Now Paul describes the way that children experience their full rights: Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts (v. 6). The change from first person (we) to second person (you) shows that the adoption received by those under law (v. 5) was also received by the Gentile converts. The confession of faith of Jewish Christians is now the confession of Gentile Christians. Though Gentiles were not under law in the same way the Jewish people were, Paul's point is that they too were set free from the tyranny and curse of the law by the sending of God's Son. And by faith in Christ, they too have entered into a new relationship with God which involves the enjoyment of the full rights of sons and daughters of God. Now their life is to be lived not "under law" but "in Christ."

The striking parallelism between God sent his Son and God sent the Spirit of his Son rivets our attention on God's gracious initiative. Just as our position as sons and daughters was secured by God's action in sending his Son, so our experience as sons and daughters is the result of God's action in sending the Spirit of his Son. We could do nothing to attain to the position of sons and daughters; we can only receive the gift of adoption by faith. We could do nothing to produce an experience as sons and daughters; the action of God in sending the Spirit of his Son into our hearts enables us to enjoy our new relationship with God our Father.

Paul makes it very clear that there is only one condition for the experience of the Spirit in our hearts: Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. There is no other prerequisite for this experience of the Spirit besides receiving the gift of adoption. We do not need to go through a series of steps, recite special prayers or meet extra conditions. God sends the Spirit of his Son into our heart for one reason: because he adopted us into his family. To view adoption and reception of the Spirit as two separate stages in the Christian life tears apart the reciprocal relation of adoption and the sending of the Spirit. Paul's unique title for the Spirit here, Spirit of his Son, emphasizes the unity of the experience of adoption and the experience of the Spirit.

Just as verse 5 teaches us that the gift of adoption is ours when we receive it, so verse 6 teaches us that the sending of the Spirit into our hearts is experienced when we pray: the Spirit sent into our hearts is the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." Abba is an Aramaic word for "father" used by a child in intimate conversation within the home. When children addressed their father as Abba, they were expressing affection, confidence and loyalty. One of the most remarkable aspects of the life of Jesus was that he addressed God as Abba in his prayers and taught his disciples to do the same. So striking and significant was Jesus' addressing God as Abba that even in Greek-speaking churches Jesus' Aramaic word for Father was heard as the believers called out to God in prayer. They called God Abba because the Spirit of Jesus was assuring them within their hearts, the control center of their emotions and thoughts, that they were children of the Father.

To know at the deepest level of our being that God is our Father and we are his sons and daughters is not the result of theological research or moral achievement, but the result of God's sending the Spirit of his Son to speak to us and to convince us that despite all our guilt, fears and doubts, the Father of Jesus is our Father too. To know God as our Father in this way is not merely intellectual apprehension of a doctrine, not merely warm feelings about God, but a life-transforming conscious awareness of the reality of our intimate relationship with God our Father.

Paul is certainly not talking here about addressing God as Father in a formal liturgy in which there is no real involvement of the heart and will and mind. Nor is he talking about addressing God with an easy familiarity, as in prayers where God is addressed as "Daddy" in a chummy, casual way with no sense of awe or reverence. We must remember that when Jesus addressed his Father as Abba in the garden of Gethsemane, he was expressing both confident trust and willing obedience. " `Abba, Father,' he said, `everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will' " (Mk 14:36). So if the Spirit of the Son is moving us to call God Abba, then we will be expressing the same confident trust and willing obedience of the Son to the Father. All that Jesus did and said flowed out of his relationship with his Father. His sense of identity (who he was) was not based on his ministry (what he did), but just the reverse: he did what he did because he knew who he was. Likewise, the witness of the Spirit within us that God is our Father and we are his children is the center and fountainhead of all our Christian life and ministry.

People all around us are having identity crises. They are trying to find out who they are. They go for therapy to discover their inner selves; they search for their roots; they try to build their sense of self-worth on the foundation of their achievements. But far more important than any of these ways of finding out who we are, we need to experience the great gift of God the Father, the gift of his Spirit who tells us that we are children of God our Father. This experience of our identity before God is not necessarily a sensational or emotional experience. It is simply an experience of the Spirit's inner witness as we pray from our hearts to God.

