Usually within the New Testomony, the apostles handle to summarize the great thing about the Gospel in just a few phrases. Once they do, they provide us very best passages for meditation and memorization, they usually present us gasoline for evangelism.
One such passage is Galatians 4:4–5: “When the fullness of time had come, God despatched forth his Son, born of girl, born beneath the regulation, to redeem those that have been beneath the regulation, in order that we would obtain adoption as sons.” In a single sentence, the apostle Paul reminded the Galatians of the everlasting plan initiated in Christ’s incarnation and excellent life, of the redemption achieved on the cross, and of the brand new id that the Spirit offers to believers.
Every of those points of the verse is worthy of our consideration.
The Son of God, Born of Lady
“When the fullness of time had come, God despatched forth his Son, born of girl, born beneath the regulation.”
Jesus was despatched into the world from God. He mentioned so Himself within the Higher Room Discourse: “I got here from the Father and have come into the world” (John 16:28, emphasis added). Jesus’ origin is divine. He got here into the world from exterior of it, the place He had dwelt in everlasting glory with the Father (John 17:5).
This occurred “within the fullness of time”—that’s, on the precise second set by God’s everlasting decree. It was the time decided by the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in response to their everlasting covenant of redemption. It was “the correct time,” as Paul tells the Roman church (Rom. 5:6). Jesus even started His earthly ministry with the phrases “The time is fulfilled, and the dominion of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15).
Though Charles Wesley poetically mentioned that Jesus “emptied Himself of all however love,” the reality is that He grew to become a person not via subtraction however via addition. The kid within the manger remained God’s everlasting Son regardless of having taken on humanity. He grew to become what He had by no means been (particularly, man) whereas by no means ceasing to be what He had all the time been (particularly, God).
Jesus was despatched into the world from God.
When the Son was “born of girl,” it wasn’t a trick or phantasm. It’s not that Jesus merely seemed to be a person however wasn’t actually a person. He was actually born to an actual mom. He had the identical bodily composition, the identical central nervous system, the identical temptations. Regardless of His divinity and due to His humanity, the ache of the nails in His palms bit Him at least it did the 2 thieves beside Him.
Nor did His divinity imply Jesus was any much less a Jew. He was a son to Jewish dad and mom, raised within the Jewish context, born “beneath the regulation.” He didn’t get a go. And but within the matter of regulation preserving, the Son of God succeeded the place everybody earlier than Him and since Him has failed, preserving the regulation in all its calls for.
The Individuals of God Redeemed
“When the fullness of time had come, God despatched forth his Son … to redeem those that have been beneath the regulation.”
God despatched His Son to us to stay as one in all us, to be topic and liable to God’s regulation as we’re. Why would the Son of God ever do that? To redeem a individuals for His personal possession (Titus 2:14).
Redemption is an financial metaphor indicating an alternate. In our day, a coupon is redeemed to obtain a financial credit score. In Paul’s day, a slave was redeemed out of slavery when somebody paid the debt of their bondage. When God despatched His Son, He bought us from slavery to sin and idolatry in order that we may be His as a substitute (Gal. 4:7–8).
Paul describes how this alternate works earlier in Galatians, in 3:13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the regulation by changing into a curse for us.” Though God’s regulation is sweet, its impact on human beings is to disclose the truth that they’re unable to maintain it and subsequently are topic to God’s judgment, God’s curse (Gal. 3:10). The regulation was given to disclose sin in us and subsequently to disclose our whole inadequacy to avoid wasting ourselves.
Jesus, “born of girl,” is the one man ever to have stored the regulation completely. However, He held on the cross and suffered God’s curse. He did this on our behalf, buying our freedom via His struggling in order that we may be redeemed from our bondage to sin and exempt from paying the wages of sin—i.e., dying. “You have been purchased with a value” (1 Cor. 6:20), Paul tells us elsewhere. God has mercifully paid the value of our slavery with the lifetime of His Son. Such free grace got here at nice price.
The Youngsters of God Adopted
“When the fullness of time had come, God despatched forth his Son … in order that we would obtain adoption as sons.” (Gal. 4:4–5)
However God, by sending His Son, didn’t merely redeem us; He additionally adopted us. Christ got here in order that we would turn out to be God’s youngsters. Though Jesus is a Son by nature, He willingly took the type of a servant in order that we who’re by nature the slaves of sin would possibly turn out to be the sons of God by adoption.
And having despatched His Son to die for us, He now “has despatched the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal. 4:6). One of many indications that His Spirit lives in us is that in our hearts, we recurrently cry out to God as Father.
God has mercifully paid the value of our slavery with the lifetime of His Son. Such free grace got here at nice price.
When a toddler is adopted, the authorized standing precedes the subjective expertise. Legally, they’ve a brand new title. They’ve a brand new household. They’ve new privileges. They’ve new expectations. These adjustments happen in a second in time—and but our understanding of our adoption might take time to settle in. We are able to know that we’ve got been redeemed and adopted as a result of the Spirit of God involves stay in our lives and to drive dwelling the change that has come across us.
“So you’re not a slave,” Paul tells us, “however a son” (Gal. 4:7). Now we have the privilege of going to God and primarily saying, “Hey, Dad, I want Your assist with this. I can’t address this alone. Thank You for loving me a lot as to ship Jesus to bear the curse that I deserve.” To name God our Father just isn’t some superior course in Christian spirituality. It’s the basis of our new id in Christ—a childlike dependence on and love for a gracious heavenly Father.
God loves us a lot that He despatched His everlasting Son to redeem us from the curse of the regulation by changing into a curse for us, in order that we who consider may be His little children eternally. That is the excellent news of Galatians 4!
This text was tailored from the sermon “Sons, Not Slaves” by Alistair Begg.
