So you are no longer a slaveIn the context of Galatians, Paul addresses the Galatian believers who were being influenced by Judaizers to adhere to the Mosaic Law for salvation. The term "slave" here refers to being under the bondage of the law and sin. In the Roman world, slavery was a common institution, and slaves had no legal rights or inheritance. Paul uses this imagery to contrast the believer's former state under the law with their new status in Christ. This echoes Jesus' teaching in
John 8:34-36, where He speaks of setting people free from the slavery of sin.
but a son
The transition from slavery to sonship signifies a profound change in relationship and status. In Roman culture, adoption was a legal practice that granted the adopted child full rights and privileges of a biological son, including inheritance. This concept is mirrored in the spiritual adoption believers receive through faith in Christ, as seen inRomans 8:15-17. The term "son" implies intimacy, belonging, and a personal relationship with God, contrasting with the impersonal nature of slavery.
and since you are a son
This phrase emphasizes the certainty and permanence of the believer's new identity. The use of "since" indicates a logical conclusion based on the previous statement. The assurance of sonship is rooted in the work of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as mentioned inGalatians 4:6. This assurance is not based on human effort or adherence to the law but on God's grace and promise.
you are also an heir through God
Being an heir implies receiving an inheritance, which in biblical terms includes eternal life, the kingdom of God, and all spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-14). The inheritance is not earned but given through God's promise, as seen in the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12:1-3). This inheritance is secure and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit, as stated inEphesians 1:13-14. The phrase "through God" underscores that this inheritance is made possible by God's initiative and grace, not by human merit.
Persons / Places / Events
1.
Paul the ApostleThe author of the letter to the Galatians, addressing the churches in the region of Galatia. Paul is emphasizing the transition from the old covenant of the law to the new covenant of grace through faith in Christ.
2.
GalatiansThe recipients of the letter, who were being influenced by Judaizers to adhere to Jewish law in addition to their faith in Christ.
3.
JudaizersA group of Jewish Christians who insisted that Gentile converts must follow the Mosaic Law, including circumcision, to be true Christians.
4.
SonshipThe concept of believers being adopted as sons of God, which is central to Paul's argument in Galatians. This reflects a change in status from slaves to sons and heirs.
5.
HeirIn the context of this passage, an heir is someone who inherits the promises of God, including eternal life and the blessings of being part of God's family.
Teaching Points
Identity in ChristAs believers, our identity is transformed from slaves to sons. This change in status is not based on our works but on our faith in Christ and God's grace.
Freedom from the LawWe are no longer bound by the law as a means of justification. Our relationship with God is based on grace, freeing us from the burden of legalism.
Inheritance through FaithAs heirs, we have a guaranteed inheritance in Christ, which includes eternal life and the blessings of being part of God's family. This should give us hope and assurance in our daily lives.
Living as Sons and HeirsOur status as sons and heirs should influence how we live, encouraging us to walk in the Spirit and reflect the character of our Heavenly Father.
Unity in the Body of ChristUnderstanding our shared sonship should foster unity among believers, breaking down barriers of race, culture, and social status.
Bible Study Questions and Answers
1.What is the meaning of Galatians 4:7?
2.How does Galatians 4:7 define our identity as "no longer a slave"?
3.What responsibilities come with being "a son and an heir" in Galatians 4:7?
4.How does Galatians 4:7 connect to Romans 8:17 about being heirs with Christ?
5.How can you live daily as an "heir through God" from Galatians 4:7?
6.What changes in mindset are necessary to embrace being "a son" in Galatians 4:7?
7.How does Galatians 4:7 define our relationship with God?
8.What does being an "heir through God" imply in Galatians 4:7?
9.How does Galatians 4:7 challenge the concept of spiritual slavery?
10.What are the top 10 Lessons from Galatians 4?
11.What does being an heir mean in the Bible?
12.How do a blessing and a birthright differ?
13.Why does Galatians 4:22-23, referring to Abraham's two sons, contradict other accounts of their significance in Genesis?
14.What is the meaning of Galatians 3:28?What Does Galatians 4:7 Mean
So you are no longer a slavePaul has just reminded the Galatians that life under the Mosaic Law was like childhood under a guardian—restrictive and powerless (Galatians 4:1-3). Now he declares freedom.
