Religion vs. Relationship (Part 1)

Religion vs. Relationship (Part 1)(Galatians 4:21-31)

Good morning! I hope everyone has had a good first few days of fall, as the weather has changed a bit to get a bit cooler. Over the next two weeks we are going to be finishing out Galatians chapter 4, where we really get to see a comparison of what it is between the Law that is being pushed and the freedom we have in Christ.

Now last week Scotty worked through the personal appeal of Paul, because of the language involved, with my little children in vs 19 and wishing to be present to change his tone in vs 20.

Galatians 4:19-20 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!  I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

This sets us up a bit for this week as we work from vs 21-25 and next week as we finish out chapter 4. Also last week Scotty finished with a word, justification, and I want us to keep that word in mind as we process through the scripture today.

Often times you will see or hear of the term “religion” either on tv through an interview or in a form you have to fill out, or just from somebody on the street for that matter. We’ll hear “I’m religious” or “they’re religious” or “found religion” and the sort. Now I realize that most of the time, there is nothing being meant by it, they are just trying to figure out our beliefs system for one reason or another, and sometimes they are just the world trying to separate itself from those that they see as “religious”.

To truly grasp the concept of the term “religion”, as with most words, we have to look at the definition of the word. And of course, there are more than one definition to religion.

1a: the state of a religion (we’ll skip that one, as that’s not what we’re discussing today, and probably won’t)

b (1): the service and worship of God or the supernatural - ok, that one sounds fairly like what we’re supposed to do, just take off the “or the supernatural” (2): commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance - again, doesn’t sound bad

2: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices - maybe?

3archaic : scrupulous conformity : CONSCIENTIOUSNESS - Ummmmm....

4: a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith - again, maybe?

The primary question here is one of do we have, or are we, religious in our Christianity? Let’s take a look at what Paul has to say. If you have your Bible, open it up to Galatians chapter 4 and today we’re going to look at verse 21-24.

First, let’s look at

I. The Question

Galatians 4:21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?

Now bear in mind here, all of those that are opposing Paul’s teaching here are using Old Testament law because that is the only scripture currently there as we’ve known going through up till now. Now we know that the law was to the Israelites, who were direct decendents of Abraham, and specifically through Sarah’s womb. We also know that the first 5 books of the Bible are classified as “the Law”, because the Jewish people classified the 5 books written by Moses as “the Law”. Paul is going to use the law to show a vast difference between what they are teaching and what he is teaching.

Now if you remember correctly, Paul has already established the ties to the Abrahamic promises in chapter 3, and has throughout chapter 4 thus far spoken of the Promise of Jesus coming through Abraham and adoption as sons. Paul has set the stage thus far to now begin to drive the point home as he wraps up chapter 4.

As we’ve already stated, verses 19 and 20 were more of the personal appeal that Paul has made, so Paul now is able to be a bit more relaxed in his mood as he takes a more playful attitude working through the remaining text.

Knowing Paul is a scholar when it comes to the law, and seeing his confidence as he goes through his teachings, I can only imagine that Paul’s tone at this point is more like “c’mon guys, are you seriously listening to yourselves right now?” You’ve got it all backwards, and here’s why, as Paul continues to proceed through the reason and break it down for them.

While we don’t see specifically in scripture the part of the Law the opposers are using, it’s very possible Paul is about to use the very same scripture that the opposers are using demonstrating back to them what they are missing in their own teaching.

Paul chose this particular example for a reason, however, and at this point he does not seem to be addressing the other missionaries as much as he is the general Galatian Gentile audience. Also as we’ve already covered, Paul has used the Abrahamic example for chapter 3 and 4 thus far. Part of this again is his tone, more bantering and personal challenge than before, addressing them as “who want to be under the law”. Also of note is that he already knew they had been listening to the Law, so they had already become familiar with the law and had begun obeying the law as we saw in 3:2-3

Galatians 3:2-3 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?  Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

So we see that they have already begun to try to do works, obeying the Law, to secure a status alongside the Jewish people. They had already become “God fearers” and had already been attracted by Judaism, Paul had already taught that they were already children of God without circumcision, yet now teachers had told them otherwise and they had chosen to listen to them.

It’s like they were being taught that Jesus wasn’t enough to secure their salvation and places in heaven. Like when someone tells you “Christians can’t” and the thing they are talking about is something absurd like dancing or wearing certain things.

When Kristin and I were younger, we were in a church that had some legalistic rules, one being that we were expected to dress a certain way. Mind you on Sunday mornings we usually were in a suit for me and a dress for her, but even on Wednesday nights in the summer in the Ozarks it’s a bit warm and we wore shorts one Wednesday night. Let’s just say that did not go over well with the church leadership. This is the kind of thing that Paul is discussing here- not things that matter for the heart, but more things we do due to a religious legalistic mindset.

Paul isn’t saying we are free to sin or cause others to sin, rather he is trying to push home the fact that we are not bound to anything that is or was legalism, or the ceremonial and traditional laws that were a part of the Law, and in our churches today the legalism that can creep in.

II. One father, two mothers

Galatians 4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.

Paul refers back to the Genesis account of Abraham, where Sarah (Sarai at the time) tells Abraham (Abram at the time) to take her slave in order to fulfil God’s promise in

Genesis 16:2: And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

And then later on in chapter 17 God delivers this promise:

Genesis 17:15-21 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.  I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”  Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”  And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”  God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.  As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.  But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

Did you ever have a moment where waiting on God seemed to take too long, and you decided to “help God”? How did that work out for you?

Usually we end up more like Abraham and Sarah, making decisions in the flesh rather than allowing God to fulfil His Promise.

