Don’t turn back

Galatians 4:8-5:1

No Brainers

There are some choices that ought to be “no brainers”. A “no-brainer” is a decision or a choice that you are given where one option is so obviously that much better than the other that you hardly need to even think about it. The benefit of one option so far exceeds other that really there is nothing to even consider.

If it is the choice of one job over another and one job has work that is more interesting and satisfying, giving you a good career path, but at the same time greater flexibility and better pay and is closer to home and easy to get to, then you wouldn’t even consider taking another job which doesn’t offer any of those things. It’s a no brainer. You don’t have to even think about it.

In the part of the letter to the Galatians that we looked at last week, the apostle has made it clear that people are either enslaved to the basic spiritual powers of this world, or they have been freed from these powers and become children of God and heirs of the promise to Abraham. Let me read the last verse of that section…

Galatians 4:7

7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir[1].

Now if you had a choice of whether you wanted to be a slave to the evil powers of this world or a child of God and an heir the choice ought to be ‘no brainer”. Who would choose to be slave to sin and the devil and the world, over being a child of God and an heir? Who would choose to be under God’s curse facing eternal punishment (hell) rather than be blessed and have eternal life?

You would think that such a choice would be a no-brainer and it should be. And that is what made the situation in Galatia so perplexing for the apostle. Paul wrote he was astonished at what they were doing (1:6). He feared for them (3:11). He was perplexed or as the CSB puts it, he didn’t know what to do about them (4:20). What cause him such angst was that some of the Galatians who had been freed from their old life looked like they were beginning to turn back and be enslaved all over again to the things that once enslaved them.

Paul finds this completely mind-boggling. It was almost impossible for him to get his head around it. And so, he wrote to urge them to not turn back but to stand firm and live as those who are free. Today we want to look at what the apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians about how they were to stand firm so that we don’t end up become as foolish as they were.

Don’t turn back

Paul begins this section by expressing his concern for the Galatians again pleading with them to not turn back from Christ and be enslaved all over again.

Galatians 4:8-12

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 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? ¹⁰ You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹ I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you. ¹² I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong.

• They had been slaves

Paul begins in verse 8 reminding the Galatians of who they were before they knew God. They had been slaves to beings who were not gods (pagan gods who were not gods all). They had been enslaved to the spiritual forces that are at work in this world and who are behind all the pagan worship that goes on it (see 1 Corinthians 10:20). But Christ had set them free and Paul could not understand what would possess them to want to go back to those weak and miserable forces. “Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?” (4:9).

• Returning to slavery

But what I find interesting in this passage is the way that were returning to slavery all over again. It wasn’t by going back to their former worship of idols. They didn’t suddenly think that it was a good idea to having some sort of pagan idol in the house so that they would be blessed. Neither were they heading off to the local pagan temple as they might have once did to offer sacrifices. It had nothing to do with what they used to do, but something that they hadn’t formerly done at all but had now begun to do.

The evil one had entrapped them by other means. The truth is that Satan can use many different things to turn us away from Christ and make us his slaves again. In this case what the Galatians had begun to do was to observe the Jewish calendar.

Galatians 4:10

You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹ I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

They had begun to follow the Jewish religious calendar that involved following special days and months and seasons and years. They had done this because people had come (Judaizers) who were telling them that without following the Law of Moses and being circumcised that that wouldn’t be right with God and be blessed along with Abraham and his descendants.

Paul feared that all his efforts had been for nothing. Paul had already made it absolutely clear how they would be blessed. He wrote in verse 2 of chapter 3 that before their very eyes Jesus Christ has been clearly proclaimed as crucified (3:2). It wasn’t through keeping the law and observing special days or through them doing anything, but through faith in Christ and what he had done for them on the cross. Therefore, Paul pleads with them not to turn back but to become like him for he became like them.

• Become like me

Even though Paul was a Jew he became like them, no longer living under the Mosaic Law. Instead he wrote that he had died to the Law and was living by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for him. In doing this he wasn’t setting aside the grace of God like they would be doing if they started relying on the Law (see 2:20-21).

Paul wanted them to follow his example, and his example is one we are all meant to follow. We are all live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.  We are not to go back to religion of doing and earning God’s favour. We aren’t to exchange Christ’s righteousness for the slavery of self-righteousness. We are to rely on our own performance or goodness but on him who gave himself for us.

