before to those idols; changing indeed the form and object of your ceremonies, but retaining many of the same low, perplexing, and unprofitable observances. Ye observe days — Jewish sabbaths; and months — New moons; and times — As that of the passover, pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles; and years — Annual solemnities. The word does not here mean sabbatic years: these were not to be observed out of the land of Canaan. This was addressed to such of the Galatians as had embraced Judaism. Some think this verse should be read interrogatively, Do ye observe? &c, because it seems to intimate a hope that it might be otherwise. As a question, it likewise expresses the apostle’s surprise that the Galatians observed these days. I am afraid of you — See on 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 ; lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain — As will be the case if you continue the use of these ceremonies and think to be justified by them together with Christ, Galatians 5:2 . Galatians 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Galatians 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. Galatians 4:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Galatians 4:12 Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am ; for I am as ye are : ye have not injured me at all. Galatians 4:12-14 . I beseech you, be as I am — Follow my example in laying aside your opinion of the necessity of the law; for I am — Or rather, I was; as ye are — That is, I was once as zealous of the law as you are; but by the grace of God I am now of another mind: be you so too. See Php 3:7-8 . Or, as some understand the verse, I beseech you to maintain the same affectionate regard for me as I bear toward you, and candidly to receive those sentiments which I, to whose authority in the church ye can be no strangers, have been inculcating upon you. Ye have not injured me at all — As if he had said, What I have spoken proceeds purely out of love, and not from any anger or ill-will, for which indeed you have given me no occasion, as I have received no personal injury from you. “The apostle having sharply rebuked the Galatians for their attachment to Judaism, checks himself, and turns his discourse into the most affectionate entreaties and expostulations, in which he shows himself to have had a great knowledge of human nature. For he mentions such things as must have deeply affected the Galatians, especially as he expressed them in a simplicity and energy of language which is inimitable.” — Macknight. Ye know how through, or in, infirmity of the flesh — That is, in great bodily weakness, and under great disadvantage from the despicableness of my outward appearance; I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my temptation, which was in my flesh — The peculiar trial wherewith I was exercised, namely, my thorn in the flesh, see on 2 Corinthians 12:7 ; ye despised not — Ye did not slight, or disdain me; nor rejected my person or ministry on account of it; but received me as an angel of God — As though I had been a superior being come down from heaven; even as Christ Jesus — With as much affection and submission as it can be supposed you would have shown to Christ himself, if, instead of sending me as his messenger, he had visited you in person. The veneration with which the Galatians regarded the apostle at his first coming among them, cannot be more strongly painted than by these expressions. Galatians 4:13 Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. Galatians 4:14 And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Galatians 4:15 Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Galatians 4:15-16 . Where is then the blessedness ye spake of — On which ye so congratulated one another? Since ye once thought yourselves so happy in my presence with, and my preaching among you, how happens it that you are now so alienated from me? For if it had been possible — If it had been a thing allowable, and I could have received any benefit by it; ye would have plucked out your eyes, and have given them to me — As a convincing proof of your affection for me. Am I become your enemy — Or have you any reason to account me such; because I tell you the truth? — And bear a faithful testimony to the uncorrupted gospel, which I desire to maintain among you in all the purity in which I planted it? “The apostle’s address, in thus putting the Galatians in mind of their former affection and gratitude to him, as their spiritual father, and his contrasting it in this verse with their present temper of mind, is admirable.” Galatians 4:16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? Galatians 4:17 They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. Galatians 4:17-18 . They zealously affect you — The Judaizing teachers who are come among you express an extraordinary regard for you; but not well — Their zeal is not according to knowledge, neither have they a single eye to God’s glory, and your spiritual advantage. Yea, they would exclude you — From me and from the blessings of the gospel; that ye might effect — Might love and esteem them. Or, as some read this clause, they would exclude us, that is, me, your spiritual father, and my fellow-labourers in the gospel, from your affection, that ye may love them ardently, as the only faithful teachers of the gospel. But it is good — ????? , comely, honourable, and commendable; to be zealously affected always in a good thing — In what is really worthy of our zeal: for as the beauty and excellence of zeal is to be estimated not by the degree of it, considered in itself, but by the object to which it is directed; so too the warmth of your affection toward an object truly worthy of it, should be, at all times, equally maintained; and the same fervent zeal which you have formerly expressed, ought to be manifested by you, not only when I am present with you, but in my absence also, if you really think me to deserve your regards, and have indeed received the truth in the love of it. It may be proper to observe, that the original expression “may refer either to a good person or a good thing, and may be understood of their continuing zealous in their affection, either to himself, or to the truth which he preached; but as he had been speaking of himself in the foregoing verses, he likewise seems to have still in view the warmth of their affection to him when he was present with them; though he expresses it in a graceful way, with such a latitude as may include their zeal for his doctrine as well as for his person.” — Doddridge. Galatians 4:18 But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing , and not only when I am present with you. Galatians 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, Galatians 4:19-20 . My little children — Converted to the faith by my ministry. He speaks as a parent, both with authority and the most tender sympathy toward weak and sickly children: of whom I travail in birth again — As I did before, ( Galatians 4:13 ,) in vehement pain, sorrow, desire, prayer; till Christ be formed in you — Till you be made fully acquainted with, and established in, the belief of every part of his doctrine; and till you be so endowed with the graces of his Spirit, that all the mind is in you that was in him. The image here used by the apostle is beautiful and expressive. He alludes to a mother, who, having undergone the labour and pains of childbearing, cannot but be concerned for the safety and welfare of the children, in the birth of which she had suffered so much: and if the life or health of any of them be in imminent danger, suffers distress and anguish of mind, nearly, if not altogether, equal or even superior, to the pain and torture of body she endured in bearing them. So the apostle, who had once before suffered labour and pains like those of childbearing, when he converted the Galatians to the truth, now suffered those pangs a