From Slaves to Sons

We come now to a very powerful, very intimate, very important portion of our text. The chapter break between 3 and 4 is unfortunate because it interrupts what otherwise is one unbroken thought.

This development which begins chapter 4 is the last stage in what has been an alternating argument by the apostle, which flows from the idea of a 'pedagogue' mentioned in 3:23-29.

God sent forth a Son in order to gain sons; in order to recapture lost family members and bring them back into the family.

He came to call those who were not members of His family and give them the opportunity to become members of His family through Adoption.

Adoption, then, is God's gracious gesture of placing those who lived against Him in slavery to sin into His own family; bestowing on them all of the riches in heaven that belong to His Son Jesus Christ by faith in Him.

Those who were once slaves to sin have now become sons and daughters of the living God through their faith in the "firstborn" Son Jesus Christ.