Galatians 4 verse 1 – 18
Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be
lord of all.
But is under tutors and governors, until the time appointed
of the father.
Even so we, when we were children,
were in bondage under the elements of the world.
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoptions of sons.
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of
his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son and if a son, then
an heir of God through Christ.
Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them
which by nature are no gods.
But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known
of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye
desire again to be in bondage?
Ye observe days and months, and times and years.
I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in
vain.
Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye
have not injured me at all.
Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the
gospel unto you at the first.
And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor
rejected, but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? For I bear you
record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes,
and have given them to me.
Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the
truth?
They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would
exclude you, that ye might affect them.
But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good
thing, and not only when I am present with you.
One of the
tragedies of legalism is that it gives the appearance of spiritual maturity
when, in reality, it leads the believer back into a “second childhood” of
Christian experience. The Galatian
Christians like most believers wanted to grow and go forward or Christ; but the
were going about it in the wrong way.
Their experience is not too different from that of Christians today who
get involved in various legalistic movements, hoping become better
Christians. Their motives may be right,
but their methods are wrong.
This is the
truth Paul is trying to get across to his beloved converts in Galatia. The Judaizers had bewitched them into
thinking that the law would make them better Christians. Their old nature felt an attraction for the
law because the law enabled them to do things and measure external
results. As they measured themselves and
their achievements, they felt a sense of accomplishment, and no doubt, a little
bit of pride. They thought they were
going forward with actually they were regressing.
Paul takes 3 approaches in this section as he seeks to convince the Galatians that they do not need legalism in order to live the Christian life. They have all they need in Jesus Christ.
1. He
explains their adoption – verses 1 to 7
Among the blessings
of the Christians experience is adoption. We do not enter God’s family by adoption, the
way a homeless child would enter a loving family in our own society. The only way to get into God’s family is by regeneration,
being “born again” (John 3 verse 3)
The New
Testament word for adoption means “to place as an adult son.” It has to do with our standing in the
family of God; we are not little children but adult sons with all of the
privileges of sonship.
We are children
of God by faith in Christ, born into God’s family. But every child of God is automatically
placed into the family as a son, and as a son he has all the legal rights and privileges
of a son. When a sinner trusts Christ
and is saved, as far as his condition is concerned, he is “spiritual
babe” who needs to grow (1 Peter 2 verses 2 and 3); but as far as his position
is concerned, he is an adult son who can draw upon the Father’s wealth and who
can exercise all the wonderful privileges of sonship.
We enter
God’s family by regeneration, but we enjoy God’s family by
adoption. The Christian does not have to
wait to begin enjoying the spiritual riches he has in Christ. “if a son, then an heir of God through
Christ”. Now follows Paul’s discussion
about adoption. He reminds his readers of 3 facts.
What we were:
children in bondage. No matter how
wealthy a father may be, his infant son or toddling child cannot really enjoy
that wealth. In the Roman world, the
children of wealthy people were cared for by slaves. No matter who his father was, the child was
still a child, under the supervision of a servant. In fact, the child himself was not much
different from the servant who guarded him.
The servant was commanded by the master of the house, and the child was
commanded by the servant.
This was the
spiritual condition of the Jews under the age of the law. The law, you recall, was the “guardian” that
disciplined the nation and prepared the people for the coming of Christ. So, when the Judaizers led the Galatians back
into legalism, they were leading them not only into religious bondage, but also
into moral and spiritual infancy and immaturity.
Paul states
that the Jews were, like little children, in bondage to “the elements of the
world”. This word elements means the
basic principles, the ABC’s. For
some 15 centuries, Israel had been in kindergarten and grade school, learning
their “spiritual ABC’s” so that they would be ready when Christ would
come. Then they would get the full
revelation for Jesus Christ is “the Alpha and the Omega”. He encompasses all the alphabet of God’s
revelation to man, He is God’s last word (Hebrews 1 verses 1 to 3)
Legalism, then,
is not a step toward maturity, it is a step back into childhood. The law was not God’s final revelation, it
was but the preparation for that final revelation in Christ. It is important that a person know his ABC’s,
because they are the foundation for understanding all of the language. But instead of reading the great literature
that is around him, is showing that he is immature and ignorant not mature and
wise. Under the law, the Jews were
children in bondage, not sons enjoying liberty.
