No Longer a Slave, but a Son and Heir (Galatians 4:1–5:12)

“If you are Christ’s”—you have devoted yourselves to Christ and are owned by Him: you believed in Him and loved Him, and have been received into His favor, protection, defense, and close communion. “Christ’s”—put on Christ, inwardly organized by the grace of the Spirit according to Christ’s image and therefore born of Christ and in Christ.

“Therefore you are Abraham’s seed.” The offspring promised to Abraham was not only fleshly but especially spiritual, composed through resemblance to Abraham in faith, that is, when one enters into kinship with him by faith. The Apostle says: behold, you have become Christ’s, you believed in Christ. Know that through this you have entered the circle of Abraham’s offspring.

Or: you are Abraham’s seed, because you are spiritually born of Christ, Who according to the flesh descended from Abraham. The blessed Jerome writes: “Since the promises were given to Abraham and to his seed, which is Christ Jesus, it follows that those who are sons of Christ are His seed, that is, they are also Abraham’s seed, seed from seed. But when our Lord Jesus Christ is called Abraham’s seed, this must be understood in relation to His body, because He was to be born of his lineage; but when we, having received the word of the Savior, believed in Him and through this received the nobility of Abraham’s race, to which the promise was made, this must be understood spiritually. We are Abraham’s seed through the reception of the seed of faith and the gospel.”

“And heirs according to the promise.” The descendants of Abraham were promised the inheritance of the land of Canaan, which came to be called the promised land. But as his offspring is not only fleshly but spiritual, his inheritance is likewise not only fleshly but spiritual. Spiritual inheritance consisted of the goods in Christ Jesus—justification, receiving grace, holy life with victory over sin, and especially the kingdom of heaven. The inheritance of the promised land was a type of this spiritual inheritance. Into it enter both Jews and Gentiles through faith in Christ Jesus and grace of the Holy Spirit. Thus the blessing promised to Abraham is fulfilled for all his seed.

What follows from all this reasoning, the holy Apostle leaves for the Galatians to draw out themselves. You received the Spirit of grace, became Abraham’s seed, received his inheritance: what more do you desire and seek? And if all this, so high and precious, you received by faith alone in the gospel I proclaimed to you, what need have you to turn here and there, seeking new means to secure these goods, as if He who gave them to you forgot to provide all that is necessary? Therefore, abandoning all else, remain wholly in the one faith and in the life according to the spirit of this faith, not permitting yourself to waver in loyalty to the path of salvation you hold.

(B) Persuading or exhorting the Galatians to accept the proven truth about the needlessness of the Law henceforward and not to bind themselves to the Law (Gal. 4; Gal. 5:1–12).

The holy Paul proved that the Law is no longer necessary, especially for Gentiles, and in answering objections, clarified the Law’s temporary purpose alone, though clearly necessary in its time. Now he begins to persuade the Galatians not to bind themselves to the Law, and if they have already accepted anything, to cast it off, to keep themselves free from it. The Apostle draws his persuasions from those aspects of the matter from which such speeches usually draw theirs. In doing so he acts now chiefly (1) on the mind; now chiefly (2) on the heart; and now chiefly (3) on the will’s decision.

(1) Intellectual persuasions (Gal. 4:1–10).

Nothing persuades the mind to abandon its thoughts so much as reducing them to absurdity. The holy Paul places first among his persuasions those arising from the representation of the absurdity of keeping the Law after the coming of the Lord Savior. He speaks, as it were: (a) to the Jews: therefore, see that the Law was our schoolmaster. A father ordinarily gives his son to a tutor until a certain time. That time ends: the tutorship ends; the son enters into the rights of a son. How absurd it would be if this son still cowered under tutorship when already clothed in the rights of a son! So we were under the Law’s tutorship until a time. But that time has come; God sent His Son and through Him brought us into sonship, into the rights of sons. How absurd now for us to cower under the Law and rank ourselves with slaves when we are already sons! “And that you are sons, you have proof of this: God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, which creates in your hearts the feeling of sonship toward God, by which you dare cry out to Him: Abba Father!” (Gal. 4:6–7).

