The Goal Is the Image of Christ

Read

Galatians 4:12–20 (ESV)

12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

Opening Prayer

Recap

Last week Paul appealed to the Galatians to think of their life before Christ.

He called them to think of all the joys and benefits in Christ.

And, he pleads with them to Not Turn Back.

In this morning’s passage we notice...

What Seems Like A Sudden Shift

It seems like Paul has pulled the emergency brake...

And made a sudden shift from doctrine to relationship.

And, he certainly is bringing up a relational component.

But, in reality, his argument here is still very doctrinal.

He says...

Galatians 4:12 (ESV)

12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong.

The phrase become as I am is actually a command...

It is in the imperative.

In association with everything Paul has said so far...

Paul is urging them to be like him.

What does Paul mean?

He, being a Jew, has become like a Gentile...

Meaning free from the Mosaic law...

In order to be justified by faith in Christ.

They, the Galatians, who were free from the Mosaic law...

Are imprisoning themselves to it, for no good reason...

And, because of this…walking away from Christ...

Who is their only hope.

Paul is urging them to rid themselves of the Mosaic Law...

Just as he has.

You can see the care, concern, and love that Paul is showing for the Galatians...

As, he entreats them as brothers.

His desire is for them to grow in the Lord.

Not walk away from Him.

His desire is for them to bear fruit that shows they’re attached to the root.

Not walk away proving they were never attached to the root, Jesus.

Paul’s had to be stern.

He’s had to be clear.

He’s had to be precise in doctrine.

And, at the same time, making it clear to them of the dangerous eternal waters that they’re approaching.

They don’t realize it...

But they’re paddling a canoe into a hurricane.

While being convinced, by the false teachers, that their sailing a Warship into a harbor.

Now, because of the doctrinal precision and urgent caution Paul has had to use...

He, also wants them to know that...

This Is Not Self-Defense

Galatians 4:12 (ESV)

12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong.

Paul is not rebuking them because he has been hurt by them.

As if their, seeming, allegiance to the false teachers has caused him to lash out at them in sinful anger.

As if he is trying to be cruel and harm them with, and by, what he is saying.

But, it is after much deep theological proclamations...

Many severe salvific warnings...

Explicit warnings of their potentially rejecting Christ...

That Paul interjects for clarity sake.

Paul is most likely concerned that the Galatians will hear these warnings as if he is angry.

As if he is personally offended...

And, hence writing to them as a defense of his reputation.

As a how dare you put me asunder.

But, that is not it at all.

Paul is saying, my response to you...

Is out of love, not hostility.

Love, not resentment.

This is not a jealous, hurtful retaliation.

This is a rescue effort.

It’s like a father seeing his child running towards a road full of speeding traffic.

It’s Urgent.

It’s Dangerous.

Immediate attention is necessary or something tragic will occur.

A father, in this type of scenario, has nothing but affection for his child...

And is actually motivated to immediate, assertive action out of a desire to keep his child from danger...

His desire is to do whatever is lawfully necessary to protect his child from the danger being threatened.

And, what you will see from the father in such a scenario is high emotion, high concern, high alarm, intense action...

All aimed at the safety and protection of the beloved child.

And, so, Paul understanding that the false teachers will seek to take this letter and say...

Wow, you think this guy cares about you?

Look at the intensity of his words and actions towards you.

Look at the descriptions he’s given with regards to what you are doing.

Look at the names he’s used to describe you, if you follow us.

This doesn’t sound like a person who loves you.

And, so Paul is writing here to explain that this is like a child running into speeding traffic...

Urgent, yet, abounding in love and grace...

And, love and grace are what is fueling this letter.

But, Paul also wants them to remember that becoming like him...

Also means that you will suffer for Christ...

The Afflictions of Christians

Based on Paul’s missionary journey and how he was treated in...

Acts 14:19 (ESV)

19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

This ailment or condition that he was in, seems most likely the result of his being stoned and dragged out of the city of Lystra and left for dead.

This happened to him because he preached the gospel.

A person with ailments, physical infirmity, and involved in adversity was heavily avoided by Jews...

They worried about ceremonial impurity...

And, Gentiles would have regarded someone in Paul’s condition as representing being in opposition and being penalized by the “gods.”

Look at...

Galatians 4:14 (ESV)

14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

So, this is a temptation to despise Paul.

A man that had been beaten and left for dead by the Jews because Paul preached the gospel of Christ...

