Galatians 5:1

Freedom of the Believer

5:1 For freedom ¹  Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke ²  of slavery.

Romans 8:15

8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ³  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ⁴  by whom ⁵  we cry, “Abba, Father.”

¹ tn Translating the dative as “For freedom” shows the purpose for Christ setting us free; however, it is also possible to take the phrase in the sense of means or instrument (“with [or by] freedom”), referring to the freedom mentioned in 4:31 and implied throughout the letter.

² sn Here the yoke figuratively represents the burdensome nature of slavery.

³ tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”

⁴ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).”

⁵ tn Or “in that.”