Galatians 4:1-20 Be Free, Free Indeed!

Galatians 4:1-20  What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.  The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.  So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.  Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”  So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.  Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.  But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces?  Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?  You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!  I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.  I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you.  You did me no wrong.  As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, and 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.  Where, then, is your blessing of me now?  I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.  Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?  Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good.  What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them.  It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you.  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!

Paul , the apostle sent by Jesus Christ to the Greek world, is now in pain as one birthing a child because of his fear that the Galatians will venture back into law as the way to be right with God.  Rather than have Christ formed fully in them, they are considering another way to be right with God: keeping the law given to Moses.  Paul knows this pathway to God will lead them back into sinful lives, rather being free IN CHRIST; they will be in bondage to sin. Sin separates men and women from a holy, righteous God.  Jesus knew the Pharisees and teachers of the law were corrupted by sin and a desire to kill him.  The were seeking  to commit the same sin that Cain did in the beginning, kill the righteous Abel.  These followers of the law of Moses were filled with corruption.  Even though they spoke the law, their hearts were far from righteousness and the perfection God demands of humans.  Rather than being part of God’s family of righteousness and goodness, they were members of the devil’s family.  God was not their father, but the devil was their father, for they were slaves to sin.  Jesus tells them that they belong not to God but to Satan.  “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  I know that you are Abraham’s descendants.  Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word.  I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”  (John 8:34-38)  In today’s focus, we see Paul concerned about the Galatians venturing back into the slavery of circumcision, the law and its regulations.  If they revert back to these beggarly elements, Christ will be aborted in them.  They will fall back into the darkness of sin that is characteristic of the world.  Being Greeks in a society of mythology, they have a good chance of trending back to following the no-gods of their world.  Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.  Darkness will once again saturate their lives.  Jesus who is the light of world will not be seen by them.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  (John 1:1-5)  No one else can free men and women from the shackles of sin; no one else can make men and women children in the household of God.  No one else has eternal life as a gift for mankind.  He alone is the way, the truth, and the life.  Paul wants the Galatians to realize that the gift of God, Jesus Christ, is the only way to be right with God, and He is the only way to eternal life in the household of a righteous and holy God.

Now for them to draw back into works to please God, even the works of the law and its regulations, will only lead them to slavery.  The law is good, but it cannot clear men of their sins and their debt to God.  Humans will always fail in fulfilling the law completely, and as James said, any variation or mistake in completely satisfying the law's demands, makes people guilty of violating all that is written in the law, For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  (James 2:10)  God is perfect, complete, and exact.  We see in the building of the tabernacle that only perfect was accepted.  Every measurement had to be exact, precisely as God wanted it.  Nothing could be estimated, all the construction must be exactly as God planned it.  We too must be exact.  If we follow the law, we must do it in the completeness that He demands.  Jesus knows this holiness of God, his nature of completeness.  When He was on the cross, He said it is finished.  The exactness of God has come to mankind through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross.  He paid the complete price for the freedom of men and women to come into the presence of his Father.  He alone could complete the work God demanded of people.  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 5:17-20)  In this verse we see only Jesus could fulfill the law.  Jesus called himself, the son of man.  Why, because he was satisfying the requirements that God had on men and women.  God demanded that men and women fulfill his requirement of holiness, which is the complete and thorough obedience to the law: not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Jesus said, “It is finished," on the cross.  The son of man has completed the course of obeying the words of God at all times in the flesh.  He literally paid the price of perfection, substituting his perfection for mankind’s imperfection.  No one should call the law unholy; all of it must be fulfilled, for it reveals the righteousness of God.  Every jot and tittle of it reveals God, so live it the best you can in the freedom of Christ.  Jesus places the law in the framework of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.  Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.  We know these law-bound servants of the law were ungodly in their hearts, not necessarily in their words.  Paul is telling the Galatians that the only person who has ever lived who has fulfilled the law completely in words and heart is Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  To be more righteous than these religious followers of the righteous law, people must hide in Jesus, the only one who has fulfilled the law completely.  Since God judges the heart and not our outward appearance, we need to know Jesus by faith in him and his completed work.  

