Galatians 4:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore, if you are now sons, the inheritance must belong to you. As you became sons of God by receiving the Spirit of God, so also, having been changed from slaves into free men, you became heirs.

You became heirs together with the heir of the Father, Jesus Christ, who says in the psalm in the person of the humanity He assumed: "The Lord said to Me, 'You are My Son; today I have begotten You.

"'Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession'" (Ps 2:7-8).

What we say in this place must also be kept in mind with regard to other places. The whole human race is spoken of in the singular because all we believers compose one in Christ Jesus.

All are members of His Body. Having been raised to the measure of the perfect man, we have Him as our head, because "the head of the man is Christ" (1 Cor 11:2-3).

They cry to Him, "Our Father," and ask from Him every spiritual mercy as His promised gifts. These are poured out abundantly by the Holy Spirit on all who believe in Christ as the only-begotten Son of God.

According to St. John Chrysostom and others, "The Apostle, having said, 'that we might receive adoption,' showed that it is the portion of the inheritance appointed to us from of old.

"We had not yet received it until now because of the infancy of our understanding."

And Blessed Jerome writes: "That we are sons, the Apostle proves from the Spirit whom we have within ourselves.

"We would never have dared to cry, 'Our Father, who art in heaven,' if we had not recognized within ourselves the indwelling Spirit, who cries, 'Abba, Father!'

"Hence, just as the one who has the Spirit of God is a son to God, so the one who does not have the Spirit of God cannot be called a son to God."

To this Bishop Theophan adds: "As sonship to God is obtained by believers through the Lord Jesus Christ, so the inheritance also belongs to each believer through the same One.

"For this reason, in another place the Apostle calls believers heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ" (Rom 8:17; cf. Eph 1:14).

According to St. Chrysostom's observation, here the Apostle speaks to the Galatians as though saying: "If grace has made us free from slaves, perfect from infants, sons and heirs from strangers, then would it not be senseless and extremely ungrateful to abandon His grace and return to the former condition?"

It is also worthy of mention that, according to Blessed Jerome's explanation, the word "woman" (γυνή), mentioned in verse 4, by the property of the Greek language, means rather a woman, a female person, and not a wife.

This points to Christ's birth without a man, from a woman alone, by the action of the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:35).

Yet what was the previous discussion about, if not that every believer who has received the Spirit of God is a son? Therefore one may suppose that the Apostle wants to impress this: it is no longer fitting, proper, or possible for you to be a slave.

Formerly, enslavement to the elementary law had meaning, because this had been appointed by God the Father, and only for the Jews. Now the time appointed for it has ended. Subjection has no meaning even for a Jew, much less for anyone else.

For whom and for what are you doing this? God no longer looks with favor upon that old institution. It has done its work and has been abolished.

You cannot hope to receive anything through this labor and this humiliation into slavery, when God does not favor it. Nor is there anything to hope to receive, since you are already a son and therefore an heir.

You already possess that for which it would have been worth laboring under the yoke of servitude to the law. Why, then, would you voluntarily and without benefit or need crawl under this yoke?

“And if a son, then an heir of God through Jesus Christ.” It is the direct right of a son to be heir of his father. Likewise, it is the right of one who has become a son to God to be an heir of God.

Since sonship to God is received by believers through the Lord Jesus Christ, the inheritance also belongs to every believer through Him. Therefore elsewhere the Apostle calls believers “heirs of God” and “joint-heirs with Christ” (cf. Rom 8:17).

It has been appointed for those who believe in the Lord and put on Christ to be where He is. It cannot be otherwise. Such is the divine economy of our salvation.

Elsewhere Saint Paul connects the inheritance prepared beforehand for believers with the Spirit of grace. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, he says that the Spirit of grace is the pledge of the inheritance (cf. Eph 1:13-14).

The same thought applies here. You are heirs because you are sons, and you are sons because you have been begotten according to God by the Spirit, Who also cries in you: “Abba, Father!”

Know that as your sonship is substantial and not nominal, for you handle within yourselves the Spirit of adoption, so your inheritance is indisputable. In this same Spirit of adoption you have its pledge, the earnest that you will surely receive it.

The holy Apostle’s discourse in this section proceeds in the same order as in Gal 3:23-29. There, however, he brought everything to this: believers in the Lord have become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

They are heirs, that is, of what was promised to Abraham. What was promised to him was the blessing, in his Seed, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, of all nations for the sake of faith.

Therefore, there the inheritance means all the blessings of the Kingdom of grace. Here, however, the Apostle clearly carries the thought further, beyond the bounds of time. Calling believers heirs of God, he means the blessedness awaiting them in the Kingdom of glory.

Participation in the blessings of the Kingdom of grace serves as the pledge of that blessedness.

Let us conclude this section with the words of Saint Chrysostom: “If grace has made us free from slaves, perfect from infants, heirs and sons from strangers, would it not be unreasonable and extremely ungrateful to abandon this grace and return to the former state?”

“Take courage, therefore, O man,” cries Oecumenius. “You are no longer a slave, but a son of God and His heir. Through the Only-begotten Son of God, Who became incarnate and bore all that is ours, you are no longer a slave and no longer under the yoke of the law.

Attend to the blessing of the Most Holy Trinity. The Father sends the Son. The Son becomes incarnate. The Holy Spirit works together and, entering our hearts, teaches us to cry: ‘Abba, Father!’

How, then, is it not senseless for those who through Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit have become sons to God to turn back again to the law?”