But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.
-- Galatians 4:4ff.
But by the time of the composition of Romans the fact of it is no longer susceptible of any unqualified absolute "spiritual" interpretation which flies in the face of reality. Instead sonship finally depends upon the resurrection of the body and apart from that still remains tenuous because of human weakness. Adoption as sons in the final analysis remains contingent upon the advent of the general resurrection from the dead at the last judgment:
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
-- Romans 8:22f.
