Galatians Chapter 4

Galatians 4 will continue with the same theme of adoption as in the previous chapter.  It is not our western idea of adoption.  In Greek culture, when a child was born into a family, even though it was a full heir to the inheritance of the family, the child was put under a tutor to learn until he reached a level of maturity.  At age 13-14, the child went through the rite of adoption.  This rite of passage showed that the son or daughter was now an adult in the eyes of the family and took on the rights and responsibilities of the other adults.  He became a fellow-heir with the other adults.  He was no longer under the tutor.

Galatians 4:1-7 “Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, ² but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. ³ Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. ⁴ But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.  ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” ⁷ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

Paul uses adoption as an analogy to explain how we were put under the law as a tutor.  The law taught us that we had a problem with sin and needed a Savior.  The law served as an outward restraint until God could send Jesus into the earth to redeem mankind.  Now we can be born again and the Holy Spirit can come to live within us.  That is the kingdom of God in us.  We no longer need the outward restraint.  We are to be led by the Holy Spirit on the inside of us.  God will lead us and teach us to love.  We are now the children of God and the heir of God through Christ.  

Galatians 4:8-12 “But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. ⁹ But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? ¹⁰ You observe days and months and seasons and years. ¹¹ I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.  ¹² Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all.”

Paul told them that before they were born again, they served and worshipped idols as Gentiles.  He said that now that we are born again, why would we go back to being under the Old Testament Law with its rules and regulations?  Paul called the law the weak and beggarly elements.  The Old Testament law is based upon do good, get good; do bad, get bad.  The law could not set them free from sin.  It only shows us we have a sin problem; it actually leaves us in bondage to sin.  Notice that Paul said if we go back and observe the customs of celebrating days and months and seasons and years under the Old Testament, we are in bondage.  Yet there are parts of the body of Christ doing exactly that today.

Paul, as a Jew, became like the Gentiles in that he was no longer under the Law but was living in the grace of God.  He urged the Gentile believers to reject being under Old Testament law and instead live in the grace of Christ. 

Galatians 4:13-15 “You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. ¹⁴ And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me.”

So many people have taught that Paul had some incurable eye infection or disease from these verses.  In the Book of Acts chapter 14, when Paul preached in the region of Galatia, he was stoned with rocks and they dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.  The disciples prayed for him and he arose up.  But he would have been left with cuts and bruising from this incident.  This is the physical infirmity or weakness that Paul spoke about, not some incurable eye disease.   

Galatians 4:16-20 “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?  ¹⁷ They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. ¹⁸ But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. ¹⁹ My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, ²⁰ I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you."

The Jews were zealously courting the Gentile and Jewish believers in Galatia to go back under the Law.  Paul told them to reject their attempts to put them back under the Old Testament law.  Paul said that he would labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.  This is not a reference to losing your salvation as some thought.  Paul meant he would be praying and teaching them until they understood again the idea of Christ living in them.  This should be our mindset: Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Galatians 4:21-27 “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. ²³ But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, ²⁴ which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— ²⁵ for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— ²⁶ but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. ²⁷ For it is written:

“Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband.”

Paul used the analogy of Abraham having two sons, one from Sarah, the freewoman, and one from Hagar, the bondwoman, to describe the law and grace.  The law and grace are two different covenants and cannot be mixed.  Once you mix grace with works, it is no longer grace.  The Old Testament law puts people in bondage.  It shows us we have a sin problem.  It cannot deliver us from sin.  Only Jesus can do that.  Paul quoted an Old Testament verse to prophesy that the New Testament covenant of grace would produce many more children than the Old Testament law.  

Galatians 4:28-31 “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. ²⁹ But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. ³⁰ Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” ³¹ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.”

Paul said that those who are pushing the Old Testament law would persecute those who are born of the Holy Spirit and are under grace.  So it is even today.  Nevertheless, what did Paul say to do?  We are to cast out the teaching of the Old Testament law under the New Testament of grace.  Teaching the law will not bring about freedom and will not bring us into our inheritance in the kingdom of God which is within us at the new birth.  Strong words; not from me but from the apostle Paul.

Keith Oliver