I've noticed that in Galatians 3.13-14 Paul is addressing the salvation of Gentile Christians, but in 4.5-6 he's principally addressing the salvation of Jewish Christians. Gal. 3.13-14 is clearly about Gentiles, but 4.5-6 is probably about Jewish believers since it refers to "those under the law". Note the pattern:
Redemption (3.13) // Redemption (4.5)
blessing/Spirit (3.14) // sonship/Spirit (4.6)
Paul is drawing a parity between the futility of Gentiles going to the Law since Jewish Christians themselves have been redeemed while/from being under the Law. In both cases, the blessings of the Spirit and the full attainment of sonship does not come from the Law according to Paul.. Importantlyly, with you "you" of v. 7, Paul applies this Jewish situation to his Gentile readers. Even though they were not "under the Law" they can now be sons rather than slaves.
1 comment:
Mike,
This unpacks with the logic of the 'WE Jews - YOU gentiles' reading that we discussed before. I had a stab at preaching Galatians with this logic recently. Be interesting to see where you end up on this.
Phil
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