second time, while he endeavoured to bring them back to that faith of the gospel from which they had departed. It is not possible by words to express the anxiety of desire and affection which he felt on this occasion more strongly than he has done by this image; and what a lesson does this teach every minister of the gospel, intrusted with the care of immortal souls! What distress ought they to feel, how deeply ought they to be concerned, when they observe any of the souls that they had gained, backsliding from the truth and grace of God, and drawing back unto perdition! and what anxiety should they manifest, and what pains should they take, to recover and restore them. I desire — Or I could wish; to be present with you now — Particularly in this exigence; and to change my voice — To adapt my manner of speaking to the state you are in; for I stand in doubt of you — So that I am at a loss how to speak at this distance; for though I do not absolutely despair of your recovery and establishment, yet I am not without very discouraging apprehensions, lest, after all the pains that I have taken with you, the good effects of my labours among you should in a great measure be lost. Galatians 4:20 I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. Galatians 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? Galatians 4:21-23 . Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law — Of Moses, as the rule of your justification; do ye not hear the law? — Regard what it says? how it teaches that Abraham’s children, by faith, who are heirs of the promises, are free from the bondage of the law? “The argument the apostle is going to use being taken from the law of Moses, was urged with much propriety, not only against the Judaizers, who affirmed that obedience to the law of Moses was necessary to men’s salvation, but against those Gentiles also whom the Judaizers had seduced to receive the law. For if the apostle made it evident, from the law of Moses itself, that Abraham’s children, by faith, were free from the bondage of the law, no further argument was necessary to prove that obedience to the law is not necessary to justification.” — Macknight. It is written that Abraham had two sons — Here he illustrates the doctrine of justification by faith, and of the abolition of the legal dispensation, by the history of Abraham’s family, in which it was prefigured. The plain import of what he advances is this: That as in Abraham’s family there were two mothers, and two sorts of children, which were differently treated; so, in the visible church, there are two sorts of professors; some that seek justification by the works of the law, who are in a servile and miserable condition, and shall at last be cast out from the presence of God, and the society of the saints; others that seek justification by faith in Christ, and in the promises of God through him: and these are the free sons of God’s family, and in a happy condition, and shall at last certainly obtain the inheritance of eternal life. The one — Namely, Ishmael, by Hagar, a bond-maid, the other — Namely, Isaac, by Sarah, a free-woman. But there was a great difference between them; for he who was of the bond-woman — That is, Ishmael; was born only after the flesh — In the common order of nature, without any particular promise of God, or any unusual interposition of his power and providence. But he of the free-woman — That is, Isaac; was by promise — Through the strength supernaturally communicated to his parents by the promise, Lo Sarah, thy wife, shall have a son; and, like his mother, being free, was his father’s heir. Galatians 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. Galatians 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Galatians 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. Galatians 4:24 . Which things are an allegory — That is, a figurative speech, wherein one thing is expressed, and another intended. Or, as Macknight explains the expression more at large: “Properly, an allegory is, when persons and events, present or near at hand, with their qualities and circumstances, are considered as types or representations of persons and events more remote, to which they have a resemblance. Of this kind were the histories of some persons and events recorded in the Old Testament. For the qualities and circumstances of these persons were, it seems, so ordered by God, as to be apt representations of such future persons and events as God intended should attract the attention of mankind. This, however, is to be laid down as a fixed rule, that no ancient history is to be considered as allegorical but those which God himself, or persons inspired by him, have interpreted allegorically. Wherefore, since the apostle tells us that what Moses hath written concerning the wives of Abraham is an allegorical representation of the two covenants by which men are made the church and people of God, and that his sons, by these wives, represent the persons born under the two covenants, together with the treatment they are to receive from God, he must be believed, on account of the inspiration by which he wrote; especially as, in Galatians 4:27 , he hath appealed to the prophet Isaiah, as giving the same account of these matters, Isaiah 54:1 . And seeing the prophet, as well as the apostle, ( Galatians 4:26 ,) considers Sarah as the mother of all true believers, may we not suppose she was made to conceive her son supernaturally, that she might be a type of the covenant under which believers are regenerated by the power of God; and that her son might be a type of all who by regeneration become members of the true church of God, called, ( Galatians 4:26 ,) the Jerusalem above, which is free, both from the bondage and from the curse of the law? In like manner, Abraham’s son, by Hagar the bond-maid, may have been begotten by the natural strength of his parents, and born in bondage, that he might be a proper representation of such of Abraham’s children as are God’s visible church merely by being his children according to the flesh; consequently a type, or allegorical representation of the Jerusalem which existed when the apostle wrote, or of the then present Jewish church, which was in bondage to the law.” For these two persons — Hagar and Sarah; are — That is, may well be considered as representing the two covenants — Or the two dispensations of the law and gospel, the tenor of which is so different: the one covenant given from mount Sinai, which beareth children to bondage — That is, by this covenant the Israelites were made the visible church of God, and put in bondage to the law, and were, by its curse, excluded from the heavenly inheritance, if they had no other relation to Abraham than that of natural descent; which covenant is typified by Agar. — “The Jews are very properly said to have been brought forth into bondage by the covenant from Sinai, because the worship enjoined in that covenant was extremely troublesome and expensive; particularly their frequent separations on account of uncleanness, their purifications and washings, their numerous sacrifices, and especially their three annual journeys to Jerusalem;” all which things were the more grievous, in that they did not obtain for them justification before God, or peace of conscience; but with whatever anxious care and trouble the Jews that were piously disposed performed these things, their sense of sin and dread of punishment remained as great as before, Hebrews 9:9-10 ; Hebrews 10:1-3 . “Besides, the covenant from Sinai rendered all that were under it slaves, by the rigour of its precepts, and the terror of its curse. But the covenant or law, which went forth from mount Zion, ( Isaiah 2:3 ,) the gospel covenant, by abolishing these ineffectual rites of worship, and by erecting the Christian Church with its spiritual worship, makes all its members freemen and sons, who obey God from love, and who can address him with confidence