For ye are all the children of God
Not by nature, as Christ is the Son of God, for he is the only
begotten of the Father, and in such sense as neither angels nor
men are the sons of God; nor by creation, as Adam and all
mankind, and the angels are; but by divine adoption by an act of
God's rich and sovereign grace, putting them among the children
in saying this the apostle directs himself to the Gentiles for
their comfort, and says this of them all in a judgment of
charity, they being under a profession of faith; lest they should
think, because they were not Abraham's seed according to the
flesh, nor were ever trained up under the law as a schoolmaster,
that they were not the children of God: whereas they were such
not by the law, as none indeed are,
but by faith in Christ Jesus;
not that faith makes any the children of God, or puts them into
such a relation; no, that is God's own act and deed; of his free
rich grace and goodness, God the Father has predestinated his
chosen ones to the adoption of children, and has secured and laid
up this blessing for them in the covenant of grace; Christ by
redemption has made way for their reception and enjoyment of it;
the Spirit of God, in consequence of their sonship, as a spirit
of adoption bears strong reason and argument, proving that they
are not under the law as a schoolmaster, in which light it is
here set by the apostle; since they are sons and not servants,
and so free from the bondage of the law; they are sons grown up
into the faith of Christ, and are led and taught by the Spirit of
God, as they are that are the children of God by faith; and as is
promised to the saints under the Gospel, that they shall be "all
taught of God"; and therefore stood in no need of the law as a
schoolmaster, which only was concerned with the Jews, whilst they
were children under age; and has nothing to do with such, whether
Jews or Gentiles, who believe in Christ, and are growing up into
him their head, till they come to the measure of the stature of
the fulness of him.