16. The Failure of Legalism: From Superiority of Mature Faith - 3:23-4:7

The Failure of Legalism: From Superiority of Mature Faith - 3:23-4:7 “But before faith came, we were guarded under law, shut up to faith which was about to be revealed.” (3:23)

Here again the Jews who were under the law are seen in jail as it were, “shut up to faith,”that means until the time that faith came. Here we have dispensational thoughts. The dispensation of law goes on until the dispensation of faith comes, connected with grace. Faith and grace also go together. Before that time came, the Jews were shut up under the law.

“So that the law has been our tutor up to Christ, that we might be justified on the principle of faith.” (3:24) A tutor in the Roman world was someone who took care of the son or sons of a rich men. The sons would have been between the ages of 5 and 16 approximately. Maybe even Luke, the gospel writer, had been a tutor earlier for the man that he mentioned in the opening verse of his Gospel before he was set free. These are things we cannot prove from Scripture but it could possibly be true. A tutor then was a slave who served his master and took care of his master’s sons, until they came of age. We will see later in chapter 4 that the son would then have been able to administer his father’s affairs on his own. The point here is that the Jews had been under the law, the law being the tutor. They were under the law, under the tutor, who would take care of them in that time frame until Christ came. This is often misunderstood. Some people believe that the law will lead you to Christ. No, Israel was under a tutor until the time that Christ came, and then a new order of things was introduced that “we (now it is Jews and Gentiles again) might be justified on the principle of faith.”This brings in a new order of things, the law has been fulfilled in the death of Christ and a new time frame has come.

“But, faith having come, we are no longer under a tutor …” (3:25)

Paul continues about this new time frame. This only applies to those who were under the law. Now we are not under a custodian or a guardian, this is the superiority of grace, it is a new order of things, we do not have a tutor; we have the Father (this is expanded upon in chapter 4).

“…for ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus.” (3:26) The correct translation is not “children”(KJV); it is really a matter of sonship and the context makes this clear especially when we go on to chapter 4 where we see the importance of sonship. Three things are emphasized here, “faith”(v.25), “no longer under a tutor,”and “ye are all God’s sons.”I want now to emphasize three things at the end of the third chapter, sonship (v.28), a new unity is formed, “no Jew, nor Greek”in connection with this new system of things and we are “heirs according to promise”(v.29). Faith is the introduction of a new order of things so that we are no longer under a tutor, but now we are all God’s sons. This goes together with the new order of things and is developed further in chapter 4, but it is connected with and is characterized by faith in contrast to the works of law; it is a position “in Christ Jesus”who is now in the glory, God having given us this position. This is also important (see later).

“For ye, as many as have been baptised unto Christ, have put on Christ.” (3:27) This position of sonship is now shown here on earth in two different ways, Christ is in the glory, but we have been baptized unto Him, we are identified with Him who is absent from this scene. This is developed in Romans 6:1-23 that through baptism we have been brought into a new realm and identified with a new leader, Christ. But you may also think of baptism in connection with the baptism of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit links this with Christ in a way that goes even further. Baptism is in connection with our bodies being here on earth, but we are identified with a rejected Christ on earth. However, through the baptism of the Holy Spirit we are linked with Him as He is now in the glory; we are members of His body. This wonderful truth is developed in 1 Corinthians 12:13 and Ephesians 4:1-32, “one body, one Spirit.”Baptism connects us with Christ, either in testimony here on earth or also, through the Holy Spirit, we are introduced into this new realm of things and are under His control. The result is, “ye have put on Christ.”We are clothed with Christ, He is our garment. So if we connect this with the Holy Spirit in testimony here on earth we are clothed with Christ through this baptism in these two different meanings. It is wonderful to think about this. When God sees us He sees only Christ in us; we are in Christ Jesus; God has clothed us with Christ, “the best garment.”What does this mean? God wants to see Christ and nothing else.

