Continuing his case for faith over the Mosaic Law Paul cited an illustration from family life. He did this to clarify the condition of believers as contrasted with nomists and to warn his readers to abandon nomism.
4:1-3 Already Paul had compared the Law to a prison warden (3:22) and a baby sitter (3:24). Now he compared it to a trustee appointed to care for a young child and his property, a guardian. The purpose of all three comparisons was to clarify the difference between the previous historical period of spiritual immaturity and the present period of spiritual freedom.
Paul contrasted the spiritual immaturity of those living under the Mosaic Law with the spiritual maturity of those living by faith in Christ. Now, as then, a very young child is under the direction of others even though he may be the heir of a vast inheritance. Similarly people before coming to Christ by faith were under bondage. In the case of Jews their bondage was to the Law. In the case of Gentiles it was the restraints of pagan religion.
Paul used the term ta stoicheia tou kosmou("the elemental things of the world") four times in his writings, twice in this chapter (vv. 3, 9) and twice in Colossians 2 (vv. 8, 20).
"The word stoicheia[elemental things] means primarily things placed side by side in a row; it is used of the letters of the alphabet, the ABCs, and then, because the learning of the ABCs is the first lesson in a literary education, it comes to mean rudiments,' first principles (as in Heb. 5:12). Again, since the letters of the alphabet were regarded as the elements' of which words and sentences are built up, stoicheiacomes to be used of the elements' which make up the material world (cf. 2 Pet. 3:10, 12). This would be the natural meaning of ta stoicheia tou kosmou[elemental things of the world] unless the context dictated otherwise . . ."131
Some scholars have understood these elemental things as basic philosophical or religious teachings.132Others believe Paul was referring to the material components of the universe: earth, water, air, and fire.133Still others believe he meant the host of spiritual beings that Satan heads up.134Other names for this vast company of demonic beings are "principalities,""powers,""the enemies of God,"and "the rulers of this age"(Rom. 8:38; 1 Cor. 2:6, 8; 15:24, 26). Another view is that the elemental things are elementary stages of religious experience.135It seems to me that the context favors the first of these views. Verses 4 and 5 refer to the Law as that from which Christ redeemed "us"(i.e., his Jewish readers). For a Gentile the elemental things of the world would have been the teachings of pagan religion.
Paul contrasted the believer's condition before and after Christ's incarnation (cf. v. 4), not his condition before and after his conversion (justification). He was talking about stages in salvation history, not personal history.
4:4-5 God, the father of the child in the illustration, sent forth Christ when He determined the time was right.
"It would seem that when the time had fully come' (RSV, NIV) does not mean that a certain divinely appointed period had elapsed (so NEB?), or that certain divinely ordained events had to transpire (cf. 2 Thess. 2:3ff.), or that God sent his Son into the world when all the conditions were ripe for his appearance. In view of the fact that the word came' denotes in the context (cf. 3:23, 25) the eschatological event of the coming of Christ and of the principle of justifying faith, the thought is rather that the appearance of the Son brought the fulness of the time,' marking the end of the present aeon (cf. 1:4) and ushering in the future aeon."136
God sent His Son to free those children whom the Law held in bondage and to elevate them to the status of full sons. In Roman culture the father determined the proper time to conduct the ceremony of passage. He took his child out from under the tutelage of his professional guardians and made him a free son. Normally he did this when his child turned 14.137
Paul referred to both Christ's divine nature ("His Son") and human nature ("born of a woman"). The Messiah was born under the Mosaic Law that He alone fulfilled by keeping it perfectly (cf. Matt. 5:17).
"Verses 4-5 contain one of the most compressed and highly charged passages in the entire letter because they present the objective basis, the Christological and soteriological foundation, for the doctrine of justification by faith."138
4:6 God also sent the Holy Spirit to indwell believers and to motivate us to approach God. The "heart"is the seat of the will (cf. Prov. 4:23). Our relationship with God can be intimate rather than formal. We can call Him "Daddy.""Abba"means that in Aramaic (cf. Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15-16).
