Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 4:5
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
5. Born under the law, our Blessed Lord not only in His most holy life fulfilled all the commandments of the law, but in His death He satisfied its conditions by bearing its penalty, and redeeming us from its curse; born of a woman, He became the Head and representative of the human race, that in Him we might become sons of God. Possibly the wider rendering ‘under law’ may be correct, in which case the redemption includes expressly what it does by implication all mankind.
the adoption of sons ] Men become sons of God by adoption; Christ is the Son of God by eternal generation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
To redeem them – By his death as an atoning sacrifice; see the note at Gal 3:13.
Them that were under the law – Sinners, who had violated the Law, and who were exposed to its dread penalty.
That we might receive the adoption of sons – Be adopted as the sons or the children of God; see Joh 1:12, note; Rom 8:15, note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. To redeem them] . To pay down a price for them, and thus buy them off from the necessity of observing circumcision, offering brute sacrifices, performing different ablutions, c., &c.
That we might receive the adoption of sons.] Which adoption we could not obtain by the law for it is the Gospel only that puts us among the children, and gives us a place in the heavenly family. On the nature of adoption See Clarke on Ro 8:15.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This makes it appear, that Christs being under the law must be understood as well of the moral as of the ceremonial law, that is, subject to the precepts of it, as well as to the curse of it; for if the end of this being born under the law, was to redeem those that were under it, that he had not reached by being merely under the ceremonial law; for the Gentiles were not under that law, but only under the moral law; and they also were to be redeemed, and to receive the great privilege of
adoption, or rather, the rights of adopted children; which (some think) is to be understood here, rather than what is strictly to be understood by the term of adoption, viz. a right to be called and to be the sons of God. Others, by adoption, understand that full state of liberty of which the apostle had been before speaking, in opposition to that state of childhood and nonage in which believers were until the times of the gospel; for, Gal 5:1, we shall find that that was a liberty wherewith Christ made us free: and indeed this last sense seemeth best to agree with what the apostle had before said, Gal 4:1-3, though the other senses are not to be excluded.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. ToGreek, “ThatHe might redeem.”
them . . . under thelawprimarily the Jews: but as these were the representativepeople of the world, the Gentiles, too, are included in theredemption (Ga 3:13).
receiveThe Greekimplies the suitableness of the thing as long ago predestinedby God. “Receive as something destined or due” (Luk 23:41;2Jn 1:8). Herein God makes ofsons of men sons of God, inasmuch as God made of the Son of God theSon of man [AUGUSTINE onPsalm 52].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
To redeem them that were under the law,…. By whom are meant chiefly the Jews, who are elsewhere represented as in and under the law, in distinction from the Gentiles who were without it; see Ro 2:12 the Gentiles indeed, though they were not under the law of Moses, yet were not without law to God, they were under the law of nature. The law was given to Adam as a covenant of works, and not to him as a single person, but as a federal head to all his posterity; hence he sinning, and they in him, they all came under its sentence of condemnation and death, God’s elect not excepted, and who are the persons said to be redeemed; for Christ was not sent to redeem all that were under the law; for as all mankind were included in it as a covenant of works made with Adam, and all are transgressors of it, the whole world is pronounced guilty before God by it, and liable to the curse of it; but not all mankind, only some out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, are redeemed by Christ, even all the elect, whether among Jews or Gentiles. The chosen among the Jews seem to be here principally designed; the redemption of them, which is the end of Christ’s being sent, intends not only a deliverance of them from sin and Satan, and the world, to whom they were in bondage, but from the law under which they were; from the bondage of the ceremonial, and from the curse and condemnation of the moral law:
that we might receive the adoption of children; by which may be meant, both the grace, blessing, and privilege of adoption, and the inheritance adopted to; both are received, and that in consequence of redemption by Christ; and such as receive the one will also receive the other. Adoption, as a blessing of grace, exists before it is received; nor does the reception of it add anything to the thing itself; it was in God’s designation from all eternity, who predestinated his chosen ones unto it by Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will; it was provided, laid up, and secured for them in the everlasting covenant; and is part of that grace given them in Christ before the world began; but sin intervening, whereby the law was broken, obstacles were thrown in the way of God’s elect receiving and enjoying this privilege in their own persons; wherefore Christ was sent to redeem them from sin and the law, and by so doing remove these obstructions, that so they might receive this privilege in a way consistent with the righteousness and holiness of God, as well as with his grace and goodness: receiving of it shows it to be a gift, a free grace gift, and not owing to any merit of the creature; faith is the hand which receives it, as it does all other blessings, as Christ himself, grace out of his fulness, righteousness, pardon, c. and has no more causal influence on this than on any of these faith does not make any the sons of God, or put them among the children; but receives the power, the authority, the privilege from God through Christ, under the witnessings of the spirit of adoption; whereby they become such, and have a right to the heavenly inheritance, which they shall hereafter enjoy.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
To redeem [ ] . See on chapter Gal 3:13. To redeem from the dominion and curse of the law. The means of redemption is not mentioned. It cannot be merely the birth of Christ of a woman and under the law. These are mentioned only as the preliminary and necessary conditions of his redeeming work. The means or method appears in chapter Gal 3:13. We might receive [] . Not receive again or back, as Luk 14:27, for adoption was something which men did not have before Christ; but receive from the giver.
