But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
An heir who is still a child owns the whole inheritance yet is in practice no better off than a servant, kept under guardians and stewards until the time set by his father. That guarded condition is bondage under the condemnation and penalty of the law as a sinner, held fast and exposed as a transgressor while pardoning grace has not been accepted. Christ took the place of those condemned to death for breaking the law and suffered its curse to redeem them, giving liberty from sin and not release from obligation to obey. When grace is accepted the sinner comes of age by faith in Christ in the new birth, coming out from under condemnation to receive the adoption of sons, with God's law written in the heart as a cherished friend and loving guardian forming its principles within until maturity in Christ. The Father sets that appointed time, which came in the fullness of time when the promised Seed arrived, yet believers possess eternal life only by promise during probation and enter its full possession and the redemption of the body when Christ appears.
Child Heir Under Guardians
An heir who is still a child, though lord and owner of the whole inheritance, is in practice no better off than a bond-servant, living under tutors and guardians and stewards who direct his affairs until the term appointed by his father. So long as he is under age there is no difference between him and a bond-servant, for he is placed in bondage under guardians until he comes into possession of his inheritance. This temporary subjection explains the condition of those in bondage before God sent His Son, through whom they are redeemed and adopted as children, receive the Spirit, and become heirs through Christ.
While still a child the heir has no more use of the estate than a servant, and if he never comes of age he never enters into it. During minority he receives what he needs, while the rest of the inheritance remains in reserve until the appointed time when he is ready to receive it. The picture is of adoption as attaining full legal age with the inheritance and standing of a mature son, not being taken into a family from outside. By ancient custom faithful adopted sons living under their father's rules until the time he appointed were then publicly proclaimed as his real sons and received the privileges of sons born into the family.
The verse belongs without division to the closing verses of Galatians 3 as the continuation of that teaching. It is part of the passage about bondservants becoming adopted children and heirs by promise, setting servitude against heirship. It belongs to the account of condition by birth and of deliverance from bondage, connecting the law's temporary role with how long it serves and why that role ends when Christ comes and establishes the inheritance. In the same way it distinguishes those who are still babes, lacking maturity in knowledge and grace, from Christians who are full-grown in knowledge and grace and have come to full Christian understanding.
Bondage, Redemption, and Sonship
To be under the law in this argument is to be under its condemnation and penalty as a sinner, outside the blessings of God's pardoning grace because that grace has not been accepted. When the grace that pardons sin is accepted it takes the person out from under the law so that the law no longer condemns him.
This guarded condition is bondage under the law and sin and under the rudiments of the world, in which the law holds sinners fast in the bondage of sin and exposes transgression and condemnation. It is like the prodigal son away from his father's house, still a son but living as a servant and differing nothing from a bond-servant. The comparison describes the condition before redemption from the law's curse and adoption as sons.
Christ took the place of those condemned to death for breaking the law and suffered its penalty to redeem them from its curse, and those redeemed receive adoption as sons. That redemption is from the curse of the moral law, and the liberty in Christ is freedom from sin, not release from obligation to obey. When pardoning grace is accepted its work is to keep the person from sin, which is to keep the law, by writing God's law in the heart so it is no longer a condemner over him but a cherished friend with whom he is in harmony. The law thus serves as a loving guardian during this childhood, teaching and forming its principles within the soul through the gospel until believers reach maturity in Christ, when those principles become their own.
Every sinner is an heir of God and of all God's possession, yet while unbelieving remains a child under age. Even while wandering from God and enslaved to sin, people remain God's children and heirs in this provisional sense, and probationary life gives opportunity to acknowledge God as Father and become sons indeed. The child pictures a sinner before accepting Christ, for people are in bondage to sin until they are in Christ. The time appointed of the father is not a fixed calendar date but an individual time for each person, when faith comes and he believes and takes hold of Christ who was sent in the fullness of the time to redeem those under the law. Upon the new birth and coming back to the Father he then comes of age, is free from bondage, is no longer under a schoolmaster, and receives the adoption of sons as a son indeed and a ruler instead of a servant.