"However, we oversentimentalize this word when we refer to it as mere baby talk and translate it into English as daddy.' The word Abbaappears in certain legal texts of the Mishna as a designation used by grown children in claiming the inheritance of their deceased father.139As a word of address Abbais not so much associated with infancy as it is with intimacy. It is a cry of the heart, not a word spoken calmly with personal detachment and reserve, but a word we call' or cry out' (krazo). . . .
". . . it would be presumptuous and daring beyond all propriety to address God as Abbahad Jesus himself not bidden us to do so."140
"The presence of the Spirit is thus a witness of their sonship."141
"The purpose of the Son's mission was to give the rights of sonship; the purpose of the Spirit's mission, to give the power of using them."142
4:7 Consequently believers this side of the Cross are full sons and, in keeping with the custom of that day, full heirs. How foolish it would be then to go back under the bondage of the Law!
"All Christians are heirs of God by faith alone. But like the Old Testament there are two kinds of inheritance: an inheritance which is merited and an inheritance which belongs to all Christians because they are sons, and for no other reason."143
Paul next reminded his readers of their former way of life, the transformation that their adoption into God's family had wrought, and his concern that they were in danger of trading their future for a mess of pottage.
4:8-9 Before conversion Paul's readers (mainly Gentiles but some Jews) were slaves to religious traditions that, in the case of Gentiles, included counterfeit gods. Now at liberty they were in danger of turning back to the same slavery. They might return to a system that was weak (with no power to justify or sanctify), worthless (providing no inheritance), and elementary.
"For all the basic differences between Judaism and paganism, both involved subjection to the same elemental forces. This is an astonishing statement for a former Pharisee to make; yet Paul makes it--not as an exaggeration in the heat of argument but as the deliberate expression of a carefully thought out position.
"The stoicheiato which the Galatians had been in bondage were the counterfeit gods of v. 8; the bondage to which they were now disposed to turn back was that of the law."144
"The demonic forces of legalism, then, both Jewish and Gentile, can be called principalities and powers' or elemental spirits of the world.'"145
However these elemental things probably refer to all things in which people place their trust apart from the living God.146Both Jewish and Gentile converts had lived bound to worldly elemental forces until Christ released them. These forces include everything in which people place their trust apart from God: their gods to which they become slaves.
4:10-11 The Judaizers had urged Paul's readers to observe the Mosaic rituals. Here the annual feasts are in view. Paul despaired that they were going backward and that much of his labor for them was futile. They were not acting like heirs of God.
". . . Paul was always against any idea of soteriological legalism--i.e., that false understanding of the law by which people think they can turn God's revelatory standard to their own advantage, thereby gaining divine favor and acceptance. This, too, the prophets of Israel denounced, for legalism so defined was never a legitimate part of Israel's religion. The Judaizers of Galatia, in fact, would probably have disowned legalism' as well, though Paul saw that their insistence on a life of Jewish nomism' for his Gentile converts actually took matters right back to the crucial issue as to whether acceptance before God was based on the works of the law' or faith in what Christ had effected. . . .
"Yet while not legalistic, the religion of Israel, as contained in the OT and all forms of ancient and modern Judaism, is avowedly nomistic'--i.e., it views the Torah, both Scripture and tradition, as supervising the lives of God's own, so that all questions of conduct are ultimately measured against the touchstone of Torah and all of life is directed by Torah. . . .
". . . Judaism speaks of itself as being Torah-centered and Christianity declares itself to be Christ-centered, for in Christ the Christian finds not only God's law as the revelatory standard preeminently expressed but also the law as a system of conduct set aside in favor of guidance by reference to Christ's teachings and example and through the direct action of the Spirit."147
Paul himself observed the Jewish feasts after his conversion (cf. 1 Cor. 16:8; Acts 20:16). However he did so voluntarily, not to satisfy divine requirements. He did not observe them because God expected him to do so but because they were a part of his cultural heritage. He also did so because he did not want to cast a stumbling block in the path of Jews coming to faith in Christ (1 Cor. 9:19-23; cf. Rom. 14:5-6). In other words, he did so to evangelize effectively, not to gain acceptance from God.
