Living by Faith - Galatians

Heirship

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 11-19

Genre: Talk

Track: 11

Dictation Name: Tape 06A

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Let us worship God. Thus saith the Lord, ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jesus said, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Let us pray.

Oh God our Father, who has made known Thy love unto us through Jesus Christ, Thy presence through Thy Holy Spirit; give us grace so to walk day by day that in all that we say and do we serve Thee with all our heart, mind, and being. Against the darkness of this world we raise aloft Thy standard, Thy law word; and that by Thy Holy Spirit we become triumphant in the face of all things. Oh Lord, the heathen rage and conspire together against Thee, against Thy kingdom, and against Thy Son. We thank Thee that Thou who dost sit on the throne dost hold them in derision; but in Thy due time Thou shalt smite and destroy them with a rod of iron. Teach us so to work, to watch, to pray, that as members of Thy kingdom we may look forward to Thy triumph, and may seek Thy will in all things. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.

Our scripture this morning is from Galatians 4:1-7. Our subject: Heirship. Galatians 4:1-7, Heirship.

“4 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;

2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:

4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

One of the problems in interpreting the Bible is that men over the centuries have looked at what is written in terms of their culture, their context, their background. And so it has been read in terms of Greek influence, in terms of the idea of evolution, in terms of a variety of presuppositions which never existed in the mind of Saint Paul.

To being with, there is no understanding of this entire chapter, in fact, if we begin by misunderstanding the first verse. What does Paul mean when he speaks of being a child differing nothing from a servant; and being under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father? Is he talking in terms of an evolutionary presupposition? Of a developmental presupposition from immaturity to maturity? Not at all. We totally misunderstand everything that Paul has to say if we so read it. But at least for two centuries, this is the way it has been read.

Now, let’s look at those verses as they have been read, especially in this century. The idea commonly taught is that the Old Testament era was the childhood of the chosen people, but with the coming of Christ we now have reached maturity, and are able to live by grace; whereas before we had to live by law; and so we were kept under the law until the religious consciousness of people had developed to the point where God could bring Christ into the world, and the law was then done away with, and people now could live in terms of grace.

The whole trouble with that assumption is that it is unrelated to anything that Paul is talking about. If you go back a few centuries to John Gill, one of the great commentators of the day, you find that he very clearly saw that it did not have to do with any psychological development, but with the law, the law with regard to the status of people. What does that mean? Well, you can be in a legal status whereby you are an heir and you are fifty, and you are sixty, but you still don’t have control of that which is already legally yours. I have known people whose parents died, but by the terms of the will they did not assume control until they were fifty or sixty. That is not unusual.

What Paul is talking about is precisely that. The reference to being a child who differs nothing from a servant, and later in verse 7: “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son” is entirely with reference to the legal status of mankind. If we go back to verse 29 of the preceding chapter, the verse immediately before chapter 4:1, we read: “And if ye be Christ’s, then ye are Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise.”

Now this is what he is talking about in the fourth chapter. How shall we look at the Old Testament? We find again and again a reference to the patriarchs and to the prophets as servants of the Lord. For example, Moses speaks of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as servants of God. In the Psalms we read of Abraham as God’s servant; Jeremiah speaks of the prophets as God’s servants; Isaiah refers to Christ who is to come as ‘the servant of the Lord.’ Why? Because as long as mankind was a part of the old humanity, under Adam, under the curse, living in the fall; before the coming of Christ and the atonement, even though they were redeemed through the blood of lambs, typifying the atoning blood of Christ, they were living as heirs according to the promise. The promise of the estate was to come with Christ, who is spoken of by Paul as the first fruits of the new creation.

So that, the new creation begins with Christ’s resurrection, and Christ after the resurrection says to His disciples: “You are now the heirs, go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, bring them into the kingdom; you are the heirs. Go forth and claim your estate.” And in the parable He taught just before his crucifixion concerning the kingdom, He spoke of the kingdom being given to another people; and this was to begin after His resurrection. Before Christ’s resurrection, the inheritance was only a promise; but with His resurrection it became a legal fact, so that all believers with the resurrection cease to be children, in terms of the law of inheritance, and became heirs. They were now legally in a different status.

We cannot go back and say of those who were spoken of as children, that they were children in the sense of being young in years, or young in understanding, or lacking maturity in their awareness of the faith. Can you say that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or any of the saints of old were children compared to us? Children in the sense of not having the sense and understanding that we do? That would be presumptuous, but it is the kind of presumption that prevails in most pulpits today, and has for this century emphatically and increasingly for the past few centuries; and it has no reference to what Paul is talking about.

We are not on the same level as Isaiah or Abraham, or many other saints of the Old Testament. But legally we have a status they did not have, because Christ is come, the atonement has taken place. The new humanity began with Jesus Christ, and we are citizens of the new creation.

So, we have to begin this section of Galatians with an understanding that Paul is talking about our legal status as heirs. Paul, as he writes, sees the law in a number of senses. In Galatians, in Romans, in at least three senses very commonly; first as a death sentence against all who are in Adam; and this sentence is fulfilled in Christ, put into force against Him, and by His atoning death we are freed from the law as a death penalty. Second, the law is sometimes referred to by Paul as the justice of God, as our way of life in the Holy Spirit. And then third, the law is sometimes linked to the promise of God, as a confirmation of the promises, as he says in Galatians 3:15 of our heirship in Christ. The law is a confirmation that this is the will of God, the purpose of God, and tells us how the heir is to live.

