that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.
Parallel Translations
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that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.
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to redeme the which were vnder the lawe: that we thorow eleccion myght receave the inheritaunce that belongeth vnto the naturall sonnes.
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That hee might redeeme them which were vnder the Law, that we might receiue the adoption of the sonnes.
Cross-references (21)
Passages linked to Galatians 4:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Hebrews 9:15 For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
- Ephesians 1:5 having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,
- 1 Peter 1:18-20 knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ, who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake,
- Ephesians 1:7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
- Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”
- Hebrews 9:12 nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.
- Revelation 5:9 They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,
- Romans 8:23 Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.
- Galatians 3:26 For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus.
- Galatians 4:7 So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
- John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:
- Romans 9:4 who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;
- Colossians 1:13-20 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
- Titus 2:14 who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
- Romans 8:19 For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
- Ephesians 5:2 Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.
- Luke 1:68 “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people;
- Galatians 4:21 Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law?
- Matthew 20:28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
- Hebrews 1:3 His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,
- Acts 20:28 Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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Martin Luther 1535 · Public Domain VERSE 5. That we might receive the adoption of…
VERSE 5. That we might receive the adoption of sons.
Paul still has for his text Gen 22:18, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." In the course of his Epistle he calls this promise of the blessing righteousness, life, deliverance from the Law, the testament, etc. Now he also calls the promise of blessing "the adoption of sons," the inheritance of everlasting life.
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What ever induced God to adopt us for His children and heirs? What claim can men who are subservient to sin, subject to the curse of the Law, and worthy of everlasting death, have on God and eternal life? That God adopted us is due to the merit of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who humbled Himself under the Law and redeemed us law-ridden sinners.
Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 5. That we might receive the adoption. The fathers,…
5. That we might receive the adoption. The fathers, under the Old Testament, were certain of their adoption, but did not so fully as yet enjoy their privilege. Adoption, like the phrase, “the redemption of our body,” (Romans 8:23,) is here put for actual possession. As, at the last day, we receive the fruit of our redemption, so now we receive the fruit of adoption, of which the holy fathers did not partake before the coming of Christ; and therefore those who now burden the church with an excess of ceremonies, defraud her of the just right of adoption.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The adoption of the sons of God, is from…
The adoption of the sons of God, is from everlasting, but is revealed and showed in the time appointed for it.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 5 To redeem them that were under the law,…
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Ver. 5. To redeem them, &c.] To buy them off, who were in worse case than the Turkish galley slaves chained to an oar.
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That we might receive the adoption] That is, the possession of our adoption, the full enjoyment of our inheritance.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain This makes it appear, that Christ’s being under the…
This makes it appear, that Christ’s being under the law must be understood as well of the moral as of the ceremonial law, that is, subject to the precepts of it, as well as to the curse of it; for if the end of this being born under the law, was to redeem those that were under it, that he had not reached by being merely under the ceremonial law; for the Gentiles were not under that law, but only under the moral law; and they also were to be redeemed, and to receive the great privilege of
adoption, or rather, the rights of adopted children; which (some think) is to be understood here, rather than what is strictly to be understood by the term of adoption, viz. a right to be called and to be the sons of God. Others, by adoption, understand that full state of liberty of which the apostle had been before speaking, in opposition to that state of childhood and nonage in which believers were until the times of the gospel; for, Gal 5:1, we shall find that that was a liberty wherewith Christ made us free: and indeed this last sense seemeth best to agree with what the apostle had before said, Gal 4:1-3, though the other senses are not to be excluded.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain To redeem them that were under the law,.... By…