That change from slavery to sonship, from death to life, is wholly in man and not at all in God, whose love is the same first as last. Unless sinners come back they will die as slaves, and no one is lost except by running away from the Father's house and stubbornly staying away and resisting God's everlasting love and mercy. The tutors include the Jewish ceremonies, which pointed to Christ and were like a school preparing people for him until the time appointed by the Father. They are not the Ten Commandments, which are a law of liberty, and the law involving sacrifices and offerings identifies the covenant discussion as concerning the ceremonial law.
Appointed Time and Application
The Father sets the appointed time, and all remain under His appointed order until that time comes. That appointed time is the fullness of time when the promised Seed came. The transition from the old covenant to the new began with John's preaching and ended with Christ's preaching.
An heir may truly possess an inheritance by the father's promise while remaining under guardians until the time set by the father. In the same way believers have eternal life by faith in Christ during probation, but do not receive it in full possession until the appointed time when Christ appears. Its full restoration is delayed until sin's destroying power is destroyed, so that life cannot be lost again.
Believers are now begotten through the truth and receive the spirit of adoption as its firstfruits and pledge, but their birth and full adoption await the appointed future deliverance when the body is redeemed. The children of the free woman are born free into the kingdom and eternal life at the resurrection. The resurrection of the just is that birth. Christ is the everlasting Father of His people, and the New Jerusalem above which is free is the mother of us all, with Isaiah 54:5 speaking of the New Jerusalem and not of the church as bride. The subjects of the first resurrection are the children, so the marriage of the Lamb takes place in heaven before the Lord comes and before the children of the great family are brought forth.
God's work is done at the time appointed by the Father. Time alone with God teaches what work He has fitted people to do and how to do it. Under the gospel believers are sons and not servants governed as servants are, so a son need only know that the day is the Lord's.
An heir who is still a child owns the whole inheritance yet is in practice no better off than a servant, kept under guardians and stewards until the time set by his father. That guarded condition is bondage under the condemnation and penalty of the law as a sinner, held fast and exposed as a transgressor while pardoning grace has not been accepted. Christ took the place of those condemned to death for breaking the law and suffered its curse to redeem them, giving liberty from sin and not release from obligation to obey. When grace is accepted the sinner comes of age by faith in Christ in the new birth, coming out from under condemnation to receive the adoption of sons, with God's law written in the heart as a cherished friend and loving guardian forming its principles within until maturity in Christ. The Father sets that appointed time, which came in the fullness of time when the promised Seed arrived, yet believers possess eternal life only by promise during probation and enter its full possession and the redemption of the body when Christ appears.
Child Heir Under Guardians
An heir who is still a child, though lord and owner of the whole inheritance, is in practice no better off than a bond-servant, living under tutors and guardians and stewards who direct his affairs until the term appointed by his father. So long as he is under age there is no difference between him and a bond-servant, for he is placed in bondage under guardians until he comes into possession of his inheritance. This temporary subjection explains the condition of those in bondage before God sent His Son, through whom they are redeemed and adopted as children, receive the Spirit, and become heirs through Christ.
While still a child the heir has no more use of the estate than a servant, and if he never comes of age he never enters into it. During minority he receives what he needs, while the rest of the inheritance remains in reserve until the appointed time when he is ready to receive it. The picture is of adoption as attaining full legal age with the inheritance and standing of a mature son, not being taken into a family from outside. By ancient custom faithful adopted sons living under their father's rules until the time he appointed were then publicly proclaimed as his real sons and received the privileges of sons born into the family.
