In the Roman Empire, families with large farms or estates had servants who lived on site and managed the property for the landowner.
He would be an experienced man who knew how to manage a property and run a household. The landowner would give this man authority to everything required to keep the property running well and turn a profit. Let’s imagine the wealthy landowner and the property manager both had children. Neither child would have any say so in the daily operations of the farm or how it was managed. If the father sent his son to work the farm, the boy would be under the authority of the property manager, just like any other servant in the house. Practically speaking, there was very little difference in property manager’s son and the property owners son. But actually, the property owner’s son was is in a far better position, because he was an heir who was enduring patiently until the time when he would received the inheritance.
Paul uses this situation as an example in Galatians 4:1-7 to give us some understanding in the situation the Old Testament saints were in before Christ came. They were under the “tutelage and governorship” of the Mosaic law. There were many sacrifices to carry out in the Old Testament, many ceremonies to perform. Many rules and laws to remember and keep. God gave these elementary and rudimentary means of worship to point those saints of God to the coming Messiah. They were not saved by works, but by faith and when the appointed time came, the time ordained before the foundation of the world, God the Father sent forth His Son, truly God and truly man, made flesh to live under the obligations of the law. Jesus redeemed those who were under the law, that we might receive the blessings of the adoption of Sons. This is pure sovereign grace. The work of redemption and justification is not based on what we do for God. We are saved through the finished work of Jesus Christ alone.
Those that the Father loved and those that Jesus died for and redeemed, receive the adoption of sons. We are made heirs of God. When parents adopt a child, it is the sole choice of the parents. Our adoption is not based on how good we were and remaining in the family of God is not based on how good we remain. We are in the family of God based on the work of Jesus Christ who redeemed those the Father had given him, and those whom the Holy Spirit seals. We cry out in tender and loving faith, to God our Father, prompted by the Holy Spirit, who seals our adoption and gives us full assurance of the faith in the justifying and saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. How blessed it is to live in the light and the freedom of the New Covenant enjoying the adoption of Sons in the full liberty of Jesus Christ!
