Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
An heir while still a minor has in practice no more standing, freedom or enjoyment of his estate than a slave, though the whole inheritance is his, for he remains under guardians and the Father's rules until the time appointed by the father when he comes of age and takes possession. The statement continues without break the teaching at the end of Galatians 3 about the gospel promised to Abraham and fulfilled in Christ, in which the law condemns sinners and shows their need so that condemnation leads them to Christ to be justified by faith. Applied to mankind, this is the condition by birth before redemption, that all are heirs of God yet held as bond-servants under sin and the rudiments of the world and under the condemnation and death-sentence of the law. Christ put Himself in the place of those under that condemnation and suffered its penalty to redeem them, so that by believing in Christ and receiving new birth they come of age and receive the adoption of sons as joint-heirs with Christ. Full possession still waits for the appointed time when Christ appears, when believers are raised free from sin's power and inherit the kingdom, and the freedom thus given is freedom from sin through a law written in the heart, not release from obedience to God's law.
Child Heir Under Guardians
As long as the heir is a child he differs nothing in practice from a servant or bond-servant, having no greater standing, freedom, authority, enjoyment or possession of the inheritance than a servant has. This is true though he is lord of all, though the whole estate belongs to him in right and will belong to him in fact. His position changes only when he comes of age, for until then he cannot yet take possession.
During that minority he remains under guardians and stewards, tutors and governors, placed under others and under restraint and the Father's rules. He continues so until the time appointed by the father, the term appointed when he comes of age and takes possession. If he never comes to that time, he never enters into his inheritance. Those baptized into Christ who are Christ's seed are joint heirs with Christ, yet while children under age they are in that servant-like bonded condition.
The words as long as mark a period of time. The verse continues without real division the teaching of the closing verses of Galatians 3, so those verses must be kept fresh in mind to understand it. It belongs to an argument about the gospel promised to Abraham and fulfilled in Christ, in which the law condemns people and shows their need of the gospel so that condemnation can lead them to Christ to be justified by faith. The surrounding argument contrasts bondage in self-justification with the freedom of those who trust Christ for justification.
In one contrasting formulation, the child-heir is said to differ in status from a servant even while still a child, in that he is destined to inherit and rule.
Bondage, Redemption and Adoption
Every person on earth is an heir of God, heir of all His possession, even of God Himself, while yet enslaved to sin and the world. Because the first man was called the son of God, even the ungodly are counted as children, wandering prodigal sons who are still sons while living as slaves away from the Father's house. God has not cast off the human race, but gives this probationary life as opportunity to acknowledge Him as Father and to become sons indeed. The childhood time is bondage under the rudiments of the world, and unbelieving sinners are at once heirs and bond-servants.
Applied to people, the child's condition is humanity's condition by birth before redemption and the adoption of sons. Sinners enslaved by sin are still heirs of what God offers, in bondage under sin, under the rudiments of the world, under tutors and governors, with no greater practical freedom than a bond-servant. They are not yet living as God's adopted children, but are in spiritual bondage and deception, by nature children of wrath. This bondage is not caused by God's law being given, but by people transgressing it and becoming servants of sin.
Being under the law, literally under law, means being subject to its penalty and condemnation as a sinner, under sentence of death and outside the blessings of grace until pardoning grace is accepted. Those who had violated the law were under that condemnation, and Christ put Himself in their place and suffered that penalty to redeem them, so that those redeemed from under the law receive adoption as sons. Christ died for all, and the law's reach is not limited to the Jews, but anyone may receive the gospel. When pardoning grace is accepted it takes a person out from under the law so that sin no longer has dominion and the law no longer condemns.
Adoption of sons is coming of age by believing in Christ, receiving new birth, and coming back to the Father to accept God's promise. Those baptized into Christ as Christ's seed are joint heirs with Christ, yet while children under age they are in that servant-like bonded condition until they come into possession of the inheritance. The change from slavery to sonship, from death to life, is wholly in the sinner, not in God, whose love is the same first as last. Everything is for the heir if he will accept it, but unless he returns he will die as a slave and never enter the inheritance.
In this explanation adoption means attaining full status as a son on reaching majority and entering the inheritance, not being taken into a family as someone else's child. The chapter contrasts bondage in self-justification with the freedom of those who trust Christ for justification, the law condemning people and showing their need of the gospel so that condemnation can lead them to Christ to be justified by faith. The liberty in the surrounding argument is freedom from sin through being made free from sin, not release from obligation to God's law. Being brought out from under the law does not give license to sin, for not sinning is keeping the law.
Under the new covenant God's grace writes His law in the heart so it is rejoiced in, no longer over a person as a condemner but within as a cherished friend, in harmony with it. Through the gospel God thus educates His children under the law's principles so they can become mature in Christ and free to act as they please, because they will desire only what accords with life and liberty. Under the law people are governed after the manner of servants with detailed rules, while under the gospel as sons it is sufficient to know a thing is the Lord's.