The adoption [ ] . P o. See on Rom 8:15, and comp. Rom 9:4; Eph 1:5. Not sonship, but sonship conferred.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “To redeem them that were under the law,” (hina tous hupo nomon eksagorase) “In order that he might redeem those under the law,” both the law of Moses and those under the eternal law of sin and death! Mat 20:28. To redeem means to ransom, to buy out of slavery, oppression, and bondage, to return a birthright, Gal 3:13; Tit 2:14; Eph 1:7; Heb 9:12; 1Pe 1:18-19.
2) “That we might receive the adoption of sons,” (hina ten huiothesian apolabomen) “In order that we might receive the heirsetting of sons,” not merely become children of God, but also children of God who might receive heir-setting possessions of, for, and with Christ, to reign on earth, through His grace and obedience to Him, thru His church, Eph 1:5; Eph 1:14; Eph 3:6; Eph 3:10-11; Eph 3:21; Rom 8:15; Rom 8:17-18; Rom 8:23.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
5. That we might receive the adoption. The fathers, under the Old Testament, were certain of their adoption, but did not so fully as yet enjoy their privilege. Adoption, like the phrase, “the redemption of our body,” (Rom 8:23,) is here put for actual possession. As, at the last day, we receive the fruit of our redemption, so now we receive the fruit of adoption, of which the holy fathers did not partake before the coming of Christ; and therefore those who now burden the church with an excess of ceremonies, defraud her of the just right of adoption.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
TEXT 4:57
(5) that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (6) And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (7) So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
PARAPHRASE 4:57
5 That, by his obedience unto death, he might buy off Jews and Gentiles who were under law, that we might receive the adoption of sons; that we Gentiles might be made the people of God, and receive the blessings belonging to the people of God, by being introduced into the gospel church.
6 And because ye believing Jews and Gentiles are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, by whose gifts, being assured that ye are Gods sons, ye can address him in prayer with confidence, calling him, each in your own language, Abba, Father.
7 So that thou who possessest the gifts of the Spirit art no more a bond-man, under law as a rule of justification, and driven to obey by the fear of punishment; but a son actuated by love: and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
COMMENT 4:5
that he might redeem
1.
Redeem means to pay down a price for them.
2.
Redeembuying them off from the necessity of observing circumcision, and offering brute sacrifices.
3.
This states the result of Jesus coming.
4.
This states a fulfillment of Gen. 22:18 In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
that we might receive the adoption of sons
1.
Christ made it possible, but we have a responsibility.
a.
Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be to you a Father and ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 2Co. 6:17
b.
To be adopted by God is a distinct honor.
c.
On earth we do not have the privilege to select our father but we do for eternity.
d.
This gives us the right to call God Father. Cf. Gal. 4:6
2.
In this relationship we become joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Cf. Rom. 8:17
WORD STUDY 4:5
Adoption (huiothesiahwee oh theh SEE ah) was fairly common in the ancient world. Among other things, the adoption caused:
1.
A new name
2.
An inheritance
3.
A cancellation of previous debts and obligations.
An early papyrus document records these words:
And I have him as my own son so that the rights . . . to my inheritance shall be maintained for him.
COMMENT 4:6
and because ye are sons
1.
The Spirit was not sent to make us sons, but is sent when we become sons.
2.
Sonship comes as a result of the adoption process as a result of faith.
a.
As many as received Him to them He gave the right to become children of God. Joh. 1:12
b.
