Free to Grow

Galatians 4:8–31 CSB

8 But in the past, since you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods. 9 But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? 10 You are observing special days, months, seasons, and years. 11 I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted. 12 I beg you, brothers and sisters: Become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have not wronged me; 13 you know that previously I preached the gospel to you because of a weakness of the flesh. 14 You did not despise or reject me though my physical condition was a trial for you. On the contrary, you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself. 15 Where, then, is your blessing? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 So then, have I become your enemy because I told you the truth? 17 They court you eagerly, but not for good. They want to exclude you from me, so that you would pursue them. 18 But it is always good to be pursued in a good manner—and not just when I am with you. 19 My children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you. 20 I would like to be with you right now and change my tone of voice, because I don’t know what to do about you. 21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. 23 But the one by the slave was born as a result of the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born through promise. 24 These things are being taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery—this is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, Rejoice, childless woman, unable to give birth. Burst into song and shout, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate woman will be many, more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband. 28 Now you too, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as then the child born as a result of the flesh persecuted the one born as a result of the Spirit, so also now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never be a coheir with the son of the free woman.” 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave but of the free woman.

Here we are, the Sunday after Christmas. The Sunday before the new year starts. We are closing out the old year and venturing into something new. I bet there are a lot of things that you would like to close out from 2020.

We are on the verge of the new. What will 2021 bring?

What new adventures can we look forward to?

Some of us here are probably thinking about our new years resolutions, maybe some new routines, some new goals, a new you!

Paul is showing us a new horizon. A new identity. A new way of living.

Let me ask you this: Do you want a new identity?

The letter to the Galatians has been about a church that Paul helped found and that started to stray in its understanding of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, the Word that they had been given and had trusted in.

This is very much like the world we live in today.

There are all sorts of messages out there about who Jesus is and what he was all about.

Is he just that good teacher who got the religious leaders a little hot under the collar and tragically was killed by them?

Is he the magician that everyone wants who is there to meet all of your wildest dreams if you just have enough faith?

Or he’s the God that comes and goes but doesn’t really give a care about the problems of this world.

Is he any of that, or something different?

Well there is a new way. And Paul continues his argument to this young church pleading with them to seek the truth and not the false message that some others are trying to lure them away with.

And Paul really comes as a pastor at this point in his message.

We’ve seen a Paul who has been pretty blunt and direct with his church.

Even going so far as to call them fools.

And if we are honest we probably don’t think much about that pastoral approach.

We regulate that to another category,

maybe even one that we would shy away from or ignore,

maybe we are even offended by it.

And in chapter 4 of Galatians we see a Paul that has now soften his tone a bit,

pulled them in and addressed them first as brothers and sisters and then in a very intimate pastor tone he calls them his children.

Yes, that is what we want.

But the reality is his whole argument is based on his pastoral position and love for them, both the harsh and the soft.

Both the bringing of weighty truth that they need to grab onto, because their lives depend on it and the soft tone where he is trying to pull them in closely as family.

Both Paul, both pastoral, and both brought because of love for a church that is moving in a dangerous direction.

And as we look at these next few verses we are going to frame the text around the idea of prayer.

Three prayers to be exact.

Prayer for God to show us how to walk in his grace.

Prayer for God to help us to trust in his word.

And a prayer for God to give us a great passion for our purpose.

And these are three prayers that are appropriate for any church that wants to follow Christ faithfully.

God, Show Us How to Walk in Your Grace

Galatians 4:8–11 CSB

8 But in the past, since you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods. 9 But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? 10 You are observing special days, months, seasons, and years. 11 I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.

Paul returns to one of his favorite descriptions of how we experience life. Slavery.

We were slaves to this world, unable to serve another master. Fully tied to what was going on in this world.

Its problems, its temptations, the ways that it leads us to stumble.

The ways that it draws us away from one another with the promise of achieving our own dreams our own success. Paul says that these are not true gods, but basically we have made them the gods of our lives.

Paul says, Galatian church this is not the end of your story.

You did not stay in bondage to the things of this world.

