but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law,
Paul has just pictured heirs who were still children, kept under guardians. Here he marks the moment God stepped in, and every phrase counts: the timing, the sending, the woman, the law.
Why then, and not sooner?
With "the fullness of time" all is changed. Did it not come when man had fully shown the evil of his heart, and had failed completely to meet his responsibilities? It was proved that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," and that all was over on man's side. Then God acted in pure sovereign grace and sent forth His Son, come of a woman, come under law.
God was also preparing the world His Son would enter.
God had chosen the exact time to send forth His Son, and He prepared everything for it... God allowed the Romans to have a strong government. They controlled all that part of the world, with Palestine at its centre. They made good roads and kept a great deal of order. This made it possible to preach the gospel in very many places. God had also arranged that all that part of the world should understand Greek. That helped greatly in spreading the good news.
Some have read "sent forth" as though Christ only became Son at His birth. One writer answers them from this same passage.
So it is worth noticing that this passage uses exactly the same expression of the Holy Spirit. We read, "God sent forth the Spirit of His Son." No one would dare to argue that this means the Holy Spirit was not sent forth from heaven, or that the words only apply after He had come to earth. Is it not plain, to anyone who submits to God's word, that the Holy Spirit "sent forth" from heaven was the Spirit before He came? In the same way, does not this passage prove that the Son was sent forth from heaven, and was the Son before He became Man?
The wording is unusual, and one writer builds a great deal on it. (Older translations read "made of a woman.")
It is very significant that the letters of the New Testament never speak of the virgin birth, except in Galatians 4:4. There we are told the Lord was "made of a woman." This expression would have been meaningless if it only referred to the way that all children come into the world. "Made of a woman" surely limits the human parentage of our Lord to the mother's side. It is the affirmation of the virgin birth.
What kind of Man was born this way?
The virgin birth means that the Lord Jesus, while truly Man, was yet a Man of a new order.
Birth under the law set Him inside Israel, and the reason given is not the one many expect.
The Lord Jesus came "made of a woman" — that is, really and truly Man. He came "made under the law" — that is, born of Israel, the chosen people, whom God had placed under the law's rule. He came under the law — but not to keep it for us, and not to atone that way for our failure to keep it. He came to redeem those who were under it.
Writers place the stress differently. Darby gives the same reason from the text, then adds a further point.
Besides, He magnified the law and made it honourable — and that carries real moral weight. It mattered to honour the law, the measure of what God requires from His creature. And it mattered just then, when He was about to take man out from under it altogether and set him free from it.
His birth opens the verse. It is not where God's work stops.
But was God's business done when the Son was here, come of a woman, come under the law? By no means. His coming as Man was only the means, not the end. Redemption was the great point to which God turned. So the Son was sent, and came "to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons."
- Timing — the fullness of time came when man had fully shown his heart and failed; only then did God act, in pure grace.
- Sending — the same expression describes the Spirit's sending in this passage, so the Son was Son before God sent Him from heaven.
- Woman — "of a woman" traces His humanity to His mother alone; He was truly Man, yet a Man of a new order.
- Law — He came under law to redeem those under it, and He honoured the law at the very moment God was about to free us from it.
- Purpose — His birth was the means, not the end: redemption first, then adoption as sons.
that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship.
Galatians 4:5 gives the reason God sent His Son — not simply to be born under the law, but to buy out those held there and place them as sons. Two questions sit at the centre. What does this redemption free people from? And what is the "adoption" they receive instead?
The verse names the goal of the sending. One writer presses the point that the birth at Bethlehem was a step toward something else:
It is true that then the fullness of the time had come for God to send forth His Son. The very children were enslaved under the basic principles of the world, and all were shut up under sin. Man had proved that he could ruin himself under the law of God, and all the more easily because the law was good and he was bad. But was God's business done when the Son was here, come of a woman, come under the law? Not at all. The Incarnation was only the means, not the end. Redemption was the great point to which God turned.
Another writer sets His law-keeping beside His death:
That law was no bondage for Him. He fully worked out the righteousness of the law. Yet His righteous and holy life could not redeem those under the law. Redemption from the curse of the law was accomplished in the death of the cross.
The Greek word behind "redeem" in this verse is discussed directly. It is not the general word for deliverance:
The word here may go a little further. Yet it is not properly "redeem," but buying up or retrieving, as in Galatians 3:13 and Galatians 4:5. It is not the state of deliverance we enjoy, though that is the result for the believer. The point is that Christ bought out from under the law those once under it, to make them His own.
