From Slave-Heir to Son-Heir Text: Galatians 4:1-7
Introduction: The Great Emancipation
The entire Christian life is a declaration of identity. The central question that every man must answer is not "what will you do?" but rather "who are you?" And the answer to that question determines everything else. Our modern world is in a frantic, desperate, and frankly pathetic search for identity. Men want to be women, women want to be men, the young want to be old, the old want to be young, and everyone wants to be a victim of some kind, because a victim identity carries a certain moral currency in our bankrupt culture. But all these attempts are just rearranging the furniture in a prison cell. They are attempts to find freedom while remaining enslaved.
The Galatian heresy was, at its root, an identity crisis. The Judaizers came to these new Gentile believers and told them that their identity in Christ was insufficient. "It's wonderful that you believe in Jesus," they said, "but to be a true, first-class son of Abraham, you need something more. You need the works of the law. You need circumcision. You need to get on the Jewish calendar." They were trying to lure the Galatians back into a slave's uniform after they had been issued the robes of sonship. They were offering them a return ticket to the nursery after they had been invited to sit at the Father's table.
Paul's response is not one of gentle correction. It is a thunderous rebuke. He is astonished that they are so quickly deserting the one who called them by grace for a different gospel, which is no gospel at all. Why? Because to go back to the law for your justification is to abandon your identity as a son and to re-embrace the identity of a slave. It is to trade the family inheritance for a bowl of thin, rule-keeping gruel. In this passage, Paul lays out the magnificent transition that God has accomplished in redemptive history, moving His people from the status of childhood under guardianship to the full, unencumbered liberty of adult sons.
This is not just ancient history. The temptation to define ourselves by our performance, by our rule-keeping, by our external markers of righteousness, is perennial. It is the default setting of the fallen human heart. We want to have something to point to, some reason to believe that God is pleased with us, apart from the finished work of His Son. But the gospel declares that our identity is not earned; it is given. It is not achieved; it is received by faith alone. And that identity is this: you are no longer a slave, but a son.
The Text
Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and stewards until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were enslaved under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
(Galatians 4:1-7 LSB)
The Heir in the Nursery (vv. 1-3)
Paul begins with a common-sense illustration from Roman and Greek law, one his hearers would have immediately understood.
"Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and stewards until the date set by the father." (Galatians 4:1-2)
Here is the principle: a minor heir, even though he is the legal owner of a vast estate, lives a life that is functionally indistinguishable from that of a slave. He does not have freedom of movement. His schedule is not his own. His diet is prescribed. He is told when to get up, when to go to bed, and what to study. He is under the authority of "guardians and stewards." He has the title of an owner, but the daily experience of a servant. This is not a punishment; it is a necessary and good stage of his development. You don't give a seven-year-old the keys to the treasury and the family chariot. His immaturity requires this period of restriction and tutelage.
The crucial point here is that this arrangement is temporary. It lasts only "until the date set by the father." The father, in his wisdom, determines the moment of transition from childhood to adulthood, from tutelage to freedom. It is a sovereignly appointed time.
Paul then applies this illustration directly to the experience of God's people before the coming of Christ.
"So also we, while we were children, were enslaved under the elemental things of the world." (Galatians 4:3)
The "we" here refers to all of humanity before Christ, both Jew and Gentile. We were all in the nursery. We were all minors. The Jews were under the guardianship of the Mosaic Law. The Law was a good guardian; it taught them their sin, it pointed them to the need for a savior, and it set them apart from the pagan nations. But it was a ministry of condemnation and death (2 Cor. 3:7-9). It could manage behavior, but it could not impart life. It was a tutor, a disciplinarian, leading them to Christ (Gal. 3:24).
But what about the Gentiles? They were also enslaved, under what Paul calls the "elemental things of the world," the stoicheia. This refers to the basic, rudimentary principles that governed the pagan world, the building blocks of their worldview. This includes their idolatry, their philosophical systems, their worship of cosmic powers, their observance of special days and seasons tied to the movements of the stars. It was a worldview built on appeasing impersonal forces and fickle deities. Both Jew and Gentile, then, were in bondage: the Jew to the good but preparatory law, and the Gentile to the weak and beggarly principles of paganism.
The Divine Intervention (vv. 4-5)
The transition from this state of universal childhood slavery was not an evolution. It was an invasion. It happened at a precise, predetermined moment in history.