We should always be amazed that when we pray we are included in the conversation of the Triune God. When we call God "Abba, Father," we are reminded by the very word Abba that Jesus used this name for God the Father in his prayers. We can address God as Father only because his Son gives us the right to do so. And we can exercise our right to call God Abba only by the activity of his Spirit within us who calls out, "Abba, Father." We call God Abba through the Son and in the power of the Spirit.

We will always find it difficult to explain the doctrine of the Trinity. But in prayer we experience the life and love of the Triune God. What an amazing privilege that we should be included in the conversation within the Trinity through prayer!

Verse 7 sums up Paul's argument to this point: So you are no longer a slave, but a son. The witness of the Spirit within convinces us that we are sons and daughters, children of God. Sons and daughters are no longer "held prisoners by the law" (3:23), "no longer under the supervision of the law" (3:25) and no longer subject to guardians and trustees (4:2). Sons and daughters are free from the control of the law. This does not mean that sons and daughters are free to do anything. They are now under the direction of the Spirit, who brings them into such close communion with God that they call him Abba. Sons and daughters who live in communion with the Father under the direction of the Spirit do not need the law to guide and discipline them. They are directed by a far superior power: the power of the Spirit.

To live under the direction of the law, as the Galatian believers were attempting to do, was sheer folly. "You foolish Galatians!" You are sons and daughters, not slaves. Why turn to the direction of the law when you have the direction of the Spirit? The tragedy of the Galatian situation was that believers who had entered into a love relationship with the Father by the activity of the Spirit in their lives were now acting like slaves, not like sons and daughters. They were relating to God on the basis of keeping his law rather than worshiping and serving him in the freedom and power of the Spirit of his Son. It is the same tragedy of the elder brother in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son. Although he served his father dutifully, he never called him "Father" or related to him as a son. He thought and acted like a slave: "All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders" (Lk 15:29).

I have greater appreciation for Paul's argument here now that my two sons are full-grown and no longer minors. I no longer attempt to restrict their behavior with the set of rules they had to follow when they were still young. In fact, if at this stage of their lives they responded to me simply on the basis of keeping my rules, I would be disappointed. What I long for now is for them to relate to me as mature sons. When they express love and respect to me simply because that is the desire of their heart, I am deeply grateful and filled with joy.

The consequence of being a son is inheritance: Since you are a son, God has made you also an heir (v. 7). The Galatian believers had been told that they must be related to the descendants of Abraham through observance of the law in order to inherit the promises God made to Abraham. But Paul has now demonstrated how faith in Christ makes one a child of God and so an heir of God. None of us can make ourselves children or heirs of God. Only God can make slaves into sons and daughters, and sons and daughters into heirs.

The promise of inheritance is the promise of the Spirit. Paul said in 3:14 that the blessing of Abraham came upon the Gentiles: they received the promised Spirit. What greater inheritance could there be than the presence of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of his Son, within our hearts? The Spirit of his Son not only assures us that we are beloved children of the Father; he also makes us like his Son. We are most like the Son of God when we totally identify with him in Gethsemane and are able by his Spirit to pray "Abba, Father." When Christ prayed "Abba, Father" in Gethsemane, he was expressing complete trust in his Father and his willingness to endure the cross in obedience to his Father. He was looking ahead with confident, obedient trust to both the cross and the resurrection. When we are sure of our adoption by the witness of the Spirit within, we will also be living in the power of the inheritance of the Spirit, who is in the process of making us like Christ in his death and resurrection. Every day something of his cross will be seen in us as we die to self. Every day something of his resurrection life will be seen as he lives through us. One day, after a final death and a final resurrection, we will be completely like him. That is our inheritance as the children of God.

I once heard a son speak at his father's funeral service about his inheritance. He said, "The greatest inheritance my father left me was not what he had but what he was. He was a man of integrity; he was humble and often admitted his own failures. He was generous and compassionate. Above all, he was a man of deep faith in God. That's the inheritance that I most treasure, the inheritance of the character of my father." As children of God, we can say the same. Our greatest inheritance is not the abundance of things the Father gives us, but the character of his Son which the Spirit of his Son is forming within us.