To redeem them that were under the law,.... By whom are meant chiefly the Jews, who are elsewhere represented as in and under the law, in distinction from the Gentiles who were without it; see Rom 2:12 the Gentiles indeed, though they were not under the law of Moses, yet were not without law to God, they were under the law of nature. The law was given to Adam as a covenant of works, and not to him as a single person, but as a federal head to all his posterity; hence he sinning, and they in him, they all came under its sentence of condemnation and death, God's elect not excepted, and who are the persons said to be redeemed; for Christ was not sent to redeem all that were under the law; for as all mankind were included in it as a covenant of works made with Adam, and all are transgressors of it, the whole world is pronounced guilty before God by it, and liable to the curse of it; but not all mankind, only some out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, are redeemed by Christ, even all the elect, whether among Jews or Gentiles. The chosen among the Jews seem to be here principally designed; the redemption of them, which is the end of Christ's being sent, intends not only a deliverance of them from sin and Satan, and the world, to whom they were in bondage, but from the law under which they were; from the bondage of the ceremonial, and from the curse and condemnation of the moral law:
that we might receive the adoption of children; by which may be meant, both the grace, blessing, and privilege of adoption, and the inheritance adopted to; both are received, and that in consequence of redemption by Christ; and such as receive the one will also receive the other. Adoption, as a blessing of grace, exists before it is received; nor does the reception of it add anything to the thing itself; it was in God's designation from all eternity, who predestinated his chosen ones unto it by Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will; it was provided, laid up, and secured for them in the everlasting covenant; and is part of that grace given them in Christ before the world began; but sin intervening, whereby the law was broken, obstacles were thrown in the way of God's elect receiving and enjoying this privilege in their own persons; wherefore Christ was sent to redeem them from sin and the law, and by so doing remove these obstructions, that so they might receive this privilege in a way consistent with the righteousness and holiness of God, as well as with his grace and goodness: receiving of it shows it to be a gift, a free grace gift, and not owing to any merit of the creature; faith is the hand which receives it, as it does all other blessings, as Christ himself, grace out of his fulness, righteousness, pardon, &c. and has no more causal influence on this than on any of these; faith does not make any the sons of God, or put them among the children; but receives the power, the authority, the privilege from God through Christ, under the witnessings of the spirit of adoption; whereby they become such, and have a right to the heavenly inheritance, which they shall hereafter enjoy.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain To redeem those under the law - From the…
To redeem those under the law - From the curse of it, and from that low, servile state. That we - Jews who believe. Might receive the adoption - All the privileges of adult sons.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. To redeem them] εξαγοραση. To pay down…
Verse 5. To redeem them] εξαγοραση. To pay down a price for them, and thus buy them off from the necessity of observing circumcision, offering brute sacrifices, performing different ablutions, c., &c.
That we might receive the adoption of sons.] Which adoption we could not obtain by the law for it is the Gospel only that puts us among the children, and gives us a place in the heavenly family. On the nature of adoption See Clarke on Ro 8:15.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain To redeem them - By his death as an…
To redeem them - By his death as an atoning sacrifice; see the note at Gal 3:13.
Them that were under the law - Sinners, who had violated the Law, and who were exposed to its dread penalty.
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That we might receive the adoption of sons - Be adopted as the sons or the children of God; see Joh 1:12, note; Rom 8:15, note.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain To--Greek, "That He might redeem."
To--Greek, "That He might redeem."
them . . . under the law--primarily the Jews: but as these were the representative people of the world, the Gentiles, too, are included in the redemption (Gal 3:13).
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receive--The Greek implies the suitableness of the thing as long ago predestined by God. "Receive as something destined or due" (Luk 23:41; Jo2 1:8). Herein God makes of sons of men sons of God, inasmuch as God made of the Son of God the Son of man [AUGUSTINE on Psalm 52].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. Them—The we of Gal_4:3.
5. Them—The we of Gal_4:3.
Receive the adoption of sons—Parallel to the emancipating the child from his servile minor state as a servant into his free sonship and inheritance.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. Born under the law, our Blessed Lord not…
5. Born under the law, our Blessed Lord not only in His most holy life fulfilled all the commandments of the law, but in His death He satisfied its conditions by bearing its penalty, and redeeming us from its curse; born of a woman, He became the Head and representative of the human race, that in Him we might become sons of God. Possibly the wider rendering ‘under law’ may be correct, in which case the redemption includes expressly what it does by implication—all mankind.
the adoption of sons] Men become sons of God by adoption; Christ is the Son of God by eternal generation.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (5) To redeem them that were under the law.—To…
(5) To redeem them that were under the law.—To redeem, or ransom, at the price of His death, both Jew and Gentile at once from the condemnation under which the law, to which they were severally subject, placed them, and also from the bondage and constraint which its severe discipline involved.
