TU ESD A Y /TH U R SD A Y BIBLE STUDIES
Galatians 4 - 5 Prepared by Dr. Lloyd T. Anderson Pastor, Bethany Baptist Church, West Covina, California 1 Ü H
B . B. S utcliffe , “It is faith in Christ and not works of the law that gives the position of sons (4:4, 5). He has redeemed those who were under the law ‘that we might receive the adoptions of sons.’ The word ‘adoption’ is a Roman legal word and means ‘the placing of a son,’ that is, in a son’s legal position. This the law could never do. While under the law there certainly were children, yet these ‘differed nothing from servants.’ Through the redemption Christ has wrought He makes it a legal thing for the believer to occupy the son's posi tion.” Furthermore, it is faith in Christ and not works of the law that gives the experience of sons (4:6, 7). “Be cause ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” This does not mean, of course, that the believer has had the old nature eradicated and has thus attained to sinless perfection. It is proper that we should be greatly troubled about the sins a believer may commit, but we must not think that when a believer does sin he must an swer to the law. To think so would be to say that if a believer would be saved he must be regenerated again and again: that is, after each particu lar sin. The truth is that once in the
family of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, the believer has passed forever beyond the jurisdiction of the law, is out of its sphere, beyond its reach. There will of necessity be discipline, and much discipline is needed in the Father’s family, but it will not be administered by the law. This is fully set forth in I Corinthians 11:30-32. The same sin may be committed by the unsaved sinner and the child of God. The former answers to the law, the latter feels the Father’s hand in discipline. In spite of the old nature still existing in the child of God we read, “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (4:6). The Jew under law, even though a child, never could have the position nor the experience of a son, and differed nothing, in this, from a servant. Hence, the apostle says, “How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly ele ments, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times and years” (vs. 9, 10). This they were doing because of the Judaizing teachers, but Judaism was now no more than their own paganism. Why turn away to Judaism from what had already proven suffi cient? They might as well turn again 32
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