What then the law?  The law was given to a rebellious, chosen people 430 years after the promise of God to Abraham.  Through Abraham’s faith in God’s words, God was going to bless all nations on earth through his SEED.  Abraham’s descendants were especially rebellious.  Moses complained to God all the time about their wayward nature.  At Mount Sinai, God revealed to them his nature of holiness.  It was depicted in his commands and regulations.  If they were completely obedient to everything God told them, they would receive blessings on their lives, but if they were disobedient, they would receive curses on their lives.  Of course, they received the latter, for they were a very rebellious people.  But the law came into being, demanding a righteous behavior from the Israelites.  And there was only a remnant that continued being obedient.  This remnant protected the Seed by their obedience to God’s demands, even observing special days and months and seasons and years.  But that period of time has been completed, for the Seed has come to the world in the form of Jesus Christ.  The law and its regulations were guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.  In Mary’s womb this Seed was finally revealed, for the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and placed the Seed into her womb.  The righteous law would now be manifested in human flesh: the son of man.  No longer would people just be heirs to eternal life, but possessors of the full kingdom.  The law served it purpose as a guardian, protector of the Seed, but now since the Seed has come in the flesh, its guardianship is no longer needed.  Paul feared for the Galatians because they were falling back into the law and its regulations to be right with God.  You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!  Circumcision, the law, and its regulations will not satisfy a righteous God.  Why are you turning back to those weak and miserable forces.  The Seed has come in the form of Jesus Christ.  He alone carries the righteousness of God, for he IS THE SON OF GOD.  The law reveals people’s unrighteousness.  It has no redemptive power in it.  The law shows people's lack of Godliness.  It has no healing component within it that will extract the lethal wound of sin resident in mankind’s nature.  The law condemns, does not heal.  Jesus came not to condemn but to save men and women from eternal death.  God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  (John 3:17)  If people stay under the law, they will be judged by the law.  We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.  Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.  But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  (Romans 3:19-24)  Our friends around this breakfast table, we are those who have been set free by the grace and mercy of God through his Son, Jesus Christ.  Paul was lamenting the fact that the Galatians were binding themselves again into following the law rather than remaining in the grace of God.  The grace of God through Jesus Christ would make them free, fully God’s adopted children, but the law would enslave then again in the darkness of the world.  Our friends, hear the message of God delivered in the book of the Galatians: be free, free indeed through the works of Christ, his death on the cross.  You are NO LONGER CHILDREN OF THIS WORLD.  You are resident children of God’s domain.  Fully accept your inheritance, remaining completely free as children of God.   

  

 

   

Galatians 3:15-29 Be a Child of Faith!

Galatians 3:15-29  Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life.  Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.  The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.  Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.  What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.  For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.  Why, then, was the law given at all?  It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.  The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.  A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God?  Absolutely not!  For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.  But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.  Before the coming of this faith,we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.  So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.  Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.  So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

In the above scriptures, Paul explains that the law that happened 430 years after God’s promise to Abraham could not be negated by the law of Moses.  The Lord had tested Abraham’s love and faithfulness to him by demanding that Abraham sacrifice his only son, Isaac.  This was a huge demand from Abraham for God had given Isaac to Sarah and him when they were very old.  Isaac was a miracle baby, coming to them only because God had activated Sarah’s dead womb.  And God’s promises to Abraham could only come through his one and only son, Isaac.  However, God asked Abraham to sacrifice this miracle son on Mount Moriah.  So, Abraham was in the process of carrying out God’s wish when an angel interrupted the scene.  The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.  Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”  (Genesis 22:15-18)  From that one act of obedience, God would bless all nations through THE SEED that would come from the womb of Sarah, Abraham’s descendant.  So later we see John the Baptist under God’s direction seeking the Seed God had promised to Abraham.  When Jesus came to be baptized, John knew he was the One.  John was looking for the man who would have the Spirit remain on him after he was baptized in water.  As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.  At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  (Matthew 3:16-17)  Paul was assuring the Galatians that the law did not do away with the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham.  God’s promise to Abraham that his descendant would bless all nations on the face of the earth had come in the form of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  Paul is telling the Galatians that God’s words are eternal: what He says will be done.  The law and its strictures could never save anyone or make them into new creatures who would be acceptable to a righteous and holy God.  Eternal life was for the born again, not for the unredeemed, members of the kingdom of darkness.  The DESCENDANT of Abraham came to deliver men and women out of a finite existence into an eternal existence.  But for that to happen, people must find that life through faith in Jesus Christ.  He alone amongst men is eternal: therefore, men and women are transformed to eternal life by being IN CHRIST, dying with him and resurrected IN HIM.  This is the Good News Paul ministered in every city.

