Quotes & Notes on:
Galatians 4:6
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John Wesley's Notes:
And because ye-Gentiles who believe, are also thus
made his adult sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts likewise, crying, Abba, Father-Enabling you to call upon God both
with the confidence, and the tempers, of dutiful children. The Hebrew
and Greek word are joined together, to express the joint cry of the Jews
and Gentiles.
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:
* God. Lu 11:13; Joh 7:39; 14:16; Ro 5:5; 8:15-17; 2Co 1:22; Eph 1:13;
4:30
* the Spirit. Joh 3:34; 15:26; 16:7; Ro 5:5; 8:9,15; 1Co 15:45; Php
1:19; 1Pe 1:11 Re 19:10
* crying. Isa 44:3-5; Jer 3:4,19; Mt 6:6-9; Lu 11:2; Ro 8:26,27; Eph
2:18 Eph 6:18; Heb 4:14-16; Jude 1:20
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Adam Clarke's Commentary:
And because ye are sons] By faith in Christ Jesus, being redeemed
both from the bondage and curse of the law; GOD-the Father, called
generally the first person of the glorious TRINITY, hath sent forth the
SPIRIT-the Holy Ghost, the second person of that Trinity, of his
SON-Jesus Christ, the third person of the Trinity-crying, Abba, Father!
from the fullest and most satisfactory evidence that God, the Father,
Son, and Spirit, had become their portion. For the explanation of the
phrase, and why the Greek and Syriac terms are joined together here, see
ACC for Mr 14:36; and "Ro 8:15".
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Family Bible Notes:
Sent forth the Spirit; God by his Spirit has given you a filial
temper, and taught you to use the language not of servants, but of sons.
Abba; a Chaldee word for Father. Compare Ro 8:15,16, and notes. The only
sure evidence of being born of God, adopted into his family, and made
heirs of the blessings of his kingdom, is the possession of a filial
spirit towards our Father in heaven--a spirit of confidence, affection,
submission, and obedience; connected with faith in Christ and a hearty
reliance on him for salvation.
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1599 Geneva Bible Notes:
He shows that we are free and set at liberty in such a way that in
the meantime we must be governed by the Spirit of Christ, who while
reigning in our hearts, may teach us the true service of the Father. But
this is not to serve, but rather to enjoy true liberty, as it is fitting
for sons and heirs. (f) By that which follows he gathers that which went
before: for if we have his Spirit, we are his sons, and if we are his
sons, then we are free. (g) The Holy Spirit, who is both of the Father,
and of the Son. But there is a special reason why he is called the
Spirit of the Son, that is, because the Holy Spirit seals up our
adoption in Christ, and gives us a full assurance of it.
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People's New Testament Commentary:
Because ye are sons. The spirit is bestowed not to make us sons, but
because we have become sons by the faith. See Joh 1:12.
Crying, Abba, Father. See PNTC for Ro 8:15. Abba is simply the Syriac
for "father." It is found also in Mr 14:36. This spirit of adoption
helps the son to realize that he is a son, and to look up to God and to
address him, if a Semitic, as Abba; if a Greek as Pater; is an
Anglo-Saxon, as Father.
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Robertson's Word Pictures:
Because ye are sons (hoti este huioi). This is the reason for sending
forth the Son (Ga 4:4 and here). We were "sons" in God's elective
purpose and love. Hoti is causal (1Co 12:15; Ro 9:7). The Spirit of his
Son (to pneuma tou huioi autou). The Holy Spirit, called the Spirit of
Christ (Ro 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Php 1:19). The Holy Spirit
proceeds from the Father and from the Son (Joh 15:26). Crying, Abba,
Father (krazon Abba ho patêr). The participle agrees with pneuma neuter
(grammatical gender), not neuter in fact. An old, though rare in present
as here, onomatopoetic word to croak as a raven (Theophrastus, like
Poe's The Raven), any inarticulate cry like "the unuttered groanings" of
Ro 8:26 which God understands. This cry comes from the Spirit of Christ
in our hearts. Abba is the Aramaic word for father with the article and
ho patêr translates it. The articular form occurs in the vocative as in
Joh 20:28. It is possible that the repetition here and in Ro 8:15 may be
"a sort of affectionate fondness for the very term that Jesus himself
used" (Burton) in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mr 14:36). The rabbis
preserve similar parallels. Most of the Jews knew both Greek and
Aramaic. But there remains the question why Jesus used both in his
prayer. Was it not natural for both words to come to him in his hour of
agony as in his childhood? The same thing may be true here in Paul's
case.