You took on a new identity as sons and daughters of God.

And then he asks the ongoing question he’s been asking through this whole letter.

What happened? Why are you turning away? Why are you adding things that don’t need to be added to your lives.

Let me tell you a little story, he says.

And he brings them back to their old friend Abraham to a time in his life when he actually experienced a pretty big struggle because he worked in his own power.

Paul says, what came out of that struggle is an illustration of what it means to stay under the law, or go back to the law. Or to live in our new freedom.

Galatians 4:21-31 says this:

How did we get here?

Galatians 4:21–31 CSB

21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. 23 But the one by the slave was born as a result of the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born through promise. 24 These things are being taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery—this is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, Rejoice, childless woman, unable to give birth. Burst into song and shout, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate woman will be many, more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband. 28 Now you too, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as then the child born as a result of the flesh persecuted the one born as a result of the Spirit, so also now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will never be a coheir with the son of the free woman.” 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave but of the free woman.

Paul uses this story as an illustration to contrast the child born into slavery, Ishmael, and the child born from the promise, Isaac.

While he is at it he also contrasts the mothers and their part in this story.

A woman under slavery and a woman of freedom.

Hagar Abraham’s servant, and Sarah Abraham’s wife.

Hagar and Ishmael stand for the old covenant, the law.

The added things that the Judaizers were pushing on these Gentile Christians.

The products of slavery.

In comparison to Sarah and Isaac who represent the new covenant of freedom found in our faith in Jesus Christ.

With the illustration of Sarah and Hagar in verses 21-31, as well as the mention of our slavery to sin in verses 8-11, Paul is saying exactly what he’s been saying throughout Galatians: we’ve not been obedient to the law.

The old covenant was given at Mount Sinai and required God’s people to keep the law.

But we have all disobeyed the law, which means salvation can’t come through the law.

So how does salvation come?

It comes because we’ve been awakened by the Spirit.

The key phrase is in chapter 4 verse 29, where it says that Isaac was “born according to the Spirit.”

This was the difference between Isaac and Ishmael: Ishmael was born according to the flesh, that is, in the natural way that children are born.

Abraham and Hagar attempted to produce an heir through their own human ability, since Sarah couldn’t have children.

But Isaac was born supernaturally,

in the sense that this was something that could only happen if God intervened with a miracle between a 100-year old man and a 90-year old woman.

This takes us back to Galatians 3:2, where Paul asks the Galatians “Did you received the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Paul is telling us that our status as sons, as children of faith in God’s promise, comes about by the Spirit and not by natural human effort.

So, we see Paul taking us through his argument of how we got to the place where we are right now.

We are children because of the work of the spirit.

Who we are?

And because of that work of the spirit we are no longer slaves to religion.

Paul is once again reiterating in this passage that we are no longer slaves.

That’s the whole point of the illustration with Hagar and Sarah, namely, that we are to get rid of the slave woman and her son (4:30).

We’re not slaves to the law anymore.

We’re children of freedom.

We’re not saved by obeying the law in addition to trusting in Christ for salvation,

which is exactly what the Galatians had started thinking as a result of the Judaizers.

Paul describes the situation of the Galatians in 4:8-11.

In verse 8 Paul says that the Galatians were slaves to those who are not gods, a reference to false gods or demons.

Remember that most of the Galatian Christians were not formerly Jewish, but rather pagan.

Therefore, Paul essentially reminds them that they used to worship pagan gods.

Then, in verse 9, he says that they are turning back to slavery. And to what are they turning back?

The apostle gets specific in verse 10, saying that their slavery is shown in their observance of “special days, months, seasons, and years,” a general reference to a broad range of Jewish festivals, events, and celebrations.

What Paul says here is astonishing.

He tells the Galatians that they used to be pagans who worshiped demons, but then they were set free by the gospel.

Now they’re turning to Jewish holy days and festivals, giving themselves to slavery and paganism again.

Did you catch that?

