“No Longer a Slave, but a Son”: The Gospel in Galatians 4

Often in the New Testament, the apostles manage to summarize the beauty of the Gospel in only a few words. When they do, they give us ideal passages for meditation and memorization, and they provide us fuel for evangelism.

One such passage is Galatians 4:4–5: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” In a single sentence, the apostle Paul reminded the Galatians of the eternal plan initiated in Christ’s incarnation and perfect life, of the redemption accomplished at the cross, and of the new identity that the Spirit gives to believers.

Each of these aspects of the verse is worthy of our consideration.

The Son of God, Born of Woman

“When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.”

Jesus was sent into the world from God. He said so Himself in the Upper Room Discourse: “I came from the Father and have come into the world” (John 16:28, emphasis added). Jesus’ origin is divine. He came into the world from outside of it, where He had dwelt in eternal glory with the Father (John 17:5).

This happened “in the fullness of time”—that is, at the exact moment set by God’s eternal decree. It was the time determined by the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—according to their eternal covenant of redemption. It was “the right time,” as Paul tells the Roman church (Rom. 5:6). Jesus even began His earthly ministry with the words “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15).

Although Charles Wesley poetically said that Jesus “emptied Himself of all but love,”¹ the truth is that He became a man not through subtraction but through addition. The child in the manger remained God’s eternal Son despite having taken on humanity. He became what He had never been (namely, man) while never ceasing to be what He had always been (namely, God).

Jesus was sent into the world from God.

When the Son was “born of woman,” it wasn’t a trick or illusion. It’s not that Jesus simply appeared to be a man but wasn’t really a man. He was really born to a real mother. He had the same physical composition, the same central nervous system, the same temptations. Despite His divinity and because of His humanity, the pain of the nails in His hands bit Him no less than it did the two thieves beside Him.

Nor did His divinity mean Jesus was any less a Jew. He was a son to Jewish parents, raised in the Jewish context, born “under the law.” He didn’t get a pass. And yet in the matter of law keeping, the Son of God succeeded where everyone before Him and since Him has failed, keeping the law in all its demands.

The People of God Redeemed

“When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son … to redeem those who were under the law.”

God sent His Son to us to live as one of us, to be subject and liable to God’s law as we are. Why would the Son of God ever do this? To redeem a people for His own possession (Titus 2:14).

Redemption is an economic metaphor indicating an exchange. In our day, a coupon is redeemed to receive a monetary credit. In Paul’s day, a slave was redeemed out of slavery when someone paid the debt of their bondage. When God sent His Son, He purchased us from slavery to sin and idolatry so that we might be His instead (Gal. 4:7–8).

Paul describes how this exchange works earlier in Galatians, in 3:13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” Although God’s law is good, its effect on human beings is to reveal the fact that they are unable to keep it and therefore are subject to God’s judgment, God’s curse (Gal. 3:10). The law was given to reveal sin in us and therefore to reveal our total inadequacy to save ourselves.

Jesus, “born of woman,” is the one man ever to have kept the law perfectly. Nevertheless, He hung on the cross and suffered God’s curse. He did this on our behalf, purchasing our freedom through His suffering so that we might be redeemed from our bondage to sin and exempt from paying the wages of sin—i.e., death. “You were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20), Paul tells us elsewhere. God has mercifully paid the price of our slavery with the life of His Son. Such free grace came at great cost.

The Children of God Adopted

“When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son … so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Gal. 4:4–5)

But God, by sending His Son, didn’t simply redeem us; He also adopted us. Christ came so that we might become God’s children. Although Jesus is a Son by nature, He willingly took the form of a servant so that we who are by nature the slaves of sin might become the sons of God by adoption.

And having sent His Son to die for us, He now “has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal. 4:6). One of the indications that His Spirit lives in us is that in our hearts, we regularly cry out to God as Father.

God has mercifully paid the price of our slavery with the life of His Son. Such free grace came at great cost.

When a child is adopted, the legal status precedes the subjective experience. Legally, they have a new name. They have a new family. They have new privileges. They have new expectations. These changes take place in a moment in time—and yet our understanding of our adoption may take time to settle in. We can know that we have been redeemed and adopted because the Spirit of God comes to live in our lives and to drive home the change that has come upon us.

“So you are no longer a slave,” Paul tells us, “but a son” (Gal. 4:7). We have the privilege of going to God and essentially saying, “Hey, Dad, I need Your help with this. I can’t cope with this on my own. Thank You for loving me so much as to send Jesus to bear the curse that I deserve.” To call God our Father is not some advanced course in Christian spirituality. It is the foundation of our new identity in Christ—a childlike dependence on and love for a gracious heavenly Father.

God loves us so much that He sent His eternal Son to redeem us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, so that we who believe might be His sons and daughters eternally. That is the good news of Galatians 4!

This article was adapted from the sermon “Sons, Not Slaves” by Alistair Begg.