What God did:
redeemed us – verses 4 and 5. The
expression the fulness of the time refers to that time when the world
was providentially ready for the birth of the Saviour. Historians tells us that the Roman world was
in great expectation, waiting for a deliverer, at the time when Jesus was
born. The old religions were dying, the
old philosophies were empty and powerless to change men’s lives. Strange new mystery
religions were invading the empire.
Religious bankruptcy and spiritual hunger were everywhere God was preparing the world for he arrival
for his son.
From the
historical point of view, the Roman Empire itself helped prepare the world for
the birth of the saviour. Roads
connected city with city and all cities ultimately with Rome. Roman soldiers guarded the peace. Thanks to both the Greek and Roman conquests,
Latin and Greek were known across the Empire.
Christ’s birth at Bethlehem was not an accident; it was an
appointment. Jesus came in “the fullness
of the time”. (And it is worth noting,
that he will come again when the time is ready.)
Paul is careful
to point out the dual nature of Jesus Christ, that he is both God and man. As God, Jesus “came forth” but as man, he was
“made of a woman”. The ancient promise
said that the Redeemer would be of “the woman’s seed” (Genesis 3 verse 15) and
Jesus fulfilled that promise (Isaiah 7 verse 14 and Matthew 1 verses 18 – 25).
Paul has told
us who came – God’s Son, he has told us when he came and how he
came. Now he explains why he
came: “to redeem them that were under the law”.
Redeem is the same word Paul used earlier; it means “to set free
by paying a price.” A man could purchase
a slave in any Roman city (there were about 60,000,000 slaves in the empire),
either to keep the slave for himself or to set him free. Jesus came to set us free. So to go back into the law is to undo the
very work of Christ on the cross. He did
not purchase us to make us slaves, but son!
Under law, the Jews were more children, but under grace, the believer is
a son of God with an adult standing in God’s family. What we are: sons
and heirs. Once again the whole
Trinity is involved in our spiritual experience: God the Father sent the Son to
die for us, and God the Son sent his Spirit to live in us. The contrast here is not between immature
children and adult sons, but between servants and sons. Like the prodigal son, the Galatians wanted
their Father to accept them as servants, when they really wee sons. The contrasts are easy to see.
For example:
The son has
the same nature as the father, but the servant does not. When we trust Christ, the Holy Spirit comes
to live within us; and this means we are "partakers of the divine nature”
(2 Peter 1 verse 4). The law could never
give a person God’s nature within. All
it could do was reveal to the person his desperate need for God’s nature. So when the believer goes back into law, he
is denying the very divine nature within, and he is giving the old nature (the
flesh) opportunity to go to work.
The son has
a father, while the servant has a master.
No servant could ever say “Father” to his master. When the sinner trusts Christ, he receives
the Holy Spirit within and the Spirit tells him that he is a child of the
Father. It is natural for a baby to cry,
but not for a baby to talk to his father.
When the Spirit enters the heart, he says, “Abba, Father” and in
response the believer cries “Abba Father!”
The word Abba is an Aramaic word that is the equivalent of our English
word “papa”. This shows the closeness of
the child to the Father. No servant has
this.
The son obeys
out of love, while the servant obeys out of fear. The Spirit works in the heart of the believer
to quicken and increase his love for God.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love.”
“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” The Judaizers told the Galatians that they
would become better Christians by submitting to the law, but the law can never
produce obedience. Only love can do
that. “If ye love me, keep my
commandments.”
The son is
rich while the servant is poor. We
are both “sons and heirs”. And since we
are adopted – placed as adult sons in the family – we may begin drawing upon
our inheritance right now. God has made
available to us the riches of his grace (Ephesians 1 verse 7; 2 verse 7), the
riches of his glory (Philippians 4 verse 19), the riches of his goodness
(Romans 2 verse 4) and the riches of his wisdom (Romans 11 verse 33) – an all
of the riches of God are found in Christ (Colossians 1 verse 19; 2 verse 3).