The promise of the Spirit is made to the repentant and obedient ones. Act. 2:38
God sent forth the Spirit of his Son
1.
The Spirit of slavery to the devil must depart in order for Christs spirit to come in.
2.
The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.
a.
Since Christ through His work has received our adoption as sons, His Spirit can be sent to those who belong to Him.
b.
Gal. 3:26 says we are Sons by faith. And Gal. 3:27 says by baptism we get into Christ and put Him on.
c.
Faith, baptism and the Spirit of Christ, are inseparable.
3.
The outpouring of the Spirit belonged to the promised Messiah. Cf. Joe. 2:28-29
into our hearts
1.
Proper faith and baptism must concern the earnest person who desires the spirit of Christ in his heart.
a.
What Scriptural Baptism Requires:
Water, Act. 10:47; Act. 8:36-38
Much water, Joh. 3:23
Going to water, Mar. 1:9
Going down into water, Act. 8:38
Coming up out of water, Mar. 1:10; Act. 8:39
Born of water, Joh. 3:5
Form of burial, Col. 2:12
Form of Resurrection, Rom. 6:4
Bodies washed, Heb. 10:22
Immersion meets all the requirements of Scriptural baptism, while sprinkling only meets onewater.
Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say, Luk. 6:46. If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments, Joh. 14:15.
b.
Results Following Bible Baptism:
Sins remitted, Act. 2:38
Gift of the Holy Ghost, Act. 2:38
In Christ, Gal. 3:27
In the Church, 1Co. 12:13
A good Conscience, 1Pe. 3:21
A Christian Life, Rom. 6:4
Heaven, Rev. 22:14
2.
The heart is the center of ones will and affections and therefore will not have Christs Spirit until submitted to His will.
crying, Abba, Father
1.
It is in Christ that we cry to God.
a.
We have here an Aramaic and Greek word with the same meaning.
b.
They were the two languages in which Christians of that day worshipped God.
c.
With the fulfillment of the prophecies (Cf. Isa. 44:3) concerning the Messiah, men were permitted to call God, Abba.
2.
It seems that Jesus originated the use of the word, Abba. Cf. Mar. 14:36
a.
Jesus could do this, because of His fellowship with God.
b.
We can do it, if we have a proper obedience.
3.
This is a unique statement.
a.
It fulfills Messianic prophecies. Cf. Jer. 3:19; Jer. 31:9; Psa. 89:27.
b.
It has four limitations in time.
1)
It belongs to the time of the fulfillment of the promise.
2)
The time of the inheritance.
3)
The time of freedom.
4)
The time of sonship.
4.
Those who go back to the law, depart from this great truth that made this wonderful relationship possible.
WORD STUDY 4:6
Abba was the Aramaic word for father used in the intimacy of the family circle. The term expresses a feeling of love, confidence, and intimate fellowship. It does not, however, imply any flippancy or lack of respect as do sometimes our English words Pop or Daddy.
COMMENT 4:7
Thou art no longer a bondservant
1.
He who could receive the Spirit and pray Abba Father has no reason to go back to bondage.
a.
The Christian is a faithful person who has grown up to be an heir.
b.
The Christian has been redeemed by Christ and has changed relationship from a child who was a bondservant to a mature person who is an heir.
c.
This was the whole purpose of the fulness of time.
2.
Two things from which man is free:
a.
Power, dominion of sin. Cf. Rom. 8:2; Rom. 8:13
b.
The Mosaic law. Gal. 4:8-10; Gal. 3:24
But a Son
1.
Sons have many advantages.
a.
An inheritance. Rom. 8:17
b.
Freedom. Gal. 5:1
c.
Fellowship with the Father as sons. Joh. 1:11; Cf. 1Jn. 1:3; 1Jn. 1:6-7
2.
The Christian must appreciate this new relationship and never go back to the world.
a.
Like a dog and hog. 2Pe. 2:20
b.
. . . whose end is to be burned. Heb. 6:4
if a Son then an heir
1.
As a member of the family we have a right to the properties.
a.
We are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
b.
This means into the possessions of the one so namedaccording to some Greek usages in natural life.
2.
It is an inheritance of another world where the treasures can not be destroyedand are eternal.
a.
Cf. Jesus statement in Mat. 6:19
b.
Cf. Peters statement in 1Pe. 1:4
c.
Cf. Pauls statement in Heb. 9:15
through God
1.
This verse does not eliminate Christ and His part.