(b) Such is the discourse to the Jews, which extended in the end also to the Gentiles. But these latter could say: But how were we before brought into Judaism and completely associated only with those of us who fully submitted to the Law?! That was a different matter then, the Apostle answers them. Then Judaism was the only true faith on earth, and you were right to accept it. Now, however, when God Himself has claimed you apart from the Law, your turning to the weak elements of the Law has no meaning whatsoever (Gal. 4:8–10).

(a) Important to the Jew (Gal. 4:1–7).

The comparison of the Law to guardianship expresses very clearly both the necessity of the Law and its temporary significance. Since such a comparison is also very moving, the holy Apostle first and foremost stops upon it to draw out his persuasions to the Galatians.

Gal. 4:1–2. Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of all things; but he is under tutors and stewards until the time appointed by his father.

The holy Apostle takes up a significant example. He has a son. This son, by birth, is a son and an heir; but while he is small—a boy, a youth—he is placed by his father under the authority of guardians and tutors for education and training, so that when he reaches maturity, he may use both the rights of a son and his inheritance not haphazardly, but as is fitting, to the glory of his father. In this state of guardianship, the son is in no way better off than a slave, because he depends on his father, can do nothing on his own, but must do everything as the guardians command or permit. Let us note that the comparison used by the holy Apostle concerns itself especially with this trait—lack of freedom, bondage, a kind of subjection. Another trait: the guardianship lasts only until the appointed time (the set deadline)—it is not permanent but only until the time fixed by the father. This time ends, and this bondage ends as well. The son, now educated and trained, begins to act independently.

Gal. 4:3. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

The first trait of the comparison: just as that heir, so also we Jews, by God’s original choosing, were sons of God, as He Himself testified through Isaiah: “I have begotten sons” (Is. 1:2). We were chosen for this, but we were not at once manifested as such. True sons of God are those who are born of God; but one can be such only in Christ Jesus, when those receiving the Lord are truly born of God (Jn. 1:12–13). But at that time the people were not capable of receiving the Lord. They had to be trained for this. The Law was appointed as their educator. This very incapacity to receive the Lord, that through Him they might truly become sons of God, is what the holy Apostle calls the childhood of the Jewish people, which made guardianship necessary, as a kind of subjection.

The chief trait of the comparison the holy Apostle expresses with the word: “we were in bondage”. We were like slaves, in a state of unfreedom, bound on all sides: do not touch, do not taste, do not handle. A heavy hand guided us; grievous bonds lay upon us.

“The elements of the world” the Apostle calls the Law, as a service to God effected chiefly by material things—a material service. All the justifying, sanctifying, and propitiatory ordinances of the Law were carried out by means of elements, that is, material objects. Such were: circumcision, sacrifices, washings, fragrances, anointings, new moons, sabbaths, and the rest. And all of this was ordained down to the least detail as an inviolable law, the breach of which brought down God’s wrath. Whether you wished it or not, you had to do it; otherwise, punishment. This is bondage.

And yet, this was a kind of bondage that educated and taught. Therefore, one may also bear in mind a figurative meaning of the elements. Among the Greeks, elements meant letters, from which words are formed, and further—elementary instruction given to children. This is very applicable to the Law. It was, indeed, elementary instruction. We were enslaved, says the Apostle, to the Law for the purpose of elementary education, which was to end when the Teacher of true wisdom came.

Blessed Jerome writes: “The Apostle called by ‘the elements of the world’ those same ones whom he had before called rulers and guardians. One may understand by them letters as well, from which syllables and words are composed and which are learned not for their own sake, but for another purpose—namely, so that one might be able to read complex speech, attending no longer to the order of letters but to the meaning expressed by words. By letters, one may also understand the Law of Moses and the utterances of the Prophets, because through them the fear of God is received—the beginning of wisdom and guidance toward the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Holy Chrysostom brings the discourse to an application of this comparison, or a conclusion from it. “The Apostle speaks here of childhood not by age, but by understanding, and shows that God from the very beginning wished to bestow upon us His blessings; but since we were still in a state of childhood, He left us under the elements of the world, that is, in dependence upon new moons and sabbaths, for these days depend for us upon the course of the sun and moon. Therefore, those who now bring you under the yoke of the Law do the same thing—they return you, who have reached maturity, back to infancy. Do you see what the observance of days means? It brings a master, a householder who has full authority over all things, into the condition of a slave.”

