New Life Bible Fellowship Church
12/14/25

      • Psalm 24:7–10KJV1900

  • Once in Royal David's City
  • Joy To The World

      • Proverbs 6:1–19KJV1900

  • Introduction:

    We began last week with this year’s advent series, The Ultimate Christmas Gift, in which we will seek to identify and unwrap the single, most perfect, most valuable, and most ultimate gift, one that has already been given, and one that is eternal. We began our series with The Gift Promised...a promise that was given 700 hundreds years before it arrived, a promise made in the darkness of human depravity as Isaiah described for us in chapter 9:1-7. A promise that brought light and hope, not by human power and intelligence, but by the zeal of the eternal God becoming man and shinning His light and salvation.
    This morning, we move from a promise, to the preparation, in The Gift Prepared and look at the context surrounding the arrival of this gift. We will see that God leaves nothing to chance, or fate as some would believe, there are no coincidences with God but only precise details prepared for this gift’s arrival.
    Let’s now look at The Gift Prepared from a New Testament passage in Galatians 4:1-7.

    Text: Galatians 4:1-7

    Galatians 4:1–7 ESV
    1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

    Main Idea: At the fullness of time, God sent his Son to redeem those enslaved under law and his Spirit to confirm their adoption as heirs.

    Background:

    The Context of Galatians

    Author and Date

    Paul wrote this letter, likely between AD 48-55, though the exact date depends on which churches he was addressing. If written to the southern Galatian churches (Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe) founded on his first missionary journey, it may be among his earliest letters, possibly even before the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15. If written to ethnic Galatians in the northern region, the date would be later, during his second or third missionary journey.

    Historical Situation

    The letter addresses a crisis: after Paul's departure, certain Jewish Christian teachers (often called "Judaizers") arrived and insisted that Gentile converts must be circumcised and observe the Mosaic law to be fully accepted in the covenant community. These teachers apparently also challenged Paul's apostolic credentials, suggesting he was a secondary apostle dependent on the Jerusalem leaders.

    The Recipients

    The Galatian believers were predominantly Gentile converts who had enthusiastically received Paul's gospel of justification by faith alone. They were now being pressured to adopt Jewish identity markers—circumcision, dietary laws, and calendar observances—as necessary additions to faith in Christ.

    Paul's Purposes

    Paul writes to:
    Defend his apostolic authority (chapters 1-2) — demonstrating his gospel came by direct revelation from Christ, not human intermediaries
    Defend justification by faith alone (chapters 3-4) — arguing from Scripture, particularly Abraham's example, that righteousness comes through faith, not works of law
    Address the ethical implications (chapters 5-6) — showing that freedom in Christ leads not to license but to Spirit-empowered love and fruit

    Theological Significance

    Galatians became foundational for understanding the relationship between law and gospel, the nature of Christian freedom, and the inclusion of Gentiles in God's people without becoming Jewish proselytes. Luther called it "my epistle" and leaned heavily on it during the Reformation.

    The Context of Galatians 4:1-7

    Immediate Literary Context

    This passage continues Paul's argument from chapter 3, where he established that the law functioned as a παιδαγωγός (guardian/tutor) until Christ came. In Galatians 3:29 “29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”, this happened before the law was given. This promise, as we learned last week, was the promise of Grace given to believers in the Old Testament, one that would become the covenant of Grace reveled in the New Testament. Hebrews 11 describes this:
    Hebrews 11:17–19 ESV
    17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
    Hebrews 11:39 ESV
    39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised,
    Now in 4:1-7, he develops the heir imagery further with a new analogy borrowed from the Roman legal practice.

    The Analogy of the Minor Heir (vv. 1-2)

    What we see in these verses is a continuation from chapter 3 of Paul’s argument from scripture that justification is apart from the law, for as was just stated, chapter 3 ends with these words:
    Galatians 3:29 ESV
    29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
    Galatians 4:1–2 ESV
    1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.
    Paul draws on Greco-Roman inheritance customs: a child who stands to inherit the entire estate is, during his time as a minor, he is functionally no different from a household slave. Though he is κύριος πάντων ("lord of all"), he remains under ἐπιτρόπους (guardians of his person) and οἰκονόμους (managers of his property) until the date set by his father (προθεσμίας τοῦ πατρός).
    This "date set by the father" is crucial—it emphasizes the father's sovereign determination of when the son comes into his inheritance. The timing is not arbitrary but appointed.