Paul is talking about those who celebrate these Jewish holy days and festivals as a way to get to God, and he is equating their ceremonies with the same pagan religious practices the Galatians participated in before they came to Christ.

In other words, Paul refers to these Jewish ordinances as demonic when they’re approached as ways to make oneself right before God.

This is the exact same thing pagans are doing in their religions.

Let me put this into some modern language: This is a bit tough

if you go to church, sing songs, and study the Word, thinking this is how you’re going to work to earn God’s favor, then you are no different from the over one billion Hindus in the world today who are bowing down to their gods.

If your Christianity is a check-off box in order to make you feel good about yourself before God, in order to save your skin on the day of judgment, then your Christianity is no different from every other religion in the world, and ultimately it will condemn you.

Paul is uncovering a scheme of the Devil in the first century that continues in the twenty-first century.

It is subtly and dangerously deceiving.

What if Satan’s strategy to condemn your soul involves not tempting you to do all the wrong things, but instead leading you to do all the right things with the wrong spirit?

What if Satan actually wants you to come to church, lead a small group, teach, and lead your home in an upright way?

What if he’s in favor of you doing all those things, just so long as you think that by doing those things you’re working your way to God?

One pastor says it like this:

You say, “Well, I pray.” Big deal, Muslims pray.

You say, “Well, I go to worship.” Big deal, Hindus go to worship. They worship all day long.

You say, “Well, I study the Bible.” So do Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they can quote it better than most Christians.

You say, “Well, I go on mission trips.” So do Mormons—scores of them give years of their lives to do so.

These are really convicting statements right.

If your or my Christianity consists of slavery to religion in order to make yourself right before God, then it’s just as if you’re giving yourself to the pagan religions of the world.

But Christianity is radically different from those worldly religions.

Rather than slaves of religion, we are sons in a relationship with God. Paul says that the Galatians know God, and then he pauses and says, “or rather have become known by God” (v. 9).

To use the language of 4:1-7, we are sons of God. Why would we live like a slave to religion when we are sons in a relationship with God?

God knows us intimately, and the idea here is of deep, personal knowledge.

We know God, and He knows us!

God has allowed us to have an intimate, close relationship with him.

But we can either make Christianity just like every other world religion and check off our boxes every week and go through the routine and the ritual, or we can step into this intimate presence of God.

We ought not be a people who prayed a prayer a while ago and now are just trying to do our best to get things right with our lives on a week-in and week-out basis.

We should be a people who walk with God and know Him intimately.

We ought to serve God wholeheartedly, not because we’re trying to make ourselves right, but because we’ve been made right by God’s grace.

We walk with Him as sons who know Him and love Him and enjoy Him and glorify Him, no matter what it costs us.

Where we’re going?

Paul also wants us to know where we’re going.

In 4:25 Paul talks about how Hagar corresponds to the earthly city of Jerusalem, which symbolizes slavery.

But there is freedom in the heavenly Jerusalem, in being a child of promise living for the Jerusalem that is above (v. 26).

And Paul reminds us that because we are free, we are not living for earthly pleasure.

We aren’t in slavery to the weak and miserable principles of the world.

Instead, we are living for a heavenly home.

We’re free people who are no longer in bondage to this world.

We don’t live like everybody else, nor do we live for what everybody else lives for.

We’re sons who live for a Father who is preparing a place for us in a heavenly home, and this changes everything about our lives in this world.

May God show us how to walk in His grace.

We have been saved by grace; that much is clear.

But Paul’s burden for the church at Galatia is for them to realize what it means to live by that grace—not as slaves to religion, but as sons in a relationship to God; and not for earthly pleasure, but for a heavenly home.

For many of us, there is so much room to grow in this area.

So the first prayer in this passage is that God would show us how to walk in His grace.

Here is the second. God, help us to trust in your Word

God, Help Us to Trust in Your Word

We’ve walked through verses 8-11 and 21-31 somewhat like bookends to this section of the letter to the Galatian church.

Now we need to take a peak at the middle section and prayerfully ask God to help us to trust his word.

This was something that the church was having a hard time doing.

