Galatians 4:6–7

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.