Transcript

The Sons of Liberty was a well-organized Patriot political organization shrouded in secrecy, which was established to resist and undermine British rule in colonial America.

They were founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It played a major role in battling the Stamp Act in 1765, which imposed taxes on various goods and documents.

The Sons of Liberty used a variety of tactics, including public protests, organizing rallies and demonstrations to voice their opposition to British policies. They encouraged boycotts and for colonists to refuse to purchase British goods, aiming to hurt the British economy.

In some cases, they resorted to violence to intimidate British officials and prevent the enforcement of unpopular laws. They used publications and other means to spread their message and galvanize support for their cause.

The seminal act and lasting legacy of the Sons of Liberty to the history of the American Revolution was the December 16, 1773 orchestrating of the Boston Tea Party.

Some of the notable figures among the Sons of Liberty were Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, and Paul Revere.

In Galatians 4, we learn about the spiritual sons of liberty under grace. In this section, Paul illustrates the believer’s privileges because of our status in Christ by grace compared to those who live under the law.

Galatians 4:1-3: “Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.”

Paul wrote, “Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child…” Paul is carrying on and expanding on his last thought at the end of chapter 3: “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Belonging to Christ and being Abraham’s spiritual seed, we are spiritual heirs. And speaking of being an heir, Paul next refers to our spiritual adoption and sonship.

The picture Paul gives in verse 1 is of a wealthy father in Roman society, who intends to turn over control of his estate to his son, “the heir,” when he reaches maturity.

However, Paul says, “as long as he is a child,” or the heir is a minor, the heir’s status “differeth nothing from a servant,” or a slave in the home.

When the heir was a child, he was under conditions that did not differ from those of a servant. He was always being ordered around and told to do this and not to do that. Yet, he was destined to inherit everything, and the slave was not.

The son was treated in this manner “though he be lord of all,” and heir to all his father’s possessions and duties. He was heir by legal right, but not in fact.

In that culture, a child had to wait until the proper time that he was formally pronounced mature and responsible before he could inherit what was to be his.

Until that time came, the child was “under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.” In wealthy households, a child was placed under the strict care of tutors and governors.

The term, “tutors,” refers to one who is a guardian of a minor, or one in charge of children. “Governors” refers to the manager of a household and property, or a steward. Trusted people and servants would be assigned to be over the child until he was grown.

These servants were commanded by the master of the house, and the master’s child and heir was commanded by these servants, who had that authority delegated to them.

And the child was subservient to them, and he did nothing without their permission and went nowhere without their presence.

The guardians and stewards supervised and oversaw the child on a daily basis, and they restrained, corrected, guided, and directed them as they did.

This was done “until the time appointed of the father.” According to Jewish custom, the age was and is 13. Under Roman law, the age of maturity for a child was set by the father.

There was no specific age when the son became a man; it happened when the father thought his son was ready.

And then at that time, a ceremony took place, marking the child’s change in status, and the child was formally acknowledged as a full-grown son, an adult, and heir to all that the father had and he became responsible for it.

(In Jewish custom, the ceremony marking a child’s transition into adulthood is called a bar mitzvah.)

When the child reached his father’s appointed time and was declared to be a full-grown son, the heir then ceased to be under the power and control of the guardians and stewards.

Then Paul says, “Even so we, when we were children.” In Galatians 3, Paul taught that for those under the law, the law was a prison guard, “But before faith came, we were kept under the law.” Then he said that “the law was our schoolmaster,” or a tutor.

And now he changed the metaphor again, showing that the law was their guardian and manager, which ordered them around and told them what to do and what not to do.

Under the law, Paul says, the Jews were children, not full-grown sons, as he states, “Even so we, when we were CHILDREN.”

And at that time, under the law, they “were in bondage” and under its strict correction, discipline, and commands, like the way tutors, guardians, and managers oversaw children. They were not sons enjoying liberty and having responsibility.

As Peter said about the law, it was “a yoke upon the neck…which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear” (Act 15:10).

