Galatians 4:5–6

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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).

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.