Albert Barnes' Commentary:
And because ye are sons. As a consequence of your being adopted
into the family of God, and being regarded as his sons. It follows as a
part of his purpose of adoption that his children shall have the spirit
of the Lord Jesus.
The Spirit of his Son. The spirit of the Lord Jesus; the spirit which
animated him, or which he evinced. The idea is, that as the Lord Jesus
was enabled to approach God with the language of endearment and love, so
they would be. He, being the true and exalted Son of God, had the spirit
appropriate to such a relation; they being adopted, and made like him,
have the same spirit. The "spirit" here referred to does not mean, as I
suppose, the Holy Spirit as such; nor the miraculous endowments of the
Holy Spirit, but the spirit which made them like the Lord Jesus; the
spirit by which they were enabled to approach God as his children, and
use the reverent, and tender, and affectionate language of a child
addressing a father. It is that language used by Christians when they
have evidence of adoption; the expression of the warm, and elevated, and
glowing emotions which they have when they can approach God as their
God, and address him as their Father.
Crying. That is, the spirit thus cries, pueuma--krazon. Comp. See Barnes
for Ro 8:26, See Barnes for Ro 8:27. In Ro 8:15, it is, "wherewith we
cry."
Abba, Father. See Barnes for Ro 8:15. It is said in the Babylonian
Gemara, a Jewish work, that it was not permitted slaves to use the title
of Abba in addressing the master of the family to which they belonged.
If so, then the language which Christians are here represented as using
is the language of freemen, and denotes that they are not under the
servitude, of sin.
{a} "Spirit of his Son" Ro 8:15,17
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Jamieson-Faussett Brown:
because ye are sons--The gift of the Spirit of prayer is the
consequence of our adoption. The Gentile Galatians might think, as the
Jews were under the law before their adoption, that so they, too, must
first be under the law. Paul, by anticipation, meets this objection by
saying, YE ARE sons, therefore ye need not be as children (Ga 4:1) under
the tutorship of the law, as being already in the free state of "sons"
of God by faith in Christ (Ga 3:26), no longer in your nonage (as
"children," Ga 4:1). The Spirit of God's only Begotten Son in your
hearts, sent from, and leading you to cry to, the Father, attests your
sonship by adoption: for the Spirit is the "earnest of your inheritance"
(Ro 8:15,16; Eph 1:13). "It is because ye are sons that God sent forth"
(the Greek requires this translation, not "hath sent forth") into OUR
(so the oldest manuscripts read for "your," in English Version) hearts
the Spirit of His son, crying, "Abba, Father" (Joh 1:12). As in Ga 4:5
he changed from "them," the third person, to "we," the first person, so
here he changes from "ye," the second person, to "our," the first
person: this he does to identify their case as Gentiles, with his own
and that of his believing fellow countrymen, as Jews. In another point
of view, though not the immediate one intended by the context, this
verse expresses, "Because ye are sons (already in God's electing purpose
of love), God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts," &c.:
God thus, by sending His Spirit in due time, actually conferring that
sonship which He already regarded as a present reality ("are") because
of His purpose, even before it was actually fulfilled. So Heb 2:13,
where "the children" are spoken of as existing in His purpose, before
their actual existence.
the Spirit of his Son--By faith ye are one with the Son, so that what is
His is yours; His Sonship ensures your sonship; His Spirit ensures for
you a share in the same. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he
is none of His" (Ro 8:9). Moreover, as the Spirit of God proceeds from
God the Father, so the Spirit of the Son proceeds from the Son: so that
the Holy Ghost, as the Creed says, "proceedeth from the Father and the
Son." The Father was not begotten: the Son is begotten of the Father;
the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son.
crying--Here the SPIRIT is regarded as the agent in praying, and the
believer as His organ. In Ro 8:15, "The Spirit of adoption" is said to
be that whereby WE cry, "Abba, Father"; but in Ro 8:26, "The SPIRIT
ITSELF maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered." The believers' prayer is His prayer: hence arises its
acceptability with God.
Abba, Father--The Hebrew says, "Abba" (a Hebrew term), the Greek,
"Father" ("Pater," a Greek term in the original), both united together
in one Sonship and one cry of faith, "Abba, Father." So "Even so ('Nai,'
Greek) Amen (Hebrew)," both meaning the same (Re 1:7). Christ's own
former cry is the believers' cry, "Abba, Father" (Mr 14:36).
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Spurgeon Devotional Commentary:
Here is our true position, we are moved by the Spirit to claim our
adoption, and we no more live in bondage to the law. Many even among
Christians are afraid of being too sure of their sonship, lest they
should be presumptuous; this is very dishonoring to their heavenly
Father.
