BIBLE VERSE STUDY
Galatians 4:6-7 — Adoption, the Spirit, and Inheritance
Because believers are sons, God sends the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, crying 'Abba, Father,' so that they are no longer slaves but heirs through God.
Scripture
6And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
What this passage means
Verses 6 and 7 form a single sentence that states the result of what verse 5 called 'the adoption of sons.' The causal link 'because ye are sons' (v. 6) ties the sending of the Spirit to the status already granted in redemption; God's act of sending is grounded in the relation He has already established, and it then confirms and deepens that relation. The Spirit sent is specifically 'the Spirit of his Son,' identifying Him with the Son's own relation to the Father rather than presenting Him as an und impersonal force.
The clause 'crying, Abba, Father' describes the Spirit's activity within the believer: He produces a cry that addresses God in the most intimate family term. The pairing of the Aramaic 'Abba' with the Greek 'Father' is preserved in the text itself, and the double address shows that the cry is not a single borrowed word but a sustained, recognizable posture toward God. The verb 'crying' indicates that this is speech, not silent feeling — the Spirit moves the believer to actually call God 'Father.'
Verse 7 draws the consequence: 'no longer a bondservant, but a son.' The shift from 'bondservant' (douloj) to 'son' (huios) is the practical difference adoption makes. The clause 'and if a son, then an heir through God' ties sonship directly to inheritance. The inheritance is not earned but received 'through God' — that is, on the basis of His act in sending the Son and the Spirit, not on the basis of the believer's former status under the law.
Context
Galatians 4:1-7 is built on an analogy: an heir who is still a child is legally no different from a slave until the time set by the father (vv. 1-2). Paul then applies the picture to believers themselves: 'so we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world' (v. 3). Verses 4-5 describe God's counter-move — sending His Son 'born of a woman, born under the law' so that those under the law might be redeemed and 'might receive the adoption of sons.' Verses 6-7 are the direct outflow of that redemption, spelling out what adoption looks like in experience (the Spirit given) and in status (heir instead of slave).
Immediately after, in verses 8-9, Paul pivots to the problem that prompted the letter: having 'come to know God, or rather to be known by God,' the Galatians are turning 'back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments,' observing 'days, and months, and seasons, and years' (vv. 9-10). The 'rudiments' language of verse 3 and verse 9 forms a deliberate bracket around verses 4-7. The 'bondservant' contrasted with 'son' in 4:7 is therefore not abstract theology but Paul's diagnosis of the Galatians' current direction: they are reverting to a condition the cross was meant to end.
Common questions
Why does Paul say 'because ye are sons' before mentioning the Spirit?
The clause is causal but follows the order of experience: the Father has already granted the status of sons through the redemption described in verse 5, and the gift of the Spirit in verse 6 is the corresponding inward reality. The sequence 'redemption → adoption declared → Spirit given' reflects the flow of the passage rather than a temporal 'becoming.'
What is the significance of the double address 'Abba, Father'?
Paul preserves both the Aramaic 'Abba' and the Greek 'Father' (Patēr) within the single cry. The pairing shows that the Spirit-enabled address to God is not a borrowed colloquialism but a stable, intelligible calling upon God as Father in two languages of the early church. It signals an intimacy that the Aramaic family term carries into the Greek-speaking congregation.
How does verse 7 connect sonship and inheritance?
Verse 7 uses a logical chain: 'no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.' Sonship is the necessary condition for inheritance; the inheritance flows from the sonship that the Father has granted. The phrase 'through God' (dia theou) locates the basis of the inheritance not in the believer but in God's own action — the same sending of the Son and Spirit described in verses 4 and 6.