"But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." (Galatians 4:4-5)
"But when the fullness of the time came..." This is one of the most profound statements in all of Scripture. History is not a random series of events. It is a story, written and directed by a sovereign author. God prepared the world for the coming of His Son. The Roman roads, the universal Greek language, the Pax Romana, the Jewish diaspora spreading the knowledge of the one true God throughout the empire, all of it was the stage-setting for the main event. At the precise moment appointed by the Father, the "date set by the father," He acted.
And notice the Trinitarian shape of this action. "God sent forth His Son." The Father is the sender, the Son is the sent one. This is the great mission. The Son's coming was not an afterthought; it was the plan from before the foundation of the world. He was "born of a woman," which speaks to His true humanity. He did not simply appear as a divine phantom; He entered our world through the gateway of a normal human birth. He took on our flesh and blood. He was also "born under the Law." As a Jew, He placed Himself under the very system of guardianship that held His people in bondage. He submitted perfectly to all its demands. He was the only one who ever did.
Why did He do this? For a twofold purpose. First, "that He might redeem those who were under the Law." To redeem means to buy back, to purchase out of slavery. By His perfect life of obedience to the law and His substitutionary death under its curse, Christ satisfied all the demands of the law on our behalf. He paid our debt in full, and in doing so, He purchased us out of the slave market of sin and law. He emancipated us.
But the gospel is not merely freedom from something; it is freedom for something. The second purpose is glorious: "that we might receive the adoption as sons." God does not just set us free and then leave us to fend for ourselves as orphans. He brings us into His own family. He gives us His name. He makes us His own children. This is a staggering truth. The goal of redemption is not just a clean slate; it is a seat at the family table. It is sonship.
The Internal Witness of Sonship (vv. 6-7)
How do we know this adoption is real? How can we be assured that this change in legal status is not just a theological abstraction? Paul gives the answer in the next verse.
"And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Galatians 4:6)
The historical, objective work of the Son is now applied subjectively and personally by the Spirit. Notice the sequence. It is because you are sons that God sends the Spirit. The Spirit is not given to make us sons; the Spirit is given as the seal and evidence that we are sons. The Father sends the Son to accomplish our adoption, and then the Father and the Son send the Spirit to assure us of our adoption.
And what is the evidence? The Spirit of the Son cries out from within our hearts, "Abba! Father!" Abba is an Aramaic term of intimate, familial affection. It is what a small child would call his father. It is something akin to "Daddy." This is not the cry of a slave cowering before a master, or a defendant trembling before a judge. It is the spontaneous, heartfelt cry of a beloved child running into his father's arms. This internal, Spirit-wrought witness is the definitive proof of our new identity. We know we are sons because the Spirit of Jesus within us instinctively and joyfully cries out to our Father.
The Great Conclusion: Slave No More
Paul brings his argument to its triumphant conclusion.
"Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God." (Galatians 4:7)
This is the bottom line. The transition is complete. The "date set by the father" has come. The nursery is behind you. The guardians are dismissed. Your identity has been irrevocably changed. You are not a slave, trying to earn your keep through performance. You are a son, resting in your Father's love.
And sonship has consequences. "If a son, then an heir." As sons, we are now co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). Everything that belongs to the Son now belongs to us. All the promises of God, the riches of His grace, the glory of the new creation, it is all ours. We are heirs of God Himself. We inherit everything. This is not because of anything we have done, but because of who we are in Christ. Our inheritance is not a wage we have earned, but a gift we have received by virtue of our adoption.
Conclusion
The message to the Galatians is the message to us. Stop trying to live like slaves when God has made you sons. Stop trying to earn what has been freely given. Stop looking to your own obedience, your own performance, your own spiritual disciplines for your standing before God. Look to Christ. Look to His finished work. Listen for the cry of the Spirit in your own heart, the cry of "Abba, Father."
Your identity is not in what you do for God, but in what God has done for you in sending His Son. Your identity is not in your ability to keep the rules, but in your status as an adopted child. When you grasp this, when you truly understand that you are no longer a slave but a son, you are set free. You are set free from the fear of condemnation, set free from the exhausting treadmill of self-righteousness, and set free to obey God not as a slave trying to earn his favor, but as a beloved son who desires to please his Father.
This is the great emancipation proclamation of the gospel. The fullness of time has come. The Son has been sent. The price of redemption has been paid. The Spirit has been given. Therefore, live like what you are. You are no longer a slave, but a son, and an heir of God through Christ.