Our relationship with the Father is an intimate one because we can call him 'Papa' or 'Dad'. These intimate words in English are suggested by the way Paul envisions the Holy Spirit speaking through him, using his mother tongue (Aramaic) to address God as ‘Abba’. Yet Paul is not primarily describing the intimacy of a child with his or her Father, either in this letter or in the parallel passage in his letter to the Romans (8:15, Med.#5). Like Jesus—who also used this form of address (Mk.14:36)—Paul has come to understand that through Christ we now approach our heavenly Father as adult heirs. For as we shall see in this meditation, the ‘placement of sons’ [Gr. huiothesia]{r} that we receive by the Spirit is like a rite of passage making us adult sons and daughters of God.

In his letter to these believers, Paul is addressing people who are seen by Galatian society as having unequal status: men and women, free people and slaves, Jews and Greeks. Freeborn people and men in general were treated as ‘higher’ than slaves and women. And in the synagogue community, Jews and men were treated as 'higher' than non-Jews and women. According to Paul, such hierarchical thinking no longer has a place in the church; for there has been a Time change that challenges traditional ethnocentric and patriarchal social perspectives.

In writing to the multi-cultural congregations in the Roman province of Galatia{√}{r}{ƒ}, Paul often uses the word 'we' opposite ‘YOU’ (plural). And from the context we can see (indicated in green) when he is alternatively identifying with fellow Jewish believers, on the one hand ('we'), and addressing believers of other ethnic groups on the other hand ('YOU'): Greeks, Lycaonians, Celts,{ƒ} and no doubt some Romans too. He does this to make clear that the Time change he is talking about is a new development for both Jews and non-Jewish people groups alike.

Paul compares this Time change to the key event in the life of a son—his ‘planned-in-advance-placing’ [Gr. pro-thesmias] as an adult heir. When a certain amount of chronological time has passed, he receives the ‘placement of sons’ [Gr. huio-thesia] and is no longer seen as a ‘minor’ [Gr. neepios].{ƒ} Until this event occurs, the child is ‘no different from a slave’ because he is subject ‘to guardians and household administrators’. So Paul uses the Greek word ‘neepios’ to describe the first life-stage of a ‘pre-ordained’ heir. He uses the Greek word ‘huios’ ( ‘son’) to identify the second life-stage, that of an adult heir. Paul is thus describing a coming of age event within the family.{√}

I have taken extra time with the Greek words to show that many translators have ignored the context and mistranslated the word huiothesia to make it look like Paul is describing an adoption event—the placing of an outsider into the family. But this is not how Paul is using the word in this letter—if for no other reason than that Paul speaks of ‘we’ Jews as needing to receive it through Christ.{√} And Paul sees Jews as already like child ‘heirs’ in the family, under the guardianship of the Law.{√}{r}{m}

Through faith in Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit, we become adult sons (and daughters! 2 Cor.6:18). I hope this comes to you as good news. Many believers have stumbled in their attempts to draw near to the Father because of huiothesia being mistranslated as ‘adoption’.{√} Over a century ago, George MacDonald showed how the theology of ‘adoption’ gives the false impression that someone else, and not God, is their real father. Or it creates the wrong impression that even if God was once our real Father, sin has caused him to disown us as his children, leaving many believers with the anxiety that they might once again be rejected if they do something really bad.

A second problem is that the theology of ‘adoption’ obscures Paul's emphasis in this letter that all believers, by coming of age in Christ, are no longer subject to ‘guardians and household administrators’.{r}{ƒ} As a result, the same thing happens in many churches today as happened in the Galatian churches. Women and people from minority ethnic groups, lower social classes and other religious backgrounds get the subtle (or not so subtle) message: that they are ‘incomplete’ or ‘inferior’ to male believers and to those from the dominant socio-ethnic group.{√} In the Galatian churches, these people were told that to be fully accepted, they needed to submit to Jewish religious and cultural practices. And Jewish circumcision was only available to men! Anyone who feels like only an ‘adopted’ child is highly vulnerable to this perversion of the Gospel (Med.#30).{r}

None of this! In the Prodigal Son story, Jesus himself presented a picture of the Father as One who never rejects his children—even when they have dishonored him.. In this parable, the father never disowned his sons, even when they were ‘lost’, ‘dead’, or acting only like ‘servants’ and not like sons (Med.#20).{r}{√}

Do you know God as your real Father? And as an adult son or daughter in the Holy Spirit? Can you enter boldly into your Father’s presence?{r}{m} Or have you spent much of your Christian life feeling like a ‘second class’ family member—adopted into the family by the skin of your teeth? Or like an ‘under age’ child still dependent on keeping the rules to gain the approval of social ‘guardians and trustees’ in the church—in order to know God's acceptance? Wake up! The Time has come! Believe the Good News!