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William Burkitt's Notes:
As if the apostle had said, "That you are now, under the gospel, become
and made the sons of God, appeareth by this, that God hath sent the
Spirit of his natural Son into your hearts to authorize and enable you
to call upon him, not only as your God, but as your Father: The gospel
assuring you, that you are no longer in that servile condition you were
in whilst under the law; but God will deal with you now upon gospel
terms, and justify you by faith, without the deeds of the law: Now God
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts."
Observe here, 1. The title given to the Holy Spirit; it is called the
Spirit of God's Son; that is, the Spirit of Christ, because it is the
same Spirit which abode upon him that resteth upon us, and because the
Spirit is purchased and procured for us by the blood of the Son. Those
rivers of living water, by which the effusion of the Spirit is
expressed, do flow out of Christ's pierced side; Christ purchased the
spirit for us, before he sent him from heaven to us.
Observe, 2. The act respecting his person, God hath sent forth. This
imports not any change of place, as if he were more distant from the
Father when he was thus sent, than he was before; but it notes his
commission for some special work in and upon the creature.
Observe, 3. The objects which have the benefits of this act; God hath
sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts; that is, into the hearts of
believers; signifying that the work here intended is an inward work, and
a saving work, I will put my Spirit in them; Eze 36:27 not into the
brain, to dwell there by common unsanctified gifts, but into the heart,
where all the habits of grace are planted, and from whence all the
issues of life proceed.
Observe, 4. The office which the Holy Spirit performs in the believer's
heart: First, it cries; secondly, it cries, Abba, Father: The Spirit
cries, by enabling us through his gracious influences and assistances to
cry or pray unto God; and it cries, Father, Father: The repetition made,
and the word redoubled, denotes the strength and vehemency of the
desire, and speaks a passionate and extraordinary concernment of soul,
for obtaining the mercy desired, and the blessings prayed for.
Learn hence, 1. That there are three sacred persons in the blessed
Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: all are held forth to us in
this single verse, yea, in this single clause of the verse, God hath
sent forth the Spirit of his Son.
Learn, 2. That the Spirit is not a quality or operation, but a person
that has a real being and subsistence; else the phrase of being sent
could not be properly applied to him.
Learn, 3. That the Holy Spirit proceeds both from the Father and Son;
for he is the Spirit of the Son, and is sent by the Father: There is an
order among the divine persons, though no priority of being.
Learn, 4. That the spirit of adoption is a spirit of supplication; and
this spirit of supplication is the great privilege and advantage of
believers under the gospel, for it teaches us what to pray for, and the
manner how we are to pray; it joineth with our prayers his own effectual
intercession; it gives us a right and privilege to come unto God as unto
a Father, and gives us also confidence and assurance, as sons, to be
accepted with him.
Learn, 5. That the great privilege of adoption is both discovered and
improved by the help of the Spirit of Christ: Our privilege of sonship
under the gospel excels by far theirs under the law:
1. In point of manifestation and clearness.
2. As to fulness and amplitude of enjoyment.
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Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary:
Here, in his own person, the apostle describes the spiritual or hidden
life of a believer. The old man is crucified, Ro 6:6, but the new man is
living; sin is mortified, and grace is quickened. He has the comforts
and the triumphs of grace; yet that grace is not from himself, but from
another. Believers see themselves living in a state of dependence on
Christ. Hence it is, that though he lives in the flesh, yet he does not
live after the flesh. Those who have true faith, live by that faith; and
faith fastens upon Christ's giving himself for us. He loved me, and gave
himself for me. As if the apostle said, The Lord saw me fleeing from him
more and more. Such wickedness, error, and ignorance were in my will and
understanding, that it was not possible for me to be ransomed by any
other means than by such a price. Consider well this price. Here notice
the false faith of many. And their profession is accordingly; they have
the form of godliness without the power of it. They think they believe
the articles of faith aright, but they are deceived. For to believe in
Christ crucified, is not only to believe that he was crucified, but also
to believe that I am crucified with him. And this is to know Christ
crucified. Hence we learn what is the nature of grace. God's grace
cannot stand with man's merit. Grace is no grace unless it is freely
given every way. The more simply the believer relies on Christ for every
thing, the more devotedly does he walk before Him in all his ordinances
and commandments. Christ lives and reigns in him, and he lives here on
earth by faith in the Son of God, which works by love, causes obedience,
and changes into his holy image. Thus he neither abuses the grace of
God, nor makes it in vain.
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Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole
Bible:
(No comment on this verse).
- The Fourfold Gospel:
(No comment on this verse).
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