Bible Commentaries
Galatians 4

Verses 1-31

He now declared the process of freedom. "God sent forth His Son . . . under the law." Thus the law He kept was justified, and He lived thereby. But more than this, He bore its penalty, and so procured justification and life for those who, while under its tutelage, had broken it.

The result of this is that they are sons, and now cry "Abba, Father." Under the old bondage Cod was not known. But now they have come to know God. The return of these Galatian Christians to this ignorance is indicated by their observance of days and months, and seasons and years, that is, to Judaism. The fear expressed at the close of the last paragraph leads to a tender and beautiful personal appeal by the apostle. He beseeches them to become as he is-free from all these things, for he says, "1 also am become as ye are."

He contrasts with himself those who have been troubling them, introducing the passage referring to them with the word "they." He does not deny their zeal, but declares their motive to be evil, and ends with an outcry over them like that of a mother. This is the final application of the doctrine of liberty. All that system which lived in the realm of boasted relation to Abraham he characterizes as being in the position of Hagar; and carrying his argument concerning the relationship of faith to its logical conclusion, he claims that the true Jerusalem from above is the mother of the saints. "We," he says, speaking of those who are in Christ, are the "children of promise," and, consequently, the bondwoman is to be cast out.