And, the Jews opposed the gospel of Christ.

Paul would have had open wounds, serious injuries, swelling, broken bones...

Literally on the verge of death...

And, left for dead.

He would have been treated, but by the grace of God, as...

Someone to avoid.

Someone who was in adversity.

Someone who was unclean.

Someone who was in opposition to God.

But, God in His grace moved the Galatians to receive Paul with gladness.

They received him as if he were an angel of the Lord.

As, as a messenger of Christ.

This is not how the world responds to Christian persecution & afflictions...

The Parable of the Soils instructs as that religious persecution is what actually drives people away.

Being persecuted for your beliefs, to the natural mind, is actually a thing that will cause people to run away from those beliefs.

Paul is saying...

You Once Loved Me Dearly, Return to That Love

You showed great love towards me because of the gospel of Christ...

And, for Christ Himself.

In spite of myself and my condition.

v.15 What then has become of your blessedness?

What happened to you joy, your happiness, your satisfaction in Christ?

In His person and work?

And, then he says something unique.

Something that pertains to their original receptiuon of the gospel.

Paul says...

Galatians 4:15 (ESV)

15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.

Your reception of the gospel.

Your awareness of your need for Christ’s forgiveness.

Your confession of your sinfulness.

You were willing to give your own eyes.

Maybe Paul told them what Jesus said in...

Matthew 18:9 (ESV)

9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Or maybe Paul is just saying that you loved the gospel so much that you would have given up a most precious gift…your eyesight.

Like, the gospel is more precious than life because without it you cannot truly live.

You loved me because of the message I preached...

The gospel of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 4:16 (ESV)

16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

The contrast here is staggering.

And what is expressed here is insightful.

One of the great concerns of a shepherd is that we are walking in the ways of the Lord...

And, one of the most telling signs...

It’s not full-proof, but it is often telling...

Is this...

Quite often, a person’s walking away from Christ...

Is first made manifest in their walking away from the Lord’s people.

A person who starts rejecting Christ and the gospel...

Is often made manifest in their rejecting the people of the Lord.

Paul is saying here...

If you’re walking away from the gospel...

If you’re rejecting the gospel and Christ...

Are you seeing me as an enemy, since your love for me was rooted in that very gospel you are now rejecting?

And, then Paul wants them to be aware of something...

Something very important.

Something we like to think happens to others, but not us.

Galatians 4:17 (ESV)

17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.

What Paul is saying is going on is the use of flattery.

They make much of you, but not for your good...

But for their own.

Here’s the trickery and deceitfulness of flattery.

We only flatter in the hopes of it being reciprocated...

In other words, we flatter, with the deceit of making much of someone else...

Only so that person(s) will make much of us.

And, Paul is saying they only make much of you so that you will make much of them.

The whole relationship is laced with deceit.

But, Paul says...

Galatians 4:18–19 (ESV)

18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!

In Exchange for Flattery

Paul is saying it is fine that we much of each other...

When it is for a good purpose for the person being made much of.

Paul made much of them...

But his goal is to see Christ formed in them.

The goal of the false teachers was to see themselves formed in the Galatians.

They wanted the Galatians to mimic them...

Esteem them.

Paul wanted them to imitate Christ...

And to esteem Christ.

And, so Paul states...

Galatians 4:20 (ESV)

20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

The longing to be in the presence of the ones you love when they are going through difficult times...

The longing of a parent to be with their children...

When their children are making mistakes...

Or going down the wrong path.

This is Paul’s desire to be with his little children...

To comfort them.

To speak face to face with them.

For them to see the love that he has for them in his very own face.

Now, I want to take this passage and lay it on us...

Penetrating Questions

How do you handle the instruction of the Lord?

Are you eager to have God make your paths straight?

What if the instruction is corrective?

This is the most difficult instruction.

It involves admitting we are wrong.

What if that corrective instruction comes through God using people?

How do you handle such correction?

Do you run from it?

Do you avoid it altogether?

Do you embrace it as if from a messenger of Christ?

What is your current relationship with the people of the Lord, corporately?

Is it sporadic?

Is it cold?

Is it distant?

Or are you glad when they said to us, “Let us go into the house of the Lord?”

Do you have joy, right now?

Is that joy grounded in the Savior, Jesus Christ?

Or is that joy on shaky ground?

Grounded in the flattery of the world?

Let me close with this...

Revelation 19:6–8 (ESV)

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;

8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

Closing Prayer