• Slavery here pictures bondage to sin and the law’s condemning power (Romans 6:17-18;James 2:10).
• Jesus broke those chains: “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
• Freedom is not license but a new standing where fear no longer dominates (Hebrews 2:14-15).
but a sonGod does more than cancel slavery; He adopts.
• “Yet to all who received Him…He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
• Adoption means intimacy: “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15) replaces distant terror.
• Nothing earned this status; it flows from grace (Ephesians 2:8-9).
and since you are a sonBeing a child of God shapes identity and daily choices.
• “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1).
• Family likeness grows as the Spirit forms Christ in us (Galatians 4:19;Philippians 1:6).
• Privileges carry responsibility: sons represent the Father’s name (Matthew 5:16).
you are also an heir through GodAdoption secures inheritance.
• “If we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).
• The inheritance is “an imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” hope kept in heaven (1 Peter 1:4).
• Even now we taste it: the Spirit is “a pledge of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13-14).
• Future glory outweighs present trials (2 Corinthians 4:17;Titus 3:7).
summaryGalatians 4:7 celebrates a fourfold progression: freedom from slavery, adoption as sons, a secure identity, and a guaranteed inheritance. In Christ we no longer live under condemnation; we live as beloved children and rightful heirs, enjoying present fellowship with the Father and anticipating eternal glory.
(7) Thus, by your redemption, adoption, and the gift of the Spirit, it is distinctly proved that the old state of servitude and minority is past. You have entered upon the full privileges of the adult son. And the son is also called to the Messianic inheritance.
Thou.--The singular is used in order to individualise the expression and bring it home pointedly to each of the readers.
No more.--Since the coming of Christ, and your own acceptance of Christianity.
If a son, then an heir . . .--The Roman law (which the Apostle seems to be following) treatedall the sons as heirs, and provided for an equal division of the property between them.
Of God through Christ.--The true reading here appears to be,through God--a somewhat unusual expression. The Christian is admitted as an heir, not through any merits of his own, but through the process of redemption and adoption wrought for him by God.
Verse 7. -
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son (
ὥστε οὐκ ἔτι εῖ δοῦλος ἀλλυἱός);
so then,
no longer art thou a bondservant,
but a son. "
Ωστε, properly "so that," is frequently used by St. Paul for" so then" or "wherefore," to state a final conclusion (cf. ver. 16, below;
Galatians 3:24;
Romans 7:4, etc.). It here marks the conclusion resulting from the statements of the preceding six verses, viz. of God having sent forth his Son to do away with the Law, subjection to which had marked the nonage of his people, and to raise them to their complete filial position, and of his then sending forth his Spirit into their hearts loudly protesting their sonship. "No longer art thou;" by this individualizing address the apostle strives to awaken each individual believer to the consciousness of the filial position belonging to him in particular. Believe it: in Christ Jesus, thou, thine own very self, art a son! The phrase, "no longer," marks the position of God's servant new, as compared with what it would have been before Christ had wrought his emancipating work and the Holy Spirit had been sent forth as the Spirit of adoption;
then he would have still been a bond-servant; he is not that now. This abrupt singling out one individual as a sample of all the members of a class is an instance of the
δεινότης of St. Paul's style (comp.
Romans 11:17;
Romans 12:20;
Romans 13:4;
Romans 14:4;
1 Corinthians 4:7). The individual cited by the "thou" is neither a Gentile convert only nor a Jewish believer only; it is any member of God's kingdom. "A son," a member of God's family, an
οἰκεῖος τοῦ Θεοῦ (
Ephesians 2:19), one free of all law of bondage and in full possession of a
son's privileges; no sinner, now, under his Father's frown; but accepted, beloved, cherished, honoured with his Father's confidence.
