Free to Grow

While Galatians 4:8-31 is a complicated text, it gives us a glimpse into Paul the pastor like few other texts do. Up to this point, Paul has been very confrontational with the church at Galatia, calling them "foolish" (3:1, 3) and confronting them about major issues related to the gospel. Paul has shown us that there's a time for that—for really calling the church out when they are missing God's Word. But now, after a tough three and a half chapters, Paul gives us some of the strongest words of personal affection that we see anywhere in his writings. Luther said that these words "breathe Paul's own tears" (Luther, Lectures on Galatians, 27:299).

This text in many ways sums up my gratitude and care for the church I pastor. I long for it to be conformed to the image of Christ. Based on this text, three prayers arise that are appropriate for any church desiring to follow Christ faithfully. However, like other texts in Galatians, these verses are complicated and need some unpacking. By God's grace and with the leadership of His Spirit, that's what we'll seek to do.

86Three times in this passage Paul calls the Galatians "brothers" (4:12, 28, 31), and then in verse 19 he calls them "children." Paul's affection for them is evident. Three prayers are prompted as we get a glimpse of Paul's pastoral heart.

God, Show Us How to Walk in Your Grace

God, Show Us How to Walk in Your Grace

Galatians 4:8-11, 21-31

In many senses, Paul is not introducing new information in Galatians 4. Instead, he's still recapping what he has been talking about throughout chapter 3 (and even before that). In 4:8-11 and then again in the passage about Sarah and Hagar in 4:21-31, Paul returns to the image of slavery, reminding the Galatians yet again about the transformation that has taken place in their lives. They have gone from slavery to sonship. Like the Galatians, we need to pray that God would make us aware of what He has done for us in Christ so that we, in turn, will live accordingly.

Show Us How We Got Here

We can summarize Paul's argument in this passage by looking through three different lenses: how we got here, who we are, and where we're going. First we'll look at how we got here. Paul's discussion of slavery, particularly in relation to the law, is well illustrated at the end of chapter 4 by the analogy of Sarah and Hagar.

This final section in 4:21-31 serves as a closing summation of chapters 3 and 4. Paul takes us all the way back to Genesis 16-17 where we're introduced to Hagar, a slave woman in Abraham's household. Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were worried that they were not going to have an heir to carry on their line, so Sarah suggested that Abraham build his family through Hagar. This is a classic example of the not-so-pretty-side of the Old Testament, as Abraham then had a child through Hagar. That child's name was Ishmael. Abraham thought that if God was going to bless his line, He'd apparently do it through Ishmael, who was basically a slave in Abraham's household. But God corrected Abraham and told him that he would have a son with Sarah and that they were to name him Isaac. Isaac would be the child that God had promised, and God would make this happen miraculously, when Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 years old.

Paul uses this story as an illustration to contrast the child born into slavery, Ishmael, and the child born from the promise, Isaac. He87 also contrasts the mothers, Hagar as a slave woman and Sarah as a free woman. Paul says Hagar and Ishmael stand for the old covenant, the law, which produced slaves. This is exactly what Paul talked about in Galatians 3, that we are imprisoned by the law (3:23). But, Paul says, we have been set free (3:25). We do not become children of God by the law, by the old covenant, but by the promise of God, by the new covenant. To put it another way, we are not saved by obedience to the law, but by faith in the promise of God.

With the illustration of Sarah and Hagar in 4:21-31, as well as the mention of our slavery to sin in 4:8-11, 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 (see Exod 19-20). 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 4:29, 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 illustration takes us all the way back to 3:2, where Paul asked the Galatians, "Did you receive 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.

Show Us Who We Are

We now turn to Paul's discussion of who we are. As a result of being awakened by the Spirit, we are not 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.

88In 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 contemporary language: 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?

• 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.
• 89You 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.

If your 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!

I am so thankful for the intimate relationship I have with my wife. When an anniversary comes up and I try to think of a way for us to celebrate, I don't come up with a list of things I need to do to make my wife happy. No, it isn't about checking off boxes. I think about how much I love her and how much I want to honor her and give to her and bless her. Why? Because I know her, and she knows me.