2.
Divine truth is never expressed fully in one verse in the language of man.
STUDY QUESTIONS 4:57
441.
Does this verse answer why Christ was born under the law?
442.
If He could redeem Gentiles, who were not under the law of Moses, why could He not redeem the Jews also?
443.
What law is referred to here?
444.
In what way are we sons according to this verse?
445.
Did He send His Spirit to make us sons?
446.
Is the Spirit of His Son, the same as the Spirit promised on Pentecost?
447.
Does the promise of the Comforter refer to this same Spirit?
448.
What is the significance of into hearts?
449.
What does the word Abba mean?
450.
Why did Paul use two different languages here?
451.
What state did we leave when we accepted Christ?
452.
What does a son have that a bondservant does not?
453.
Why do men reject the privilege to be an heir and remain in bondage?
454.
What all is involved in heirship?
455.
Do we have a property right to Gods wealth?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(5) To redeem them that were under the law.To redeem, or ransom, at the price of His death, both Jew and Gentile at once from the condemnation under which the law, to which they were severally subject, placed them, and also from the bondage and constraint which its severe discipline involved.
That we might receive the adoption of sons.Redemption is followed by adoption. The admission of the believer into the Messianic kingdom, with its immunities from sin and from law, implies an admission into the Messianic family, of which God is the Father and Christ the Eldest Son, first born amongst many brethren.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Them The we of Gal 4:3.
Receive the adoption of sons Parallel to the emancipating the child from his servile minor state as a servant into his free sonship and inheritance.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gal 4:5 . The object for which God sent forth His Son, and sent Him indeed . ., . .
] The Israelites are thus designated in systematic correspondence to the previous . . Comp. Gal 3:25 , Gal 4:21 , Gal 5:18 ; Rom 6:14 .
] Namely, as follows from , from the dominion of the law , Gal 4:1-3 (in which its curse, Gal 3:11 , is included), and that through His death, Gal 3:13 . Erasmus well says: “dato pretio assereret in libertatem.”
. .] The aim of this redemption; for of this negative benefit the was the immediate positive consequence. But Paul could not again express himself in the third person, because the had been imparted to the Gentiles also, whereas that redemption referred merely to the Jews; but now both, Jews and Gentiles, after having attained the no longer (Gal 4:3 ): hence Paul, in the first person of the second sentence of purpose, speaks from the consciousness of the common faith which embraced both the Jewish and the Gentile portions of the Christian body, not merely from the Jewish-Christian consciousness, as Hofmann holds on account of in Gal 4:6 . Comp. the change of persons in Gal 3:14 .
The is here, as it always is, adoption (see on Eph 1:5 ; Rom 8:15 ; and Fritzsche, in loc .), a meaning which is wrongly denied by Usteri, as the signification of the word allows no other interpretation, and the context requires no other. Previously not different from slaves (Gal 4:1-3 ), as they were in the state of , believers have now entered into the entirely different legal relation towards God of their being adopted by Him as children. Comp. Weiss, bibl. Theol . p. 338 f. The divine begetting (to which Hofmann refers) is a Johannean view; see on Joh 1:12 . In the divine economy of salvation the gracious gift of the was needed in order to attain the ; while in the human economy, which serves as the figure, the heir-apparent becomes at length heir as a matter of course. Accordingly Paul has not given up (Wieseler) the figure on which Gal 4:1 ff. was based a view at variance with the express application in Gal 4:3 , and the uninterrupted continuation of the same in Gal 4:4 ; but he has merely had recourse to such a free modification in the application , as was suggested to him by the certainly partial difference between the real circumstances of the case and the figure set forth in Gal 4:1-2 . Comp. Gal 4:7 .
.] not: that we might again receive, as is the meaning of . very often in Greek authors (see especially Dem. 78. 3; 162. 17), and in Luk 15:27 ; for before Christ men never possessed the here referred to (although the old theocratic adoption of the Jews was never lost, Rom 9:4 ): hence Augustine and others are in error when they look back to the sonship that was lost in Adam . Nor must we assume with Chrysostom, Theophylact, Bengel, and others, including Baumgarten-Crusius, Hofmann, and Reithmayr, that, because the is promised, it is denoted by . as , a sense which is often conveyed by the context in Greek authors and also in the N.T. (Luk 6:34 ; Luk 23:41 ; Rom 1:27 ; Col 3:24 ; 2Jn 1:8 ), but not here, because it is not the expressly, but the (Gal 3:29 , Gal 4:7 ), which is the object of the promise. As little can we say, with Rckert and Schott, that the sonship is designated as fruit ( = inde ) of the work of redemption, or, with Wieseler, as fruit of the death of Jesus apprehended by faith: for while it certainly is so in point of fact, the verb could not lead to it without some more precise indication in the text than that given by the mere . On the contrary, . simply denotes: to take at the hands of any one, to receive , as Luk 16:25 ; Plat. Legg . xii p. 956 D, and very frequently in Greek authors.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Ver. 5. To redeem them, &c. ] To buy them off, who were in worse case than the Turkish galley slaves chained to an oar.
