Saturday 24 May 2025
So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. (v. 7)
Background
This is quite a difficult passage from Paul. It is written to predominantly Gentile Christians (ie people not from a Jewish background) in Galatia but also draws on motifs from the Jewish scriptures especially the motif of Exodus.
Basic to this passage is the understanding that God is the primary actor in world history and that God waited for the right moment to send Jesus into the world and then confirms that action by sending the Holy Spirit.
The passage uses both the first-person pronoun – ‘we’ and the second person – ‘you.’ It has been suggested that the first group are the Jews who have lived as slaves under the law, while the second group are the Gentiles, homeless children.
In both cases the old dispensations have been transcended and the Spirit confirms adoption for all and assures us of acceptance into the divine family, where we can address God as ‘Abba! Father.’
In verse 7 the pronoun shifts from plural to singular and addresses each individual. Each reader is confronted personally with what God has done in Jesus and asked to embrace their adoption into the divine family.
On this day in 1738 John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, moved from life as a slave to that as a son as he accepted God’s offer of free grace in Christ.
To Ponder:
- Do you feel that you can truly call God, ‘Abba’ the equivalent of ‘Daddy'?
- Which ‘elemental spirits of the world’ might we still be enslaved by?
Prayer
On this Wesley Day, we pray that God might speak to us as he did to Wesley all those years ago so that, like him, we may enjoy a new quality of relationship as sons and daughters of God by adoption. Amen.
Bible notes author: The Revd Jennifer Potter
Jennifer is a supernumerary minister living in the Croydon Circuit. She works as a part-time chaplain at the local MHA (Methodist Home for the Aged). She was previously a minister at Wesley’s Chapel in London.