by the endearing appellation of Father.” Galatians 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. Galatians 4:25-27 . For this Agar is mount Sinai — That is, is a type of that mount. The whole of that mountainous ridge in Arabia Petrea, of which Sinai was a part, was called Horeb, probably on account of its excessive dryness. It was called by Moses, the mountain of God, ( Exodus 3:1 ,) because on it God gave the law to the Israelites. Grotius says, Sinai is called Hagar, or Agar, synecdochically, because in that mountain there was a city which bare Hagar’s name. It is by Pliny called Agra, and by Dio, Agara, and its inhabitants were named Hagarenes, Psalm 83:6 . Whitby thinks the allusion is taken from the meaning of the word Hagar, which, in the Hebrew, signifies a rock. And answereth — Namely, in the allegory; or resembles, Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage — As being in subjection to so many ritual observances, and under a sentence of wrath on the commission of the least wilful offence, and as being also in bondage to the Romans. But Jerusalem, which is above — The church of Christ, so called, because its most perfect state will be in heaven; is free — ???????? ???? , is the free woman, that is, is represented by Sarah; who is the mother of us all — Who believe. The Jerusalem above, the spiritual Jerusalem, or church of Christ, consisting of believers of all nations, with the covenant on which it is formed, is fitly typified by Isaac, and his mother Sarah, the free-woman, because she was constituted by God the mother of all believers, on account of her bringing forth Isaac supernaturally, by virtue of the promise. For it is written, &c. — As if he had said, My interpretation of the things respecting Abraham’s wives and sons is not new; it is alluded to by Isaiah 54:1 ; Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not — Ye heathen nations, who, like a barren woman, were destitute for many ages of a seed to serve the Lord; break forth, &c., thou that, in former ages, travailest not, for such is now thy happy state, that the desolate, &c. — Ye, that were so long utterly desolate, shall at length bear more children than the Jewish Church, which was of old espoused to God. Galatians 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. Galatians 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Galatians 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Galatians 4:28-30 . Now — That I may apply what has just been advanced to ourselves; we, brethren — Who believe, whether Jews or Gentiles; as Isaac was — ???? ????? , after the manner of Isaac; are children of promise — Are children of God, being children of Abraham and Sarah, by the promise which made him the father, and her the mother, of nations. In other words, we are children, not born in a natural way, but by the supernatural power of God; and as such, we are heirs of the promise made to believing Abraham. And, “if believers, after the manner of Isaac, are children begotten to Abraham by the divine power accompanying the promise, can it be doubted that they were typified by Isaac, and that his procreation was deferred till the bodies of his parents were dead as to these things, that being supernaturally begotten, he might be a fit type of those who by divine power become the seed of Abraham, through faith.” But — Indeed the parallel holds further still; for as then, he that was born after the flesh — That is, Ishmael, in whose production there was nothing beyond the common course of nature, and who was related to Abraham by natural descent only; persecuted him who was born after the Spirit — That is, Isaac, who was produced by the special energy of God’s miraculous power; even so it is now — The carnal Jews, who are the seed of Abraham after the flesh, abuse and persecute us who believe in Christ, and are therefore Abraham’s seed after the Spirit. Ishmael’s persecution of Isaac consisted in his mocking at the feast of his weaning, Genesis 21:9 . “No doubt he pretended that by right of primogeniture he was his father’s heir, and therefore he ridiculed the feast made in honour of Isaac as the heir, together with Sarah’s laying claim to the whole of the inheritance for her son. This action was typical of the contempt with which the Jews, Abraham’s natural posterity, would treat his spiritual seed, and their hopes of salvation through faith; typical also of the claim which the natural seed would set up, of being the only heirs of God, because they were first his people.” But what saith the Scripture — Showing the consequence of this? Cast out the bond-woman and her son — Who mocked Isaac. Which sentence, however grievous it might be to Abraham, when pronounced by Sarah, God confirmed, and they were cast out of

Expositors

Expositor's Bible Commentary Galatians 4:1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; Chapter 16 THE HEIR’S COMING OF AGE. Galatians 4:1-7 THE main thesis of the Epistle is now established. Gentile Christians, Paul has shown, are in the true Abrahamic succession of faith. And this devolution of the Promise discloses the real intent of the Mosaic law, as an intermediate and disciplinary system. Christ was the heir of Abraham’s testament; He was therefore the end of Moses’ law. And those who are Christ’s inherit the blessings of the Promise, while they escape the curse and condemnation of the Law. The remainder of the Apostle’s polemic, down to Galatians 5:12 , is devoted to the illustration and enforcement of this position. In this, as in the previous chapter, the pre-Christian state is assigned to the Jew, who was the chief subject of Divine teaching in the former dispensation; it is set forth under the first person ( Galatians 4:3 ), in the language of recollection. Describing the opposite condition of sonship, the Apostle reverts from the first to the second person, identifying his readers with himself. {comp. Galatians 3:25-26 } True, the Gentiles had been in bondage ( Galatians 4:7-8 ). This goes without saying. Paul’s object is to show that Judaism is a bondage. Upon this he insists with all the emphasis he can command. Moreover, the legal system contained worldly, unspiritual elements, crude and childish conceptions of truth, marking it, in comparison with Christianity, as an inferior religion. Let the Galatians be convinced of this, and they will understand what Paul is going to say directly; they will perceive that Judaic conformity is for them a backsliding in the direction of their former heathenism ( Galatians 4:8-10 ). But the force of this latter warning is discounted and its effect weakened when he is supposed, as by some interpreters, to include Gentile along with Jewish "rudiments" already in Galatians 4:3 . His readers could not have suspected this. The "So we also" and the "held in bondage" of this verse carry them back to Galatians 3:23 . By calling the Mosaic ceremonies "rudiments of the world" he gives Jewish susceptibilities just such a shock as prepares for the declaration of Galatians 4:9 , which put them on a level with heathen rites. The difference between Judaism and Christianity, historically unfolded in chap. 3, is here restated in graphic summary. We see, first, the heir of God in his minority; and again, the same heir in possession of his estate. I. One can fancy the Jew replying to Paul’s previous argument in some such style as this. "You pour contempt," he would say, "on the religion of your fathers. You make them out to have been no better than slaves. Abraham’s inheritance, you pretend, under the Mosaic dispensation lay dormant, and is revived in order to be taken from his children and conferred on aliens." No, Paul would answer: I admit that the saints of Israel were sons of God; I glory in the fact-"who are Israelites, whose is the adoption of sons and the glory and the covenants and the law-giving and the promises, whose are the fathers" { Romans 9:4-5 } -But