D L Moody told that Dr. Bonar once said that he could tell when a Christian was growing. In proportion to his growth in grace he would elevate his Master, talk less of what he himself was doing, and become smaller and smaller in his own esteem, until, like the morning star, he faded away before the rising sun.[1]
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Dr. Bonar adds clarity to what was happening in Galatia. These folks had been led to believing that their Christianity was attained and maintained by the works of the law. Their focus had turned from Christ and what he had done; to themselves and what they had done.
In this chapter, Paul continues his defense of justification by faith. Putting Christ at the center of life. Putting the Cross at the center of our existence. If the Galatians were indeed saved, they were saved by grace, by the work Jesus did on the cross; but the they had fallen into the trap of thinking they had to work their way to righteousness or right standing with God. The trap was built by the enemy, it was very religious looking contraption, many times set by well meaning religious folks, and it captured the naïve and unsuspecting of believers. once captured in the trap, it didn't let go easily. These same traps exist today.
Paul had revealed and disarmed one of the Judaizer traps. They had said, to be right with God you had to be a son of Abraham. Paul proved to them that to be sons of Abraham all you have to do is believe the promise of God as Abraham did. True sons, whether Jew or greek, male or female, slave or free, are made by belief, by faith.
If you have put on Christ, then you are Abraham's seed regardless of anything else. If you are a son of Abraham, then you are an heir according to the promise. In chapter four Paul continues with this idea or the Christian being an heir.
Galatians 4:1-5
The Galatians lived in a Roman providence; the church was a mixture of Jews and gentiles. In the Roman culture, there was no set age when a child stepped into adulthood; the father determined the age by maturity. Until then, the child, though he would someday be the heir, was no better than a slave. They had no legal power or authority regarding the inheritance. Paul uses this contrast as an analogy of those living under the law.
A child in the Roman culture became an adult at the sacred family festival known as the Liberalia. The Liberalia was held on March 17 every year. This festival was tied to the honoring of the pagan god's of Rome. When the father decided the boy was a man, the child was formally adopted by the father. This was how he acknowledged the son as his heir. At that time, the child was dressed in the toga of adulthood in place of the toga of childhood which he wore in his youth.
Paul creates this picture of this young man who was heir to all, but his status was no better than a servant. He was under guardians and stewards until such a time when his father declared him to be a man. As spiritual children, prior to believing, we were in bondage to the elements of the world. The elements of the world are like the ABC's. They are the things basic things we learn in our youth. This is a picture of this child that will one day be an heir to the Father's estate but for now he is going through life oblivious of his status. Not concerned with higher things; not at all concerned with adult things. He's just minding his ABC's. Just like children who hadn't come of age; just like children who had no rights, no freedoms and no inheritance; just like children under the tutelage of others - we had no rights, no freedom, inheritance; we were bound under the law, under its tutelage........until!!
At just the right time, God sent his son, born of a woman, under the law. And the Son of God would redeem those under the law. By that redemption, we receive our adoption as sons. Like the Roman son who's toga was changed to that of an adult while his status changed when he received his sonship and inheritance; so is the child of God who receives their adoption by belief, by faith in Jesus, their adoption is complete, they put on Jesus and receive their inheritance.
Galatians 4:6-7
We've gone from slaves of sin to sons; our status has changed. As to Paul's earlier argument; this status didn't change because of anything we did, it's by faith in what Jesus did. It didn't change because of our heritage, lineage, skin color, sex or anything else. We become sons & daughters of the Most High by faith. Because we are sons, we are then heirs. Our bondage to the law is gone. We were adopted as sons because of our standing with Christ; because we've died to ourselves and our identity is only found in Jesus Christ.
Since we are sons, God has given us the Spirit of His Son. The "Spirit of His son" is the Holy Spirit. He lives in us and His Spirit confirms our adoption as sons of God. The work of the Spirit in our lives gives testimony to the fact that we are sons of God. The Spirit now in us cries out "Abba" to God the Father. This is the same as crying out 'daddy' to our heavenly Father. Suddenly as sons of God and heirs to the kingdom we have the right and the ability to cry out "Daddy!" This cry of "Abba" is a term of endearment toward the Living God. Though we are in awe of Him, we can still call Him Daddy.
