YOUR INHERITANCE

Galatians 4

An old gospel song we don’t sing much any more goes, “Free from the law, O happy condition; Jesus has died, and there is remission.” The idea for that verse could have come from this chapter. Paul begins again with the idea of the heir growing up from “slavery” to adulthood and control of his life. Just as a child remains under age until the day his father has set, so were we underage until Christ. In those days, it was like we were slaves to the spiritual forces of sin.

[YouTube has several versions of the song. I like best the children’s choir. Song title is Once for All.]

Verses 4-5 is an important verse for discovering the nature of Christ. In our society, we reach adulthood at 18 or 21, depending on the purpose. We can legally vote at 18, but only be able to drink alcohol legally at 21. A wealthy man may write his will for his offspring to inherit, but only receive direct control of his money or business when they become 25 or whatever. Likewise, God had set the time for His Son to enter the world, and when that time arrived, God sent His Son. Some have speculated that the time was right because of the Pax Romana (Peace of Rome) that allowed safe travel across a world sharing the common language of Greek. At such a time, the new faith could spread much more easily into one area after another. But Paul would have said the time was right because God had chosen it!

The Son was born of a woman. This tells us Jesus was human. In other NT letters, the major opponents are Greek heretics, who said Jesus only appeared to be human. He was actually just a god masquerading as a human, so he didn’t really die, and has always been a spirit. Some of these may also have been in Galatia, so Paul mentions this heresy as well. Jesus not only appeared to be a man, He was a man! And because He was born of a woman, He was also born “under the law,” that is, He came into the world under the old covenants with Abraham and Moses. He would leave the world under the new covenant He established through the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

He also came to redeem or deliver those under the law, so they would become eligible to be heirs, and therefore sons. The word here translated as “adoption to sonship” is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture. (From a note in my copy of the NIV.)

And since we ARE sons, God sends His Spirit in us. Stop a minute or an hour and think about that! God Himself lives in us! Jesus lives in us! They do this through His Spirit. Do you realize the wisdom available to you? The guidance? The power? There’s a chorus today that repeats, “I am a child of God…” Probably, like most songs we toss off the words and enjoy the melody. But it’s an awesome truth.

A seminary prof, who was an archaeologist, told us of disembarking from a plane in Tel Aviv and seeing a little boy running with outstretched arms to the man in front of him, repeatedly crying, “Abba, Abba, Abba!” Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! The word is not merely son, or adopted son, but we are beloved children of God.

LAW AND PAGANS

Until now, Paul has exclusively focused on counteracting the legalists, who were trying to seduce the new Christians in Galatia back into a Jewish version of Christianity. He still has those in mind, as we shall see, but now he enlarges the perspective to include those who were saved out of bondage to pagan idols. After experiencing Christ, why would they want to go back to the false gods?

His accusation of observing days and seasons indicate he considers the Law as almost like another god. And he shows his honest frustration with them. If they go legalistic on him, he will feel like he had wasted his time. Have you ever been on either side of that? Causing someone to feel they were wasting their time in teaching you or becoming frustrated when someone you were discipling would not act like one?

He then called on them to become like him! He did that in several letters, one time saying to follow him or imitate him as he followed Christ. That would sound like pride on first glance, but not on the second. Paul had been strictly trained to observe the law, so his life would have a moral quality to be imitated by Greeks who had grown in a pagan culture. Furthermore, he had cast his lot with them, joining their community for a while.

>How comfortable would you be in telling a new Christian to follow your example as you tried to follow Christ? Frankly, it scares the life out of me. Yet I know that others do watch and judge me. From time to time someone comments enough that I know they are still watching. They’re watching you too. I pray we may all be good examples of the Christian life to others.

Verses 13-15 – We don’t have the backstory on this, but it looks like Paul was passing through on his way somewhere else when he got sick and settled there. Elsewhere, Paul speaks of a “thorn in the flesh” that God would not remove. Rather the Lord told him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Of course, that thorn has produced wild amounts of speculation. Perhaps the most likely was some sort of eye problem, perhaps initiated or aggravated by the light on the Damascus Road. Here in verse 15, he mentions they would have “torn out your eyes and given them to me.” At the end of some of his letters, he comments that he is personally signing them, at least once with large letters. Does that add up to eye problems?

Maybe, but there are two more possibilities at least. One is headaches, a type of which is carried by a mosquito in that part of the world. Still another early writing from one of the so-called “Church Fathers” describes Paul as a hunchback. Other possibilities might have come from all those trials listed in 2 Corinthians 11, such as lingering problems from beatings or prison.

Anyway, Paul reminds them of how wonderful they had been to him in those days. He is the same Paul who led them to Christ and helped them establish the church. He hopes they have not gone over to the other side where his enemies await.

In verse 17 he becomes very blunt. Those people – the Judaizers – are zealous to win them over, but for no good. They want you to switch your allegiance from me and my companions to befriend them. It’s good to be zealous, excited and evangelistic, but only if your head is on straight and you’re not preaching fake news when I’m not with you.