That we might receive the adoption ] That is, the possession of our adoption, the full enjoyment of our inheritance.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5 .] See above. Christ, being born under the law, a Jewish child, subject to its ordinances, by His perfect fulfilment of it, and by enduring, as the Head and in the root of our nature, its curse on the tree, bought off (from its curse and power, but see on ch. Gal 3:13 ) those who were under the law: and if them, then the rest of mankind, whose nature He had upon Him. Thus in buying off , He effected that , all men, should receive (not ‘ recover ,’ as Aug., al., and Jowett (‘receive back’): there is no allusion to the innocence which we lost in Adam, nor was redemption by Christ in any sense a recovery of the state before the fall, but a far more glorious thing, the bestowal of an adoption which Adam never had. Nor is it, as Chrys., , , : it is true, it was the subject of promise, but it is the mere act of reception , not how or why it was received, which is here put forward. Nor again, with Rckert and Schtt., must we render ‘ therefrom ,’ as a fruit of the redemption. This again it is , but it is not expressed in the word) the adoption (the place, and privileges) of sons . The word occurs only in the N. T. In Herod. vi. 57 we have , and the same expression in Diod. Sic. iv. 39.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Gal 4:5 . . These two final clauses couple together two gracious purposes of God in the scheme of redemption, (1) the obliteration of a guilty past, (2) divine adoption with the blessings which sonship entails. The description under Law includes Gentiles as well as Jews: for though they had not the Law , they were not without Law to God ( cf. Rom 2:14 ): they have indeed been expressly specified in Gal 3:14 as included in the redemption from the curse of the Law. . This verb denotes receiving back , as does giving back ( cf. Luk 19:8 ): accordingly it describes the adoption in Christ as a restoration of the original birthright, withheld throughout many generations for the sake of necessary discipline.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
To = In order that (Greek. hina) He might.
redeem. Greek. exagorazo See Gal 3:13.
that. Greek. hina., as above.
receive = receive in full. Greek. apolambano. See Rom 1:27.
adoption of sons = sonship. Greek. huiothesia. See Rom 8:15.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
5.] See above. Christ, being born under the law, a Jewish child, subject to its ordinances, by His perfect fulfilment of it, and by enduring, as the Head and in the root of our nature, its curse on the tree, bought off (from its curse and power, but see on ch. Gal 3:13) those who were under the law: and if them, then the rest of mankind, whose nature He had upon Him. Thus in buying off , He effected that , all men, -should receive (not recover, as Aug., al., and Jowett (receive back): there is no allusion to the innocence which we lost in Adam, nor was redemption by Christ in any sense a recovery of the state before the fall, but a far more glorious thing, the bestowal of an adoption which Adam never had. Nor is it, as Chrys., , , : it is true, it was the subject of promise, but it is the mere act of reception, not how or why it was received, which is here put forward. Nor again, with Rckert and Schtt., must we render -therefrom, as a fruit of the redemption. This again it is, but it is not expressed in the word) the adoption (the place, and privileges) of sons. The word occurs only in the N. T. In Herod. vi. 57 we have , and the same expression in Diod. Sic. iv. 39.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Gal 4:5. , …- , that-that) An Anaphora.[33] The first that is to be referred to made under the law: therefore the second has respect to born of a woman. There is a Chiasmus very much resembling this, at Eph 3:16; Eph 5:25-26, which see with the annot. Christ, in the similitude of our condition, made our condition good; in the similitude of our nature, He made us the sons of God: is repeated, giving force to the meaning, He might have been born of a woman ( ), and yet not have been made under the law ( ); but yet He was born of a woman ( ), that He might be made under the law. The first , made, with the addition of , of a woman, takes (adopts) the meaning, being born.-, might redeem) from slavery to liberty.- , the adoption) the dignity of sons, a privilege in which those who are of age delight, along with the actual enjoyment [usufructu] of the inheritance.-) we might receive; shows the suitableness[34] of the thing, which has been long ago predestined by God.
