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THE KING’ S BUSINESS
full grown children.” Then he points them to the experimental proof that they were sons, viz., the sending forth o f “the Spirit o f His (i. e., God’s) Son” into their “hearts”-—“Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit o f His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (cf. Rom. 8:15, 16; Eph. 1 :13). God sends the Holy Spirit into the heart o f the believer. The presence o f the Spirit in our hearts is made' known in two ways: (1) He banishes all fear of God and produces a sense o f joyful filial trust. He cries, Abba, Father (cf. Rom. 8:15, 16). Abba is an Aramalic name for father, or “my father,” so the name “ father” is repeated by Paul, first in the Aramalic, second in the Greek, to bring out the depth and intensity o f our sense of sonship. (2) He awakens a sense o f fer vent prayer: He cries, Abba, Father, i. e., in prayer (cf. Rom. 8:26, 27; Eph. 6:18; Jude 20; Matt. 6:9). The presence o f the Spirit o f God in our hearts, producing filial trust and a spirit o f earnest prayer is con clusive proof that we are sons. Notice the deeply significant name o f the Holy Spirit used in this connection, “the Spirit o f His Son” (i. e., the Spirit o f Christ as the Son o f God, so called because He pro duces in us a deep sense o f our own son- ship). In verse 6 Paul changes from the second person “ye” o f the first part o f the verse, into the first person “ our” in the latter part o f the verse, as in verse 5 he changed from the third person “them” to the first person “we” because (as we said in commenting on verse 5) he must express his personal share in. the work o f the Holy Spirit, and moreover to express the. truth that both “you and I,” i. e., Jew and Gen tile were included in this sonship. Paul’s conclusion in verse 7 from the experimental fact o f their having received “the Spirit o f His Son” (v. 6 ) is “thou are no longer a bond servant (slave), but a son; and if a son, then (also) an heir through God” (an heir through all three persons of the trinity, Father, Son and Holy ‘ Spirit, cf. Rom. 8:17).
came from heaven, from God’s own pres ence (cf. John 8:42; Isa. 48:16). The word “ His” before “ Son” in verse 4 is emphatic and is equivalent, in this connection, to “ His own Son” (cf. John 3:16; Heb. 1:1, 2). While He was God’s own S,on He was also “born o f a woman” ;, for thus only could he. become man and take what belonged to us upon Himself and thus redeem us (cf. Heb. 2:14-18). He was “ born under law” (in the Greek there is no “the” before law), not merely as a Jew but as man, subject to the law, to keep all its requirements and to suffer and exhaust its penalty, death, and thus redeem us from its “curse” (ch. 3:10-13). The word trans lated “receive” in verse 5 is a very strong word. It implies to receive in full what is due (cf. Luke 23:41; 2 John 8 , where the same Greek word is used in the former passage being translated “ receive the due reward,’’ and in the latter passage is used in connection with receiving a full reward, the words “ full reward” being, however, in the text as well as the word “ receive.” ) By Christ’s redeeming work as our representa tive, redemption from the bondage o f the law into the liberty o f sons became our due, and by putting themselves back under bond age to the law the Galatians were making the redeeming work o f Christ o f none Paul has shown how the Jews under the law were in a state o f moral infancy and therefore in bondage, but how Christ with His coming had delivered them from that bondage to rudiments into the liberty of the one who has taken his place as a full grown son, no longer under bondage to the guardian and steward, the law. But some Gentile Galatian might think that as the Jew was under the law before he received his place as a son, so must he himself also be. Paul meets this difficulty in verses 6 and 7, he says, "Ye (i. e., Gentiles who have accepted-Christ) are sons (i. e., ye as well as the Jews) are not mere children, but effect (cf. ch. 5:4). Wednesday, May 8 . Gal) 4 : 6 , 7 .
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