Trinity: Short Exegetical Paper

Assignment: Read Galatians 3:26-4:7; What what do you learn about the Trinity from this passage? Write a brief exegetical paper (no more than 500 words) on what you see.

Galatians 3:26-4:7

God has saved mankind, and while answering the question “how” in his letter to the Galatians, Paul naturally moves to the question of “who” is involved in saving humanity. In Galatia, the gospel of faith in Christ (through whom comes the blessing of God promised to Abraham; by His bearing the curse of the law and making us sons of God by imparting the Spirit) is compromised. In 3:26-4:7 the underlying question asked is how the covenant promises of Yahweh made to Abraham will be fulfilled. The competing options are: through adherence to the law, or through faith in Jesus Christ. The way Paul answers this is through the theme of sonship, which is the central idea of the passage in question.

In the text Paul attributes the orchestration of salvation to “God,” sending both His Son and the Spirit of His Son according to His will (4:4-6). The name “God” is likely referring to the Father; however there is an ambiguous reference at the end of 4:7. Paul states that in being a son of God, the believer is “an heir through God” (4:7). This final reference to God seems to potentially refer to Christ (since we are children through faith in Him), but it is perhaps more plausible to read it in terms of unity of action in God.

The Son is said to make believers sons according to the Father’s will. He is incarnate, cursed, and resurrected to achieve this end of imparting the reality of His sonship to them. One of the chief observations that can be made concerning the Son is His preexisting “Sonship.” The Father did not send someone who became His Son but someone who was His Son (4:4). So, by referring to Him as the Father’s “own Son” Paul ascribes eternal generation (4:4). With the advent of faith and being “baptized into Christ,” which is how believers “put on Christ,” the blessing promised to Abraham is being fulfilled and distributed to all peoples as they are made into “sons of God” and therefore “heirs according to the promise” (3:25-27, 29).

Finally, in fulfilling sonship in man, Paul explains that the Spirit is imparted to those who are “sons” that they may cry out to God as “Father” (4:6). This is the voice of sonship, without which believers would be mute before God. Paul describes the Spirit as “the Spirit of His [God’s] Son,” which is vital in understanding the role of the Spirit in this salvific process. The Spirit is the one who testifies to sonship and enables men to speak as sons.

In Galatians 3:26-4:7, there is coherence between Yahweh fulfilling His covenantal promises to Abraham and the Father, Son, and Spirit fulfilling the promise by making men children of Abraham through faith in Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit. Sonship is the central theme of the passage: being the offspring of Abraham, belonging to Christ, having the Spirit, and thereby receiving the blessing of the covenant established with Abraham. Here one may observe the unique activity of the Father, Son, and Spirit in salvation history, but also the unity of this diversity into one act of salvation. Men are made heirs through God, having been made Sons, and yet the Father, Son, and Spirit are all instrumental, diverse, and united in making men sons. In the preceding comments, the divinity of the Son and Spirit along with the Father is presupposed. However, it can also be supported by Paul’s use of narrative identity, indicating that the Father, Son, and Spirit save believers, while only God saves believers.