Gal. 4:4–5. But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law: that He might redeem those under the Law, that we might receive adoption as sons.

The second trait of the comparison: the appointed time for the father has ended for us. God sent His Son, who removed the bonds of legal guardianship from us and brought us into the rights of sonship. All the traits and terms used here have, in themselves, the deepest meaning and may serve as the foundation for inquiry into the highest truths; but the Apostle’s purpose is only to sustain the comparison and to say that guardianship has ended: we are sons. There is no need for us to bind ourselves to the Law.

“But when the fullness of time came.’ ‘Fullness”—fulfillment; “time”—the appointed season. The time was fulfilled, the appointed time for the father was completed, the period fixed for education had passed, and the education itself had been accomplished to the extent possible: the term designated in the mysteries of God’s providence for mankind had drawn near. “What time had come to its fullness?” asks Ecumenius, and he answers: “The time in which Christ was destined to come. The time of Christ’s coming was determined beforehand by the prophet Daniel; it was fulfilled in the reign of Caesar Augustus, when the incarnation of God the Word was accomplished and Christ appeared.” Christ is the center of mankind’s movement through time. All before His coming in the flesh tends toward Him; and all after His coming flows from Him. In appearance this may not be palpable to some; but in the inner life it cannot be otherwise. All that is truly spiritual and divine comes from the Lord Jesus: external history may proceed in its own course; but in the midst of it, invisibly, God’s people is growing—the one precious thing, outside of which all is worthless.

“God sent forth His Son”. He speaks of the Son being sent in order to convey the bringing of those under guardianship into sonship. The Son is sent so that He might dismiss the guardian and those under him and bring them into the status of sons. God sent His Son; therefore, the Son existed before His birth in the flesh; He is not merely a man appointed for some particular purpose. It is not a mediator, nor an Angel, who is sent, but the Son—that is, neither from among humans as an extraordinary envoy by appointment, nor from among the Angels. Since apart from this only the Persons of the Holy Trinity remain, it was natural that in our Slavonic text the word “Only-begotten” was added—a word which does not appear in the Greek text—to signify that He is of one nature with God the Father, though this is already implied in the word Son. For when God sends forth His Son, He who is sent is, of itself, the Son of God.

“Born of a woman”. The Son sent is born of a woman, enters into the order of those born in this way—not being one with them in His Person before. The same Son, eternally existing, is born as a man and appears dual in natures, remaining one Person, the only-begotten Son of God—incarnate. The word “woman” is used here in the same sense as in the evangelist Matthew: “the virgin Mary” (Mt. 1:20) and in Luke: “his betrothed wife” (Lk. 2:5). Blessed Jerome writes: “The word γυνη by the nature of the Greek language means more a woman, a female person, than a spouse.” He is born of a woman; therefore, without a father. There was no need for the holy Apostle to say how he is born. But inasmuch as He is sent by the Father, the thought is fitting here that by His action He is born as a man. The Greek text does not contradict the translation “being born”, which gives the thought that the sent Son Himself arranged His birth in human form. If we remember the word of holy Luke, that what is born in the Ever-Virgin from the Spirit is holy, we arrive at the conclusion that, according to the spirit of Scripture, the Son of God is incarnate, but the very action of incarnation or the assumption of human nature is accomplished by the Tri-hypostatic Godhead: for the actions of the Godhead are indivisible in the Persons. For our salvation it was necessary that our Savior be a complete man, having all of human nature except sin. And He is born of a woman, as all men are, but not in that way by which sin is transmitted, so that He might clothe Himself in human nature, untainted by sin, though with all its weaknesses. In early times it was also significant that the Apostle used the preposition εξ rather than δια. For this reason the Apostle did not say δια γυναικος—through a woman—lest you think that the Son of God merely passed through the Theotokos, but said εκ γυναικος—from a woman—to show that the Lord assumed from her a true body. This without any particular intention on the Apostle’s part went against the Docetists, who appeared soon after.