they were sons in their minority. "And I say that as long as the heir is [legally] an infant, he differs in nothing from a slave, though [by title] lord of all." The man of the Old Covenant was a child of God in posse, not in esse, in right but not in fact. The "infant" is his father’s trueborn son. In time he will be full owner. Meanwhile he is as subject as any slave on the estate. There is nothing he can command for his own. He is treated and provided for as a bondman might be; put "under stewards" who manage his property, "and guardians" in charge of his person, "until, the day fore appointed of the father." This situation does not exclude, it implies fatherly affection and care on the one side, and heirship on the other. But it forbids the recognition of the heir, his investment with filial rights. It precludes the access to the father and acquaintance with him, which the boy will gain in after-years. He sees him at a distance and through others, under the aspect of authority rather than of love. In this position he does not yet possess the spirit of a son. Such was in truth the condition of Hebrew saints-heirs of God, but knowing it not. This illustration raises in Galatians 4:2 an interesting legal question, touching the latitude given by Roman or other current law to the father in dealing with his heirs. Paul’s language is good evidence for the existence of the power he refers to. In Roman and in Jewish law the date of civil majority was fixed. Local usage may have been more elastic. But the case supposed, we observe, is not that of a dead father, into whose place the son steps at the proper age. A grant is made by a father still living, who keeps his son in pupilage, till he sees fit to put him in possession of the promised estate. There is nothing to show that paternal discretion was limited in these circumstances, any more than it is in English law. The father might fix eighteen, or twenty-one, or thirty years as the age at which he would give his son a settlement, just as he thought best. This analogy, like that of the "testament" in chap. 3, is not complete at all points; nor could any human figure of these Divine things be made so. The essential particulars involved in it are first, the childishness of the infant heir; secondly, the subordinate position in which he is placed for the time; and thirdly, the right of the father to determine the expiry of his infancy. 1. "When we were children," says the Apostle. This implies, not a merely formal and legal bar, but an intrinsic disqualification. To treat the child as a man is preposterous. The responsibilities of property are beyond his strength and his understanding. Such powers in his hands could only be instruments of mischief, to himself most of all. In the Divine order, calling is suited to capacity, privilege to age. The coming of Christ was timed to the hour. The world of the Old Testament, at its wisest and highest, was unripe for His gospel. The revelation made to Paul could not have been received by Moses, or David, or Isaiah. His doctrine was only possible after-and in consequence of theirs. There was a training of faculty, a deepening of conscience, a patient course of instruction and chastening to be carried out, before the heirs of the promise were fit for their heritage. Looking back to his own youthful days, the Apostle sees in them a reflex of the discipline which the people of God had required. The views he then held of Divine truth appear to him low and childish, in comparison with the manly freedom of spirit, the breadth of knowledge, the fulness of joy which he has attained as a son of God through Christ. 2. But what is meant by the "stewards and guardians" of this Jewish period of infancy? Galatians 4:3 tells us this, in language, however, somewhat obscure: "We were held in bondage under the rudiments (or elements) of the world" - a phrase synonymous with the foregoing "under law". { Galatians 3:23 } The "guard" and "tutor" of the previous section reappears, with these "rudiments of the world" in his hand. They form the system under which the young heir was schooled, up to the time of his majority. They belonged to "the world" inasmuch as they were, in comparison with Christianity, unspiritual in their nature, uninformed by "the Spirit of God’s Son" ( Galatians 4:6 ). The language of Hebrews 9:1 ; Hebrews 9:10 explains this phrase: "The first covenant had a worldly sanctuary," with "ordinances of flesh, imposed-till the time of rectification." The sensuous factor that entered into the Jewish revelation formed the point of contact with Paganism which Paul brings into view in the next paragraph. Yet, rude and earthly as the Mosaic system was in some of its features, it was Divinely ordained and served an essential purpose in the progress of revelation. It shielded the Church’s infancy. It acted the part of a prudent steward, a watchful guardian. The heritage of Abraham came into possession of his heirs enriched by their long minority. Mosaism therefore, while spiritually inferior to the Covenant of grace in Christ, has rendered invaluable service to it (comp. Galatians 4:24 ; chapter 14). 3. The will of the Father determined the period of this guardianship. However it may be in human law, this right of fore-ordination resides in the Divine Fatherhood. In His unerring foresight He fixed the hour when His sons should step into their filial place. All such "times and seasons," Christ declared, "the Father hath appointed on His own authority". { Acts 1:7 } He imposed the law of Moses, and annulled it, when He would. He kept the Jewish people, for their own and the world’s benefit, tied to the legal "rudiments," held in the leading-strings of Judaism. It was His to say when this subjection should cease, when the Church might receive the Spirit of His Son. If this decree appeared to be arbitrary, if it was strange that the Jewish fathers-men so noble in faith and character-were kept in bondage and fear, we must remind ourselves that "so it seemed good in the Father’s sight." Hebrew pride found this hard to brook. To think that God had denied this privilege in time past to His chosen people to bestow it all at once and by mere grace on Gentile sinners, making them at "the eleventh hour" equal to those who had borne for so long the burden and heat of the day! that the children of Abraham had been, as Paul maintains, for centuries treated as slaves, and now these heathen aliens are made sons just as much as they! But this was God’s plan; and it must be right. "Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God?" II. However, the nonage of the Church has passed. God’s sons are now to be owned for such. It is Christ’s mission to constitute men sons of God ( Galatians 4:4-5 ). His advent was the turning-point of human affairs, "the fulness of time." Paul’s glance in these verses takes in a vast horizon. He views Christ in His relation both to God and to humanity, both to law and redemption. The appearance of "the Son of God, woman-born,’" completes the previous Course of time; it is the goal of antecedent revelation, unfolding "the mystery kept secret through times eternal," but now "made known to all the nations". { Romans 16:25-26 } Promise and Law both looked forward to this hour. Sin has been "passed by" in prospect of it, receiving hitherto a partial and provisional forgiveness. The aspirations excited, the needs created by earlier religion demanded their satisfaction. The symbolism of type and ceremony, with their rude picture-writing, waited for their Interpreter. The prophetic soul of "the wide world, dreaming of things to come," watched for this day. They that looked-for Israel’s redemption, the Simeons and Annas of the time, the authentic heirs of the promise, knew by sure tokens that it was near. Their aged eyes in the sight of the infant Jesus descried its rising. The set time had come, to which all times looked since Adam’s fall and the first