Maturity and Final Inheritance
The child heir pictures believers who are still spiritual babes as distinct from full-grown, perfect Christians who possess full knowledge of the Christian system and are justified and saved by Christ. Maturity in Christ also includes sanctification by His Spirit. In one contrasting formulation, even while still a child the heir differs in standing from a servant, since he is destined to inherit and rule.
God’s people are begotten as His children through the truth and receive the Spirit as the pledge of adoption, yet their birth into the kingdom and full possession of the inheritance come at the time appointed when Christ appears. Believers have eternal life by faith in Christ as their life, as a child can claim an inheritance by trusting his father’s will, but full possession waits until that appearing. At the resurrection their bodies are redeemed, the destroying power of sin is destroyed, and life is fully restored, for until then what was lost through Adam’s wrong choice has not yet been made secure against a second loss. Then they are born free as children of the free woman and inherit the kingdom prepared for them.
As long as believers are children under the appointed time they are placed under the Father’s rules and differ nothing in practice from servants, though they are heirs and lords of all. That appointed time is a proving of faithfulness unto death, at whose termination the faithful are brought forward before witnesses and proclaimed real sons, entitled from that time to all the privileges of home-born sons. The change from adopted children under probation to actual sons takes place when the saints are born from the dead at the resurrection. While they wait in minority, the Heavenly Father provides what His children need and keeps the rest in reserve until they are ready to receive it, so humble servants of God may now appear no different from servants, but the kingdom’s full blessings will soon be revealed when minority ends.
Because children stand in the same place as servants, the command to servants not to answer back applies to them. Each child is therefore to do cheerfully and promptly what he is told, without answering again and without desiring someone else to do his work. Natural descent from Jacob does not by itself secure the status of God’s people or heirs, as shown in connection with the rejection of Jerusalem and her children. Obedience to the Ten Commandments is not slavery, and keeping the Sabbath is not an oppressive burden but a rest and delight. Redemption in the chapter is from the curse of the moral law, while the Levitical law is what was abolished by Christ in contrast to the law of God which remains holy, just, and good, and the liberty in the surrounding argument is freedom from sin rather than release from obligation.
The chapter presents Jerusalem which is above as free and as the mother of all believers. It connects Isaiah’s barren woman with the New Jerusalem. It applies Thy Maker is thine husband of Isaiah 54:5 to the New Jerusalem rather than to the church as bride, with Christ as the everlasting Father and the subjects of the first resurrection as the children, so that the marriage is Christ’s reception of the city and throne in heaven before the resurrection of the just.
An heir while still a minor has in practice no more standing, freedom or enjoyment of his estate than a slave, though the whole inheritance is his, for he remains under guardians and the Father's rules until the time appointed by the father when he comes of age and takes possession. The statement continues without break the teaching at the end of Galatians 3 about the gospel promised to Abraham and fulfilled in Christ, in which the law condemns sinners and shows their need so that condemnation leads them to Christ to be justified by faith. Applied to mankind, this is the condition by birth before redemption, that all are heirs of God yet held as bond-servants under sin and the rudiments of the world and under the condemnation and death-sentence of the law. Christ put Himself in the place of those under that condemnation and suffered its penalty to redeem them, so that by believing in Christ and receiving new birth they come of age and receive the adoption of sons as joint-heirs with Christ. Full possession still waits for the appointed time when Christ appears, when believers are raised free from sin's power and inherit the kingdom, and the freedom thus given is freedom from sin through a law written in the heart, not release from obedience to God's law.
Child Heir Under Guardians
As long as the heir is a child he differs nothing in practice from a servant or bond-servant, having no greater standing, freedom, authority, enjoyment or possession of the inheritance than a servant has. This is true though he is lord of all, though the whole estate belongs to him in right and will belong to him in fact. His position changes only when he comes of age, for until then he cannot yet take possession.
During that minority he remains under guardians and stewards, tutors and governors, placed under others and under restraint and the Father's rules. He continues so until the time appointed by the father, the term appointed when he comes of age and takes possession. If he never comes to that time, he never enters into his inheritance. Those baptized into Christ who are Christ's seed are joint heirs with Christ, yet while children under age they are in that servant-like bonded condition.
The words as long as mark a period of time. The verse continues without real division the teaching of the closing verses of Galatians 3, so those verses must be kept fresh in mind to understand it. It belongs to an argument about the gospel promised to Abraham and fulfilled in Christ, in which the law condemns people and shows their need of the gospel so that condemnation can lead them to Christ to be justified by faith. The surrounding argument contrasts bondage in self-justification with the freedom of those who trust Christ for justification.
In one contrasting formulation, the child-heir is said to differ in status from a servant even while still a child, in that he is destined to inherit and rule.
Bondage, Redemption and Adoption
Every person on earth is an heir of God, heir of all His possession, even of God Himself, while yet enslaved to sin and the world. Because the first man was called the son of God, even the ungodly are counted as children, wandering prodigal sons who are still sons while living as slaves away from the Father's house. God has not cast off the human race, but gives this probationary life as opportunity to acknowledge Him as Father and to become sons indeed. The childhood time is bondage under the rudiments of the world, and unbelieving sinners are at once heirs and bond-servants.
