Hello Everyone,
I trust you all had a Merry Christmas!! We had a great time at our house, over the course of the week-end each of our adult children, dear friends and our grandchildren spent time together. There was much food, laughter, gift giving and praising God for His gift of Jesus.I haven’t sent out a Bible study in a few weeks. This is the study for the text I will be preaching this Sunday. May the Lord speak to all of us through it.
Many Blessings, Nancy
Galatians 4: 4-7
THE MESSAGE 4 -7But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, "Papa! Father!" Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.
NIV 4But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
KJV 4But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
The Letters (Epistles) of the New Testament
If you went into someone else’s home and started reading their mail, what kind of response do you think you might receive? It might not be very nice…
When we are reading the epistles of the New Testament (Galatians being one) we really are reading other people’s mail. While this is true there is no evidence that these letters were intended for only the original recipients; there were intended to be passed around and read by all, us included. But we must remember we are reading a letter. In these documents we will find timeless truths but we will also find specific information to a specific people at a specific place in a specific time. Therefore, these letters in the New Testament demand that we know as much as possible about both the sender’s and the recipient’s lives. When reading the epistles of the Bible for personal growth it requires more background information than some of the other genres of the Bible.
Here are some GREAT guidelines for being spiritually formed by any of the New Testament letters.
1. Read the whole epistle in one sitting to get the big idea of the letter and its main contours.
2. Think in terms of the paragraphs being the main units of thought. BEWARE of isolating verses from the context of their paragraph!!!
3. Do some background reading in order to understand better the letter’s main concerns and its historical and cultural setting.
No part of the Bible seems so directly applicable as these letters. The struggles of the early church and its community are still very much the struggles today. Playing with Fire by Walt Russell
Galatians
By the middle of the first century, although the early Christian movement was still connected to Judaism, and increasing number of its members were Gentiles (non-Jew). The relationship between these new, non-Jewish converts and Jewish Christians, became an issue of importance. One crucial issue concerned the status of the Law of Moses. Should Gentile Christians convert to Judaism in the process of becoming Christians? The letter to the Galatians gives Paul’s view of this controversy. The letter is Paul’s defense of his Gentile mission as a whole and the particular understand of the law on which it is based.
The exact date of the letter’s composition is not known, but it was written presumably some time between the late 40 and 50 A.D. The address of this letter are “the churches in
4: 1-5 As I was researching I found a great explanation of this particular passage by Bob Deffinbaugh in an article entitled “The Inferiority of Immaturity.” I’ve copied it below.
In chapter 3 Paul has established, on biblical and theological grounds, the superiority of grace over law, of receiving the blessings of God through faith as opposed to the curse which comes through the works of the Law. He now seeks to illustrate and apply this truth by turning to a well-known practice in the ancient world, that of an heir coming of age, so as to enjoy all that he has legally possessed, but which has been beyond his personal control. Here Paul refers to a Roman legal process, well known to himself and his readers. According to Roman law, the heir was under the control of a tutor until the age of 14. This tutor was named by the father and placed in his will. From the age of 14 until the heir was 25, he was under a curator, at least sometimes named by the father. The tutor and the curator were not necessarily intended to be synonymous with Paul’s “guardians” and “managers” (4:2). It may be that the “guardian” was in charge of the child, while the “manager” was in control of the assets of the child. When the heir reached the age of 25 (or the age stipulated by the father), he then entered into the full privileges of his possession. Until that time, the heir was in the frustrating predicament of legally owning his father’s inheritance without actually enjoying its possession. Our legal system places an estate in the hands of a trustee until the child reaches legal age, with a certain amount of funds provided during childhood as established by the father. We can hardly imagine the confinement of the “heir” of Paul’s day who had someone to tell him what to do and not to do and another to spend his money for him. The restrictions on the heir of ancient times were far greater. Can you imagine what it must have been like for a young man to be, as it were, a millionaire, and yet not be able to do as he wanted with this money? For all intents and purposes, the heir was no different from the slave, for he received only what the “guardians” and “managers” determined to give him (4:1). In verses 3-5, Paul makes the analogy to the status of the Jews who lived under the Law. The “heir” under Roman law had legal ownership of his father’s wealth; he did not actually possess it or enjoy it. So too the Jews had the promises of God to Abraham, yet they were not yet realized or enjoyed. Just as the Roman “heir” was under the dictates of the appointed “tutor” and “curator,” the Israelite was under the Law, with all of its restrictions and mediators. The time for both preparatory periods to end was established by the father. For the “heir,” it was the age determined by the Roman law or specified by the father. For the believer, the Law’s tutelage ended at the appointed time when the Father determined for the Son to be sent to the earth to redeem mankind. Paul seems to speak specifically here of the Jews as implied by the term “we” in verse 3, which is paralleled in verse 5 by “those under the Law.” Christ was sent to the earth as one “born of a woman” (4:4). This was necessary to fulfill the promise of Genesis 3: 15. And was a necessary part of the incarnation, so that Christ could die for man as man. In addition, Christ was born “under the Law” (4:4) so that He was able to bear the curse of the Law to enable men to receive the blessings which God promised to Abraham’s offspring (2:13-14). The “adoption as sons” (4:5) is that enjoyment of the promises of God to Abraham, and the passing from the restrictions and confinement of the Law to the fullness and freedom of grace.
Galatians 4: 6-7 Paul has previously taught that sonship has not only come to the Jews but also to the Gentiles. While the particulars are not identical, the process of the Gentiles coming to faith is similar to that of the Jews, and thus similar to the analogy of the “heir” under Roman law which Paul has given in verses 1 and 2. In verses 6-11 Paul compares the sonship of the Gentiles to that of the Jews, stressing the foolishness of seeking to place themselves under the Law as the Judaizers urged. In verse 6 Paul broadens his reference to the benefits of sonship which belong to the Gentile Galatian Christians. The “you” (4:6) refers specifically to the Galatians just as the “we” (4:3,5) referred to the Jews. The evidence of sonship is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, which causes us to respond and relate to God as Father. This ministry of the Spirit was not present under the Law in the Old Testament. Since the Galatian Christians possessed the Holy Spirit (cf. 3:1-5), the spirit of adoption (4:6; Rom. 8:15-17), they were just as certain of their sonship as the Jewish saints. Since they were sons, they could no longer be slaves. Better still, they were also “heirs” of the promises to Abraham (4:7).