“There is no Jew nor Greek; there is no bondman nor freeman; there is no male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus …” (3:28) This new unity was formed, implying the setting aside of all differences. This is very well demonstrated in the early church in Antioch in Syria (Acts 13:1-52). There believers from among the Gentiles and the Jews, even different social groups, were all together in one assembly. The doctrinal exposition of this is found in more detail in Ephesians 2:1-22 how the wall of separation, the law, had been set aside and there was now this remarkable unity of believers taken from among Jews and Gentiles. It is not that Gentiles had been introduced into Judaism or that they had been brought into the blessings of Judaism, no, the believers taken from the Jews and the believers taken from among the Gentiles had both been introduced into something entirely new, into a new system of things. The second characteristic of this unity was that there were no social differences. There may have been social differences in their worldly positions, but that did not count in connection with the unity in the assembly, they were still there, just as the differences between Jew and Greek will still be here as long as we are on this earth, but in Christ they no longer exist. This is the point, in Christ there is not even a difference between male and female, but as long as we are on earth there is still a difference so we have to be very careful how to apply this. There have been people who have said, ‘Well, there is no difference between male and female anymore,’and so they have come to all kinds of conclusions. But this new position is “in Christ.”As long as we are on earth these differences still play a role but they should not interfere with the position we together have “in Christ.”For instance, Peter interfered with this truth when he did not eat with Gentile believers at Antioch.

“…but if ye are of Christ, then ye are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” (3:29) This is a beautiful series of points: (1) we belong to Christ, we are of Him; (2) we are sons of God; and (3) “heirs according to promise.”The promises of God are made real to us who are heirs. This again we can connect with the promises God made to Abraham. The idea of being an heir means there is a very close connection, there is an intimate relationship with God, which was never the case under the law. So chapter 3 shows the inferiority of the law and brings out the superiority of this new system connected with faith and grace; this is very practical in many ways, also for us today.

“Now I say, As long as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a bondman, though he be lord of all …” (4:1) The Jews were under the law. In ch. 3:23 Paul compared the law with a jailor who kept the people in jail, and in verse 24 with a tutor who taught those who are still under it. It was therefore connected with spiritual immaturity. This continued “until Christ came,”“that [Jew and Gentile] might be justified on the principle of faith.”This new system was marked by faith. We are no longer under a tutor and so here we see the importance of true sonship connected with faith and with grace; there is superiority in sonship and this is now considered in more detail.

Paul then came to an additional proof connected with this sonship. “As long as the heir is a child,”and so in a state of immaturity, he was not yet accountable and he could not be held responsible for his father’s business. The father might have had a company, and he might have allowed the bondman to take care of everything, but only when the child came of age would he have been able to take care of everything and take full responsibility. As long as he was a child, as long as he was under a tutor, he couldnot have this responsibility, although he was lord of all. He was the heir, but he could not function as such yet.

“…but he is under guardians and stewards until the period fixed by the father.” (4:2) This underlines again this idea that he was still a child, he was unaccountable, he was immature, he had not reached the condition that he could rule the goods of his father, “until the period fixed by the father.”

“So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the principles of the world …” (4:3) This is the conclusion or the application. The “we”here is also under the law, of course. We have to examine the context in order to see who the “we”refers to. Here the “we”are those who were under the law, that is, the Jews, held in a position of immaturity. This is very important, they were held in bondage, whereas true sons are connected with liberty. The subject of liberty is dealt with practically in chapter 5. It is a tremendous contrast, the bondage is linked with Judaism, the law system, but the liberty is linked with sonship.