As a child of God, we are filled with the spirit; called a child of God and have a relationship with the Father. When we find ourselves in that place, we've stepped beyond the basic elements. We graduated from those basic ABC's. We've learned what we were supposed to learn. We've grown up spiritually. The law, a fundamental basic element, just like the ABC's, has served its purpose and delivered us to grace.
Galatians 4:8-11
Those who 'did not know God' are the gentiles. Paul doesn't want them excluded in thinking he was speaking to the Jews only who lived under the law. Before we knew God, we served many things by our very nature, our sinful nature. Most of us probably served ourselves first. We served our selfish nature. Then as we matured, we came to a general knowledge of God. This is the sense in each person that there is a God, an Almighty creator who is perfect and just; and we've fallen short of his holiness. This is evident in our conscious. Deep inside every man God has placed that eternal longing for God and the longing to be right with Him. He placed his law on our hearts. This is the inherent knowledge of right and wrong. Our conscience uses the law and informs us of our need for a savior.
It is different for each, whatever age, however your life is played out; its that day when you come face to face with the fact that you are a slave to sin and need a savior. When you, by faith, claim the foregiveness establsihed for you, you make that transition from slave, to son, to heir by faith in that savior. And then we know God; and are known by Him. This is important, think about it like this. It's one thing to know who the president is, it's quite another be known by Him. Its one thing to know who Abraham Lincoln was, but it would be quite another to have been known by Him. We have a general knowledge of these people. We know who they are, yet they don't know us. We recognize their picture and their faces but they wouldn't know ours. But these are just men and weak examples. Paul uses this phrase talking about God. It's one thing to know who God is, it's quite another to be known by Him. Everyone knows God, not everyone is known by God. Are you known by God?
What does it mean to be known by God? I don't think God cares all that much about our place in the world. God doesn't look at a resume' and qualify anyone to be known by Him. The things of the world and our very nature are unrighteous and filthy in the eyes of God. None of these things mean anything until we are crucified with Christ. Then, since the old me is gone, my identity is found in Christ, suddenly God recognizes Jesus Christ in me. He sees His own spirit in me. Then, all those life experiences, all the good and all the bad become part of who I am in Christ. Suddenly, everything, all my life, has purpose. All I did in the past has led me to this point in my life; serving Him for His purpose. Then we can say I am known by God, not because I'm special but because Christ who is in me is special.
So, to the Galatians Paul asked, if you are known by God, why would you return to the low things we used to follow in our sinful nature? Paul called them the weak and beggarly elements; for the Jew he's referring to the law, for the gentile, the gods and idols of their past. The law is weak and powerless to save. It is beggarly, poor and without riches, unable to make you an heir to the kingdom. It reveals man's weakness and his spiritual bankruptcy but it has no ability to do anything about it. (Think about looking into a mirror that reveals a flaw or blemish; the mirror can't remove the blemish, only reveal it.)
Why would anyone return to something that was weak and powerless? In our days of bondage to the world we knew no grace and suffered by knowing only the law. Our conscience constantly informed us that we were lawless, we were constantly being convicted of our sin. Now that we know the richness of grace and have experienced the power of a life with Christ why would we voluntarily return to the law? Why would anyone pick up that burden that Christ fulfilled and took from us? Why would we reject our liberty and volunteer for bondage. Who would say, "Take this liberty back and give me that old fashioned bondage!"
This is exactly what happened in Galatia. Paul said they were observing special days, months, and seasons and years. The Jewish law called for observing special days in a certain ways but these things were given to the Jews to honor and worship God. The people in Galatia were gentiles and they were making these observances as a means of salvation. No one can be saved by these things. This made Paul think that he may have labored in vain. Paul was worried about them. He spent a lot of time teaching them and it seemed as if they were going to return to their old ways. Going back to spiritual immaturity and returning to bondage.
Galatians 4:12-16
Paul had walked away from the legalism of the life of a Pharisee. He had already been like the legalists. Now, he relied solely on the grace of Jesus Christ. He urged the Galatians to do the same by urging them to become like him. Paul wasn't setting himself as some perfect Christian; look at me, you all need to be like me. Paul was all about the gospel. His life was identified with Christ. He was the picture of Grace because he had turned from that legalism and was now a consistent and diligent follower of Christ. Paul was on his path, moving forward, walking with the Lord.