    Application to Redemptive History (v. 3)

    Galatians 4:3 ESV
    3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
    Paul applies this: "So also we, when we were children (νήπιοι), were enslaved under the στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου" (elemental principles/forces of the world). This likely refers to the basic religious system under which both Jews (the law) and Gentiles (pagan religious structures) lived before Christ—external regulations that, whatever their differences, held humanity in a kind of minority status.
    Then comes the pivotal declaration in verse 4, in which we see the significance of this date set by his father as the Father’s…

    I. Divine Timing (v. 4a)

    4a But when the fullness of time had come, …
    fullness - Paul's phrase is striking. Πλήρωμα carries the sense of "filling up" or "completion"—time had reached its appointed measure, like a vessel filled to the brim. This is not merely chronological succession (χρόνος as duration, like December 25 is coming whether we’re ready or not) but time reaching its divinely intended goal. The Father's appointed date (προθεσμία, v. 2) had arrived.
    This suggests the entire Old Testament period—the law, the prophets, Israel's history—was preparatory, moving toward this appointed hour.
    Old Testament Preparation
    Prophetic Expectation - The prophets created an eschatological horizon—a sense that history was moving toward decisive divine intervention. Daniel's vision of "one like a son of man" receiving an everlasting kingdom (Dan 7:13-14), the "seventy weeks" pointing to Messiah's coming (Dan 9:24-27), and Malachi's promise that "the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple" (Mal 3:1) all generated expectation of an appointed time.
    Habakkuk 2:3 captures this sense: "For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay."
    The Law as Preparatory Teacher - As Paul argued in chapter 3, the law served as παιδαγωγός—not the final state but preparation for it. The sacrificial system, the priesthood, the purity regulations, the calendar of feasts—all of these created categories, vocabulary, and felt needs that would find their resolution in Christ. The law revealed sin (Rom 3:20), intensified the sense of bondage, and thus made the gospel of freedom intelligible and desirable.
    Typological Patterns - The Old Testament established patterns that Christ would fulfill: Adam as representative head, Abraham's offering of Isaac, the Passover lamb, the Day of Atonement ritual, the Davidic king, the suffering servant. These were not mere illustrations but divinely designed prefigurations. When Christ came, he entered a world already furnished with the conceptual framework to understand his work.
    The Abrahamic Promise Awaiting Fulfillment - Paul has emphasized throughout Galatians that the promise to Abraham—blessing to all nations through his seed—preceded the law by 430 years (3:17). The law could not annul this promise; it could only serve it. The "fullness of time" is when this ancient promise finally receives its intended fulfillment in the singular "seed," Christ (3:16).
    Providential Historical Circumstances
    While Paul's primary emphasis is theological (God's sovereign appointment), the early church also recognized how historical circumstances converged to facilitate the gospel's spread:
    Pax Romana — Roman peace enabled travel across the Mediterranean world with relative safety.
    Roman roads and infrastructure — The empire's transportation network allowed rapid movement of people and ideas.
    Common languages — Greek served as a lingua franca throughout the eastern Mediterranean; Latin in the west. The gospel could be communicated across ethnic boundaries.
    Jewish diaspora — Synagogues throughout the empire had already introduced Gentiles to monotheism, the Hebrew Scriptures (in Greek translation), and messianic expectation. These "God-fearers" often formed the initial audience for apostolic preaching.
    Spiritual exhaustion — Both Judaism under law and paganism with its empty rituals had produced a longing for something more. The "bondage under the στοιχεῖα" was felt, not merely theoretical.
    These circumstances were not accidents but the Father's preparation of the stage for his Son's entrance, with His own special…