What are “the principles of the world”? They mean that the law was given to man in the flesh. The law was not given to the believers, like Abraham, in order that he would follow the law of Moses (the law of Moses did not exist then, but suppose it did), it would not have been his rule of conduct; he had different moral rules to follow. It is important to understand that bondage is a result of the law of Moses given to man in the flesh, for we will see later that Paul made a reproach to the Galatians in saying “You are going back to the beggarly principles”(v.9). We must understand that the principles of the world are connected with man in the flesh and in this case man as he is under Judaism. We should not confuse this situation with the position of a true believer such as Abraham. I would like to give more details about the differences between the law of Moses and the law of Christ when we come to chapter 6, because not being under the law does not mean that we are lawless, rather it means we are under a different law. We are not in bondage under the Mosaic law which is connected with the principles of the world, but we belong to a new order of things. Even when the law of Moses was not there, a moral law (or ‘principle’) always existed, this cannot be denied. However, we will keep this for chapter 6.

“…but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law …” (4:4)

After this period of tutorship was over, the time of testing for the first man was completed (1 Corinthians 10:11), something happened: the time of fullness had come. When man had failed under all the testings, then God sent His own Son. God waited four thousand years (four being connected with testing) and then He sent His Son. We should not confuse this expression with “the fullness of the Gentiles”(Romans 11:25), or “the fullness of times”(Ephesians 1:10), when the Lord will reign in His millennium kingdom and every knee will bow before Him; this is a different fullness. The “fullness of the time”is connected with the testing of the first man. When this period had been completed God came in sovereign grace.

Paul was discussing the matter of sonship, and so in connection with this we see now how God in His sovereign grace sent His

Son. This expression implies the eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus. It does not say that He became Son when He was born, neither was He created, He came of a woman, as a human being, but He was not made, He was not created. He is the eternal Son, God’s Son, a divine Person. Further, “Come of woman”indicates His perfect humanity. So we have His deity and His humanity in one Person, “God sent forth His Son.”In verse 6 it says that God has sent out (the same verb) the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Did the Spirit only become Spirit when He was poured out into our hearts? Of course not; He was already the Spirit and came as such and in the same way the Lord Jesus was already Son when He came to this earth, and then He also became a Son in Manhood, as Son of man. This would be a topic in itself, I only touch upon it. This is really a mystery. In 1 Timothy 3:16 we see how great is the “mystery of godliness,”how the One who is eternally God became man, “The Word became flesh.”This was the incarnation, a great mystery. In what condition did He come? He took up the position that Israel had under the law. This is stated in verse 2, and I want now to highlight [seven or eight] points in verses 4 through 7. First is His deity and His humanity in one Person, and second He “came under the law,”He took up all the responsibility under the law but without any failure. We read in Matthew 5:17 that the Lord came to fulfill the law. He did not come to just live under the law and have nothing to do with it. There was only one Person in the whole history of mankind who kept the law completely and this was the Lord. When there was a conflict with the Pharisees it was not because the Lord did not keep the law of Moses, it was because He did not keep the rules of the rabbis. They took the conflict very serious and rejected the Lord. Again, this would be in itself a topic to study. The Lord came under law, He lived perfectly under the law, completed the law, and then we read in Romans 10:4, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.”He brought everything to completion, nothing could be added. The law had reached its goal in the Person and work of Christ. In this sense it could be set aside, and that means we are not under that law anymore, we cannot be under that law. We will see in chapter 6 that we are rather under the law of Christ but it is important to see that the Lord Jesus kept the Mosaic law in its entirety: He fulfilled it and even became a curse under it in our stead (see earlier).

“…that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship.” (4:5) The third point after His incarnation and His responsibility as a Man under the law is redemption, to set free in view of what follows. The fourth point is the result of redemption, “that we might receive sonship.”Here again, the “we”is Jew and Gentile believers brought into a position of sonship or ‘adopted’to be sons. Sonship is a word that is not often used, it is the contrast to what we had earlier, the child who is like an infant, in the position of being kept under the law, a position of immaturity. The result of redemption is that we are brought into a position of sonship and in connection with this position we will see a few important points in the following verses. This word is used in Ephesians 1:5, where we see that God has adopted us as sons forHimself, and twice in Romans 8:1-39. Adopted to be sons means to be put into a position of sonship and that is linked with maturity and with dignity. It is a wonderful position not under the law, as under a jailor or under a tutor but it is a position of dignity in God’s presence and involves having fellowship with God. Sonship is then connected with the cry, “Abba, Father,”and in this we have intimacy. So this topic of sonship is really essential. It is the result of what the Lord has done and it goes together with the reception of the Holy Spirit.

