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5th June 2025
ThursdayReflection
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Bob Hunter
A series of articles on Paul
'Sons, Not Slaves'
Galatians 3 v 26-4:11
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Paul wrote his letter to the churches of Galatia in response to their being told by people whom we call Judaizers that to be saved they had to be circumcised and obey the law of Moses in addition to believing in Jesus Christ.
He begins by stating that all can be sons and heirs by faith.
26 It is through faith that all of you are God's children in union with Christ Jesus. 27 You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. 28 So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham and will receive what God has promised. (GNT)
As an outward sign to others of their having becoming sons of God by believing in Christ Jesus and being united with him by the Holy Spirit, the Galatians were baptized by immersion in water.
Apparently after being baptized they put on new clothes, symbolizing the change that had taken place in them.
Because sons of God are equal in His sight, within His church "there is neither Jew nor Greek" and thus Gentile believers should not have to become Jews to be part of it.
Clearly Paul made this assertion against the claim of the Judaizers that the Galatian believers had to be circumcised and obey the law of Moses in addition to believing in Jesus Christ to be saved.
In Galatians 3:8 Paul referred to God's promise to Abraham,
"In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Subsequently God had applied His promises to Abraham to his offspring as well.
Paul assures them that by being united with Christ Jesus through faith they became heirs of the promises without having to do anything more.
"Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts"
seems to indicate that our becoming sons of God precedes God's imparting the Holy Spirit to us.
However Romans 8:14-17 seems to indicate that our receiving the Holy Spirit precedes our becoming sons of God.
The apparent contradiction suggests that Paul viewed the two experiences as being so closely related that they can be spoken of as occurring in either order.
"God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'"
seems to say that it is the Holy Spirit himself who cries out "Abba! Father!".
"Abba" is the Aramaic word for "Father." Jesus addressed God as "Abba" and in the Lord's Prayer taught his disciples (and us) similarly to call God "Abba" and look to him as children look to their fathers to provide for them.
Paul reminds the Galatians that before entering into a relationship with God they had served "those that by nature are not gods."
It is unclear whether Paul means that the "gods" whom the Galatians had worshipped were unreal, by describing them as "so-called gods," or whether he means that they were demons, as he calls them in 1 Corinthians 10:20-21.
Whichever he meant, clearly he viewed the Galatians as having been enslaved to those "gods" before their conversion.
Although by "I am afraid I may have laboured over you in vain" Paul may have just been expressing concern that his ministry over the Galatians was wasted, he may have meant more; namely, "that if they capitulate to circumcision he will indeed have 'laboured in vain' among them - because they will have severed themselves from Christ.
Here Paul may intend to evoke particularly Gal.3:4, "Have you experienced so much in vain?"
The various expressions of the Galatians' commitment to Christ along with Paul's ministry among them will prove "empty," "without purpose," if the Galatians should succumb to the message of the agitators by submitting to the law."
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This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
Bob Hunter
My name is Bob Hunter, and I am a retired teacher.
I lived most of my childhood and youth in northern Ontario and my adult life in central Newfoundland.
I spent most of my working years teaching a grade five class in Windsor Pentecostal Elementary School in Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland.
My wife, Leonora, and I have two children, Robert and Shekinah.
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