ADOPTION
REDEMPTION
17
AND
the Greek word diatheke. In most passages `covenant' is the true translation of the word, for it generally refers
either to the old or new covenant. In Galatians 3:15 however there are these qualifications:
1.
`I speak after the manner of men'.
2.
`Though it be but a man's covenant'.
Here the word diatheke should be translated `testament', in the sense of a man's `last will and testament'. Let us
call it for the time being `A man's will'.
The Galatian Will
A. -- Pardon my interruption, but I think you are mistaken, for the passage goes on to say:
`Yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto'.
This is not true of a man's Will, for he is at liberty to alter, annul or add to his Will as many times as he chooses.
B. -- You are making the mistake of interpreting the past by the light of the present. The law governing the making
of a Will here in England is very different from that which obtained in Galatia in the first century. I am indebted to
the researches of Sir W.M. Ramsay for light upon this subject, and in his Historical Commentary on Galatians he
shows that then a man had to think seriously before he made his Will and appointed his heir, for when once it had
been `confirmed' and the heir adopted the man was powerless to alter it. Sir W.M. Ramsay cites a case where the
`adopted' son had greater claims than the testator's own children. Behind all this of course was the policy of the
state, and the guarding of the worship of the gods, but it supplied the apostle with a wonderful illustration both of the
unalterable character of the Will of God, and the fact that the word `adoption' is practically the same as appointing
an `heir'. Galatians 4 takes up the theme of the Will of the father, using the illustration of a child who though heir
is, during his minority, under tutors and governors:
`Until the time appointed of the father' (Gal. 4:2).
The argument then proceeds:
`Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: but when the fulness of
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons' (Gal. 4:3-5).
Adoption and Inheritance
If you study the references to adoption in Romans 8 you will find that they too speak of deliverance from
bondage, and the entry into a position of predestined glory. There are many important features which I have
omitted: you will find a fuller treatment of them in Sir W.M. Ramsay's A Historical Commentary on St. Paul's
Epistle to the Galatians, or in articles in The Berean Expositor, e.g., vol. 20, p. 51.
A. -- I noticed in Galatians 4, Romans 8 and Ephesians 1 that the word `adoption' appears in the same context as the
word `redemption'; why is this?
B. -- Perhaps we shall be in a better position to answer that question after we have looked into the scriptural
meaning of the term. Now, how would you arrive at the meaning of redemption?
A. -- We can best understand redemption by realizing the nature of sin, and the character of God.
*
The Chameleon method
B. -- Had we a complete understanding of `sin' and `God' I would grant that your method would be a good one, but,
when one man's temperament causes him to magnify the love of God above all other attributes, and another man's
*
Chameleon. Figuratively, someone who shows great facility of changing or pretending to change his sentiments.
From the lizard of that name, which has the ability to change its colour to approach that of its background.