We ought to view our relationship with God similarly. 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 the 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.

Show Us Where We're Going

Having seen how we got here and who we are, 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 90because 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

Galatians 4:12-16

We've taken verses 8-11 and 21-31 somewhat like bookends on this section of Galatians 4. Now we need to look in between at verses 12-20. Paul commends the Galatian believers in verses 12-16.

In verse 12 Paul talks about how he became like the Galatians in order to lead them to Christ. In other words, Paul, a Jewish man, when he went into Gentile contexts, didn't follow all of his Jewish customs. Instead, he put them aside in order to show that salvation was not dependent on these things. Now he's pleading with the Galatians to do the same—to stop living like they needed to do certain things in the law in order to be saved.

In verses 13-14 Paul talks about how he first met the Galatians. The apostle was sick. Some scholars think he had malaria, others have suggested other illnesses, but whatever Paul's issue was, it was apparently pretty bad, almost repulsive. Yet the Christians there had accepted him, even when it wasn't easy to do so. And they did so with joy, verse 15 says, even sacrificing themselves for his sake. But apparently they seemed to be almost rejecting Paul now, turning their backs on him, treating him as an enemy (v. 16). This made Paul perplexed, confused, and in a sense, heartbroken.

Help Us to Live It When It's Not Easy

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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

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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 what I love about Paul. 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 teacher of the Bible. 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 will 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. 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.

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

God, Give Us Great Zeal for Your Purpose

Galatians 4:17-20

We come now to verses 17-20 in this passage. In verse 18 Paul says that it's good to have zeal—we need to be zealous—as long as it's for the right purpose. Then in verse 19 Paul talks about what he's zealous for. He brings in the imagery of giving birth, saying, "I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you" (v. 19).

Give Us a Passion to Be Conformed to the Image of Christ

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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" (morphoo), which refers to shaping us. More than anything, Paul wanted Christ used as a mold to shape the lives of the Galatians. Paul wants them to be like Christ. We're reminded of Paul's words in 2:20, where he speaks of Christ living in him. Similarly, in 2 Corinthians 4:10 Paul speaks of the purpose of the sufferings of the apostles: "so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed 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 is my prayer for the church I pastor, that Christ would be formed in them.

Give Us a Passion to See Others Transformed for the Glory of Christ

When Christ is formed in us, which only happens by the Word, this affects our proclamation. So we pray that God would give us a passion to see others transformed for the glory of Christ. We hear Paul's heart at this point. According to Galatians 4:19, this is what he labors and experiences pain for, what he wants more than anything else. 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 pastor and also of every follower of Christ. We should pray for each other, teach each other, and model the Christ-life before each other because we want others to be transformed. We are not followers of Christ merely for our own sake. We are here together, for each other. Our churches ought to be communities that weep with each other, plead with each other, confront each other when necessary, pray with each other, and exhort each other. And we do all of this because we want to see each other transformed, not into our own image or some pre-fabricated image of what our culture says we should look like, but instead into the image of Christ. Paul says that he will not be satisfied until that happens. 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.

Reflect and Discuss

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Reflect and Discuss

1. In what sense does the gospel bring freedom from slavery? What does it mean to live as a child in a relationship not enslaved to religion?
2. What does it mean to be "known by God" (v. 9)? Why is this an amazing thing to say?
3. What might it look like to rely on the law for salvation? How is this contrary to the gospel?
4. How does Isaac's miraculous birth picture a believer's birth by the Holy Spirit? How are we miracle children (vv. 21-31)?
5. If God still expects His people to obey, how is a relationship with Him different from being a slave to religion?
6. How is any attempt to earn favor before God, even under the banner of religion, a form of paganism?
7. What are some practical ways to grow in an intimate relationship with God?
8. Have you ever become someone's enemy by telling the truth (4:16)? Do you need to speak the truth in love to someone right now? If so, explain why.
9. Why does the truth of the gospel often meet opposition from those who claim to be religious?
10. In verse 19 we see Paul's passion for the spiritual growth of the church in Galatia. In what ways can you foster that kind of love for fellow believers?