Listen to me

The Galatians needed to listen to the apostle Paul as they had done so in the past. In the verses hat follow he appeals to them to listen to him as they had once done and stop listening to those who would lead them astray.

When he’d first came preaching the gospel to them, they had welcomed him and the truth of the gospel. And that’s what he wanted them to do now.

Galatians 4:13-16

As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

• They had welcomed Paul and his message

When he had first came to Galatia, he had come in weakness because some sort of illness[2]. Some think this illness is what he refers to as the thorn in his flesh that he mentioned in his letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 12:7) and there is great speculation as to what this illness might have been. We can’t really know and it really doesn’t matter. For his point is clear enough without knowing.

Paul had brought the message of the gospel to them and even though his illness hadn’t made is visit easy for them they hadn’t treated him with contempt and scorn but welcomed him and his message. They had welcomed him as if he were angel of God (a messenger from God) and honoured him as if he were Christ Jesus himself. They would have done anything for him.

But what had happened to change that? Paul asked in verse 15, literally, “Where is your blessedness?” What had happened to snatch that away so that now the Galatians were in danger of treating him as their enemy. He wrote …

Galatians 4:16

Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

What had changed them so that they were in danger of being offended by the truth of the gospel?

• They were listening to the wrong people

One significant thing was that they were listening to the wrong people.

Galatians 4:17 – 20

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. ¹⁸ It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. ¹⁹ My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, ²⁰ how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

The Galatians were paying attention to the wrong people. The people who were confusing them were zealous to win them over but not for good. They wanted to win people over so that they might be zealous for them as teachers. They wanted to turn people away from Paul and his gospel so that they might win a following for themselves. In chapter 6 Paul wrote that these people were trying to impress people by compelling these Gentile believers to be circumcised.

But Paul’s goal was different. He wanted to see Christ formed in them. His goal was to see God’s people saved and sanctified, transformed into the image of the Son so that one day they might stand before him holy and blameless to the glory of God.

Ministry isn’t about personal gain or impressing other or having people esteem you or follow you on social media, but about seeing God’s people become who they ought to be in Christ Jesus. Paul wrote that his goal was to see Christ formed in them. And the only way that happens is by persevering and patiently applying the truth of the gospel to people’s life.

And that’s what Paul does in this letter. He wishes that that he could be with them and change his tone. But, because he couldn’t be there, he had to write this strong letter reminding them of truth of the gospel and calling them to stand firm in it. He wasn’t sure about how they would react. “Have I now become your enemy by tell you the truth?” But he preserved for their sake, not his own.

There is a warning here to be careful who you listen to. There are people out there that have access to you in a way that others in the past could only have dreamed of. You can get emails from them; you can watch them on TV or stream them on so many different platforms and they may not be about the truth or about your good but more about having people follow them.

We need people around us who will tell us the truth because they want to see Christ formed in us.  And we need to be part of a community that does that, that speaks the truth in love to one another (Ephesians 4:15). And when that truth is gently applied to us, even when it challenges us, we need to listen and not treat those who care enough to say something as though they are enemies, but those who love us want nothing but our good.

Listen to the Law

In verses 21 to 31 Paul makes it clear that he is telling them the truth by showing how the Law or the Scriptures bears witness to the truth that it is only the children of the promise who are heirs. Paul goes back to the story of Abraham to make this point.

Galatians 4:21-23

Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. ²³ His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

• Abraham had two son but only one was a son of the promise

Abraham had two sons but only one of them was a son of the promise and heir. That son was the son of Sarah his wife who was the free woman.

Sarah had been unable to bear children all her life, and it was only at the age of 89 that God had promised that he would give her a son (see Genesis 17). She was 90 when gave birth to Isaac and Abraham was 99. This son that was born as the result of a divine promise.

Abraham’s other son came because of an earlier plan that Sarah and Abraham came up with themselves to have a son through a type of surrogate arrangement. Sarah gave Abraham Hagar, her servant, to lie with Abraham. Ishmael was the son that was born according to the flesh. However, even though he was the first-born son, he wasn’t to be Abraham’s heir, but his heir was to be the son of the promise.

Paul then uses the story of these two women and their sons to illustrate his point.

Galatians 4:24-26

These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. ²⁵ Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.