“Born under the Law”. Consequently, He in Himself was not subject to the Law, but became subject to the Law according to the purposes of His being sent into the world, just as He was also born of a woman. The Apostle’s thought is: that this too was predetermined from of old. He took the nature common to men: “born of a woman”—and lived outwardly as a Jew; “born under the Law”—having been born among the Jews; and became the Redeemer not of Jews alone, but of all.

Taking in thought all this discourse, we see that by the word “Son” is defined the divine majesty of the Redeemer’s Person, His inner glory, while by the words “born of a woman, born under the Law” is defined His voluntary state of humiliation, through clothing Himself in human nature with its weaknesses except sin, and through subjecting Himself to the Law.

“To redeem those under the Law”. The Lord redeemed all men, but holy Paul, according to his purpose, stops at the Jews alone. We were, he says, under the guardianship of the Law, serving it, or bearing its yoke, like those sold into slavery. The Son of God came, abolished the Law, and brought us out to freedom, as those held captive are brought out to freedom, having been ransomed. The Son of God submitted to the Law so that He might destroy the Law, abolish its bonds, make it unnecessary. For all its purpose was in Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord came, and the Law must cease: its service is ended, just as the service of guardians ends when the full course of education is completed. Ambrosiaster explains this cleverly, ascending in thought to Abraham’s promise: “The Savior had to be under the Law, as a son of Abraham according to the flesh; so that He appeared circumcised, the One who, according to the promise to Abraham, was to come to justify the Gentiles by faith, having upon Himself the sign (circumcision) of Him to whom it was promised. But after Him, no one need be circumcised; for up until then the sign was passed on from generation to generation, until came the Promised Restorer of faith, by which Abraham was justified in uncircumcision, receiving circumcision only as a sign of faith (both justifying him and destined to justify all), so that believers would no longer need circumcision. Abraham was circumcised because he believed he would have a son, in whom all peoples would be blessed. Therefore the sign had meaning only until the Promised One came.” And circumcision, we may add, is the root of the Law. Where circumcision is, there is the whole Law.

“That we might receive adoption as sons”. Concerning the benefits of the incarnation of the Son of God the Apostle speaks here only in application to the comparison he has set forth—all with the thought of convincing that the Law has ceased already and has no binding force for the believers, by the very ordinance of God the Father. We are sons by God’s choosing; but until the appointed time, our Father God placed us under the Law, and we lived under its yoke, as if slaves. The appointed time has ended; the Father, who placed us under this guardianship, sent His Son to dismiss the guardian and bring us into the rights of freedom as sons. “By saying ‘that we might receive adoption as sons,’ the Apostle showed that it was from of old determined for us, our due portion of inheritance; we had not yet received it because of the immaturity of our mind” (Ecumenius. The same in holy Chrysostom and holy John of Damascus).

The Apostle sets forth as if only the external course of events in the dispensation of our salvation, nursing with milk rather than with solid food. But the following words (verses 6–7) suggest that he himself looked more deeply here, as everywhere, and disposed his readers to enter into that same depth following him.

The Son of God came and made us sons; He did not merely announce it, but made it—gave us the realm to be children of God because in Him we are born of God. Here sonship is not nominal but essential. Setting this thought in relation to the Law, we obtain the following course of thought: the Law, as a tutor, controlled externally, restraining impulses to sin; but the Son of God, having come, bestowed the Holy Spirit, who, regenerating believers to new life in Christ Jesus, cut off the very impulses, destroying sin within by grace. After this the external guardianship of the Law falls away of itself. The Law ceases as a cocoon is broken open when inside a butterfly has formed and come to life. The following words of the Apostle about the Spirit show that in the substance of the matter the Apostle’s basic thought, hidden beneath the external history of the matter, is this.

Gal. 4:6. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father!

Here too the holy Paul from “we” suddenly transitions to “you”—as in (Gal. 3:25–26). And there is no doubt that here also it is fitting to supply the same supplementary thoughts as were presupposed there. We (Jews), says the Apostle as if, by the course of God’s dispensation, having until now been under the guardianship of the Law and in no way, because of this yoke, different from slaves, are now introduced into the freedom of sons by the Son of God who came at the end of our period of guardianship and claimed us for Himself because of our faith in Him; but you—Gentiles—and never having been under this yoke of slavery to the Law, straightway by faith attached yourselves to the coming Son of God and received from Him not only the name but the essential quality of sons. Thus both we and you—all believers—have become sons.