[33] Append. The frequent repetition of the same words to mark beginnings.-ED.
[34] in the compound expresses often something appropriate or due.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Gal 4:5
Gal 4:5
that he might redeem them that were under the law,-[Neither his coming in the flesh nor his keeping the law in the days of his flesh availed, in whole or in part, for the redemption of men. He he not been clothed in flesh, death would have been impossible for him; hence this was the condition necessary for the accomplishment of the redemption, but was itself no part of that redemption. His redemptive work proper began and ended on the cross; accordingly the statement of the Saviors relation to sin is invariably made in terms that confine that relationship to his death. Hence it is nowhere stated in the New Testament that Christ kept the law for us. Only his death is vicarious. He is not said to have borne sin during any part of his life; it was on the cross that he became the sin bearer. (1Co 15:3; Gal 1:4; Heb 9:28; 1Pe 1:24; Rev 1:5). Jesus declared that the purpose of his life was not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mar 10:45). His death was in complete harmony with his life, and was its fitting climax, but the two are here distinguished by the Lord himself, and his distinction is observed by each of the New Testament writers. Inasmuch as it was necessary that the Jews might be redeemed from under the law, much more must the Gentiles not allow themselves to be brought under it when they become believers in him who died to accomplish that redemption. The death of Christ secures for the believers freedom from the curse (Gal 3:13), and from the bondage of the law (Gal 4:3; Rom 6:14).]
that we might receive the adoption of sons.-To adopt is to receive the child of another as ones own and to bestow upon it the affection, treatment, and privileges as ones own child. Christians are spoken of by God as his adopted children. They are his by adoption. This would indicate that they are not his naturally-they are not born by natural birth into his family. Man was in the beginning a child of God. God created him as his own child, and as his child placed him to reign over the world. The genealogy of the human family, as given in the New Testament, traces all back to Adam, the son of God. He was created by God as a member of his family. But now the children of Adam are not by virtue of their birth in the family of God. Adam sinned against God, accepted the devil as his ruler, and thus alienated himself and the world from the family of God. In order that man might be reinstated in Gods favor, God proposes to re-adopt him into his family, or so many of the children of men as will trust and follow him. As preparatory to being received as sons, the Spirit of adoption must be in their hearts, a desire to become members of his family. This desire is imparted through faith in God. When the person has been fitted in heart and life by faith and repentance towards God, for the enjoyment of the privileges of the family of God, he is then by a burial out of his old family relations and a resurrection in the new ones adopted into the family of God. Baptism is the act of adoption by which we pass out of one family, and are brought into the new one with God as our Father, and Jesus Christ as our elder brother, and by which we acquire the right to the blessings and favors of the family of God. After we have been legally adopted into the family of God, we must drink more and more into the spirit of the family that we may not lose our fitness for its privileges and forfeit our rights to its inheritance. The adoption does not help us unless it is legally perfected.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
redeem: Gal 4:21, Gal 3:13, Mat 20:28, Luk 1:68, Act 20:28, Eph 1:7, Eph 5:2, Col 1:13-20, Tit 2:14, Heb 1:3, Heb 9:12, Heb 9:15, 1Pe 1:18-20, 1Pe 3:18, Rev 5:9, Rev 14:3
that we: Gal 4:7, Gal 3:26, Joh 1:12, Rom 8:19, Rom 8:23, Rom 9:4, Eph 1:5
Reciprocal: Exo 2:10 – and he Lev 4:28 – a kid Lev 25:48 – General Jer 3:19 – put thee Mat 1:18 – of the Mat 5:17 – but Luk 2:11 – unto Luk 2:21 – eight Luk 2:39 – performed Luk 15:22 – a ring Luk 22:8 – Go Joh 11:51 – that Jesus Rom 3:19 – what things Rom 6:14 – for ye Rom 7:6 – But Rom 8:3 – God Rom 8:15 – the Spirit Rom 15:8 – Jesus 1Co 9:20 – are under 2Co 6:18 – a Father Gal 2:16 – but Gal 3:23 – under Gal 5:13 – ye Gal 5:18 – ye are Eph 3:6 – the Gentiles Col 2:11 – by 1Ti 2:15 – she 1Jo 3:1 – that 1Jo 3:24 – we
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gal 4:5. -In order that He might redeem those under the law. See under Gal 3:13. Those under the law are certainly the Jews; and He was born of a woman, born under the law, in order that He might redeem them. As their representative in blood, and in position under the law, He obeyed its precepts and He bore its penalty, so that they were freed from its curse and from its yoke, and became disciples of a more spiritual system, which taught truth in its realities and not in obscure symbols, whose sacrifice was not the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer, but the precious blood of Christ; which gave them the privilege of kneeling, not toward a mercy-seat of gold, but before the throne of grace, and whose High Priest had gone into a holiest place beyond the skies. We enter not into the question of the active and passive obedience so often discussed under reference to this verse, but only say that obedience and suffering were ever combined, so that in obeying He suffered, while His suffering was His last and highest act of obedience: He became obedient unto death.