Galatians 4:12–16 CSB

12 I beg you, brothers and sisters: Become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have not wronged me; 13 you know that previously I preached the gospel to you because of a weakness of the flesh. 14 You did not despise or reject me though my physical condition was a trial for you. On the contrary, you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself. 15 Where, then, is your blessing? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 So then, have I become your enemy because I told you the truth?

Paul is telling the church in verse 12 that he became like the Galatians in order to lead them to Christ.

He saying that as a Jewish man he set down the law and requirements of the law to come and live like them so that he could help them walk in the freedom that he himself had experienced.

He put the regulations aside so that he could show them that salvation was not dependent on those kinds of things.

And now he’s pleading that they would be able to do the same thing.

They need to stop living like there are added rules for their salvation.

Paul was blessed to be able to come into their community and actually be taken care of by them.

He reminds them that he was extremely ill when he met with them, but they cared for him even to the point of sacrificing themselves and their wellbeing for his sake.

He is praising them because they were acting out their faith in very real and tangible ways.

But now he finds himself in a position of being rejected by the very people that he led to the Lord.

They are turning their backs on him and it’s left him confused and heartbroken.

They were giving up on the example that he brought to them and they were giving up on the word from the Lord.

Help us to live it when it’s not easy

Paul’s trials remind us that we need God to help us trust in His Word.

By that I mean God must help us to live it when it’s not easy.

What Paul was asking these Galatians to do—to leave behind Jewish customs and rules—was not easy, particularly when there were teachers in the church saying these customs and rules were necessary for salvation.

This was not easy at all, which is probably why Paul implies in verse 12 that living and preaching like this wasn’t easy for him.

For instance, Paul was ostracized in many ways for reaching out to Gentiles like he did.

He was ostracized first of all by the Jewish establishment for coming to Christ, for leaving Judaism to follow what they perceived of basically as a cult.

And then after he became a Christian and a part of the church, he was ostracized by Jewish Christians for reaching out to Gentile Christians.

It wasn’t easy to convert to Christianity in the first century, particularly if you had to leave Jewish customs and rules embedded in an old covenant in order to be a part of a new covenant.

In verse 29 Paul gives the example of Ishmael persecuting Isaac to make this very point.

This is what happens when you walk by grace and live according to the Word by faith. You will be persecuted.

Interestingly, persecution comes not only from the world, but also from the religious establishment around you.

This is a theme that runs throughout the Bible.

The prophets were persecuted, and who was it that persecuted them?

Was it the surrounding Gentile nations? No, it was the ruling Jewish establishment.

Jesus was persecuted, and by whom?

By the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day who instigated His execution.

In a similar way, Paul was persecuted by these Judaizers.

What’s the common theme?

When you start to live radically by grace, it will cost you.

Sure, it will cost you in the outside world, but you’ll receive the most trouble from the religious world around you.

Throughout the history of God’s people, some of the greatest struggles have not come from the outside, but from the inside.

This continues to be true today: when people start to really trust in God’s Word, when people start taking it at face value and believing it and living it, then there will be religious people who will rise up and make some noise.

You will be resisted by the religious establishment when you start to live out the Word.

You may even be ostracized, discounted, and labeled a fanatic.

The question for us is, Will we live according to God’s Word even when it’s not easy?

For this we need God’s help.

Help us to hear it when it’s not popular

Not only do we need God to help us to live out the truth when it’s not easy, but we also need God to help us to hear it when it’s not popular.

Paul closes out verse 16 by saying, “Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?”

This is where we see Paul’s pastoral heart.

He has said some hard things to the Galatians, not because he hates them, but because he loves them.

Paul was willing to risk his own reputation with the Galatians by telling them the truth instead of telling them what they wanted to hear.

This is a good reminder for me or any one who gets up to teach from the Scriptures.

People love a preacher or a teacher who says just what they want to hear.

You can draw the crowds, gain the accolades, and have everything go smoothly as long as you tell people what they want to hear.

But when you tell the truth, people might look at you like you’re their enemy.

