Galatians | 4:8-31

May 26

About this series:

Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia is a heartfelt defence of the gospel of God's grace; a fervent appeal to keep the gospel front-and-centre and to not allow anything to detract from it.

In this letter Paul sounds exasperated at some points - for example, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - which is really no gospel at all” (1:6) and, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” (3:1), which The Message renders as, “You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives.”

Paul’s frustration and anger stem from a passionate concern that the churches he planted return to a full confidence that it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that a person is justified by God and is included in God’s family. Nothing else is required. The message he preached to the Galatians, and which they had believed, is not so much a departure from their Jewish heritage, as the fulfilment of it. Thus, in this letter we have a window into life in early Christianity and especially some of the challenges the churches faced from false teachers as the church grew from its Jewish roots.

So in this series we’re going to get a big view of what the life, death and resurrection of Jesus has achieved for mankind. And some very practical help on how we can stay true to Jesus, trusting him alone to put us in a right relationship with God, to keep us in that right relationship and to qualify us for membership among God’s people. ‘The central message of Galatians is that the freeness of God’s grace and love is not only the gateway but also the pathway of the Christian life’ (Dane Ortlund).

About this talk:

As he does frequently elsewhere and has done already in this letter, Paul contrasts what the believers in Galatia were (“when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods,” v 8) with what they now are (“you know God - or rather are known by God,” v 9). The radical change in identity is a crucial marker of the Christian and a crucial motivator for living the new life. So here, given that God has changed them so radically, “how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces?”

Those “forces” are, “those who by nature are not gods” (v 8). Though they were under the law and held captive by it, it is also true that they were enslaved by the things of this world and by the forces of evil (especially true of those Gentiles who became believers, which is perhaps his emphasis here given that he says, “you did not know God.”)

Having been freed from such slavery, how is it that they are turning back to such a life, evidenced in “observing special days and months and seasons and years” (v 10), as well as their more general return to obeying the law (see ch 3)? Before we ridicule them, we should ask about our tendencies to return to trusting in our pre-Christian ways: status, reputation, finances, ability, etc.

The pain in Paul’s words is evident. Despite their initial eagerness about the gospel, “I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you. I plead with you, brothers and sisters” (vs 11-12); “Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (v 16); “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!” (vs 19-20).

His mention of an illness that led to the opportunity to first preach the gospel in Galatia is not included in the record of Paul’s first missionary journey in Acts 13&14. Many options have been put forward to explain what this illness may have been, the most convincing one being that it at least affected his eyesight (see v 15). Whatever it was, the Galatians' reception of him was remarkable - “even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself” (v 14).

“Those people” (v 17) are the Judaizers he has so roundly condemned earlier in this letter. There is clearly a battle for loyalty not only to the true gospel but to Paul and his companions too - “What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them” or, ESV, “They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.”

Paul’s argument and plea for the Galatians to come to their senses continues as he now (v 21ff) returns to the story of Abraham (paused in 4:7), expanding it to include Hagar and Ishamel, Sarah and Isaac. To the Galatians who are inclined to follow the Judaizers and come back under the law, he asks, “Do you not listen to the law?” (ESV). In other words, your position is illogical. The very law that you wish to be under points away from itself to the promise of freedom to be found outside it. And as long as you remain under it, it will continue to condemn and judge you (cf. 3:10-12).

The Jews made a great claim out of being children of Abraham. Both John and Jesus challenged such confidence by claiming that physical descent from Abraham did not necessarily mean they were his ‘children’ (see Matthew 3:9; John 8:31-44). In fact Paul here reverses the position they held: ‘Those who rely on the law and human effort to be right with God are not the children of the covenant, whereas those who rely on the free promise given in Christ Jesus are the true covenant children’ (Tom Schreiner). So after the history briefly outlined in vs 22-23, he sees this as being taken figuratively (in fact, part allegory and part typology) - “the women represent two covenants.”

Paul sees the difference between the two sets of descendants from Abraham - physical and spiritual - as being illustrated in the differences between Abraham’s two immediate sons:

One was born into slavery, the other into freedom.
One was born according to the flesh (human effort, natural processes), the other according to promise (supernaturally).

The allegory concerns not only two women, but two people of God - “the present city of Jerusalem...in slavery” and “the Jerusalem that is above [that] is free.” Paul’s conclusion, contrary to traditional Jewish belief, is that, “Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise” and, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.” Scripture said, “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son,” but the shock is in the reversal of understanding who the slave woman and her son are - ie. not those who live apart from the law, but those “who want to be under the law” (v 21).