Applied to people, the child's condition is humanity's condition by birth before redemption and the adoption of sons. Sinners enslaved by sin are still heirs of what God offers, in bondage under sin, under the rudiments of the world, under tutors and governors, with no greater practical freedom than a bond-servant. They are not yet living as God's adopted children, but are in spiritual bondage and deception, by nature children of wrath. This bondage is not caused by God's law being given, but by people transgressing it and becoming servants of sin.
Being under the law, literally under law, means being subject to its penalty and condemnation as a sinner, under sentence of death and outside the blessings of grace until pardoning grace is accepted. Those who had violated the law were under that condemnation, and Christ put Himself in their place and suffered that penalty to redeem them, so that those redeemed from under the law receive adoption as sons. Christ died for all, and the law's reach is not limited to the Jews, but anyone may receive the gospel. When pardoning grace is accepted it takes a person out from under the law so that sin no longer has dominion and the law no longer condemns.
Adoption of sons is coming of age by believing in Christ, receiving new birth, and coming back to the Father to accept God's promise. Those baptized into Christ as Christ's seed are joint heirs with Christ, yet while children under age they are in that servant-like bonded condition until they come into possession of the inheritance. The change from slavery to sonship, from death to life, is wholly in the sinner, not in God, whose love is the same first as last. Everything is for the heir if he will accept it, but unless he returns he will die as a slave and never enter the inheritance.
In this explanation adoption means attaining full status as a son on reaching majority and entering the inheritance, not being taken into a family as someone else's child. The chapter contrasts bondage in self-justification with the freedom of those who trust Christ for justification, the law condemning people and showing their need of the gospel so that condemnation can lead them to Christ to be justified by faith. The liberty in the surrounding argument is freedom from sin through being made free from sin, not release from obligation to God's law. Being brought out from under the law does not give license to sin, for not sinning is keeping the law.
Under the new covenant God's grace writes His law in the heart so it is rejoiced in, no longer over a person as a condemner but within as a cherished friend, in harmony with it. Through the gospel God thus educates His children under the law's principles so they can become mature in Christ and free to act as they please, because they will desire only what accords with life and liberty. Under the law people are governed after the manner of servants with detailed rules, while under the gospel as sons it is sufficient to know a thing is the Lord's.
Maturity and Final Inheritance
The child heir pictures believers who are still spiritual babes as distinct from full-grown, perfect Christians who possess full knowledge of the Christian system and are justified and saved by Christ. Maturity in Christ also includes sanctification by His Spirit. In one contrasting formulation, even while still a child the heir differs in standing from a servant, since he is destined to inherit and rule.
God’s people are begotten as His children through the truth and receive the Spirit as the pledge of adoption, yet their birth into the kingdom and full possession of the inheritance come at the time appointed when Christ appears. Believers have eternal life by faith in Christ as their life, as a child can claim an inheritance by trusting his father’s will, but full possession waits until that appearing. At the resurrection their bodies are redeemed, the destroying power of sin is destroyed, and life is fully restored, for until then what was lost through Adam’s wrong choice has not yet been made secure against a second loss. Then they are born free as children of the free woman and inherit the kingdom prepared for them.
As long as believers are children under the appointed time they are placed under the Father’s rules and differ nothing in practice from servants, though they are heirs and lords of all. That appointed time is a proving of faithfulness unto death, at whose termination the faithful are brought forward before witnesses and proclaimed real sons, entitled from that time to all the privileges of home-born sons. The change from adopted children under probation to actual sons takes place when the saints are born from the dead at the resurrection. While they wait in minority, the Heavenly Father provides what His children need and keeps the rest in reserve until they are ready to receive it, so humble servants of God may now appear no different from servants, but the kingdom’s full blessings will soon be revealed when minority ends.
Because children stand in the same place as servants, the command to servants not to answer back applies to them. Each child is therefore to do cheerfully and promptly what he is told, without answering again and without desiring someone else to do his work. Natural descent from Jacob does not by itself secure the status of God’s people or heirs, as shown in connection with the rejection of Jerusalem and her children. Obedience to the Ten Commandments is not slavery, and keeping the Sabbath is not an oppressive burden but a rest and delight. Redemption in the chapter is from the curse of the moral law, while the Levitical law is what was abolished by Christ in contrast to the law of God which remains holy, just, and good, and the liberty in the surrounding argument is freedom from sin rather than release from obligation.
The chapter presents Jerusalem which is above as free and as the mother of all believers. It connects Isaiah’s barren woman with the New Jerusalem. It applies Thy Maker is thine husband of Isaiah 54:5 to the New Jerusalem rather than to the church as bride, with Christ as the everlasting Father and the subjects of the first resurrection as the children, so that the marriage is Christ’s reception of the city and throne in heaven before the resurrection of the just.