Paul explains to the Galatian Christians the privilege of being full-fledged adult sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Paul continues his extended argument documenting that the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ was God's intent from the beginning. Presenting his argument in response to the reasonings of the infiltrating Judaizers in Galatia, Paul has explained that the promise to Abraham preceded the Law (3:15-29), and the promises of blessing are received by faith rather than by the performance of law-observances (3:1-14).
The legalistic Judaizers advocated that the neophyte Galatian Christians needed to connect with the legacy of Abraham and become "sons of Abraham" by the performance of the demands of the Law, thus achieving a full status and stature of spiritual maturity as "sons of God." Paul, on the other hand, wanted to reiterate to the Galatian Christians that by God's grace in Jesus Christ received by faith they were already "sons of God" (3:26), Abraham's spiritual progeny (3:7,29), and heirs of all the blessings and promises of God (3:9,14,22,29). The period of immature childhood and adolescence was historically past. As Christians, the Galatians were "complete in Christ" (Col. 2:10), having received "all the things of God" (I Cor. 3:21-23), including "every spiritual blessing" (Eph. 1:3) and "everything pertaining to life and godliness" (II Pet. 1:3). Paul wanted the Galatians to recognize how spiritually rich (Eph. 3:8,16) they were as the heirs of God's promised blessings, so that they might enjoy their privileges as mature sons of God in Christ. That did not mean that they could not "grow in grace" (II Pet. 3:18), allowing for a more adequate representation of Christ's character in their behavior by faithful receptivity of His activity, but the maturity of sonship could not be meritoriously achieved through performance. Employing slightly altered metaphors comparing sons and heirs with slaves, Paul emphasizes the privilege of being full-fledged, adult sons of God in Jesus Christ.
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