Galations 4

     4:1-11.  Just as there is no distinction between Jew and Greek after they become one in Christ (3:28), so also there is no difference in their condition of bondage outside of Christ (1-2).  In other words, how are Gentiles better off being circumcised and coming under the external restraints of the Law, than they were as Gentiles who were under the natural restraints of natural law (Ro.2:14)?

     4:3 (cf.8-9).  The elemental things of the world; These are simple and axiomatic truths about the world by which man can reason things out for himself.  Man first made use of them when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, rather than believing and obeying God.  There was a spiritual element involved in that, of course.  “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Col.2:8).

     This self-made religion (Col. 2:23) is called “will worship” in the KJV.  How is it that Paul includes God’s Law given to Moses in the elemental principles of the world (3-5)?  Because it is not by faith (3:11-12).  The Law never had the power to give life to sinners, but only brought the curse of condemnation (3:13, 21-22).  Now that the promise of life has come in the person of Christ, the stewardship of the Law must be let go of in order to take hold of Christ the redeemer of those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (5).  Christ is our tree of life, and we gain access to him not by will worship and the elemental things of the world, but by the obedience of faith.  The Law was a mere shadow of the good things to come.  Christ is the substance (Col.2:17; Heb. 10:1).  If the Law that was intended to conduct us unto Christ (3:24) becomes a stumbling block to keep us from Christ, it is no longer life, but death.  The Law becomes just another self-made religion, will worship, a doctrine of demons (8-10; cf. 1 Cor. 10:20), because by it we are deceived into security in our sins (cf. Is.1:11 ff).

     4:4-5.  I prefer the KJV rendering of v.4; made of a woman, made under the Law.  It makes the necessary point that Jesus, as to his human nature, was of Mary’s substance.  He was not born as to a surrogate mother, but was of her seed (Gen.3:15; Luke 1:31-35), and was made under the Law.

     God’s word tells us of “…The immaculate sinless conception of the child Jesus, that holy thing, a holy thing though proceeding from a sinful creature, not tainted with sin, as all other children are”  (Thomas Boston, Commentary on the Shorter Catechism, Vol.1, Q.22, p.390).

     I would note that the incarnation of Christ is a gold mine for those who like to acquire their doctrine from the elemental principles of the world, through philosophy and empty deception, according to the traditions of men, rather than from God’s word.  Roman Catholic dogma secures the holiness of the seed of the woman by teaching that by a miracle Mary was immaculately conceived in her mother’s womb, so that she herself was sinless.  This sinless and perpetually virgin Mary was not subjected to death, but was carried to heaven without dying, where she makes intercession with her son for those who petition her.

     We have Athanasius to thank for destroying even more serious errors, as men used their philosophies to corrupt the truth that Christ has two natures, yet remains one person.

     “Athanasius makes the burning bush to be a type of Christ’s incarnation; the fire signifying the divine nature, and the bush the human.  The bush is a branch springing from the earth, and the fire descends from heaven.  As the bush was united to the fire, yet was not hurt by the flame, nor converted into the fire, there remained a difference between the bush and the fire, yet the properties of fire shined in the bush, so that the whole bush seemed to be on fire: So in the incarnation of Christ, the human nature is not swallowed up by the divine, nor changed into it, nor confounded with it: but they are so united, that the properties of both remain firm: two are so become one, that they remain two still; one person in two natures, containing the glorious perfections of the Divinity, and the weakness of the humanity.  The fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ.”  Ibid, p.393.

     “The matter of his body was of the very flesh and blood of the virgin, otherwise he could not have been the Son of David, of Abraham, and Adam, according to the flesh”  (Ibid, p.396).

     “With respect to the end of his incarnation, even the redemption and salvation of lost sinners; that as the first Adam was the fountain of our impurity, so the second Adam should also be the pure fountain of our righteousness.  God ‘sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh;’ which he could not have condemned, had he been sent in sinful flesh.  The Father ‘made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;’ which we could never have been made, if he had been tainted with any sin.  He that needed redemption himself could never have purchased redemption for us”  (Ibid, p.398).

      “Christ was an extraordinary person, and another Adam; and therefore it was necessary he should be produced a new way.  At first Adam was produced neither of man nor woman; Eve of a man without a woman; all others of a man and a woman.   The fourth way remained, viz. of a woman without a man; and so Christ was born.  And the wisdom of God appeared in that he was born of a virgin espoused; for thereby the reproach of illegitimacy was warded off”  (Ibid, p.401).

     4:5.  Adoption; see 2 Cor.6:17-18; and WSC Q.34.  Adoption implies that we were born into a different family than the one to which we now belong.  Because of Christ’s redemptive work, and an act of God’s free grace, those who are effectually called are adopted out of Satan’s family into which they were born (John 8:44; 1 John 3:8), and are now “received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges, of the sons of God.”

     ” ‘And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,’ says the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor.2:18).

     4:12.  Become as I am; i.e., free in Christ (5:1); for I also have become as you are; i.e. free from the slavery of trying to be justified by the Law (cf. 2:14; 5:3-4).

     4:13-15.  Those who are overly curious about Paul’s medical condition receive no real help here.  His problem was no more apt to be an eye affliction than it was to be a literal thorn in the flesh (2 Cor.12:7).

     4:21-31.  (Cf. John 8:33-39).  Who has not complained about the figurative nature of the Scriptures?  “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly”  (John 10:24).  But God knows best how we really think, and how best to give us glimpses of the incomprehensible.  That is why so much of the law is narrative.  But as Jesus’ disciples were given to understand, it all spoke of Christ (Luke 24:44 f.).  When John the Baptist pointed to Christ and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), he implied that the entire OT system was God’s allegory pointing to Christ.  Here, Paul in effect says the same thing about the narrative portions of the OT.

     “Great literature has always been allegorical.  The Iliad is great because all life is a battle.  The Odyssey because all life is a journey, the Book of Job because all life is a riddle”  (G.K. Chesterton).

     Thus in Hagar and Sarah and their two sons, Paul sees the covenant of works and the covenant of grace contrasted.  The true heir of Abraham, the man of faith, turns out not to be the son born according to the flesh (23), but Isaac, the child of promise (28), who points to Christ.  “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).

     V.5:1 serves both as the conclusion to this paragraph, and the introduction to Paul’s application in chapter five.