They were no longer under bondage to a law which Christ had obeyed alike in its requirements and penalty. To the bondage of the law, as we may learn from the second verse, the apostle has special allusion. God’s own children living under that law differed little from slaves. Spiritual freedom was denied them. Minute prescriptions were given for diet, dress, travel, labour, for home and for field, for farm and orchard, for private piety and public worship, for ceremonial purity and ethical relations, for birth and marriage, for each day and for the Sabbath-day, for trade and for war, for child and for parent, for tax and for tithe. The entire and multifarious code lay a heavy burden upon them,-nothing was left as a matter of choice to them,-almost in nothing were they masters of themselves; so that the national life must have been to a great extent mechanical-a routine of obedience into which they were so solemnly drilled-the service of . Law cannot save; it has no means of deliverance within itself. Nor could they throw the burden off. They durst not dismiss the tutors and guardians, nor proclaim of their own power that their minority had ceased and that they henceforth assumed the position of men. They had to wait the fore-fixed time of the father. But now from the burden of the law they are delivered, as they had been redeemed from its curse, though certainly the curse was also an element of the burden. See under Gal 3:10-14.
-in order that we might receive the adoption of sons. Rom 8:15; Rom 8:23; Eph 1:5. The apostle again uses the first person plural, and the use of it may resemble Gal 3:14. The redemption of those who were under the law was necessary to the adoption both of Jews and Gentiles. So that the second is scarcely co-ordinate with the first, but introduces a higher ulterior purpose common in its realization both to Jew and Gentile. Compare Gal 3:15, Eph 5:25. Both clauses are connected with the one finite verb, but the lines of connection are not parallel, the first clause-that He might redeem those under the law-specially linked with the one nearest to it-born under the law, and the second with the more remote one-born of a woman. Jelf, 904, 3. The blessing is , not simply -not sonship natural, but sonship conferred. Rckert, Usteri, Schott, and Brown deny this, and refer it to the change by which the heir who had been under tutelage passes to his majority, and is recognised as a son. That is straining the analogy. Hesychius rightly defines the term- . Diodor. Sic. 4.39; Herod. 6:57. They had been in bondage; but they were freed from it now, and adopted into the household. By no other process could they enter into the family-they were not of it, but were brought into it. And they are freed from legal burden before they are adopted; nay, their emancipation from servitude is virtually their adoption. Both are gifts-Christ died to redeem them, and they receive the other from God. The idea of receiving back or recovering is not in the verb, though Augustine argues, non dixit, accipiamus sed recipiamus, and Jowett paraphrases, receive back our intended blessing. The – may sometimes signify again, Luk 15:27; Liddell and Scott. Adam had a before his fall-he was ; and in this sense our adoption is reinstating us in the family. But the new sonship is so different, that it can scarce be termed a recovery, since it is far more-it is a higher relation than man originally possessed. For it is the image of the second Adam to which we are to be conformed, and the inheritance is in heaven, and no mere paradise restored on earth. Nor, as Meyer remarks, was the which belonged to the Jews really lost. Exo 4:22; Hos 11:9. The nation was still in theocratic covenant with God. Chrysostom gives the verb another meaning-to receive as one’s due, for the promise was made of old (Theophylact, Bengel). Such a sense may sometimes be inferred from the context, as in Luk 6:34; in the other passages- Luk 23:41; Rom 1:27; Col 3:24 -a distinct term is found which formally conveys this sense. But the idea is here foreign to the train of thought. Nor can the notion of Schott and Rckert be sustained, that – means inde, or as the fruit of the redemption; the notion is implied in the context, but not directly expressed by the verb. The verb is used simply as elsewhere- Luk 16:25; Col 3:24 -to receive into possession from, pointing ideally to the source. Through faith, the apostle had said, believers are Abraham’s seed, and children according to promise; and how faith confers adoption upon us is told us in these verses. Christ’s incarnation and death intervening-the curse and yoke of the law being taken away-by faith in Him he who was a servant is gifted with the position and privileges of a son. See under Gal 3:26. That sonship is now enjoyed, but its fulness of blessing and fellowship waits the coming of the Lord Jesus. For it is added-