Galatians 3:13 had already spoken of redemption from the law's curse. This verse adds something:
By death, then, we are redeemed from the curse of the law. Galatians 4:5, however, carries us a step further. We are redeemed not only from the law's curse but also from its rule. In receiving the "adoption of sons," we are set free from the schoolmaster's rule and from the schoolroom routine. We leave the schoolroom for the freedom of the grown-up son. He knows his father's mind, and he moves without restriction in every room of the house.
The word translated "adoption" carries the sense of sonship — a position given, with everything that belongs to it:
The result of redemption is "that we might receive sonship." Here again, the "we" is Jewish and Gentile believers brought into a position of sonship, or "adopted" to be sons. Sonship is a word not often used. It is the contrast to the picture before it: the child who is like an infant, kept under the law, in a position of immaturity... Adopted to be sons means to be placed in a position of sonship, and that goes with maturity and with dignity. It is a wonderful position — not under the law, as under a jailer or a tutor. It is a place of dignity in God's presence, and it includes fellowship with God.
Paul writes "them" for those under law, then switches to "we" for those who receive the sonship. That shift is deliberate:
He came to redeem those that were under the law, so that believers (whoever they may be) should receive the adoption. The sending of the Spirit proved that Gentile believers now shared that adoption, for the Spirit made them cry, "Abba, Father"... The Gentile was a stranger to the house. The Jew, while under age, was no different from a servant. Yet each had now taken the position of a son in direct relation with the Father. The Holy Spirit was the power and the witness of that relation. All this came from the redemption the Son carried out on their behalf. The Jew under the law needed it as much as the Gentile in his sins.
- Purpose — The incarnation was the means, not the end. The cross is where the buying-out happened.
- Price — "Redeem" means bought out from under. Those once held by the law became Christ's own.
- Reach — Redemption starts with those under law. Then the "we" widens: Jew and Gentile receive the same sonship.
- Place — Adoption does not make you a servant. It places you as a son: maturity, dignity, and fellowship in God's presence.
- Liberty — The result is the end of the schoolroom; the freed son knows his Father's mind and moves freely in the house.
But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
God sent His Son to redeem; now He sends the Spirit of that Son into the hearts of people He has already made sons. Everything turns on one small word — because — which settles whether the Spirit makes us sons or comes to us because we already are.
The verse begins with a reason, not a condition. That order decides how a believer reads his own standing.
He does not give the Spirit to make you a son. He gives you the Spirit because you are a son. The one who believes in Christ Jesus is a child of God, "for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith" (Gal. 3:26).
Verse 5 speaks of receiving the place of sons. Verse 6 adds something to that place — the ability to enjoy it.
Think carefully about this: it was in the mind of God to have sons before Him and not servants. He sent His Son so that He might have sons. But this is not a mere name or position. He has also sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, so that we might know and enjoy the relationship.
The enjoyment can fade while the standing stays. Paul wrote to people who had slipped back toward law-keeping, and he still told them plainly what they were.
The Spirit does not give the relationship, but the conscious response to the relationship. The Galatians had made little progress in themselves. As a whole they had in fact slipped back into legalism, and had "fallen away from grace." Still the Apostle does not hesitate to press on their hearts the truth of what they were, and that twice over, saying not only, "you are sons," but also, "So you are no longer a slave, but a son."
The verse calls Him "the Spirit of His Son." That title explains what He does.
The Holy Spirit is called here "the Spirit of His Son" for this reason. The Lord Jesus took up His place as God's Son, even as Man in this world (see Luke 1:35), in the power of the Spirit. That same Spirit is the source and power of the life, the thoughts and the feelings of a son of God in each believer He lives in. By Him we cry "Abba, Father." He gives us the awareness of the relationship and a fitting response to the Father's love. A rich man might lift a poor child out of some charity home and adopt him as his son by law. But he could not produce in him the proper feelings of a son of his… What man cannot do, God has done.
Two words for one relationship stand side by side, and the first one is not translated.
The Greek form is abba, father. It is the same as Ab in Hebrew, but people said Abba in the time of our Saviour. It appears three times in the New Testament, always followed by "father," and translated Abba Father. So the "abba" is copied over, not translated; if it were translated it would read "Father Father."… The only other time it appears is when the Lord speaks to His Father this way, Mark 14:36; and the Spirit in the hearts of believers puts the very words He used into their lips. Some have suggested that in the two words the Jew and the Gentile each say "Father" in his own language.
The sound of the word matters too. It is a mercy to the weakest believer.
It is a word made with the lips only. So a very small child, who has no teeth yet, could say it… This tells us of the welcome God gives to even the smallest, the youngest, the weakest believer. He may not know how to pray. But God has given even such a person the Spirit of His Son, and he can look up to heaven and cry, "Abba!" No one but a child has the right to this word.
Paul moves from "we" in verse 5 to "you" in verse 6. Commentators see the change as deliberate.