promise. At the moment when Israel seemed farthest from help and hope, the "horn of salvation was raised up in the house of David," - God sent forth His Son. 1. The sending of the Son brought the world’s servitude to an end. "Henceforth," said Jesus, "I call you not servants". { John 15:15 } Till now "servants of God" had been the highest title men could wear. The heathen were enslaved to false gods ( Galatians 4:8 ). And Israel, knowing the true God, knew Him at a distance, serving too often in the spirit of the elder son of the parable, who said, "Lo these many years do I slave for thee." { Luke 15:29 } None could with free soul lift his eyes to heaven and say, "Abba, Father." Men had great thoughts about God, high speculations. They had learnt imperishable truths concerning His unity, His holiness, His majesty as Creator and Lawgiver. They named him the "Lord," the "Almighty," the "I Am." But His Fatherhood, as Christ revealed it, they had scarcely guessed. They thought of Him as humble bondmen of a revered and august master, as sheep might of a good shepherd. The idea of a personal Sonship toward the Holy One of Israel was inconceivable, till Christ brought it with Him into the world, till God sent forth His Son. He sent Him as "His Son." To speak of Christ, with the mystical Germans, as the ideal Urmensch- the ideal Son of man, the foretype of humanity - is to express a great truth. Mankind was created in Christ, who is "the image of God, firstborn of all creation." But this is not what Paul is saying here. The doubly compounded Greek verb at the head of this sentence (repeated with like emphasis in Galatians 4:6 ) signifies "sent forth from" Himself: He came in the character of God’s Son, bringing His sonship with Him. He was the Son of God before He was sent out. He did not become so in virtue of His mission to mankind. His relations with men, in Paul’s conception, rested upon His pre-existing relationship to God. "The Word" who "became flesh, was with God, was God in the beginning." "He called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God": { John 5:18 } so the Jews had gathered from His own declarations. Paul admitted the claim when "God revealed His Son" to him, and affirms it here unequivocally. "The Son of God," arriving "in the fulness of time," enters human life. Like any other son of man, He is born of a woman, born under law. Here is the kenosis, the emptying of Divinity, of which the Apostle speaks in Php 2:5-8 . The phrase "born of woman," does not refer specifically to the virgin-birth; this term describes human origin on the side of its weakness and dependence. { Job 14:1 ; Matthew 11:11 } Paul is thinking not of the difference, but of the identity of Christ’s birth and our own. We are carried back to Bethlehem. We see Jesus a babe lying in His mother’s arms-God’s Son a human infant, drawing His life from a weak woman! {Comp. Romans 1:3-4 ; Romans 9:5 ; 2 Corinthians 13:4 ; Ephesians 4:9-10 ; Colossians 1:15 ; Colossians 1:18 ; Colossians 2:9 ; 1 Timothy 3:16 } Nor is "born under law" a distinction intended to limit the previous term, as though it meant a born Jew, and not a mere woman’s son. This expression, to the mind of the reader of chap. 3, conveys the idea of subjection, of humiliation rather than eminence. "Though He was (God’s) Son," Christ must needs "learn His obedience". { Hebrews 5:8 } The Jewish people experienced above all others the power of the law to chasten and humble. Their law was to them more sensibly what the moral law is in varying degree to the world everywhere, an instrument of condemnation. God’s Son was now put under its power. As a man He was "under law"; as a Jew He came under its most stringent application. He declined none of the burdens of His birth. He submitted not only to the general moral demands of the Divine law for men, but to all the duties and proprieties incident to His position as a man, even to those ritual ordinances which His coming was to abolish. He set a perfect example of loyalty. "Thus it becometh us," He said, "to fulfil all righteousness." The Son of God who was to end the legal bondage was sent into it Himself. He wore the legal yoke that He might break it. He took "the form of a servant," to win our enfranchisement. "God sent forth His son, human, law-bound-that He might redeem those under law." Redemption was Christ’s errand. We have learned already how "He redeemed us from the curse of the law," by the sacrifice of the cross. { Galatians 3:13 } This was the primary object of His mission: to ransom men from the guilt of past sin. Now we discern its further purpose-the positive and constructive side of the Divine counsel. Justification, is the preface to adoption. The man under law is not only cursed by his failure to keep it; he lives in a servile state, debarred from filial rights. Christ "bought us out" of this condition. While the expiation rendered in His death clears off the entail of human guilt, His incarnate life and spiritual union with believing men sustain that action, making the redemption complete and permanent. As enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son; now "reconciled, we shall be saved by His life". { Romans 5:10 } Salvation is not through the death of Christ alone. The Babe of Bethlehem, the crowned Lord of glory, is our Redeemer, as well as the Man of Calvary. The cross is indeed the centre of His redemption; but it has a vast circumference. All that Christ is, all that He has done and is doing as the Incarnate Son, the God-man, helps to make men sons of God. The purpose of His mission is therefore stated a second time and made complete in the words of ver. 5b: "that we might receive the adoption of sons." The sonship carries everything else with it-"if children, then heirs" ( Galatians 4:7 ). There is no room for any supplementary office of Jewish ritual. That is left behind with our babyhood. 2. So much for the ground of sonship. Its proof lay in the sending forth of the Spirit of the Son. The mission of the Son and that of the Spirit are spoken of in Galatians 4:3-6 in parallel terms: "God sent forth His Son-sent forth the Spirit of His Son," the former into the world of men, the latter "into" their individual "hearts." The second act matches the first, and crowns it. Pentecost is the sequel of the Incarnation. { John 2:21 ; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 } And Pentecost is repeated in the heart of every child of God. The Apostle addresses himself to his readers’ experience ("because ye are sons") as in Galatians 3:3-6 , and on the same point. They had "received the Spirit": this marked them indubitably as heirs of Abraham { Galatians 3:14 } -and what is more, sons of God. Had not the mystic cry, Abba, Father, sounded in their hearts? The filial consciousness was born within them, supernaturally inspired. When they believed in Christ, when they saw in Him the Son of God, their Redeemer, they were stirred with a new, ecstatic impulse; a Divine glow of love and joy kindled in their breasts; a voice not their own spoke to their Spirit-their soul leaped forth upon their lips, crying to God, "Father, Father!" They were children of God, and knew it. "The Spirit Himself bore them witness". { Romans 8:15 } This sentiment was not due to their own reflection, not the mere opening of a buried spring of feeling in their nature. God sent it into their hearts. The outward miracles which attended the first bestowment of this gift, showed from what source it came. { Galatians 3:5 } Nor did Christ personally impart the assurance. He had gone, that the Paraclete might come. Here was another Witness, sent by a second mission from the Father. { John 16:7 } His advent is signalised in clear distinction from that of the Son. He comes in the joint name of Father and of Son. Jesus called Him "the Spirit of the Father"; { Matthew 10:20 ; Luke 11:13 ; Acts 1:4-5 } the Apostle, "the Spirit of God’s