Back to

Galatians 4:23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

Here Paul is tying in the words of Jesus in talking with Nicodemus in John 3:6:

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

See Paul is connecting the dots to the law. Ishmael was born to Hagar out of a human desire to assist God and to fulfil the promise through no real help from God. They weren’t wanting to wait on God, rather they were getting old (Isaac translates to laughter, which both Abraham and Sarah laughed when God told them they were going to have a child in their old age). This is what the opposition was doing when they were pushing for obedience to the Law, they were trying to make the Law of Judaism the standard. But Jesus came to fulfil in vs 4-5

Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had 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.

That redemption in Jesus is what Paul is trying to get the Galatians to fully understand.

III. The slave

Verses 24-25:

Galatians 4:24-25  Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.  Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

They were still living as the slaves! When we try to please God through ceremonies, rituals, or traditions, aka legalism, we’re doing the same thing. God is not looking for a bunch of do-it-yourself to get to him religious types - he had that multiple times throughout history up to this point already, and that’s what the other religions then and now do- for them it’s about what I can do to make it to please God and make it to heaven.

Think tower of Babel in Genesis 11 verse 4 as the inhabitants try to make their way to the heavens

Genesis 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

Think King Saul when he made the sacrifice that wasn’t his to make in 1 Samuel 13

1 Samuel 13:11-13  Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash,  I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the LORD.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.”  And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you. For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

Think the Pharisees who throughout the New Testament thought they were the most righteous because of what they did and how they followed the Law.

Think religions today - praying certain times of day, facing certain directions, unable to eat certain things

So here’s a question for you -

The real question: Are you a religious Christian?

It drives me nuts now to hear people say things like “I can’t do that, I’m a Christian” or “you can’t do that, you’re a Christian” or “that’s not Christian”, the list goes on and on. True, there are certain things we as Christians shouldn’t do, but often times these are said at things we think shouldn’t be done because we think they are not Christian. The same goes for things we (or others) think we should be doing to become better Christians. For the Galatians, it was circumcision, attending ceremonies, following traditions, things like that.

For us, it’s doing something or not doing something in order to gain favor with God, or “I want to be a better Christian so I’m __________”. Mind you there’s not necessarily anything wrong with doing these things, more it’s the reason behind doing them that is of issue.

Do you set aside prayer time or devotion time to be closer to God, or do you do it so He won’t be “mad” at you?

Do you pray over your meals to thank God for His provision, or do you do it so that He (or others) think you’re a “good Christian”?

Are you doing something because you are made to feel guilty by someone else, or because you feel led or called to do it by God?

Looking back on the definitions of religion, none of this still sounds bad. But if our reason for doing them “religiously” is to think that doing them will get us some kind of special place with God, or make us “better” Christians, or that being a Christian requires these things, we’re as Paul says, slaves. We’re slaves to religion, legalism, the law.

The audience Paul has been talking to have been missing the point of Jesus and God’s promise through the Law. Remember that word from last week that I told you to keep in mind - justification. You see, the Law they were trying to observe - the religious law, that the Israelites had been under, and now the Galatians were bing convinced were necessary - that required religious attention and devotion to a law of the flesh. They were trying to justify themselves, which we cannot do. That work is one of Christ, and next week we will get into that more.

The bottom line here today is that if I am trying to work my way into heaven (good enough) or if I am trying to earn God’s favor by my works, these are of the flesh. We hear it all the time in shows and movies, and culture has been trying to convince us that we have to be good enough to get into heaven. It’s the direct lie of the devil himself, as he tries to wiggle his way in. The problem here is that we tend to do right in our own eyes rather than what God calls right.

Jesus Himself says in Luke chapter 18 when talking to the rich young ruler

Luke 18:19 ... Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

So we see that we can never be good enough to earn our way to God, because our very definition of good is skewed.

Our justification is the work of Christ. His sacrifice was all it took, HE earned our way to the Father, HE is our justification. The easiest way to remember justification in a biblical light is “just as if I never sinned”, which is evident in Romans chapter 5

Romans 5:16  And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

Romans 5:18  Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

As our time today comes to a close, I want you to remember that Christ died once and for all people. He didn’t die so that we could continue to attempt to win favor through trying to be better christians through our works. If you’ve already accepted Christ, there is no “and” to the work of justification - Jesus did all of that in order to have the relationship with you, and our works come through the Holy Spirit working through us and developing us through the process of sanctification - we can’t do that on our own. Right now I’m going to ask that everyone close their eyes and bows their heads.

Now if you don’t know Christ today, the first step towards that sweet forgiveness found only in Christ is to admit that you’re a sinner. Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Lets be frank – every one of us are sinners. Romans 6:23 says “for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. God sent His Son to be the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind for all time. Once you’ve admitted that you’re a sinner, it’s great to see God’s promise and sacrifice He made for us to be reconciled to Him. Romans 5:8 says “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. But knowing all of that doesn’t bring you into a relationship with Him. And it wasn’t the end of the story, either. Romans 10:9-10: “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. It sounds easy, and it is just that easy, the only thing holding you back is you. We’re not going to embarrass you, we’re not going to call you down to the front to be in front of everyone, but if you feel called and led, this is your time.

If that’s you, if God is calling to you to draw into a relationship with the only perfect father, answer Him today. If you don’t know how to start, just pray something like this, Dear God, I know I am a sinner in need of your all sufficient grace, and Lord I believe that you did send your Son to die for me, and that you raised Him from the dead proving victory over death hell and the grave. I choose you Lord, to learn to follow in Your ways, and to be able to spend eternity with You. I thank you for the freedom from the bondage of sin, and I love you Lord. In Jesus name, amen.

If you need someone to talk to, I’m here, Scotty and Josh are here, if you feel led to come up to the cross, now is your time.