But even that does not satisfy Him. There might still have been the thought that the adoption of sons was only for believers in Israel… But the apostle turns to the Gentiles and says, "And because you are sons," changing the person, and addressing the Galatians in a very pointed way… Here we learn plainly that the Jew, by the law, only got into a position of bondage. That was all the law could do for him… But now Christ came, and in Christ there is power to set free, and this is what ruined man needs.
- Because. God does not send the Spirit to make sons. He sends the Spirit because those who believe in Christ Jesus are already sons.
- Sent. God sent the Son, and God sent the Spirit. Both acts are His, so the relationship rests on Him.
- His Son's. The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, so He works a son's thoughts and feelings inside the believer, not just a title outside him.
- Abba. The cry is the very word the Lord used to His own Father (Mark 14:36), simple enough for the weakest believer to say.
- You. Paul aims it at Gentiles as well as Jews. The law could only give bondage; Christ makes sons who are no longer slaves.
So thou art no longer bondman, but son; but if son, heir also through God.
Paul has just said that God sent His Son to redeem those under law, and then sent the Spirit of His Son into their hearts. Verse 7 draws the conclusion: what you are no longer, what you now are, and what that settles about your future.
The verse is a conclusion. It closes an argument running back into the previous chapter, where the law acts as guardian over a household of minors.
Read the whole passage, Galatians 3:21 to 4:7. You will see the Apostle's argument: the coming of Christ has started a new era. Before He came, the law ruled, and it showed only part of God. Believers then were like minors in a family, under a tutor. Now He has come, and redemption has been accomplished as a result. We are like children who have grown up, set free from the nursery routine and living in the full liberty of the Father's house.
Paul turns from a whole region to one person. And he speaks about now, not about heaven later.
The conclusion follows from all the reasoning: "So you are no longer a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." Notice, it is not what they shall be. It is not that they stay infants in this world and get their blessing in heaven. It is, "you are no longer a servant but a son." If you were a Jew, you would be the servant of the law. But now, no matter what you were — even if you had been an idolater — in receiving Christ you have passed into the fullness of the blessing that is due from God to His beloved Son.
Older versions say "servant" where the ESV says "slave." Ending slavery does not end serving.
A son is the acknowledged child, the child given the child's place, and that is what belongs to Christianity. How then, asks the apostle in effect, is it possible, in such a place, to be a servant any longer — that is, a slave? It is the bondage of slavery he is speaking about. Servants, of course, we are in a true sense, by the very fact that we are sons. We serve as such. God has title to service, surely, from all His sons, but there is no bondage in this.
Sonship is not just a warmer feeling; it carries property. Note that translations differ on the closing phrase: some render it "an heir of God through Christ," others "an heir through God."
Being sons and having the Spirit, we are no longer servants... This is far higher than angels will ever know. They are servants, His ministers who do what pleases Him. But they cannot say "Father," and they cannot join in redemption's song. God kept this for sinners, whom His sovereign grace picked up. Men sometimes have sons who are not heirs, because they choose not to give them a portion. But there are none such in the family of God. All will share with the Only-begotten Son. When He takes up His rights and takes charge of all things, we shall be with Him as sharers through grace.
The little phrase at the end guards against any thought that we arranged this ourselves.
In Galatians 4, the believer is no longer a slave but a son. And if a son, then an heir too, through God — certainly not through man, whether himself or others. So we learn the double truth: that by faith, not by works of law, we are heirs of God, and this through God.
The Galatians were slipping back under law. That turns the son's place into a question of honour.
Having this place, why would we want a servant's place? Would it not dishonour any father to have his full-grown son cringing before him as a slave? God has prepared the best He has for His sons, and has given them "the best robe." Can He be honoured when they take the cold, distant place of serving Him as if for wages? This was the folly of the Galatians.
The Spirit lives in God's sons, and His work there is never to bring fear back.
He is not within us as the Spirit of bondage, not as a Spirit leading us to fear, but to liberty. He does not lead us to put ourselves under the terror of law... We are not led by the Spirit to doubt our Father's love, or to question whether we are His children. We are not led by the Spirit to dread that, after all, we shall miss His home in glory.
- Redemption first. Sonship rests on the finished work of Christ, not on how far you have come. Even a former idolater passes straight into the full blessing.
- Sonship now. The verse states a present fact, not a future hope: not what you will be in heaven, but what you already are on earth.
- Slavery ends, service doesn't. Bondage is over. Sons still serve, but they serve as sons, and there is no bondage in it.
- Heirship follows. In God's family there are no sons without a portion. The inheritance is God Himself, shared with His Son.
- Liberty is the test. The Spirit leads to liberty, never back into fear. Cringing religion is what looks out of place, not confidence.