John Gill said that the whole discourse of Galatians is concerning the abrogation of the ceremonial law, under which the Old Testament saints were being as children under tutors. He did not mean thereby, as babies, as inferior, but that the child and the heir have no difference than servants or slaves in the eyes of the law, they cannot touch the estate. And Paul says as such, we were under tutors or governors, which can be rendered: ‘guardians who controlled the heirs person,’ and ‘stewards who control his property.’ Protective care, not a repressive one.

In other words, the estate is being cared for until the appointed time by the Father, until the time appointed with the Father, that we can assume custody of the estate.

Now given this meaning, it follows therefore that since the coming of Christ, we as Christians have a duty, now, having custody of the estate, to reclaim it, to develop it, to exercise dominion, and to bring all things into captivity to Jesus Christ. It is thus a protective care, until Christ, and now a responsibility that we must fulfill.

Then again we have a great problem in verse three, because of the wild interpretations, especially since the rise of modernism, and the sad fact is that Bible believers have picked up the interpretations of modernists, and read them into the text. “Even so we when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.”

There are any number of wild explanations of what the elements of this world are. There are many who say it refers to the signs of the zodiac and astrological influences; others say that it is the spirits that supposedly inhabit natural forces; others say it is the law, and so on and on and on.

But again, John Gill said the elements were the ritual elements of the law, that is the sacrificial system. (Conny Baren Housen?) more than a century ago translated this, and insisted it meant literally: “The elementary lesson of outward things” that is, the sacrificial system.

In other words, before the coming of Christ, we were under the elementary lesson of the sacrifices, the sacrifices of the temple which told the believers of the Old Testament: ‘The blood of bulls and of goats, the blood of the lamb, will not save you; it typifies the unspotted lamb of God who shall come and remove all your sins.’ And how are the elements of this world, that is the elementary things, removed? Why, “When the fulness of the time had come,” (when the right time had come) “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” ‘made of a woman;’ that is a reference to virgin birth. ‘Made under the law’ a part of the old humanity, although without sin; “To redeem them that were under the law,” (under the indictment of the law) “that we might receive the adoption of sons.”

In other words, all that Paul is talking about leads to a legal point, it begins with a legal point- there is going to be a change of status with Christ. The conclusion, it leads to the adoption of sons, which is a legal fact. “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”

‘Elements of this world’ refers, therefore, to the sacrificial system. The elementary things that instruct us concerning that which is to come, and Paul goes on to tell us what it is: Christ’s redemptive work, which leads to our adoption as sons and heirs. Because Christ has come, there is now a change in our legal status, so that we are, as verse 7 says: “No more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

What doest this? The atonement. Saint John Chrysostom in the days of the early church said of verses 4-5 and I quote: “Here he states two objects and effects of the Incarnation, deliverance from evil and supply of good, things which none could compass but Christ. They are these; deliverance from the curse of the Law,” (the death penalty) “and promotion to son ship. Fitly does he say, that we might “receive,” “(be paid,)” implying that it was due; for the promise was of old time made for these objects to Abraham, as the Apostle has himself shown at great length. And how does it appear that we have become sons? He has told us one mode, in that we have put on Christ who is the Son; and now he mentions another, in that we have received the Spirit of adoption.”

All this comes in God’s fullness of time, Paul says, His perfect timing. All who are alive then cease to be child-servants, and became adopted sons. The disciples were servants one day, then the next with the resurrection became sons, members of the family. To all of us in every area, since then, have the same adoption and are sons. And therefore Paul tells us the Holy Spirit now prays within us, and we cry Abba Father, knowing our place in the family of God.

Now Paul speaks of these things often, as for example in Romans 8:15-17 where he says also: “15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

Because there is a legal change in our status to sons and heirs, there is also an inner change to joy, even in suffering or tribulation. We are now heirs of God’s kingdom and citizens of the new creation.

The Pharisees, in seeking to reduce Christians to the status of servants were sinning. These Pharisees in the church saw the kingdom as future, rather than begun with Christ’s resurrection, and there are many like them today. They reduced believers thus to the status of servants, and they looked to the law for justification rather than sanctification and dominion. Moreover, they imposed themselves as an elite leadership on believers.

The modern antinomians see the Pharisees as right when they insist that prior to Christ men were justified by the law. Against this Moses himself, Paul says, is witness. We have the same salvation in the Old Testament and in the New, the blood of the lamb. To believe that God ever allowed salvation by works of the law is to say that God could be indebted to man for something man did or gave to God, whereby he obligated God. To believe that scripture ever or anywhere gives us such a plan of salvation is to give ground to the Pharisees and to pervert God’s word. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, Thy word is truth, and we thank Thee that according to Thy word we have the adoption of sons. Give us now the grace, the strength, the faith in Thy Spirit, that as sons we may reclaim our inheritance from the hands of the enemy, and bring every area of life and thought into captivity to Jesus Christ. In His name we pray, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? We must remember that one of the problems of our time has been the rise of psychology replacing theology, and with the rise of psychology everything has been reduced to a psychological level, and therefore the argument of Paul in Galatians has been very seriously misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Well, if there are no questions, let us bow our heads in prayer.

Lord we thank Thee that Thou hast such great things in store for us in Christ, that we are heirs of the kingdom; and as heirs have a duty to take hold of our inheritance, to reclaim all things for Christ our king. Bless us in this task. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day… [tape ends]