The Galatians were off the path, on the path, back off the path. They were running from ditch to ditch. Now it seemed they had completely turned around in an effort to return to the place of bondage they had just been delivered from. Paul had gone to the Galatians preaching the gospel on his first missionary journey. Some received him and the gospel message he preached, others rejected him and plotted against him. While Paul was among them he had some infirmity that may have kept him in the area. Some think it may have been malaria and that he was preaching between bouts of fever. And there are other theories about what this infirmity might have been.
Whatever it was, the illness didn't affect his witness or testimony and some of the Galatians received him and his message with grace and mercy. At first they had received the word he brought. Now they had turned away. Paul is simply asking, What changed?
When he first came to them they would have plucked out their own eyes for him……. What changed? They had received him as an angel of God….. What had changed? Now they had turned away because of the Judaizers and their message.
And Paul said they weren't hurting him in all this. They were not going to injure Paul by turning away from grace. And they shouldn't respond to anything he has said or will say because of feelings. They should just examine the truth. They needed to figure out what changed? What was different from that time when he first came to them and they received him? What was different now that others were leading them to be critical of Paul? How had they moved backwards and returned to the elementary things.
Galatians 4:17-20
Paul was going to tell them what changed because he saw the gospel take root while he was there in Galatia. They had received him and the gospel; then, when he left these Judaizers come in and quickly swayed the Galatians away from the truth. They were courted and enticed away from grace.
The Zeal of the legalists got the attention of the Galatians and they were led astray. The legalist's zeal was used to exclude the Galatians from Christianity and they were allowing it to happen. I think this is another picture of being bewitched. That's what Paul called it in Chapter 3. They were being mindlessly led away. Zeal was okay, Paul had no problem with that. But being zealous for just anything that comes along wasn't going to work.
Zeal, in and of itself, couldn't result in anything good. Paul asked them to look at the object and direction of their zeal. Be zealous in good things, they knew the right things. Paul taught them when he was there and they needed to be that same way when he wasn't there also. I think this is what Paul was referring to when he said they should be more like him. He was talking about their stability in the gospel and consistency in their walk. They needed to be more like Paul, zealous in good things and consistent.
These folks were Paul's spiritual children. He worked hard for them to bring them the gospel that would cause them to be 'born again'. And Paul is laboring again so they can be 'born again' again. It doesn't even sound right because it's not, it's unnatural. If they were so quick to turn from grace there's a good chance they weren't born again the first time. For one who truly and rightly comes to Christ ought to stay there. This is not to say we won't sin or waver or run off in the ditch. But that wasn't what they were doing. They had completely reversed direction and were trying to go back to the law.
This would be like the Israelites leaving the Promised Land, crossing the Jordan, wandering around the wilderness, crossing the Red Sea and returning to Egypt to make bricks and build the cities for the Pharaoh. It was returning to bondage.
Paul had led them to grace and he's disappointed that they had turned away. He lets them know that he has doubts about them. Paul is seriously concerned about the salvation of these people of Galatia and he wants to be there with them.
Galatians 4:21
What does it mean to be under the law? It's a picture of the law hovering over you, ready to accuse you at every chance. But men love the law, because in the law I can see the list of rules. I can control my behavior according to the rules I want to adhere to. I can pat myself on the back when I do well and I can always find someone worse than me to point to.
Paul had turned his attention to the legalists and those who wanted to follow them. He knows these men and how they would respond because he used to be one of them. These men would have turned to Paul and said, "We are children of Abraham." Paul would have agreed at this point.
Galatians 4:22-24
Remember Sara was promised a child from the Lord but she was impatient. She didn't wait on the Lord. The promise was taking too long. God was taking too long. After all she was getting to be an old lady. She was already in her 70's when God first made the promise to Abraham. When she got to 80's she's starting to wonder what's going on. Sara wasn't convinced that God knew what he was doing. So, she took matters into her own hand. She concocted the plan for Abraham and Hagar to have a child for her. Hagar conceived and had Ishmael.
Abraham was an old man now. He told God he needed an heir so the promise would continue. God said it wasn't Ishmael and it wasn't his servant. God said he was going to give them a son. Then when Abraham was a hundred years old, Sara had a son, Isaac. He was the son of promise and because of the circumstances there was no doubt that this was a work of God. That's a quick version of the story that is in Genesis. It's a real story with real people. However, Paul said it was also symbolic.