Paul wrote that the two women represent two covenants. Hagar represents the Mosaic covenant that God made at Mount Sinai with his people and she also stand for the present city of Jerusalem, because Jerusalem and her children were still enslaved under that covenant. Jerusalem and its people (for the most part) had rejected the Lord Jesus and the new covenant. But Paul speaks about another Jerusalem that is above and is free and he wrote that she is our mother. She is the free woman in the story.

• We are the children of the free woman

After quoting from another OT passage in verse 27 to show how Scripture illustrates point, Paul concludes in verse 28 that like Isaac (the son of the free woman) the brothers and sisters in Galatia (who were largely Gentiles) are the children of promise. And that the children of the slave woman (those who remain under the Law) will never be the heirs.

Galatians 4:30-31

But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.³¹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Paul wrote that it was the brothers and sister at Galatia that were the children of the free woman. It is us who have put our faith in Christ and who don’t rely on the works of the Law who are the children of the promise. And we get to share in the inheritance not the children of the slave woman. And that’s how it has always been right from the start.

Abraham had two sons and the heir wasn’t the firstborn natural son, but the child that was born as result of the divine promise and the power of the Spirit who enabled two senior citizens, nonagenarians, to have their first child together (v29).

• We are the children of the promise

Paul’s point is that we who faith in Christ are children of the promise. And we belong to the Jerusalem that is above, the heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly one. We belong to the city whose architect and builder is God. It is the city that God has prepared for us who have faith like Abraham (Hebrew 11:10;16). And it’s the city that will one day come down out of heaven and fill the whole earth. It’s the city were God dwells with his people and where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things will have passed away. All things will be made new (see Rev. 21:1-4).

Stand firm

• Don’t be deceived

Paul didn’t want the believers to be deceived about who they were and what was theirs in Christ. They were the children of the promise who have a great inheritance. Why would they ever want to go back to being slaves? But that was exactly what would happen if they went back to the Law as a way of righteousness (of being right before God) instead of relying on Christ. By going back under the law, they would alienate themselves from Christ (5:5) and would find themselves not only slaves to their own sinful natures but also enslaved again by the spiritual powers of this world.

Therefore, Paul told the Galatians to stand firm. We must stand firm in our freedom in Christ and never let ourselves go back to under the yoke of slavery. Listen to how the apostle concludes these verses in verse 1 of chapter 5.

Galatians 5:1

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

• Don’t go back under the yoke of slavery

Don’t back under the yoke of slavery. We must live our lives as like Paul lived his – not under the law but we are to walk by faith in Christ. Paul wrote back in chapter 2 that the life he lives, he lives faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself for him. It is the life of faith in Christ that we need to stand firm in for this is the freedom that Christ has set us free for. We have died to the law so that we might live to God and that is perfect freedom.

• Choose freedom

Now if you don’t have that freedom you need to put your faith in Christ. The choice you have should be ‘no brainer” – slave or free, condemned or forgiven, death or life, hell or heaven. We all need to be rescued as Paul put in chapter 1 from this present evil age.

But for that to happen you must stop putting aside the grace of God and trust in the one who loved you and gave himself for you. That’s going to be the biggest decision of your life. That’s decision will determine whether you will be a child of the promise or not, whether you have life or not, whether heir or not, whether you belong to the city of God or not. You cannot save yourself, and it only those who are truly enslaved to the powers of this world who are deceived enough to think that they can. So let me implore you become like Paul, live by faith in the Son of God.

• Hold on to the truth

But for those of us who know the way, we must hold on to the truth. We must remind one another of it. We must keep listening to those who teach and preach it. We also need to care enough for one another to gently speak it to one another even when we aren’t sure how they are going to respond. We are to be more concerned for them than ourselves. Be careful choices that you make because the evil one is always seeking to enslave you all over again whether it be abandoning the truth or abandoning your love of Jesus through capturing your hearts through the love of the things of this world.

• Remember who you are in Christ

We must remember who we are in Christ. We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. And we are the heirs of the new creation. Brothers and sisters, we are the children of the promise. Stand firm.

[1] The New International Version (Ga 4:7). (2011). Zondervan.

[2] We don’t hear about this in Luke’s account in Acts, but Paul reveals it here in this letter that he had been sick when he had visited the churches in Galatia.