And that you are truly sons, there is no need to seek far for proof. The witness to this is in yourselves—the Spirit dwelling in you, by whom all your inner being is disposed to call upon God: Abba, Father! For you could not have this Spirit if you were not sons. Because of this the Spirit is in you: that you are sons; and you are sons because the Spirit is in you. It is He who made you sons, regenerating you by His grace and setting you in the order of those born of God, who are His sons. Having regenerated you, He abides in you and holds you in the feelings of sonship toward God.

The Apostle’s expression suggests the thought that because you are sons, God sent the Spirit. In fact, the Holy Spirit through regeneration makes sons those who believe in the Lord. But these moments may not be distinguished: for they enter into each other. Does the Spirit of God make sons—by regenerating—all? Not all, but only those who believed in the Lord, resolved to follow Him in all things, and because of these dispositions were received into God’s favor, as though predetermined to be sons. After this the Holy Spirit, coming through the mysteries, makes them sons in truth, and having made them such, abides in them and teaches them to rise toward God as Father.

And according to the course of the arrangement of our salvation it happened thus: the time came to introduce spiritually the Jews and Gentiles into sonship—the Son of God came, accomplished all that was foreordained in God’s Council for our salvation, and having ascended to heaven, sent forth the Holy Spirit from the Father. This Spirit then made sons of all who believed. The holy Apostle’s thought was to convince: now you must abandon everything extraneous; see, the long-awaited time has come for men to be sons, as you can clearly see from the Spirit acting within you. The Spirit is; do not seek anything else, do not rely on anything else, do not bind yourself with anything else.

The Spirit cries in our hearts: Abba, Father! As if something mystical, hidden, acting apart from or deeper than consciousness in believers. No; it is in fact so and is truly perceived by believers who have in themselves the action of the Spirit of grace. In such ones the whole inner being is so attuned that they deeply feel themselves to be sons of God and perceive God as their Father. This is the possession of all Christians. And now those who have preserved the grace of baptism, living continually as befits Christians, feel themselves to be such. But those who have lost the grace of baptism cannot feel themselves so. They must restore this grace through repentance and then give grace to possess them through labors of self-denial, ascetical effort, and good deeds. Then in them too that same feeling of sonship toward God will be reborn. Thus teach all the spirit-bearing fathers. That this happens thus—take for comparison the feelings of a slave who grievously offended his master and expected nothing from him except death, and yet, returning to him with repentance, was received by him with mercy, embraced, and restored to his former status. Such a servant cannot help but cry out from the depths of his soul to his master: my own father! With this feeling he remains afterward. So it is in our spirit in relation to God. This is so essential in Christianity that whoever does not have such a feeling toward God has not yet become a true Christian; but either lives in negligence or has not yet reached the point where the efficacy of the Holy Spirit in the heart becomes manifest.

Since this matter is of first importance for us, I shall adduce the words of all the ancient commentators who gave it their attention.

Blessed Jerome writes: “That we are sons, the Apostle proves from the Spirit, which we have within us. We would never dare to call out: Our Father, who are in heaven! if we did not perceive in ourselves the living Spirit dwelling in us, who cries: Abba Father! From this it follows: just as he who has the Spirit of the Son of God is a son of God, so he who does not have the Spirit of the Son of God cannot be called a son of God.”

Ambrosiaster reasons thus: “When he called those Gentiles who had believed in Christ, once enemies, sons, there is no doubt that he calls the believing Jews the same, who, as is known, received this designation long ago. But they received this name as if only in form, so that it might afterward be established for them and essential through Christ. Without the Spirit it was not complete, not essential. So that we might have proof upon us that we are truly adopted as sons by God, He gave us His Spirit, who shows the sign of the Father upon the sons; and it is He who gives us boldness to speak to God what before, in weakness and unworthiness, we did not dare to speak—namely: Abba Father.”

