Galatians Part 4: The Wavering and the Weary

[Robert]

In chapter 3 of Galatians, Paul explained that the Law's purpose was not to save; it had no ability to do so, and was only there to demonstrate that mankind had indeed sinned against the Lord. It served as a proof and a contrast, to point out man's iniquity and wickedness. Now in Part 4 of the Galatians study, Paul (speaking on the behalf of the Lord to both us as well as the believers in Galatia) uses the example of a child who is not of age to further illustrate why man was kept under the Law:

"Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God." (Galatians 4:1-7, NASB, emphasis mine)


Continuing the thought from chapter 3, Paul reasons that the Law served as both a guardian and a tutor, until the time came when the Messiah (Jesus Christ) would set foot into this world and bring redemption. At that point, those who clung in faith to the Lord were no longer under the Law, but Grace, and with the coming of Grace, there was no going back to the old way under the Law, or any other way for that fact:

"However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain."(Galatians 4:8-11, NASB, emphasis mine)


At this point, Paul speaks to two types of believers in Galatia, and the first group are those who are fed up with all the rules and want to give up on Christianity. Paul's concern was that they were falling back into the old ways that they had left; the Gentile believers in Galatia had been worshiping idols and "gods" that were nothing more than images and notions backed by demons. Paul was worried that he had worked so hard to witness to them and teach them, only to see them fall away. Confronted by the Jews from Jerusalem and their demands that they first observe Judaism, this group of Galatians simply threw their hands up in exasperation and started to go back to the ways they knew. It seemed like it was just another "hustle" with a new set of "do's and don't s", and another racket rather than the freedom promised them by the Lord!

Paul speaks his mind to them:

"I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong; but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and not only when I am present with you. My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you— but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you." (Galatians 4:12-20, NASB, emphasis mine)

Paul reveals here that it was because he was ill that he lingered in Galatia and preached to them. In listening, those who believed were so moved that not only had the accepted Paul fully and warmly, but would have taken their eyes out for Paul (this may denote that Paul's illness had to do with his vision, but Paul doesn't go into much more detail)! But now, since Paul's absence, their fervor had waned and they were questioning the teaching he had given them. Paul answers this by asking them if he had become "their enemy"; in other words, were they now against him for telling them the same truth that they previously loved? Paul points out again that those who had come from Jerusalem did not do so to aid them, but pull them away from the Lord and point them towards themselves; them complete antithesis of Paul's ministry, which pointed from himself and to the Lord.

Paul then addresses the other group of believers in Galatia:

"Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother." (Galatians 4:21-26, NASB, emphasis mine)


Paul uses an example to speak to those who felt they needed to be under the Law of Judaism, speaking of Abraham's two wives, Sarah and Hagar, as types. Hagar represented the flesh, and Sarah represented the promise. The flesh is under the Law, and as such is prisoner to the Law. But being born again by the Spirit and by water, we are created anew in grace and are no longer "children of Hagar", but instead we are children of Sarah and Abraham. As Paul mentions in Romans, we are now dead to the law, having died with Christ and being resurrected with Him in a new life.

Paul continues:

"For it is written, “REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE NUMEROUS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND.” And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. But what does the Scripture say? “CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN.” So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman." (Galatians 4:27-31, NASB, emphasis mine)

Paul points out here that as the children of a woman in bondage would not partake of the promise God made to Abraham, so too would those in bondage to the Law not partake of the promise God made to those that were born again of the Spirit. This is what it means to be born again: to die to the old life in bondage and the Law, and to be reborn as one who is no longer in that bondage. In doing so, we are released from the chains of the old life (which was really a living death sentence), and brought forth into a new life with Jesus Christ as our master.

This is what the Galatians did not understand, and it threatened to poison their walk with the Lord utterly. Some of them were beginning to return to their old ways and forsake their walk with the Lord, and others were veering towards the Law of Judaism, which was only ever intended to hold us as a tutor and a guardian until the coming of grace in the form of Jesus. Either way was denying that Christ had indeed freed them from sin, and both were equally damaging, and it worried Paul immensely.


He felt almost as if his work with them was for nothing. Almost.


But the Lord doesn't let go of those he saves so easily, and He confronts them (and us) with sin and asks all of us to repent and turn back. Not because He feels threatened or angry, but because of His love for us, and desire not to see us lost forever...


...its' the same love that Jesus showed for us when he died for us on the rough-hewn wooden cross at Calvary.


In Part 5, Paul speaks of the walk with the spirit, and where the Galatians stepped off the road.


I bid you all peace.


YBIC,


-Robert

[Meg]

But the Lord doesn't let go of those he saves so easily, and He confronts them (and us) with sin and asks all of us to repent and turn back. Not because He feels threatened or angry, but because of His love for us, and desire not to see us lost forever...

Amen and Amen!