The verse belongs without division to the closing verses of Galatians 3 as the continuation of that teaching. It is part of the passage about bondservants becoming adopted children and heirs by promise, setting servitude against heirship. It belongs to the account of condition by birth and of deliverance from bondage, connecting the law's temporary role with how long it serves and why that role ends when Christ comes and establishes the inheritance. In the same way it distinguishes those who are still babes, lacking maturity in knowledge and grace, from Christians who are full-grown in knowledge and grace and have come to full Christian understanding.
Bondage, Redemption, and Sonship
To be under the law in this argument is to be under its condemnation and penalty as a sinner, outside the blessings of God's pardoning grace because that grace has not been accepted. When the grace that pardons sin is accepted it takes the person out from under the law so that the law no longer condemns him.
This guarded condition is bondage under the law and sin and under the rudiments of the world, in which the law holds sinners fast in the bondage of sin and exposes transgression and condemnation. It is like the prodigal son away from his father's house, still a son but living as a servant and differing nothing from a bond-servant. The comparison describes the condition before redemption from the law's curse and adoption as sons.
Christ took the place of those condemned to death for breaking the law and suffered its penalty to redeem them from its curse, and those redeemed receive adoption as sons. That redemption is from the curse of the moral law, and the liberty in Christ is freedom from sin, not release from obligation to obey. When pardoning grace is accepted its work is to keep the person from sin, which is to keep the law, by writing God's law in the heart so it is no longer a condemner over him but a cherished friend with whom he is in harmony. The law thus serves as a loving guardian during this childhood, teaching and forming its principles within the soul through the gospel until believers reach maturity in Christ, when those principles become their own.
Every sinner is an heir of God and of all God's possession, yet while unbelieving remains a child under age. Even while wandering from God and enslaved to sin, people remain God's children and heirs in this provisional sense, and probationary life gives opportunity to acknowledge God as Father and become sons indeed. The child pictures a sinner before accepting Christ, for people are in bondage to sin until they are in Christ. The time appointed of the father is not a fixed calendar date but an individual time for each person, when faith comes and he believes and takes hold of Christ who was sent in the fullness of the time to redeem those under the law. Upon the new birth and coming back to the Father he then comes of age, is free from bondage, is no longer under a schoolmaster, and receives the adoption of sons as a son indeed and a ruler instead of a servant.
That change from slavery to sonship, from death to life, is wholly in man and not at all in God, whose love is the same first as last. Unless sinners come back they will die as slaves, and no one is lost except by running away from the Father's house and stubbornly staying away and resisting God's everlasting love and mercy. The tutors include the Jewish ceremonies, which pointed to Christ and were like a school preparing people for him until the time appointed by the Father. They are not the Ten Commandments, which are a law of liberty, and the law involving sacrifices and offerings identifies the covenant discussion as concerning the ceremonial law.
Appointed Time and Application
The Father sets the appointed time, and all remain under His appointed order until that time comes. That appointed time is the fullness of time when the promised Seed came. The transition from the old covenant to the new began with John's preaching and ended with Christ's preaching.
An heir may truly possess an inheritance by the father's promise while remaining under guardians until the time set by the father. In the same way believers have eternal life by faith in Christ during probation, but do not receive it in full possession until the appointed time when Christ appears. Its full restoration is delayed until sin's destroying power is destroyed, so that life cannot be lost again.
Believers are now begotten through the truth and receive the spirit of adoption as its firstfruits and pledge, but their birth and full adoption await the appointed future deliverance when the body is redeemed. The children of the free woman are born free into the kingdom and eternal life at the resurrection. The resurrection of the just is that birth. Christ is the everlasting Father of His people, and the New Jerusalem above which is free is the mother of us all, with Isaiah 54:5 speaking of the New Jerusalem and not of the church as bride. The subjects of the first resurrection are the children, so the marriage of the Lamb takes place in heaven before the Lord comes and before the children of the great family are brought forth.
God's work is done at the time appointed by the Father. Time alone with God teaches what work He has fitted people to do and how to do it. Under the gospel believers are sons and not servants governed as servants are, so a son need only know that the day is the Lord's.