“But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (4:6)

Paul said, “Because ye are sons.”He then applied this specifically to the Galatians who were being brought back through his corrective teaching into the true position, “Ye are sons.”The fifth point is, therefore, the position of sonship in which connection God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son. Let me repeat very briefly these points. The first step in the fullness of time is (1) the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ and the mysteries connected with it, then (2) His life under the law; (3) redemption, to set free from bondage; and the result of that (4) that we would receive sonship. Now here in verse 6 is the next point, (5) “because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.”Why into our hearts? Because in Scripture the heart signifies the centre of our being. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us”(Romans 5:5). You can compare the heart with the very centre, but you could also compare it with the control chamber of a big factory, everything is controlled by the heart. So the One who controls the heart is in control of everything, and the Spirit of God is in control in a believer and this links with the thoughts we had earlier about liberty and grace and love. The fact that it is connected with the heart, the centre of our personality, is the sixth point. This should make us conscious of the position we have and make us enjoy it. The seventh point is the response now, “Abba, Father.”This is why I said earlier that the Lord’s Sonship is connected with intimacy, because under the law we never find in Scripture that a Jew said “Abba”to God. Israel was connected with God as Father in a national way only. God had called Israel a son, but it was collective, it was national. No one then could ever say “Abba, Father”to God, but now, because of the accomplished work of Christ, we have this liberty, liberty that gives free access to the immediate presence of God (which liberty is developed in the Epistle to the Hebrews). This liberty is connected with the dignity and intimacy of sonship, “Abba”simply means “Daddy.”Only once did the Lord say it, and it was when He was in a time of distress in the garden of Gethsemane. He cried “Abba, Father”because perhaps the emphasis was then on the emotion, it was a response. The emotions are controlled, of course, by the Holy Spirit here not by the flesh and so there is a response to God in the context of this intimacy. As to the believers, this is also seen in Romans 8:25-26.

These are the wonderful results of the work of the Lord Jesus and the nearness we have now, the enjoyment of fellowship with the Father and this wonderful relationship. This goes together with worship, the Holy Spirit crying now in our hearts, “Abba, Father.”The Spirit produces this worship as we find in Php 3:3, we “worship God in the spirit.”Every individual Christian has this position now and may function accordingly, but the question is: Do we enjoy this position? Do we function according to this position? The enemy does not like it if we do. The enemy would like to deter us from this enjoyment. He would like to bring in hindrances, and that is exactly what he did with the Galatians. The enemy hates it when God receives His portion in worship, when we say “Abba, Father.”I am not just repeating vain words. These are not vain words. It is also a matter of the emotions, the thoughts and the affections that are connected with the expression “Abba, Father.”That counts for God, and this is what the enemy hates. He does not want God to receive anything from creatures here on this earth and so we will see from verse 8 on how the enemy works.

“So thou art no longer bondman, but son; but if son, heir also through God.” (4:7) This is the conclusion. The application and the results are threefold; we are “no longer bondmen.”This could be misunderstood. In this context it means we are no longer under the bondage of the law. In another setting we are bondmen, Paul for example often called himself a bondman of Jesus Christ and in that sense we are bondmen, but that is a different connection, a different relationship. This is important for us to grasp, that we see there is no contradiction in Scripture. We are bondmen in a matter of response, serving God as such, but here it is connected with being under the law. We are under grace and so we are sons. Secondly we are heirs, and this is really connected with the fulfillment of God’s promises. Again there are other Scriptures that speak more about this but I think we will have a few more details about being an heir in this chapter (which is also the 8th point in 4:4-7).