Son." To us He is "the Spirit of adoption," replacing the former "spirit of bondage unto fear." For by His indwelling we are "joined to the Lord" and made "one spirit" with Him, so that Christ lives in us. { Galatians 2:20 } And since Christ is above all things the Son, His Spirit is a spirit of sonship; those who receive Him are sons of God. Our sonship is through the Holy Spirit derived from His. Till Christ’s redemption was effected, such adoption was in the nature of things impossible. This filial cry of Gentile hearts attested the entrance of a Divine life into the world. The Spirit of God’s Son had become the new spirit of mankind. Abba, the Syrian vocative for father, was a word familiar to the lips of Jesus. The instance of its use recorded in Mark 14:36 , was but one of many such. No one had hitherto approached God as He did. His utterance of this word, expressing the attitude of His life of prayer and breathing the whole spirit of His religion, profoundly affected His disciples. So that the Abba of Jesus became a watchword of His Church, being the proper name of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Gentile believers pronounced it, conscious that in doing so they were joined in spirit to the Lord who said, "My Father, and your Father!" Greek-speaking Christians supplemented it by their own equivalent, as we by the English Father. This precious vocable is carried down the ages and round the whole world in the mother-tongue of Jesus, a memorial of the hour when through Him men learned to call God Father. "Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit," with this cry. The witness of sonship follows on the adoption, and seals it. The child is born, then cries; the cry is the evidence of life. But this is not the first office of the Holy Spirit to the regenerate soul. Many a silent impulse has He given, frequent and long-continued may have been His visitations, before His presence reveals itself audibly. From the first the new life of grace is implanted by His influence. "That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." "He dwelleth with you, and is in you, " said Jesus to His disciples, before the Pentecostal effusion. Important and decisive as the witness of the Holy Spirit to our sonship is, we must not limit His operation to this event. Deeply has He wrought already on the soul in which His work reaches this issue; and when it is reached, He has still much to bestow, much to accomplish in us. All truth, all holiness, all comfort are His; and into these He leads the children of God. Living by the Spirit, in Him we proceed to Galatians 5:25 . The interchange of person in the subject in Galatians 4:5-8 is very noticeable. This agitated style betrays high strung emotion. Writing first, in Galatians 4:3 in the language of Jewish experience, in Galatians 4:6 Paul turns upon his readers and claims them for witnesses to the same adoption which Jewish believers in Christ ( Galatians 4:5 ) had received. Instantly he falls back into the first person; it is his own joyous consciousness that breaks forth in the filial cry of ver. 6b. In the more calm concluding sentence the second person is resumed; and now in the individualising singular, as though he would lay hold of his readers one by one, and bid them look each into his own heart to find the proof of sonship, as he writes: "So that thou art no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, also an heir through God." An heir through God- this is the true reading. and is greatly to the point. It carries to a climax the emphatic repetition of "God" observed in Galatians 4:4 ; Galatians 4:6 . "God sent His Son" into the world; "God sent" in turn "His Son’s Spirit into your hearts." God then, and no other, has bestowed your inheritance. It is yours by His fiat. Who dares challenge it? {Comp. Romans 8:31-35 ; Acts 11:17 } Words how suitable to reassure Gentile Christians, browbeaten by arrogant Judaism! Our reply is the same to those who at this day deny our Christian and churchly standing, because we reject their sacerdotal claims. What this inheritance includes in its final attainment, "doth not yet appear." Enough to know that "now are we children of God." The redemption of the body, the deliverance of nature from its sentence of dissolution, the abolishment of death-these are amongst its certainties. Its supreme joy lies in the promise of being with Christ, to witness and share His glory. "Heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ"-a destiny like this overwhelms thought and makes hope a rapture. God’s sons may be content to wait and see how their heritage will turn out. Only let us be sure that we are His sons. Doctrinal orthodoxy, ritual observance, moral propriety do not impart, and do not supersede, "the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." The religion of Jesus the Son of God is the religion of the filial consciousness. Galatians 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. Chapter 17 THE RETURN TO BONDAGE. Galatians 4:8-11 "Sons of God, whom He made His heirs in Christ, how are you turning back to legal bondage!" Such is the appeal with which the Apostle follows up his argument. "Foolish Galatians," we seem to hear him say again, "who has bewitched you into this?" They forget the call of the Divine grace; they turn away from the sight of Christ crucified; nay, they are renouncing their adoption into the family of God. Paul knew something of the fickleness of human nature; but he was not prepared for this. How can men who have tasted liberty prefer slavery, or full-grown sons desire to return to the "rudiments" of childhood? After knowing God as He is in Christ, is it possible that these Galatians have begun to dote on ceremonial, to make a religion of "times and seasons"; that they are becoming devotees of Jewish ritual? What can be more frivolous, more irrational than this? On such people Paul’s labours seem to be thrown away. "You make me fear," he says, "that I have toiled for you in vain." In this expostulation two principles emerge with especial prominence. 1. First, that knowledge of God, bringing spiritual freedom, lays upon us higher responsibilities. "Then indeed," he says, "not knowing God, you were in bondage to false gods. Your heathen life was in a sense excusable. But now something very different is expected from you, since you have come to know God." We are reminded of the Apostle’s memorable words spoken at Athens: "The times of ignorance God overlooked". { Acts 17:1-34 } "Ye say, We see," said Jesus; "your sin remaineth". { John 9:41 } Increased light brings stricter judgment. If this was true of men who had merely heard the message of Christ, how much more of those who had proved its saving power. Ritualism was well enough for Pagans, or even for Jews before Christ’s coming and the outpouring of His Spirit-but for Christians! For those into whose hearts God had breathed the Spirit of His Son, who had learned to "worship God in the Spirit and to have no confidence in the flesh"-for Paul’s Galatians to yield to the legalist "persuasion" was a fatal relapse. In principle, and in its probable issue, this course was a reverting toward their old heathenism. The Apostle again recalls them, as he does so often his children in Christ, to the time of their conversion. They had been, he reminds them, idolaters; ignorant of the true God, they were "enslaved to things that by nature are no gods." Two definitions Paul has given of idolatry: "There is no idol in the world"; and again, "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God". { 1 Corinthians 8:4 ; 1 Corinthians 10:20 } Half lies, half devilry: such was the popular heathenism of the day. "Gods many and lords many" the Galatian Pagans worshipped-a strange Pantheon. There were their old, weird Celtic deities, before whom our British forefathers trembled. On this ancestral faith had been superimposed the frantic rites of the