    II. Divine Method (v. 4b)

    4b …God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
    God sent forth his Son. Notice once again that this was an act of God, well planned for and decreed to take place.
    born of woman - Christ was "born of a woman" (γενόμενον ἐκ γυναικός)—a phrase echoing Genesis 3:15's "seed of the woman" and emphasizing genuine humanity.
    born of woman in Galatians 4:4, read against Genesis 3:15, declares that:
    The promised serpent-crusher has arrived
    He is genuinely human, entering the condition he came to redeem
    The ancient promise made in Eden reaches its fulfillment in Bethlehem
    God's redemptive plan, announced immediately after the fall, has reached its appointed climax
    The one who will undo what the first woman's act unleashed comes through a woman's womb
    Sin entered the world through Adam as the covenant/federal head of humanity (Rom 5:12),
    Romans 5:12 ESV
    12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
    all who descend from Adam by natural generation inherit both his guilt and his corrupted nature,
    the virgin conception placed Christ outside Adamic federal headship while giving him genuine human nature, thus the virgin birth is an absolutely essential core doctrine of our faith.
    The Holy Spirit's overshadowing ensured the child would be "holy" from conception (Luke 1:35)
    Christ is not a son of Adam in the covenant sense but the eternal Son of God who took human flesh to become the second Adam
    born under the law (γενόμενον ὑπὸ νόμον). The Son entered the very condition of a minor with the bondage that characterized humanity. He submitted to the guardian system not because he needed it, but to redeem those under it. Showing the necessity of the incarnation for redemption, we see this next in the…

    III. Divine Purpose (v. 5)

    5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
    This purpose clause of verse 5 reveals the twofold goal, the one enabling the other:
    to redeem those who were under the law (ἐξαγοράσῃ—the same term used in Gal 3:13)
    Galatians 3:13 ESV
    13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
    to redeem. The concept of redemption comes from the institution of slavery. In both the Jewish and Greco-Roman worlds, a slave could buy his freedom (or someone else could buy it for him) by paying a redemption price to his owners. The price of our redemption was paid by the Father in the blood of His Son (1 Pet. 1:17, 18), and by the Son in giving His life a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28).
    those … under the law. Not only Jews, circumcised under the law of Moses, but also Gentiles, for both are under the curse of the law (Gal 3:13, 14).
    Galatians 3:14 ESV
    14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
    that we might receive adoption as sons (τὴν υἱοθεσίαν)
    adoption as sons. Paul has been speaking of God’s people under the law as children (Ex. 4:23; Is. 1:2). He now describes the only way in which the children become full members of the household, no longer minors. God seals our adoption by giving us the Spirit of His Son (Rom. 8:9–17).
    From slavery to sonship through Christ - Christ's work transitions believers from the status of minor-slaves to mature sons with full inheritance rights, as we see finally in the…

    IV. Divine Result (vv. 6-7)

    6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
    because you are sons - two amazing results flow from this redemption as Sons:
    God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts (6) - The Spirit of the Son in our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” - intimate relationship restored
    The sending of the Son is followed by the sending of the Spirit: "God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying 'Abba! Father!'" The intimate Aramaic address—the very word Jesus used in Gethsemane—now becomes the believer's own cry.
    no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God (7) - From slave to heir through God's gift
    The Spirit's presence confirms the new status: no longer slave but son, no longer minor but heir. Paul declares this to us in Ephesians 1:
    Ephesians 1:13–14 ESV
    13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
    Theological Summary
    The passage presents redemptive history as a divinely prepared, unified plan with appointed stages. The law-era was genuine but temporary—a necessary minority under guardianship. Christ's coming at the "fullness of time" was the Father's appointed moment to bring heirs into their inheritance. The incarnation—the Son born under the very system that held humanity in bondage—was the means of redemption. And the gift of the Spirit seals the new sonship relationship.
    The entire Old Testament period, then, was preparation: it defined the problem (bondage under law), preserved the promise (inheritance for Abraham's seed), and pointed toward the solution (a redeemer born under law to redeem those under law). Christ's coming was not an interruption of the plan but its appointed climax. Paul begins his prison epistle to the Ephesians with a summary of this great truth:
    Ephesians 1:3–6 ESV
    3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

    So What?

    Do we understand that at the precise moment in time, when all God’s preparation was accomplished, the incarnation took place?
    Do we understand the necessity for Christ to be born of a woman and born under the law?
    Do we understand the preparation of God’s gift to us brought us out from under the condemnation and tutelage of the law and has given us sonship and an inheritance?

      • Galatians 4:1–7ESV

      • Hebrews 11:17–19ESV

      • Hebrews 11:39ESV

      • Galatians 3:29ESV

      • Galatians 4:1–2ESV

      • Galatians 4:3ESV

      • Galatians 4:4ESV

      • Galatians 4:4ESV

      • Romans 5:12ESV

      • Galatians 4:5ESV

      • Galatians 3:13ESV

      • Galatians 3:14ESV

      • Galatians 4:6–7ESV

      • Ephesians 1:13–14ESV

      • Ephesians 1:3–6ESV

  • Love Came Down at Christmas
New Life Bible Fellowship Church
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