And Paul stated here that they “were in bondage under the elements of the world.” The term “elements” means any first thing, from which the others belonging to some series, or a composite whole, take their rise. The term was used for the letters of the alphabet, which are the elemental building blocks of writing.

As a child who was an heir was “UNDER tutors and governors,” Paul said that the Jews in time past were “UNDER the elements of the world” in being under the law.

Like a child was under the rules and control of tutors and governors, the Jews were under the rules of the law, which regulated and controlled their entire lives.

The Mosaic law is elementary compared to life under grace. The Mosaic law tied people to rules and regulations that kept them in bondage to the external. Under grace, our lives are to governed by the internal strength of the Holy Spirit and our freedom in Christ.

Paul’s plea is that after you are saved, don’t exchange your adult standing for childhood. Don’t place yourself under the law and live like one who is under the strict control and bondage of tutors and governors. Don’t go back to the basics and the elementary way, under the legalistic, step-by-step, series of rules of the law.

Rather, we are called to live unto God as adult sons in our freedom, responsibility, and our personal relationship with Him by grace.

Warren Wiersbe wrote this, “One of the tragedies of legalism is that it gives the appearance of spiritual maturity when, in reality, it leads the believer back into a ‘second childhood’ of Christian experience. The Galatian Christians…wanted to grow and go forward for Christ; but they were going about it in the wrong way.

“Their experience is not too different from that of Christians today who get involved in various legalistic movements, hoping to become better Christians. Their motives may be right, but their methods are wrong. This is the truth Paul is trying to get across to his beloved converts in Galatia.”

Galatians 4:4-7: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

“And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

A father decided to tell his children about the health benefits of eating dried fruits. It was all about “raisin” awareness. Paul was raising awareness to the Galatians about our position before God as a full-grown son and he explains here how we become one.

After referring to “the TIME appointed of the father” in verse 2, Paul said, “But when the fulness of the TIME was come, God sent forth His Son.” At the time appointed by God the Father, God sent His Son to this world.

God set the time in advance, and when that time was full and completed, and it was the time according to God’s plans, purposes and His schedule, God sent His Son.

And according to the prophetic timetable, it was the fullness of the time for Christ to come, because it was revealed to Daniel that a specific period of time would elapse between “the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince” (Dan. 9:25).

“God sent forth His Son” teaches that Jesus Christ is God. The phrase shows us that Christ preexisted and is eternal, and thus is God. And being the eternal Son, He came from heaven. God sent His Son from heaven to this earth on a mission of redemption and to die the death of the Cross, and to save sinners.

“Made of a woman” teaches that Jesus Christ is fully man. Thus, verse 4 reminds us that Christ is both God and man. He came from heaven, and Christ was “made of a woman” by the virgin birth. And that being so, Christ was born sinless.

And when God sent forth His Son, He was “made under the law.” It was God’s will that His Son be born under the time of the law. Christ lived and ministered under the law of Moses, the law that He originally gave to Moses.

Christ lived during the time when the law was the schoolmaster for the children of Israel. He was made under the time of tutors and governors.

And He subjected Himself to all its strict ordinances, requirements, and commandments, and He kept them perfectly, and lived a sinless life.

And when you read the Gospel records, you are reading about Christ under the law. Everything that Christ said, did, and taught in His earthly ministry was in compliance with the Law and in fulfilling it.

Paul told us WHO came: “God sent forth His Son.” He told us HOW He came: “made of a woman.” He told us WHEN He came: “made under the law.” Now in verse 5 he tells us WHY He came: “To redeem them that were under the law.”

This was God’s prophetic purpose in sending His Son. To “redeem” means “to set free by paying a price.” And “To redeem THEM that were under the law,” means the Jews, because Israel was under the covenant of law. In accordance with prophecy, Christ came to this world to redeem Israel.

Through Paul we further learn that Christ not only came to redeem them that were under the law, but that He “gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim. 2:6).

