But before faith
came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto
Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we
are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put
on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye
be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Now
I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a
servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the
time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in
bondage under the elements of the world: but when the fulness of the time was
come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son;
and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Gal. 3:23–4:7).
NOTE:
This text
teaches an essential unity between the old testament people of God and the new
testament saints. Paul uses
the illustration of a child growing to adulthood.
It’s the same one person growing to maturity. Dispensationalism would be
illustrated, however, by two different people, growing alongside each other.
The charge of “replacement theology” made
by dispensationalists towards proponents of covenant theology is answered by
this text. There is no “replacement” going on. It’s the same one person, from
beginning to end. So, the NT church is the same woman as the OT people of God—just
under a different administration.
(I)
Prof. Herman C. Hanko
[Source: “The Church’s
Growth from Childhood to Adulthood,” in We and Our Children: The Reformed Doctrine of Infant Baptism (RFPA, 2004), pp. 22-24]
The passage treats
the church in the old and new dispensations as one child who grows up to become
an adult. Thereby the apostle teaches that the church in both dispensations is
the same person just as a child who becomes an adult is the same person. The
difference is between childhood and adulthood.
The apostle uses
the first and second person plural in the passage. By this he indicates that he
is also writing about the saints in the Galatian churches of Asia Minor who had
been called into the fellowship of the church from dark heathendom. Though Paul
himself was born and raised within the Jewish nation, both he and the Galatian
Gentiles were “in bondage under the elements of the world” when they were
children. They have since come into adulthood.
In a certain sense
of the phrase, therefore, every Christian is “in bondage under the elements of
the world” prior to his salvation in Christ. But what is true of every
Christian individually in the salvation he receives is also true of the whole
church in the old and new dispensations. The Old Testament church was also “in
bondage under the elements of the world.” That is, it was in bondage to the
law, which could never save. It was in bondage as a child, but with the coming
of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, the church came to adulthood and became
the full heir of the promises of God.
The church in the
old dispensation was like a small child who needs instruction. He is, even as a
child, the heir of all the possessions of his father. But he cannot have the
inheritance yet, for as a small child he does not know what to do with such
riches, so he is put under tutors and governors. Although he is actually lord
of all, he really differs nothing from a servant. He is under the law, must be
kept under its authority, has others who tell him what to do, and cannot so
much as move without the permission of those put over him. Gradually, through
instruction, he becomes prepared for the time when he will receive his father’s
inheritance.
The church in the
Old Testament was under the instruction of Mr. Law, its schoolmaster (Gal.
3:24). The church was the heir of the promises of the covenant; and, if we may
carry the figure through a bit, the church even received a small allowance from
the inheritance. Throughout this period of childhood, God gave his church
instruction. Through that instruction the church was brought to adulthood. That
adulthood came in the new dispensation when the fullness of time was come, and
God sent forth his Son to redeem them that were under the law that they might
be adopted as sons. And so God sent forth his Spirit into the hearts of his
people crying, Abba, Father, for they are no longer servants, but sons.
According to
Galatians 4, the change came about with the coming of the Spirit. Christ came
as the fulfilment of all the types and shadows of the law, the pictures in the
book given to the church in Old Testament times. He perfectly accomplished all
the will of God with respect to the salvation of the church. He ascended into
heaven and received the promise of the Spirit through whom he brings to his
church the blessings that he merited for his people. Through the Spirit’s work,
God’s people became mature, adult sons of God and heirs of the promises. This
took place on Pentecost, the precise time when the new dispensation began. Now
we have the Spirit, the Spirit of adoption, and we cry, Abba, Father.
-----------------------------------------------
(II)
(II)
Rev.
Martyn McGeown
In
Galatians 3-4, Paul teaches that the Old Testament people of God (elect Israel)
is essentially the same people as the New Testament church (consisting of elect
Jews and Gentiles in one body). The apostle does this by means of an
illustration in which he compares a child with a mature adult. The Old
Testament people of God (elect Israel) was a child, who, although she was the
heir of God’s promises, was in her minority, and could not receive the promises
until the time of her maturity (see Galatians 4:1).
During her minority period (when she was legally a child) she was under the
law, which acted as a schoolmaster (3:24), a tutor, and a governor (4:2). Such
schoolmasters were not mere teachers in a schoolroom—they were appointed by the
father of the child to control the child’s life down to the slightest detail.
The father gave the schoolmasters, tutors, and governors authority to legislate
for the child, to determine her diet and clothing, to determine her religious
and moral life, and even to punish her for disobedience. That is how we must
understand the Old Testament law—the law determined Israel’s life, so that she
was hemmed in on every side by precepts and ordinances: “But before faith
came—that is, before the object of our faith, Jesus Christ, came—we were kept
under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed” (Gal. 3:23).
Parents
understand this. When your child is a two-year old, you determine their every
move—you decide what they eat; you decide what they wear; you decide when they
go to bed; you decide where they go; you protect them with barriers. But when a
child matures, you give the child—for example, an older teenager—greater
freedom: he determines his own schedule; he makes his own meals; he does his
own laundry; he uses the car, and perhaps has his own car, for example. With
freedom comes responsibility, however.
That
is exactly Paul’s point. Old Testament Israel was a child kept under the law
until she entered her maturity at the coming of Jesus Christ. When Christ
suffered and died, rose again, ascended into heaven, and, crucially, poured out
His Holy Spirit, He brought Old Testament Israel into the enjoyment of her
inheritance. She no longer needs food laws, clothing laws, laws concerning
sacrifices and other ceremonies, circumcision, and the temple, for she has the
Spirit, the gospel, and the blood of Christ. Those laws that kept her distinctively
“Jewish” pass away, never to return, because in her maturity she becomes the
church of Jesus Christ made up of elect, believing Jews and Gentiles. Notice,
however, when your two-year old grows up and becomes an eighteen year old, he
matures—but he is essentially the same person. He is not a replacement person!
Similarly, when Old Testament Israel grew up, entered her maturity, and became
a free child of God, she was not replaced. The New Testament church of Jesus
Christ is the same entity as the Old Testament people of God. Therefore, the
church does not replace or supersede Israel (replacement theology or
supersessionism), but the church is Israel—Israel in her maturity, Israel without the
intolerable yoke of the law, Israel with the Holy Spirit! Therefore, the church
must never seek to go back to her minority days—as if a teenager would go back
to diapers—for she no longer observes the Old Testament restrictive ceremonial
law. We do not keep the Old Testament feasts; we do not observe Old Testament
dietary restrictions; and we do not seek to be circumcised, for example
(4:9-10).
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(III)
(III)
More
to come! (DV)
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