1What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. 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.
Dig Deeper
When the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten died, his only heir was a nine-year old boy named Tutankhaten. Akhenaten was a controversial, to say the least, leader in Egypt with many strange ideas, including changing the traditional polytheistic religion of Egypt to a monotheistic worship of the sun disc god, Aten. When Tutankhaten took the throne, he was the rightful heir and ruler of all of Egypt, yet it is clear that he was not in charge. He had many advisors, guardians, and trustees who were really running the show. How do we know this? Among other things, immediately after coming to power, Tutankhaten’s regime changed the capital city from his father’s new capital city back to the traditional site, the religion of Egypt was reverted to the traditional polytheism, and his name was changed to Tutankhamun (in honor of the sun god (Amun) of many gods rather than the supposedly one sun disc god). These are hardly things that a nine-year old boy would be worrying about. No, he wasn’t thinking through situations and making his own choices, he was subject to his advisors. As he got older, however, it becomes clear that he began to take power for himself and was no longer subject to outside sources.
In these verses, Paul makes a similar point to his babysitter point from the previous chapter, but it is a different metaphor that he is using. His point here is that without Christ, all people are subjects and in slavery in one way or the other. This is equally true whether it be referring to Jews or Gentiles. This is something that they had in common. Paul clearly believed that the Jews were at an advantage because they had the law, but they were like immature children that were not yet ready to be full heirs. Both Jews and Gentiles were equally in subjection, just to different things. Now, though they had been traveling different paths, they both have arrived at the same place. The ability to be true sons and daughters of God.
Paul realizes that, yes, the Jews were the children of God under the old covenant, but they were not full-grown mature children. God’s promises to Abraham had not been fully realized in the old covenant. Instead, the old covenant served (in this new metaphor) as a guardian, overseeing the children until they were ready for the full inheritance, which is of course, the Messiah. Although Paul never states it clearly, it is quite possible that he means to imply that the Gentiles were the slaves in this metaphor. If that is his meaning, then Paul is saying that, although the Jews had some clear advantages in being God’s children, they were in very important ways, especially as it relates to the Messiah, no different from a slave.
In describing the process for the Jews, Paul uses language that is rich in Exodus imagery. If we go back to the Exodus story we see that God had promised to redeem His people out of slavery, and after a time, he sent Moses to redeem them and to demonstrate that Israel was indeed God’s firstborn son. This freedom was gained through the death of the Passover lamb and the death of the Egyptian’s firstborn. Then, forty days after Passover, the people came to Mt. Sinai and were given the law as their guide through the wilderness and into the blessings, inheritance, and promised land (an event that was celebrated at Pentecost). What for many Jews, though, was the great defining story of their people, is turned on its head by Paul. These happenings were real and purposeful, but their main purpose was to foreshadow the events of the life of Christ. Once again, God had promised to rescue his people from their bondage, but this slavery was slavery to the world not the Egyptians. Rather than sending Moses, He sent His true son, the Messiah to bring redemption. This freedom was gained through the death of the Lamb, God’s firstborn son. In this new telling, however, the law is just another guardian, watching after Israel and keeping her separate from the other nations until the Messiah had come. Once the Messiah had made the redemption of His people possible and freed them, forty days later, God did not give another law but His own Spirit at Pentecost.
It wasn’t just the Gentiles, then, that were in slavery, but the Jews also were in slavery, in a sense. Both were under the basic principles (a phrase that probably refers to the ABC’s that a young child would learn) of the world. Although the Jews had the law that kept them separate from the world, they were still subject to the basic elements of it. The law could not redeem them from the world, it could only keep them temporarily separate from it.
The law was powerless to redeem people from their status in Adam, so when the time had fully come, God sent his Son. When Paul says that he was born under law, he is probably referring to the fact that Jesus was born a Jew and was subject to the law during his lifetime.
He sent His Son to redeem those under the law (Jews but he has also already implied Gentiles as well), so that they might finally come to maturity and have the full rights of sons. Entering into the Messiah was the only way for the Jews to become fully mature sons of God. It was the only way to receive the full rights of sons. For Paul this is a reality, it has already happened and he wants them to know that Jew and Gentiles alike are sons of God. How does he know? Because God sent the Spirit of his Son (this is not that Paul is blurring what we have come to label as the Trinity, but He sees the coming of the Spirit as so interconnected with the Messiah that he can rightly refer to Him as the Spirit of his Son) and the Spirit enables us to know Him as Abba, an affectionate term for fathers (but it would be over-sentimentalizing to translate it as "daddy"). Just as God revealed Himself in a new way during the Exodus and revealed his personal name, YHWH (Exodus 3:14; 6:2-8), Paul declares that God has made Himself known to His children by giving them the right as sons to call him Abba. God has not sent detached agents to make all this possible, but has sent the Spirit and the Messiah as His own self-revelation, His very own personal presence.
Paul finishes this passage with an incredibly powerful technique, demonstrating his skill as spiritual leader. He has been using the plural "you," but now dramatically changes to the singular "you," as if to point his finger at each individual reader and say, "So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir." That is a statement that is as true for us today as it was to the original recipients of Paul’s letter.
Devotional Thought
Read verse 7 as though addressed directly to you. What encouragement does that verse bring to you? What challenges and convictions does that verse bring?
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