Here is what blessed Augustine says: “The Apostle said that we—Jews—are redeemed from under the Law, that we might receive adoption. It remained to show that the Gentiles too, not having been under the Law, possess the same adoption. This he does by recalling the gift of the Holy Spirit given to all. This is why Peter defends himself before the believing Jews for baptizing the uncircumcised centurion Cornelius, saying that he could not forbid water to those who had manifestly already received the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:47). The holy Paul used this most important proof already above when he said: ‘Did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing of faith?’ (Gal. 3:2). And here he says: ‘Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father!’”

Ecumenius—speaking for all the Eastern fathers, for all say the same thing: “Whence is it evident that we have been deemed worthy of adoption? From the Spirit of sonship. He has overshadowed us and teaches (for this is what ‘crying’ means) us to call God Father; which certainly would not be the case if we had not been deemed worthy of adoption.”

Gal. 4:7. Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

The Son of God came in the flesh, you have attached yourself to Him by faith and have received rebirth from the Spirit of God, who now dwells in you and assures you in your sonship toward God; “therefore,” it is thus evident from this that you are not a slave but a son.

“You are no longer”—you; again a change in the person to whom the discourse is directed. First “we”—that is, the Jews; then “you”—that is, the believing Galatians, from Jews and Gentiles; now “you”: as if he addresses each believer among the Galatians—whoever you are, a believer, you are no longer a slave but a son. But what was the discourse about before, if not that every believer who has received the Spirit of God is a son? Therefore one may suppose that the Apostle wishes to convey: it is not proper for you, it is unseemly and impossible for you to be a slave. Before, the bondage to the elements of the Law had significance because it was so ordained by God the Father, and that for the Jews alone. Now that time has ended—and slavery has no sense at all, even for a Jew, much less for anyone else. For whom and for what are you doing this? God no longer favors that institution, that old one; it has done its work and been abolished. To obtain anything through this labor and this degradation to slavery, with God’s disfavor, you cannot hope; and there is nothing to hope to obtain when you are already a son, and therefore also an heir. You already possess what would be worth striving for under the yoke of service to the Law. Why, then, willfully and without any benefit or need, do you thrust yourself under this yoke!

“If a son, then an heir of God through Christ”. It is the direct right of a son to be heir of his father: and for one who has become a son of God to be an heir of God. As sonship toward God comes to believers through the Lord Jesus Christ, so the inheritance belongs to each believer through Him as well. This is why in another place the Apostle calls believers—heirs of God—fellow heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). Thus it is determined for those who believe in the Lord, who clothe themselves in Christ, to be where He is. There is no other way: such is the dispensation of our salvation. In another place holy Paul connects the inheritance appointed for believers with the Spirit of grace. The Spirit of grace, he says in the Letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 1:13–14), is the earnest of the inheritance. This same thought applies here as well. You are heirs because you are sons; and you are sons because you have been born of God by the Spirit, who cries in you: Abba Father! Know that just as your sonship is essential, not nominal, because you perceive in yourselves the Spirit of sonship, so your inheritance is undeniable, because in that same Spirit of sonship you have the pledge, the earnest that you will surely obtain it.

The discourse of the holy Apostle in this section proceeds in the same order as in (Gal. 3:23–29). But there he brought all things to the point that believers in the Lord became Abraham’s seed and by promise heirs; heirs, that is, of what was promised to Abraham; and what was promised him was the blessing through His Seed, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, for all peoples, by faith. Consequently, there is understood the inheritance of all the goods only of the Kingdom of grace. But here, clearly, the Apostle extends the thought further, beyond the limits of time, and, calling believers heirs of God, understands the blessedness awaiting them in the Kingdom of glory, to which participation in the goods of the Kingdom of grace serves as a pledge.

Let us conclude this section with the words of holy Chrysostom: “If grace has made us from slaves free, from infants mature, from strangers heirs and sons, is it not the height of folly and extreme ingratitude to abandon this grace and return to the former state?”

“Be bold, then, O man,” cries Ecumenius. “You are no longer a slave, but a son of God and His heir. Through the Only-Begotten Son of God, who became incarnate and bore all things for us, you are no longer a slave, no longer under the yoke of the Law. Heed the blessing of the Holy Trinity! The Father sends the Son, the Son becomes incarnate, the Holy Spirit cooperates and, entering into our hearts, teaches us to cry out: Abba, Father! How then is it not senseless for those who through Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit have become sons of God to turn back again to the Law?”