NOTES for Gal 4:4-7

Speaking of adoption as the spiritual state of a Christian, Paul quite unexpectedly continues the tradition connected with the parables of the Savior Himself and rooted in the preaching of the later prophets. The subject is the description of a person's relationship with God by the example of family relationships, sometimes spousal, sometimes filial. Hosea had already said that the relationship between God and an individual person, or even an entire people, is like a family relationship, a spousal one: for in a normal family no one relies on the law; a marriage contract is usually signed in case of divorce, and happy spouses rarely remember it.

It is the same with the covenant that the Jewish people made with God: if one demands from God what is due by law, there is a chance of receiving nothing. Too often and too seriously had the people violated the laws that were the condition of the covenant for them now to count on anything. But if God treats them as His children, not orienting Himself by the law, but following only that love with which He is full even toward the sinner, then perhaps there is still something to hope for...

In the Savior's parables this "family" theme continues: in a house one can be a slave, a hired worker, or the master's son. Both the slave and the hired worker can count only on what is due them by law, and the hired worker can receive more than the slave by law. But a slave, under certain conditions, can be adopted: after all, the subject is patriarchal slavery, when a slave was not very different from a younger member of the family.

The Jews never knew any other kind of slavery. A slave is a member of the household; a hired worker is an outsider. The outsider has nothing to count on, but a household member always has hope. Paul adds: by law we are all slaves, but there is One who can help us receive adoption if we want this and turn to Him. In the Father's house adoption cannot be received in any other way, but by turning to the One whom the Father sends to free His slaves, one can cease being a slave and become a son of one's Father. As a gift. And receive the Kingdom as an inheritance. Also as a gift. Not by law, but by love.

We live in an extraordinary time, several persons before Christ could only dream and pray, the period, that came true God’s plan for our salvation. This time of fullness, when we can, as children, be joyful. Even if we don’t know the adoption of sons, which Christ brought to us, even if we don’t accept him it - the very period, in which we live, has changed. And each day that begins, although good and evil will be in it, remains a time of hope and joy, which God brought into the world.

We will never understand fully what miracle took place two thousand years ago. We can only name some aspects of this incomprehensible event. In the Nativity, an astounding revelation of God about Himself is given to us: it turns out that the One God has an Only-Begotten Son, and this does not contradict the unity of God. But beyond this, the Son, being "greater" than the whole world, enters and is contained within this world, coming into it as a human Child. He is born into this world like all children, having passed through all the stages of development in the womb, and this is the One in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. He receives His human body from the Virgin, who preserved her virginity even in the Nativity.

Further, it turns out that not all time is the same, since there exists a "fullness of time": that moment when God's age-old care in educating humanity leads to the appearance, in this world lying in evil, of such a young Virgin who was able to receive into herself the whole fullness of God's grace... One can keep listing and listing further... But it is better simply to rejoice in this miracle and bring this joy to all people, who so need joy.

We can probably never understand to the end, which miracle occurred two thousand years ago. We can only name certain parts of this inconceivable event. God's striking revelation about Himself is given to us in Birth: it turns out that there is a Only-begotten Son to the Unique God, and this doesn’t contradict the unity of God.

But, besides it, the Son, being "more" than this world, enters, houses in this world, coming as a human Baby. He is born in this world, as every child, having passed all the stages of the prenatal development, - and it is the One, in Whom all the plenitude of the Divinity lives in flesh. He accepts the human body of the Virgin, who kept her virginity at the Birth.

It turns out then that the period of times is discord, since exists "the fullness of the time" - the moment, when God’s concerns of several centuries about man’s education bring into existence in this world full of evil such a young Virgin, who could be able to accept in herself all the fullness of God’s grace... We can continue has to enumerate and enumerate... But it is simply better to rejoice for this miracle and to bring this joy to all people, needy of joy.

Good donation from God, shown in the Christ and proposed to each of us, - it is unique for everyone. Jesus Christ has unique relationships with each of us, and that’s why His gift is unique. And since these gifts are qualitatively diverse, it is impossible to compare them according with the type "more - less" or "worse-better". Which gift is indeed more or better - a good hearing or ability in movements? We don’t have to condemn from the height of our gift those who have not this gift, but instead, it is necessary to learn to combine the "pluses" of every gift in our common life-existence. So it will be a genuine Church, the Body of Christ, where all organs serve each other and total unity of all the fullness of the gift accepted by them.

Paul compares the state of a person who follows the Torah with the position of a household slave who can be adopted and who in that case receives the same rights as the master's natural sons. Such a practice was known in Jewish society, where a household slave was effectively a junior member of the family and differed from a member of the household only in that, in a legal sense, in terms of his rights in the house, he never grew up, as it were, but remained for life the younger and therefore unequal member of the large family. A person who follows the Torah finds himself in the house of the heavenly Father in much the same position simply because the Torah cannot give him anything more.

The Torah defines a person's responsibility before God without giving him any rights, since a person can have no rights before God by definition. A person simply finds himself completely in God's power, whether he realizes this fact or not. The Torah allows a person to recognize the obvious and, in the long run, to receive freedom and the fullness of life. But not in the sense of merely recognizing one's responsibility; otherwise freedom would turn out to be only necessity recognized and accepted as inevitable.

A person's recognition of his responsibility is only the first necessary step that makes it possible to build conscious relationships with God as with his heavenly Father. In the process of such spiritual growth, the Torah gradually ceases to be a legal or moral code for a person and becomes an inner imperative, an inner Torah that determines his life no longer from outside but from within. But while sin has any power over a person at all, he cannot fully entrust himself to God as a child, in the normal case, trusts a father.

God Himself must take the decisive step toward the person in order to free him from the power of sin, and then the person will be able to become a living Torah. Then nothing will remain in his life except what determines his relationship with God, giving it form and quality, so that the Torah as something separate from the person himself ceases to exist, even as an inner imperative. This is precisely the step toward people that God takes in Christ, and therefore a return to the Torah as a moral code or as a system of religious prescriptions is, for a Christian, an unconditional step backward, from sonship to slavery, about which the apostle warns the recipients of his letter.