Phrygian Mother, Cybele, with her mutilated priests; and the more genial and humanistic cultus of the Greek Olympian gods. But they were gone, the whole "damned crew," as Milton calls them; for those whose eyes had seen the glory in the face of Jesus Christ, their spell was broken; heaven was swept clear and earth pure of their foul presence. The old gods are dead. No renaissance of humanism, no witchcraft of poetry can reanimate them, To us after these eighteen centuries, as to the Galatian believers, "there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him." A man who knew the Old Testament, to say nothing of the teaching of Christ, could never sacrifice to Jupiter and Mercurius any more, nor shout "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." They were painted idols, shams; he had seen through them. They might frighten children in the dark; but the sun was up. Christianity destroyed Paganism as light kills darkness. Paul did not fear that his readers would slide back into actual heathenism. That was intellectually impossible. There are warnings in his Epistles against the spirit of idolatry, and against conformity with its customs; but none against return to its beliefs. The old heathen life was indeed a slavery, full of fear and degradation. The religious Pagan could never be sure that he had propitiated his gods sufficiently, or given to all their due. They were jealous and revengeful, envious of human prosperity, capable of infinite wrong-doing. In the worship of many of them acts were enjoined revolting to the conscience. And this is true of Polytheism all over the world. It is the most shameful bondage ever endured by the soul of man. But Paul’s readers had "come to know God." They had touched the great Reality. The phantoms had vanished; the Living One stood before them. His glory shone into their hearts "in the face of Jesus Christ." This, whenever it takes place, is for any man the crisis of his life-when he comes to know God, when the God-consciousness is born in him. Like the dawn of self-consciousness, it may be gradual. There are those, the happy few, who were "born again" so soon as they were born to thought and choice; they cannot remember a time when they did not love God, when they were not sensible of being "known of Him." But with others, as with Paul, the revelation was made at an instant, coming like a lightning-flash at midnight. But unlike the lightning it remained. Let the manifestation of God come how or when it may, it is decisive. The man into whose soul the Almighty has spoken His I Am, can never be the same afterwards. He may forget; he may deny it: but he has known God; he has seen the light of life. If he returns to darkness, his darkness is blacker and guiltier than before. On his brow there rests in all its sadness "Sorrow’s crown of sorrow, remembering happier things." Offences venial, excusable hitherto, from this time assume a graver hue. Things that in a lower stage of life were innocent, and even possessed religious value, may now be unlawful, and the practice of them a declension, the first step in apostasy. What is delightful in a child becomes folly in a grown man. The knowledge of God in Christ has raised us in the things of the spirit to man’s estate, and it requires that we should "put away childish things," and amongst them ritual display and sacerdotal officiations, Pagan, Jewish, or Romish. These things form no part of the knowledge of God, or of the "true worship of the Father." The Jewish "rudiments" were designed for men who had not known God as Christ declares Him, who had never seen the Saviour’s cross. Jewish saints could not worship God in the Spirit of adoption. They remained under the spirit of servitude and fear; their conceptions were so far "weak and poor" that they supposed the Divine favour to depend on such matters as the "washing of cups and pots," and the precise number of feet that one walked on the Sabbath. These ideas belonged to a childish stage of the religious life. Pharisaism had developed to the utmost this lower element of the Mosaic system, at the expense of everything that was spiritual in it. Men who had been brought up in Judaism might indeed, after conversion to Christ, retain their old customs as matters of social usage or pious habit, without regarding them as vital to religion. With Gentiles it was otherwise. Adopting Jewish rites de novo , they must do so on grounds of distinct religious necessity. For this very reason the duty of circumcision was pressed upon them. It was a means, they were told, essential to their spiritual perfection, to the attainment of full Christian privileges. But to know God by the witness of the Holy Spirit of Christ, as the Galatians had done, was an experience sufficient to show that this "persuasion" was false. It did not "come of Him that called them." It introduced them to a path the opposite of that they had entered at their conversion, a way that led downwards and not upwards, from the spiritual to the sensuous, from the salvation of faith to that of self-wrought work of law. "Known God," Paul says, -"or rather were known of God." He hastens to correct himself. He will not let an expression pass that seems to ascribe anything simply to human acquisition. "Ye have not chosen Me," said Jesus; "I have chosen you." So the Apostle John: "Not that we loved God, but that He loved us." This is true through the entire range of the Christian life. "We apprehend that for which we were apprehended by Christ Jesus." Our love, our knowledge-what are they but the sense of the Divine love and

Illustrator

Now this I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant. Galatians 4:1, 2 Reading life J. Vaughan, M. A. There is nothing final in the character of this world. But all betrays infancy. Everything is in a state of preparation. We move up and down amidst the reflections of the future. Certainly the material world has not reached its destination. The air we breathe — the sky we look on — the soil we tread — are only to go to make a "new heaven and a new earth." And the Divine government, which is now, is mainly to illustrate the government which is to come. We have churches now; but they are only to prepare us for a state where there shall be no church — because every spot shall be holy. This world, then, is one large training-school, where we are placed for a little while, to learn to fulfil the duties of that great service for which we were destined and created. Training consists of three things: instruction, which is the imparting knowledge, and giving new ideas; education, which is the drawing out, and directing, the powers of mind and heart; and moral discipline, which is the moulding character, and the formation of good habits. This is just what life is. I. We are here TO GET KNOWLEDGE, and new ideas about the things of God. How shall we enter heaven without some previous knowledge of it: its conditions — its employments? And if there is no greater pleasure on this earth than to get a new idea, what must it be when the new ideas are these: to inform the mind about God; to see every day some new, fresh beauty in Jesus; to impregnate the understanding with the Infinite? II. But let me speak to you, secondly, of your EDUCATION for another world — according to the strict meaning of the word education. You are probably aware that the word "education" means "to draw out," "to educe." So that when we educate a child, it is, literally and properly, that we draw out what is in the child. The gardener does not make the branches and the tendrils; but he lays them out, he guides them, he gives each its proper place and order. He lops what is redundant; he fastens and makes sure what is good. But, be sure of this, there is that in you which, if you will, and if you will only let it, can expand into all that is happy, and all that is holy, and all that is useful, and all that is Divine, here and for