
Galatians 3:26-4:7
Paul specifies the dimensions of the family of God: its height (3:26) - the family reaches up to the very throne of God in heaven; its depth (3:27) - the family reaches down into baptism in Christ, forever loved and accepted in Him; its width (3:28) - the family is wide enough to bring natural enemies together (Col. 3:10); and its length (3:29) - the family is long enough to trace its ancestry back to Abraham. All who come to Christ by faith become members of this family.
3:26 | God now includes us all as sons and daughters. Everyone who believes in Jesus for salvation is part of God’s family: brothers and sisters to one another and co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17).
3:28 | In Christ, all racial barriers to salvation are abolished; there is neither Jew nor Greek. In Christ, all social barriers to salvation are abolished; there is neither slave nor free. In Christ, all gender barriers to salvation are abolished; there is neither male nor female (Col. 3:10-11). Every believer has equal standing before God.
3:29 | Paul sums up all of chapter 3 by reiterating his thesis: the heirs of the promise of Abraham are all those who belong to Christ by faith - and faith alone.
4:1-2 | In the context of the day, despite his position as an heir, a child was as a slave - with no rights in the household - until the father decided it was time for that child to enter into the rights of his inheritance. Likewise, the law functioned as a guardian for God’s people until the appointed time determined by God the Father. The coming of Christ freed believers to receive their spiritual inheritance and live as mature sons and daughters of God.
4:3 | The phrase elements of the world comes from a Greek word that signifies a row or list of items. The word was also used of the letters of the alphabet. The law treats people as infants, telling them what to eat, what to wear, and where to go. Such legalism produces spiritual immaturity and leaves God’s children in bondage (Col. 2:8).
4:4 | When the time was right for Christ to be sent forth into this world (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:25; John 1:14; Rom. 1:3; Phil. 2:7), He was born under the law so that He could fulfill every claim and demand of the law on our behalf (Matt. 5:17-19; Luke 2:21,27). He fulfilled the moral law in His life and the ceremonial law in His death (Rom. 8:3-4).
4:5 | In Paul’s day, some 60 million slaves lived in the Roman Empire. When someone bought a slave, the buyer could either own and use the slave or set the slave free. When God purchases or redeems people through Christ, He does so in order to set them free (3:13; Matt. 20:28). Because we are not natural children of God, we can become sons and daughters only by diving adoption (John 1:12; Eph. 1:5).
4:6 | When receive Christ, His Spirit takes up residence in the core of our being, giving us an internal power that we never had before and transforming our hearts from hateful and rebellious to loving and obedient. Our hearts control our words and actions (Prov. 4:23; Rom. 5:5).
4:7 | When a person is saved, the law moves to the side and love moves to the center. The believer is no longer enslaved to the harsh master of sin (4:1) but becomes a mature son or daughter of God. This shift in a person’s essence from slave to son with full rights (heir of God) is immediate (Matt. 22:37-40; Rom. 13:10; 1 Cor. 13:11; 2 Cor. 5:17).