Galatians 4: Dropping the Freedom Bomb

Here is what we have in Galatians 4:

1.  To be under a Jewish system of law is to be under bondage to things that kept us in elementary school (1-3)
2.  To adhere to a system of law as that which grants us acceptance with God and others is the same thing as going back and worshiping false gods (vs 7-9).
3.  To require what God has not required of others leads them into slavery.  Conversely, by following such we walk ourselves back into slavery.
4.  Sonship (daughtership!) is the opposite of slavery.  Full adulthood and freedom comes only through Christ (4-7).
5.  Key verse is verses 4-6:  Part one:  "But when the fullness of time came":  At the right time in history, according to God's plan, when the time for God to birth to the Messiah (from a pregnant Israel-Rev 12).  Part Two:  "God sent forth His Son":  the most monumental event in all of history to date which changed everything.  Part Three:  "Born of a woman":  He was fully human which means that he was fit to be our human representative before God (replacing Adam-Romans 5).  Part Four:  "Born under the Law."  Hmmmm.  This must be important.  Part Five: "so that (a purpose towards us) He might redeem those who were under the Law":  Boom, set free from a way of living that never was intended to set us free.  Part Six: "that we might receive the adoption as sons."  There it is . . . finally . . . a release from slavery into full rights as a child of God.  Released from custody to the law and now a free child and heir.  Part Seven: "God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying 'Abba, Father.'  This intimate relationship with God is not possible through law but only through Christ and the subsequent/simultaneous gift of the Holy Spirit.
6.  It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that brings the freedom that life by mere law can never give.  It is the key to all for Paul and one much neglected.  To be "in Christ" is to be possessed by the Spirit--and thus now able to have intimacy with God.  It is the Spirit who lets us know all the things freely given us by "Daddy" as well as the dynamic key to all that we do in the Christian life.
7.  Being known by God is emphasized as more important than knowing God-- verse 9 and 1 Corinthians 8:3.  Do I know God?  Perhaps so.  More importantly, Does God know you?  The knowledge here is the knowledge of experience, not intellect.  God and I experience one another now due to the gift of the Holy Spirit which He has initiated in me!  No Holy Spirit = no experience of Him, no intimate relationship with Him.
8.  Paul fears his labor is in vain (vs 12-20) and he is perplexed because they are turning from God and trying to live the Christian life by laws and customs--rather than by the Spirit.  They had bought into the lie (they were following the Jewish calendar because they thought they must)  that they had to become of a Jewish flavor to be accepted by God and their Christian Jewish brothers and sisters.
9.  The relationship between Paul and the Galatians is now strained (vs 12-20) because they have turned fro the simplicity and freedom offered by the gospel.  They have added to Christ other requirements that God has not added.
10.  In verses 21-31 Paul uses the OT (in images of Hagar, the law, Jerusalem, etc.) to show that those born of the Spirit, through Christ, by faith are the children of freedom and not those who are following the system of law which has now given way to a better life in the Spirit.  The children of flesh are those trying to find acceptance with God and others by law-keeping.
11.  To be a child of promise, a descendant of Abraham through Isaac, a free child, a person of the Spirit . . . all this comes only through Christ by faith plus nothing else.
12.  The Christian life is a life of love and service lived under the direct power of the Holy Spirit--this is the subject of chapter 5!  It was for freedom that Christ set us free:  Galatians 5:1