That we might receive the adoption of sons.—Redemption is followed by adoption. The admission of the believer into the Messianic kingdom, with its immunities from sin and from law, implies an admission into the Messianic family, of which God is the Father and Christ the Eldest Son, “first born amongst many brethren.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain To redeem them that were under the Law (ina…
To redeem them that were under the Law (ina touv uJpomon ejxagorash); that he might redeem (Greek, buy off) them which were under the Law. In what way Christ bought God"s people off, not only from the curse, but also from the dominion of the Law, has been stated by the apostle above, at Gal_3:13, "Christ bought us off (Cristorasen) from the curse of the Law by being made on our behalf a curse" (see note). But why, in order to effect this object, was it prerequisite, as it is here implied that it was, that he should be himself "brought under the Law"? The directions which the Law in Deu_21:22, 23 gave with respect to those "hanged on a tree" were apparently held by Joshua (Jos_8:29 Jos_10:26, Jos_10:27) to apply also to the case of persons so hanged who were not Israelites. If so, does it not follow (an objector may say) that Jesus, even if not an Israelite under the Law, would, however, by being crucified, have fallen under the curse of the Law, and thereby annihilated the Law for all who by faith should become partakers with him, whether Jews or Gentiles? why, then, should be have been brought under the Law? The objection is met by the consideration that, in order that Christ might abrogate the Law by becoming subject to its curse, it was necessary that he should himself be perfectly acceptable to God, not only as being the eternal "Son of his love," but also in the entire completeness of his life as a man, and, therefore, by perfect obedience to the will of God as declared in the Law, under which it had pleased God to place his people. The Law, whatever the degradation which its ceremonial institute inferred for "the sons of God" subjected to it, was, nevertheless, for the time, God"s manifest ordinance, to which all who sought to serve him were bound to submit them selves. They could not be righteous before him unless they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. (Luk_1:6) That we might receive the adoption of sons (ina than ajpolabwmen); that is, that our adoptive sonship might be actually and in full measure made over to us. The" we" recites God"s people; the same persons as those indicated by the preceding phrase, "those which were under the Law," which phrase was not meant to define one particular class among God"s people, but to describe the condition in which God"s people had been placed. Their Father had put them under the Law with the view of their being at his appointed time bought off from the Law and admitted to the full enjoyment of their filial privileges. This purpose of their Father, signified beforehand in the promises to Abraham, explains the article before uiJoqesian: it was the adoptive sonship which had been guaranteed to them. Hence the use here of the verb ajpolabwmen instead of labwmen: for the prepositional prefix of this compound verb has always its force; generally denoting our receiving a thing in some way due to us, answering to its force in the verb ajpodidwmi, repay: sometimes our receiving a thing in full measure. (comp. Luk_6:34, 35 16:25 18:30 23:41; Rom_1:27; Col_3:24 2Jn_1:8) Ina Luk_15:27 it is receiving back one lost. The second ina is subordinate to the first; the deliverance of God"s people from the Law was in order to their introduction into their complete state of sonship. The noun uiJoqesi does not appear to occur in any Greek writer except St. Paul; though qesqai uiJon uiJov, uiJoqetov oJ katasin pathr, are found in various authors. After the analogy of other compound verbal nouns with a similar termination (oJrkwmosia ajgwnoqesia qesmoqesia, etc.), it means first the act of adoption, as, perhaps, Rom_8:23; Eph_1:5; and then, quite naturally, the consequent condition of the adopted child, as in Rom_8:15 Rom_9:4; and this seems its more prominent sense here. Rom_9:4 suggests the surmise that the term had been in use before among Palestinian Jews, with reference to Israel"s state under the theocracy, and that St. Paul borrowed it thence with reference to the Christian Church, in which it found a more complete realization.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 5. To redeem them that were under the law.…
5. To redeem them that were under the law. Those under bondage need redemption in order to secure freedom. Paul has shown that those under the law were in bondage. From this bondage Christ came to redeem us. How the redemption was wrought is shown in 3:13. That we might receive. This “adoption of sons” is bestowed as a gift. We cannot have it, and still be in bondage.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain that he might redeem them that were under the…
that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. [In this paragraph Paul resumes the metaphor begun at Gal_3:24 ; but from a slightly different point of view. There, law, or the tutor, was prominent; here, the son, or pupil, is the chief object of consideration. The point now illustrated is the reason why the bondage of the law preceded the liberty of the gospel. It was for purposes of development, similar to those by which youth is trained to manhood. The child in this instance is regarded as wholly subject to the terms of a will (though that of a living father, as appears later). Though the will provides that the son shall eventually be heir of all things, yet for the present he is so hampered, governed and restricted by the inflexible terms of the will that his condition differs, so far as comfort and freedom are concerned, in no respect from that of a bondservant, or slave. His person is under the care of guardians, and his estate is under the direction of stewards, and he can in no way expect to have his affairs bettered until the time has elapsed which is fixed by the will as the period of his subserviency, or minority. Thus, says the apostle, both Jews and Gentiles, as one common, congregate body, or heirs in God's sight, were held in bondage either to the law of Moses or some other form of law, which laws are collectively described as the rudiments of the world. But when the time arrived which was stipulated in the will for the termination of this period of tutelage, then God took the steps for the liberation of the ward (which steps were also outlined beforehand in the promise to Abraham, and referred to in the types of the will as recorded by Moses), and sent forth his Son to effect the liberation of the ward. At Gal_3:13 the apostle has already suggested that this liberation was to be effected by the son taking the place of the ward, etc. He shows, therefore, the steps by which the Son took upon him this wardship. He took upon him the nature of the ward by becoming flesh, being born of a woman ( Joh_1:14 ), and he assumed the state of the ward, for he was born under the law and thus came under the wardship. And his gracious purpose in all this was to redeem all those under ward and bring them to the estate of sons ( 2Co_8:9 )--adopted sons.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.