Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Galatians 3:23-4:7 (NIV)
Children of God
23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 4 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Galatians is Paul’s most serious letter. Almost every sentence is deep and challenging. Here Paul explains some of the implications of Christ’s birth. In brief, this is what he is teaching: Before Christ, we were separated from God. God used the law (things like the 10 commandments) to force us into living right, until such a time when our hearts would be changed. That’s how children are; parents have to force them to do right (eat your vegetables, do your homework). Christ came for the purpose of changing our hearts, so that we would want to do the God-pleasing thing. Once that happens, we don’t need the law. We go from being children to become full citizens and heirs of God’s kingdom.