The law demanded a price from those who failed to keep it, the price of death. And Israel was not able to keep it. Thus, they were under its curse. Israel was held under the condemnation and death penalty of the law that they had broken.

The only way for those under the law to be redeemed and freed from the law’s curse and to have life eternal and become God’s in a new relationship was by Christ bearing their sins, shedding His blood, and dying as the full payment for their sin debt.

And because, as Paul taught in verse 4, that Christ is both God and man, Who was made under the law and was sinless and kept the law perfectly, He had the power, the right, and the ability to redeem them that were under the law.

Paul then does an interesting thing in the middle of verse 5: he switches pronouns. He said that Christ came “To redeem THEM that were under the law, that WE might receive the adoption of sins.”

In this one verse, you see the prophetic purpose for God sending His Son: to redeem Israel under the law, and a previously hidden purpose for the Church and for both Jew and Gentile under grace, “that WE might receive the adoption of sons.”

By His death, Christ redeemed THEM, or those who were under the law. And by His death, WE who have believed and are redeemed under grace “receive the adoption of sons.”

Paul shows here that redemption has a double aspect: it delivers from bondage to the law, and it delivers to sonship. That is the point Paul is stressing to these Galatians in not going back under the law. He wanted them to go forward in their position as sons and in being free from the law.

In the dispensation of grace, we have special privileges with God. Among the many blessings and grand benefits of salvation under grace is that when we were redeemed, we were adopted.

However, we do not enter the family of God by adoption. The only way to get into God’s family is by regeneration, or by the new birth, being born again.

This spiritual adoption does not refer to the typical way we think of it today, of an orphan being adopted and placed into a home, making them legally part of the family.

The Greek word translated as “adoption of sons” means the placing as a son. It’s what Paul has been explaining in this context of a child, who is an heir, being under tutors and governors, “until the time appointed of the father” and that child being then recognized as a full-grown, adult son, and an heir to all that the father had.

Adoption of sons has to do with our standing in the family of God. The moment we believe, by grace, as a gift, up front, we are recognized immediately by the Father as an adult son in His family. That being so, we are heirs.

And being “an heir of God,” we have a RICH inheritance in Christ, and we have HIGH privileges that go with our position as sons in God’s family.

By faith in Christ, we are born into God’s family. And under grace, every person born into God’s family is automatically placed into it as a full-grown son. And as Paul says here in verse 7, “and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

When one trusts Christ and is saved, as far as his condition and state go, he is a “babe” in Christ, who needs to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and His Word.

But as far as one’s position and standing in Christ go, he is immediately an adult son, and an heir of God who is blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

We are placed into a status of privilege in Christ. We are not children in bondage under the law and its rigid rules. By His grace, God has set us free from the law and placed us full-grown sons without any strings attached when we believe.

And the believer does not have to wait to begin enjoying his spiritual riches and blessings that he has in Christ. He can live in light of them right now.

In verse 6, we learn about one of those rich blessings that we have as sons, and one that we need to live by on a daily basis. “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”

Just as “God sent forth His Son” in the fullness of time in history for our redemption, so “God…sent forth the Spirit of His Son” into our hearts at the moment in time we believed the gospel of grace. We see here that the whole Trinity is involved in our salvation.

God gave the Holy Spirit to us when we believed and became a son, and He indwells us permanently. The Holy Spirit is a gift of God to every believer.

The prison guard, schoolmaster, tutor, and governor of the law has been replaced by the Holy Spirit and His power that we have by grace.

By Him, we live for God, not by the law. And as sons, we are responsible and called to yield to and live by the truth of His Word, rightly divided.

And because we are sons, we have the full privilege and honor of approaching God as our Father. “God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”

The word “Abba” is the Aramaic word for “Father.” Abba is the form used by small children in addressing their fathers. Thus, it is appropriate to see its similarity to the English words “Daddy” or “Papa.”

Unlike the formality and rigidness of the law, the believer’s relationship with God is familiar, warm, close-knit with God.