What then is the law?  Why was it given if it has so little power to save men from destruction?  The law was given to protect the Descendant who would be coming.  The law is good, and it shows God’s holiness and perfection.  The law contains  orders and commands.  Many regulations were written to guide men and women to a good life, a righteous life.  A given in people’s lives is that they are sinful and easily fall away from following their Creator.  This instability on the part of men and women, their tendency not to be faithful to God and their willingness to destroy others that God has created, brought on the necessity of the law which is a revelation of the nature of God. The demands of the law literally locked men and women into condemnation, for its demands were always unreachable to people.  No matter how disciplined or religious they were, the law would lead them into failure to please a righteous God.  God put the law and its regulations into their existence so they would realize God has expectations on their lives.   Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.  So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.  The law was a harsh guardian, for the Jewish people failed miserably in obeying the tenants of the law.  Because of their waywardness to God’s commandments, they were punished harshly.  They were even driven away from the Promised Land.  They were slaves in foreign countries, living under the harshness of slavery.  In the days of Nehemiah and Ezra, we see a remnant of Israelites back in their own land.  They rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem, the holy city of God.  They also worked hard to restore everything in Jerusalem that had been destroyed by the armies of their enemies.  On the first day of the seventh month, the people gathered to hear Ezra read the law and all of its regulations.  As they were weeping, they realized how evil they and their ancestors have been to a faithful God.  How wayward they were to the God who freed them from Pharaoh’s hand. This day was the day of the Trumpets.  This holy day was announcing several days of repentance before celebrating the Passover, the day of deliverance from Egypt.  As Ezra was reading the law, the people were in great mourning, understanding how unfaithful they have been to God.  But then the leaders of this small remnant who are now back in their land said to the people “This day is holy to the Lord your God.  Do not mourn or weep.”  For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.  (Nehemiah 8:9)  Instead they were to celebrate with rich foods and dance in happiness for their faithful God had brought them back to the Promised Land.  This scene reveals clearly God’s love for the Israelites even though they could not accept the strictures of his laws and regulations.  The guardian was always present before them to insure that the Seed would be brought to the world.  Out of this remnant,   the line of David would be preserved, and Jesus would come from tribe of Judah.

Paul is pressing the point to the Galatians that they are no longer under the obligations of the law, that their perfection in God’s sight does not come through obedience to the law, but through the grace and mercy that God gives them because of the work of the SEED.  He wants them to know the promise to Abraham is still in effect.  He is warning them, if they feel it is necessary to be circumcised or to follow the regulations of the law, they will miss out on the redemption effect that comes only through faith in Jesus Christ.  The law has only the power to condemn.  Jesus came not to condemn but to save people from their sins.  God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  (John 3:17-18)  The Seed that was conceived by Abraham’s faith in God’s word brought salvation to all people.  God's plan from the beginning of time was to transpose man from his nature into the nature of the eternal God, to take on God’s nature.  Animal sacrifices could not alleviate man from his sinful nature.  Animal sacrifice could stave off God’s immediate anger for sinful man’s reluctance to serve him or honor him, but animals are not in the nature of humans, only Christ carries that nature.  He humbled himself to redeem mankind from their sins.  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!  (Philippians 2:6-8)  Why humble himself and take on the nature of humans?  He humbled himself, making him the complete man.  He called himself the son of man.  Salvation comes to us through and in Christ.  You might see it this way.  Lying on the ground looking up, Jesus comes to you, lying on you, transporting every part of your body from hand to hand, from joint to joint, to arm to arm to leg to leg.  He is transposing his nature into every part of your body, making you a new creature in his image.  Of course, the real nature of this action is spiritual, not physical.  But the transition is complete.  We are in the nature of God, but not in the nature of finite flesh.  We are acceptable to a holy God for we are in unity with him.  Animals are not in the likeness of humans.  Their sacrifices could not satisfy the righteousness of God who demands a complete change.  But Jesus in the likeness of men could satisfy God’s desire for mankind: to be with him forever.  The law could never perform this act of transference; the law could only condemn us, telling us we are not like God, perfect and holy.  Paul tells the Galatians the reality of the transition from death to life.  in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.  Our friends around this breakfast table, we are new creatures.  We belong to the Seed promised to Abraham long ago.  We are like him; we belong to him; we are part of the family of God.  Live not in the condemnation that the law brings; instead, live in freedom under God’s mercy and grace.  If you come alive in that freedom, you will know what it means to be alive in Christ.