Galatians 4:24b-27
One child was born of a bondwoman, or slave, Hagar. That child was Ishmael and he was born of the flesh. He was the result of the flesh and the fleshly desires, the plan of man. Ishmael was the offspring of Sarah's plan, not God's plan. Hagar is the picture of the law, of Sinai. Paul said she corresponds to the earthly Jerusalem. This is where Judaism resides in the earthly Jerusalem. It's there where they attempted to be find peace with God through the keeping of the law. The children of Hagar, the earthly Jerusalem, are in bondage just like Hagar.
Paul contrasts the Jerusalem below with the Jerusalem above that is free. If Hagar was the earthly Jerusalem, then Sara is a picture of the Jerusalem above. She is free and the mother of all. Her people are also free.
Paul said Sara was the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 54…..
27 For it is written:
" Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband."
Galatians 4:28-31
Isaac was the son of promise. He was the one that God had promised to Abraham and Sara. Ishmael was of the flesh and was not even recognized as a son. We see this later when God told Abraham to take his son, his only son, to a mountain for a sacrifice. The son of promise came from Sarah on the promise of God. This was God's plan. Paul said we are children of promise.
Even back then in Abraham's time, Paul said, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit. Ishmael began to persecute Isaac when he was 3 years old. This persecution of one born of the Spirit by the one born of the flesh is symbolic. That was still going in Paul's day and that is what was happening in Galatia. This persecution is delivered deliberately and purposefully to harm the one born of the Spirit.
Now, Paul quotes scripture in saying that the bondwoman was to be cast out along with her son. That son of the bondwoman can't be an heir. The son of promise will be. Hagar and Ishmael were cast out, likewise the sons of promise are to have no connection with this bondage.
For us, as sons of promise, it is important for us to hold fast to our standing as one adopted by the Father. We don't owe any other religion, teaching, thought, idea or anything else any of our time. We don't have to listen to false ideas and give them a place in our life. We can cast out the bondage and not claim any relationship to it at all.
As we grow in the Lord and open our eyes, we see the contrast between the law and grace is tremendous. The two aren't to be compared. They aren't similar and it's not okay to mix them up in a sort of buffet where you take a little of everything you like. Anything beyond grace leads to bondage.
In our symbolic story Hagar leaves the scene with her son. Symbolic of the law going away, it's purpose complete. It showed the way for the son of promise. Now the son of promise is the one and only son. Law & Grace can't abide together. The earthly Jerusalem and heavenly Jerusalem couldn't abide together. The sons of flesh couldn't abide with the son of promise.
So what do we do with all this law and grace in our life? How does that help me today? Each of us are at a different place in their life. Some are mature Christians, still learning, no doubt, but they've been at it a while. Others are still fairly young in their life of promise, we bounce into the ditch once in a while, veering off path but quickly coming back to the center. And a few are babies, still learning the basics. All of those places are all right. There is no shame in our place before the Lord.
Wherever we are, you must continue on your path set before you by the Lord. With your eyes not low and on the world but lifted to the Lord. I think at times we get scared about what the Lord is doing. We pull back because we want to know and control and be sure where we are going. But we can't revert back to childish things. Those days are gone. We've grown beyond that. When the father calls we must answer. Children of grace can't be children of anything else.
Paul started this whole section we studied today to show the Galatians that if they were in Christ then they were adopted sons, the seed of Abraham. The Galatians had grace and were in Christ but then they started chasing religious things, experiences and works. Not only do none of those things have value and grow you closer to the Lord, they have the opposite affect. They move you away from Grace.
Paul asked them why? What changed? Was the awe and fear of the Lord not enough? Is the intimacy of our heavenly Father not enough? When your Spirit cries "Abba" to your daddy in heaven was there something missing? Were you not born again? Do you feel you need to be born again, again? Only confusion, darkness or deception would cause anyone to desire to leave that relationship and return to one of bondage. No right thinking person would arrive at that conclusion. I think that's what really bothered Paul.
The apostle John said, "You must be born again." Once that happens, you can't be unborn again. You can't go through that experience again. You can't be born again, again. To pursue this is a drastic turn from grace and to reject the call of the father to adoption; and deny the sonship of freedom might just result in you getting exactly what you asked for. That would be a horrible inheritance.
We are each on our path, established by Him, abiding in him. We have to remain true to that. We have to hold fast in faith to our promise. That happens by remembering our position in the Lord and holding tightly to His word.
Amen
©2017 Doug Ford
[1] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 571). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.
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