Having “the Spirit of His Son” in our hearts, we can address the Father as the Son, Who in the garden prayed, “ABBA, FATHER, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36).

We don’t need to hesitate to speak so affectionately to God the Father. Paul wrote that through the Spirit, we CRY OUT, “Abba, Father.” The word, “crying,” is a sign of the certainty and boldness we have in our relationship with God.

All this assures us that, as sons, we can go to the Father with all our petitions and requests, and that we are welcome in His presence at all times.

And “Abba, Father” is the language of sons, not slaves. Thus, Paul stated, “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

No slave could address the head of a family as “Abba, Father.” This was reserved for members of the family. It is an address of endearment and expresses love and confidence.

Addressing these Gentile believers, Paul told them that they were no longer a slave, or a slave to sin, like they were before they were saved.

Instead, now that they believed, by grace, they had been elevated to the new position of “a son.” And as a son they were an heir of God through Christ.

This is a beautiful progression for every believer. First, we are redeemed and set free from slavery to sin. Then we are declared full-grown sons in God’s family. Then, as sons, we are made heirs of God with a rich inheritance through Christ. All this is by the grace of God.

Galatians 4:8-11: “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

“But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

“Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”

Speaking of the time before they were saved and were slaves and in bondage to sin, Paul said they “knew not” the true God and were slaves to false gods.

In that state, they “did service unto them which by nature are no gods,” as they were in bondage to idolatry and serving and worshiping idols of wood and stone.

“But now,” Paul said, a change took place. After their conversion, now they did know the true God. And they knew God by trusting in His Son for their salvation.

Paul adds, that more importantly, they were “known of God.” This knowledge is about a personal relationship between the knower and the known.

And the Galatians knew God and God knew the Galatian believers in a saving, personal, and eternal relationship.

When they trusted Christ, the Galatians had been set free in Christ from their former belief and the bondage of religion to false gods into a relationship with the true God.

But now they were turning to another type of bondage: bondage to the law. Thus, Paul asked them, “how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?”

The Galatians knew God in a personal relationship with Him, so why would they revert to legalism? The Christian life is about that relationship, not about religion.

The Galatians were turning from God’s power and riches of which they were heirs as sons, to “weak and beggarly [or poor] elements,” the things connected with the law.

The law cannot justify us and the law cannot sanctify our daily lives, because it is weak and poor. It is God Who justifies us by Christ and His grace. And it is God Who sanctifies our daily lives by Christ and His grace. Grace has power and riches.

The way of legalism is “weak and beggarly.” Legalism and its self-effort are powerless for living the Christian life; it places one in a state of spiritual weakness and poverty.

In contrast, grace gives the power, the wealth, and resources one needs to live a godly and righteous life in Christ.

But the Galatians had desired “again to be in bondage,” the bondage of legalism and religion. This reminds us that legalism brings bondage and that in sonship we find freedom.

Paul could not wrap his mind around why the Galatians would turn their back on grace and freedom in Christ and desire bondage, the bondage of the law, when they already knew something about slavery to religion before they were saved.

After all their progress, after being saved by grace through faith in Christ, coming to know the true God, turning from their worship and bondage to idolatry, why would they turn back to a system of bondage?

Paul said, “You observe days and months and seasons and years.” The Galatians were observing the Jewish calendar with its sabbaths, festivals, and seasons.

“Days” has reference to sabbath keeping. “Months” is the new moon observance and its monthly festivals. “Seasons” includes the seasonal feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. “Years” is the observance of the sabbatical years every seven years and the year of jubilee every fifty years.

Paul expressed fear for the Galatians in their law-keeping when we are under grace.

Paul had traveled to Galatia and worked hard to bring the truth and the grace of God to them. But now they were turning their backs on all he had taught them by placing themselves under the law. And Paul wondered if it was all in vain and all for nothing.

The Galatians had not come to know God by the law, but by grace and by faith in Christ. But now, they were turning to the law, and in doing so, were in essence saying that Christ is not enough. But Christ is enough. He is always enough. He is all we need.