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Ordinary Time · Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time · Year C

Galatians 3:26-29

Sons of God

The Baptism of the Eunuch, Rembrandt van Rijn
The Baptism of the Eunuch, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1626Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht
The chariot halted at the roadside, the horses still harnessed, and the kneeling official having the water poured over him there and then.All of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.Rembrandt van RijnRembrandt at twenty, painting in colours he would later give up entirely.Museum Catharijneconvent, UtrechtThe Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht.Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht

Overview & Insights

“God sent forth his Son, born of woman... so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5)

The basis upon which Paul makes the previous statement in verse 25 is his conviction that the Galatians are all sons of God by virtue of their being in Christ Jesus . Paul continues to work with the metaphor of inheritance to underscore that all of his readers are inheritors of God’s promise. Paul emphasizes that the Galatians already are “sons” or inheritors of God’s promise. (Paul’s use of “sons” is meant not to exclude the female members of the Galatian churches, but to work with the inheritance metaphor. In the ancient world it was generally sons and not daughters who could expect to be inheritors.) For the benefit of both his Gentile Galatian converts and the Jewish Christian troublemakers who would have eventually heard his words, Paul says that “all” receive the inheritance through the faith of Jesus Christ.

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Commentary

Background & Word Study

The Church Fathers

Questions preachers ask

Why is Galatians 4 a Christmas reading?

It gives the theology of Christmas in one sentence: in the fullness of time God sent his Son, born of a woman, to redeem us and make us sons and heirs who cry, “Abba, Father.”

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