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Verse 5. As a minor would be redeemed or released from the rule of his guardian when he became “of age,” so the minors (Jews) were redeemed or released from the authority of the law when Christ brought the Gospel age into the world. Adoption of sons. Paul makes a slight change in the use of his illustration. The Jews (as well as the Gentiles, though in a less specific sense), have been referred to already as sons not of age, now they are said to require adoption in order to become sons. But the point of comparison is not so far away after all. Verse 1 says that as long as the heir is a child (a minor), he is virtually the same as a servant. Harking back to that item in his parable, Paul switches from his first use of the servant-heir character, treating him as if he were a servant in the ordinary sense only, and permitting him to become a son of the head of the estate, in order that he might become not merely an heir apparent, but one in fact. However, since this servant cannot be the begotten son of the head of the estate, the relation can be accomplished only by the adoption of sons as It is here worded.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Gal 4:5. To redeem, to buy off from the curse and the slavery of the law. This he did by His perfect obedience and the bestowal of the spirit of love and freedom.
Receive, not recover, for the redemption by Christ infinitely transcends the original child-like innocence lost by Adam.
The sonship, through and for the sake of Jesus, the only begotten Son. He is the Son by nature and from eternity, we become sons by grace in time. The word sonship or adoption as sons is used only by Paul, in five passages, Rom 8:15; Rom 8:23; Rom 9:4; Eph 1:5; while the term children of God is more frequent. The former suits here better, as contrasted with slavery, and in distinction also from a state of mere pupilage. Both terms, sons and children of God, and the corresponding Father never refer in the New Testament to the natural relation of man as the creature to God as the creator, but always to the moral and spiritual relation, which results from the new birth and the communication of the Holy Spirit.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. [In this paragraph Paul resumes the metaphor begun at Gal 3:24; but from a slightly different point of view. There, law, or the tutor, was prominent; here, the son, or pupil, is the chief object of consideration. The point now illustrated is the reason why the bondage of the law preceded the liberty of the gospel. It was for purposes of development, similar to those by which youth is trained to manhood. The child in this instance is regarded as wholly subject to the terms of a will (though that of a living father, as appears later). Though the will provides that the son shall eventually be heir of all things, yet for the present he is so hampered, governed and restricted by the inflexible terms of the will that his condition differs, so far as comfort and freedom are concerned, in no respect from that of a bondservant, or slave. His person is under the care of guardians, and his estate is under the direction of stewards, and he can in no way expect to have his affairs bettered until the time has elapsed which is fixed by the will as the period of his subserviency, or minority. Thus, says the apostle, both Jews and Gentiles, as one common, congregate body, or heirs in God’s sight, were held in bondage either to the law of Moses or some other form of law, which laws are collectively described as the rudiments of the world. But when the time arrived which was stipulated in the will for the termination of this period of tutelage, then God took the steps for the liberation of the ward (which steps were also outlined beforehand in the promise to Abraham, and referred to in the types of the will as recorded by Moses), and sent forth his Son to effect the liberation of the ward. At Gal 3:13 the apostle has already suggested that this liberation was to be effected by the son taking the place of the ward, etc. He shows, therefore, the steps by which the Son took upon him this wardship. He took upon him the nature of the ward by becoming flesh, being born of a woman (Joh 1:14), and he assumed the state of the ward, for he was born under the law and thus came under the wardship. And his gracious purpose in all this was to redeem all those under ward and bring them to the estate of sons (2Co 8:9)–adopted sons.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 5
To redeem them, &c.; thus showing that they owe their redemption not to their Judaism, but to their Christianity.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the {e} adoption of sons.
(e) The adoption of the sons of God is from everlasting, but is revealed and shown in the time appointed for it.