ever. III. Now, thirdly, the way in which this is to be done, we call DISCIPLINE, the third part of training. Selfdiscipline, and God's discipline. And yet they are not two, for God's discipline is to make and to take effect through self-discipline. Do not count discipline a hard word. In God's vocabulary, discipline is only another word for love. There cannot be discipline without friction — without struggle. But a victory over self is such a very pleasant thing. And the compensations are so accurate, and so great, that discipline itself soon loses to you its sterner sense, and becomes the element of all happiness. Discipline is to form habits. Do not forget that you are placed here mainly to form habits, to learn to do and be what you are to do and be eternally. To form a good habit must always involve the unforming a bad one. So you begin to hold yourself in hand, to exercise self-control, to cultivate pious thoughts — acts of devotion and religious communion, and a holy walk — which are the things you are to do for ever and ever. Meanwhile, all outward things are working for you, You will find yourselves in strange circumstances. But all to practise and increase some grace — and especially a lacking one. ( J. Vaughan, M. A. )

Matthew Henry

4:1-7 The apostle deals plainly with those who urged the law of Moses together with the gospel of Christ, and endeavoured to bring believers under its bondage. They could not fully understand the meaning of the law as given by Moses. And as that was a dispensation of darkness, so of bondage; they were tied to many burdensome rites and observances, by which they were taught and kept subject like a child under tutors and governors. We learn the happier state of Christians under the gospel dispensation. From these verses see the wonders of Divine love and mercy; particularly of God the Father, in sending his Son into the world to redeem and save us; of the Son of God, in submitting so low, and suffering so much for us; and of the Holy Spirit, in condescending to dwell in the hearts of believers, for such gracious purposes. Also, the advantages Christians enjoy under the gospel. Although by nature children of wrath and disobedience, they become by grace children of love, and partake of the nature of the children of God; for he will have all his children resemble him. Among men the eldest son is heir; but all God's children shall have the inheritance of eldest sons. May the temper and conduct of sons ever show our adoption; and may the Holy Spirit witness with our spirits that we are children and heirs of God. 4:8-11 The happy change whereby the Galatians were turned from idols to the living God, and through Christ had received the adoption of sons, was the effect of his free and rich grace; they were laid under the greater obligation to keep to the liberty wherewith he had made them free. All our knowledge of God begins on his part; we know him because we are known of him. Though our religion forbids idolatry, yet many practise spiritual idolatry in their hearts. For what a man loves most, and cares most for, that is his god: some have their riches for their god, some their pleasures, and some their lusts. And many ignorantly worship a god of their own making; a god made all of mercy and no justice. For they persuade themselves that there is mercy for them with God, though they repent not, but go on in their sins. It is possible for those who have made great professions of religion, to be afterwards drawn aside from purity and simplicity. And the more mercy God has shown, in bringing any to know the gospel, and the liberties and privileges of it, the greater their sin and folly in suffering themselves to be deprived of them. Hence all who are members of the outward church should learn to fear and to suspect themselves. We must not be content because we have some good things in ourselves. Paul fears lest his labour is in vain, yet he still labours; and thus to do, whatever follows, is true wisdom and the fear of God. This every man must remember in his place and calling. 4:12-18 The apostle desires that they would be of one mind with him respecting the law of Moses, as well as united with him in love. In reproving others, we should take care to convince them that our reproofs are from sincere regard to the honour of God and religion and their welfare. The apostle reminds the Galatians of the difficulty under which he laboured when he first came among them. But he notices, that he was a welcome messenger to them. Yet how very uncertain are the favour and respect of men! Let us labour to be accepted of God. You once thought yourselves happy in receiving the gospel; have you now reason to think otherwise? Christians must not forbear speaking the truth, for fear of offending others. The false teachers who drew the Galatians from the truth of the gospel were designing men. They pretended affection, but they were not sincere and upright. An excellent rule is given. It is good to be zealous always in a good thing; not for a time only, or now and then, but always. Happy would it be for the church of Christ, if this zeal was better maintained. 4:19,20 The Galatians were ready to account the apostle their enemy, but he assures them he was their friend; he had the feelings of a parent toward them. He was in doubt as to their state, and was anxious to know the result of their present delusions. Nothing is so sure a proof that a sinner has passed into a state of justification, as Christ being formed in him by the renewal of the Holy Spirit; but this cannot be hoped for, while men depend on the law for acceptance with God. 4:21-27 The difference between believers who rested in Christ only, and those who trusted in the law, is explained by the histories of Isaac and Ishmael. These things are an allegory, wherein, beside the literal and historical sense of the words, the Spirit of God points out something further. Hagar and Sarah were apt emblems of the two different dispensations of the covenant. The heavenly Jerusalem, the true church from above, represented by Sarah, is in a state of freedom, and is the mother of all believers, who are born of the Holy Spirit. They were by regeneration and true faith, made a part of the true seed of Abraham, according to the promise made to him. 4:28-31 The history thus explained is applied. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free. If the privileges of all believers were so great, according to the new covenant, how absurd for the Gentile converts to be under that law, which could not deliver the unbelieving Jews from bondage or condemnation! We should not have found out this allegory in the history of Sarah and Hagar, if it had not been shown to us, yet we cannot doubt it was intended by the Holy Spirit. It is an explanation of the subject, not an argument in proof of it. The two covenants of works and grace, and legal and evangelical professors, are shadowed forth. Works and fruits brought forth in a man's own strength, are legal. But if arising from faith in Christ, they are evangelical. The first covenant spirit is of bondage unto sin and death. The second covenant spirit is of liberty and freedom; not liberty to sin, but in and unto duty. The first is a spirit of persecution; the second is a spirit of love. Let those professors look to it, who have a violent, harsh, imposing spirit, towards the people of God. Yet as Abraham turned aside to Hagar, so it is possible a believer may turn aside in some things to the covenant of works, when through unbelief and neglect of the promise he acts according to the law, in his own strength; or in a way of violence, not of love, towards the brethren. Yet it is not his way, not his spirit to do so; hence he is never at rest, till he returns to his dependence on Christ again. Let us rest our souls on the Scriptures, and by a gospel hope and cheerful obedience, show that our conversation and treasure are indeed in heaven.