The son has
a future, while the servant does not.
While many kind masters did provide for their slaves in old age, it was
not required of them. The father always
provides for the son (2 Corinthians 12 verse 14).
In one sense,
our adoption is not et final, because we are awaiting the return of Christ and
the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8 verse 23). Some scholars think that this second stage in
our adoption corresponds to the Roman practice when a man adopted someone
outside his family to be his son. First
there was a private ceremony at which the son was purchased; then there was a
public ceremony at which the adoption was declared openly before the officials.
Christians have
experienced the first stage: we have been purchased by Christ and indwelt by
the Spirit. We are awaiting the second
stage: the public declaration at the return of Christ when “we shall be like
him” (1 John 3 verses 1 to 3). We are
“sons and heirs” and the best part of our inheritance is yet to come (1 Peter 1
verses 1 to 5).
He laments their regression - verses 8 to 11
What really happened when the Galatians turned from grace to law? To begin with they abandoned liberty for bondage. When they were ignorant sinners, they had served their false gods and had experienced the tragedy of such pagan slavery. But then they trusted Christ and been delivered from superstition and slavery. Now they were abandoning their liberty in Christ and going back into bondage. They were "dropping out" of the school of grace and enrolling in the kindergarten of law! They wee destroying all the good work the Lord had done in them through Paul's ministry
The phrase weak and beggarly elements tells us the extent of their regression. They were giving up the power of the Gospel for the weakness of law and the wealth of the gospel for the poverty of law. The law never made anybody rich or powerful. On the contrary, the law could only reveal man's weakness and spiritual bankruptcy. No wonder Paul weeps over these believers, as he sees them abandon liberty for bondage, power for weakness and wealth for poverty.
How were they doing this? By adopting the Old Testament system of religion with its special observations of "days and months and times and years" verse 10.
If we observe special days like slaves, hoping to gain some spiritual merit then we are sinning. But if in the observance we express our liberty in Christ and let the Spirit enrich us with his grace, then the observance can be a spiritual blessing. If a man thinks he is saving his soul or automatically growing in grace because of a religious observance, then he is guilty of legalism.
He seeks their affection - verses 12 to 18
Now he turns from "spanking" to "embracing" as he reminds the believers of their love for him and his love for them. At one point they were willing to sacrifice anything for Paul so great was their love but now he had become their enemy. The Judaisers have come in and stolen their affection.
Paul commends them for the way they received him in spite of the way he looked. To them he was an angel of God. It is a wonderful thing when people accept God's servants not because of their outward appearance but because they represent the Lord and bring his message.
Now Paul asks them "what has happened to that love?" What has happened to the blessedness - the happiness - you experienced when you heard the gospel and trusted Christ? Of course Paul knew what had happened: the Judaisers had come in and stolen their hearts.
One of the marks of a false teacher is that he tries to attract other men's converts to himself and not simply to the truth of the Word or to the person of Jesus Christ. It was not the Judaisers who originally came to Galatia and led them to Christ, it was Paul. These false teachers were not winning lost sinners to Christ but were stealing converts from those who were truly serving the Lord. Paul had proved to be their loving friend. He had "become as they were" by identifying himself with them - verse 12 - now they were turning away from Paul and following false shepherds.
Paul told them the truth but the Judaisers told them lies. Paul sought to glorify Christ but the Judaisers glorified themselves and their converts. These people were zealous to win you over but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us so that you may be zealous for them - verse 17.
A true servant of God does not "use people" to build himself up or his work; he ministers in love to help people know Christ better and glorify him. Paul had proved his love to the Galatians by telling them the truth but they would not accept it. They were enjoying the "kisses" of the Judaisers, not realising that these kisses were leading them into bondage and sorrow. Christ had made them sons and heirs, but they were rapidly becoming slaves and beggars. They had not lost the experience of salvation - they were still Christians but they were kissing the enjoyment of their salvation and finding satisfaction in their works instead. Sad to say, they did not realise their losses. They actually thought they were becoming better Christians by substituting law for grace and the religious deeds of the flesh for the fruit of the Spirit.
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