So the question for every Bible teacher and preacher is this:

Do you (or I) want to be popular or do we want to be faithful?

I want to be faithful to God’s Word more than I want to be pleasing in people’s opinion.

And here is something for all of us:

As long as God’s Word is guiding us, let’s ask God to help us hear it and receive it, even when it’s not popular, or it doesn’t sound pleasing to our ears.

In verse 17 Paul talks about the strategy of the Judaizers.

They sounded like they cared for these believers, but in fact they did not care.

Actually, they are leading the Galatians down a road that leads to hell.

The Galatians don’t want to hear Paul when he tells them their “friends” are wicked; on the contrary, they suspect Paul’s motives.

Therefore, Paul pleads with the Galatians not to see him as their enemy, telling them of his love.

He wanted them to hear and receive the truth and reject the harmful lies.

We too must be faithful to the Word, even when it exposes blind spots and areas of our lives that need radical adjustment.

Even when it contains truths that you, or frankly I, may not want to hear.

God, Give Us Great Zeal for Your Purpose

Paul has asked us to pray to God that we might be shown how to walk in His grace and also to trust in His word.

Paul then takes us to a place where we need to ask God to give us a passion for his purpose.

Paul is going to use the word zeal. And the reality is we need to have great zeal, passion, but it needs to be directed at the right purpose.

What the outside teachers were bringing was a zeal that led to division and confusion and it didn’t allow them to live in the freedom and purpose that God was intending for their lives.

Galatians 4:17–20 CSB

17 They court you eagerly, but not for good. They want to exclude you from me, so that you would pursue them. 18 But it is always good to be pursued in a good manner—and not just when I am with you. 19 My children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you. 20 I would like to be with you right now and change my tone of voice, because I don’t know what to do about you.

Paul tells us what he is zealous for. And he uses the language of birth to describe it. “I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you.”

Give us a passion to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Based on this verse, we pray that God would give us a passion to be conformed to the image of Christ.

The key word here is “formed”, which means to be shaped.

More than anything else, Paul wanted Christ to be the mold that would shape the lives of the Galatian church.

Paul wants them to be like Christ.

We see this in Paul’s words in chapter 2 verse 20 - where he speaks of Christ living in him.

He uses the same kind of language in 2 Cor 4:10 as well when he speaks of his purpose as an apostle.

2 Corinthians 4:10 CSB

10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body.

This is the freedom that Paul is talking about, Christ shaping us, molding us, changing us, and forming us into His image so that we might be liberated to experience life in Him, for Him, through Him, by Him, and with Him.

This would be my prayer and the prayer of the other leaders for Faith Bible Church as well.

Give us a passion to see others transformed for the glory of Christ.

And when we experience Christ’s transformation in our own lives our desire should be that we see others transformed as well.

This doesn’t just stop with us.

This is Paul’s heart as a pastor and it should be all of our hearts as well.

We pray that God would give us a passion to see others transformed for the glory of Christ.

Paul says that his experience is that like a mother who longs, even through pain, to give birth to a child.

Paul longed to see the Galatians transformed for the glory of Christ.

This ought to be the heart of every follower of Christ.

We should pray for each other, we should teach each other, and model the Christ-life before each other because we want to see everyone live in the transforming freedom that Jesus brings.

We are not merely followers of Christ for our own sake, and I would dare to say not just for the sake of this church.

We are here together for each other and for the purpose of transforming our community.

This is why a church ought to be a community that weeps together, that pleads with each other, that confronts each other as necessary, that prays with and for one another, and that exhorts and builds one another up.

We do this so that the image we show is not our own, but that of Christ Jesus our savior.

And Paul says that he will not be satisfied until that happens.

End

May God help us to be a people who are not satisfied until Christ is formed in us, until we take on the shape of Christ.

And that starts here in the group of us that have committed ourselves to one another and to the work that the collective body of Faith Bible Church is trying to accomplish.

May our prayer be that God helps us to walk in His grace.

That we gain a greater trust and understanding of His word.

And that ultimately our passion and purpose expands beyond just us, but moves into our communities as well.