And if a son, thenan heir of God through Christ (
ei) de\ ui(o/ kai\κληρονόμος διὰ Θεοῦ [Receptus,
κληρονόμοςΘεοῦ διὰ Ξριστοῦ;
and if a son,
an heir also through God. So
Romans 8:17, "And if children (
τέκνα), heirs also; heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ." The inheritance here meant is the possession of every blessing which the theocratic kingdom entitles its members to look forward to. And the point of this added clause is that no further qualification is needed for our having a vested right in that inheritance, than that which is supplied by faith in Christ, uniting us to him and making us sharers with him; no such qualification, for example, as the Mosaizing reactionaries insisted upon (see
Acts 15:1); no observance of ceremonial rites, whether of the Law or of such freaks of heretical" will-worship" as are referred to in
Colossians 2:23. Thy faith in Christ (says in effect the apostle) gives thee now for good and all an assured place in whatever inheritance God designs to give his people. The manuscripts 'rod other authorities for the text present considerable variety in the reading of the last words of this clause. The reading adopted by L. T. Tr., Meyer, Alford, Lightfoot, and Hort and Westcott, namely,
κληρονόμος διὰ Θεοῦ, is that found in the three oldest uncials, and presents a form of expression which was likely so greatly to surprise the copyist as to set him naturally upon the work of revision; whereas that of the Received Text,
κληρονόμος Θεοῦ διὰ Ξριστοῦ, would have seemed to him so perfectly natural and easy that he would never have thought of altering it. The words, "
heir through
God," taken in connection with the foregoing context, insist upon the especial appointment of the supreme God himself; his intervention displayed in the most conspicuous manner conceivable, through the incarnated Son and the sent-forth Spirit. The believer is here said to be a son and an heir "through God," in the same sense as St. Paul affirms himself to be an apostle "through Jesus Christ and God the Father," and "through the will of God" (
Galatians 1:1;
1 Corinthians 1:1); for "of him and through him and unto him are all things," and most manifestedly so, the things composing the economy of grace which the gospel announces (
Romans 11:36). The apostle has thus brought back his discourse to the same point which it had reached before in
Galatians 3:29. The reader will do well to carefully compare this section of the Epistle (vers. 3-7) with
Romans 7:25-8:4 and Romans 8:14-17. With great similarity in the forms of expression, the difference of the
apostle's object in the two Epistles is clearly discerned.
There he is discoursing the more prominently of the believer's emancipation
from the controlling power of a sinful nature, which, under the Law, viewed under its moral aspect rather than its ceremonial, was rather fretted into yet more aggravated disobedience than quelled or overpowered.
Here his subject is more prominently the believer's emancipation from the thraldom of the Law's cere-monialism, which in the present Epistle, relative to the troubles in the Galatian Churches, he has more occasion to deal with. Both the one deliverance, however, and the other was necessary for the believer's full consciousness of adoptive sonship; and each was, in fact, involved in the other.
Parallel Commentaries ...
Greek
Soὥστε(hōste)Conjunction
Strong's 5620:So that, therefore, so then, so as to. From hos and te; so too, i.e. Thus therefore.you areεἶ(ei)Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 1510:I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.no longerοὐκέτι(ouketi)Adverb
Strong's 3765:No longer, no more. Also ouk eti from ou and eti; not yet, no longer.a slave,δοῦλος(doulos)Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 1401:(a) (as adj.) enslaved, (b) (as noun) a (male) slave. From deo; a slave.butἀλλὰ(alla)Conjunction
Strong's 235:But, except, however. Neuter plural of allos; properly, other things, i.e. contrariwise.a son;υἱός(huios)Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5207:A son, descendent. Apparently a primary word; a 'son', used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinship.andδὲ(de)Conjunction
Strong's 1161:A primary particle; but, and, etc.since [you are]εἰ(ei)Conjunction
Strong's 1487:If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.a son,υἱός(huios)Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5207:A son, descendent. Apparently a primary word; a 'son', used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinship.[you are] alsoκαὶ(kai)Conjunction
Strong's 2532:And, even, also, namely.an heirκληρονόμος(klēronomos)Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2818:From kleros and the base of nomos (reflexively) getting by apportionment); a sharer by lot, i.e. Inheritor; by implication, a possessor.throughδιὰ(dia)Preposition
Strong's 1223:A primary preposition denoting the channel of an act; through.God.Θεοῦ(Theou)Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316:A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.
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NT Letters: Galatians 4:7 So you are no longer a bondservant (Gal. Ga) 