The Judaizers are still with us! They are the legalists who obsess over everyone doing the right behavior. They are constantly among us telling us not to do this, not to do that, and by all means stay away from this extra thing. They never seem to call us to the joy of fellowship, love and friendliness. Religion to them is grim, and life is serious. Well, sure it is. Ask all those we pass every day in pain. But the legalists do not seem to stop by the side of the road to aid the stricken traveler. They’d rather strike down the traveler for being in forbidden territory.

You are an heir! A child of the Creator, brother or sister to His Son, and filled with His Spirit. You are called to a life of love and joy and a lot of other things we’ll look at in the next chapter.

BEGIN IN FAITH,

CONTINUE IN WORKS?

What are you all thinking? You found Christ by faith, and He changed your life. Now why would you think you have to try to earn your blessings? (My paraphrase)

Get this right, and you’ll understand a great deal about a number of things. I like to put it like this:

            If you can’t save yourself, why do you think you can keep yourself saved?

            If you can’t save yourself, why do you think you can continue growing without God’s help?

            THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS GRACE RECEIVED BY FAITH FROM BEGINNING TO IN.

            FAITH FROM FIRST TO LAST!

The Judaizers really, really upset Paul. “Are you guys crazy?” They had heard the Gospel story of Jesus, believed, and became followers. Paul moved on, and this other group came in behind him, teaching that faith was not enough, but they had to return to the Jewish observance of the law.

3:1 – Foolish = mindless! The Greek word literally means without a mind. Dumb!

            Bewitched or deceived? The word can mean either. Somebody must have messed with their minds for them to turn away from faith back to works. Fake news, remember?

            Jesus Christ was clearly placed before them as if on a billboard. Paul had witnessed their acceptance of Jesus as crucified, so he knew they had heard and believed. And make no mistake. The cross is the center of Christianity. In a nutshell, the Gospel is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins; and God raised Him from the dead. His sacrifice of Himself was done so that His life can become our life and we enter eternal life rather than hell.

            I had a seminary theology prof from Oxford, England, who taught his students to always finish a sermon with the cross. He was also my Sunday School teacher for a year, and he practiced what he preached. More often than not, his lesson near the end made straight for the cross.

            What does the cross mean to you? Do you remember the One who called you to follow Him was headed to Calvary and challenged you to pick up your cross and go with Him. Add to that the tremendous example laid out in Philippians 2:5-8, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. How can you apply this to your life?

:2-3 He questions the church: Did you work your way into salvation or by faith accept the Christ we were preaching to you? The obvious answer was by faith. You have no brains! Think, people, think! You began in faith, in following Jesus. Why would you then go back to the “flesh” or works or human effort to live a Christian life?

:4 – Have we been wasting our time? Have you been? Is all this gospel stuff in vain?

:5 – Paul aims a new question at them. Notice in his frustration he maintains his teaching skills. He asks them questions, so they have to answer. True, they are rhetorical questions with easily expected answers, but it respects their need to think for themselves. This question was about their experiences – their own experiences. How did God go to work in your life? Through the old system of works? I don’t think so. He sent His Spirit and empowered your repentance, salvation, and continued miraculous life. He did not do this by the works of the Torah/Pentateuch/Law, but with spiritual dynamic that came from your accepting the gospel we preached to you.

The last few decades Christians have begun to use the phrase, “It’s a God thing.” It means we can see the hand of God behind some event. Can you remember and share with your friends a few recent God things you have witnessed?

:6 – Quite possibly one reason the Judaizers were creating problems was that a significant part of the church was Jewish. After all, Acts tells us that Paul always began in a new town by preaching in the local synagogue, where his rabbinical credentials would admit him. So Paul goes to the Old Testament they knew to strengthen the authority of his argument.

>>>Reminder: The only Scripture they had was the Hebrew Bible that we call the Old Testament. Galatians was one of the first half dozen books of the NT to be written. Synagogues had Hebrew scrolls of the Torah, or Law. About 200 BC, a group of 70 Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew into Greek, which was the most commonly spoken language around the Mediterranean world of that day. Probably that “Septuagint” was the source of most of the quotes we read in the NT.

            Also remember Abraham was the father of the Jewish race. So when Paul quotes scripture about Abraham, it could have a powerful effect on some listeners.

God came to Abraham and called him to leave everything and follow Him. The Lord repeated the promise in chapter 15, and it was there recorded in verse 6 that Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Paul is saying that faith is not at all new. It goes back to the founding father himself. And if Abraham was declared righteous by his faith, he endorsed faith as the foundation of all our relationships with God.

:7-9 – Therefore, in a sense ALL believers become Children of Abraham, not just his physical descendants. In Genesis 12, God promised Abram that if he indeed left everything and followed him, all nations would find blessings through him. Paul logically concludes this was an early prediction, or prophesy, that the Gospel of faith was open to everyone, not just Jews. Throughout the letter, Paul keeps coming back to nail down the point that you don’t have to be a Jew nor keep Jewish law to follow Christ.

:10 – Still hammering, Paul states people trying to become righteous by observing the Jewish rituals were actually under a curse. Why? Because in Deuteronomy 27:26 the Law requires a person to keep the entire law. Failure to keep one point is failure to keep it all.

The Greeks had a story of Sisyphus, one being punished eternally by the gods. He was condemned to push a heavy rock up a mountain to the top. But every time it reached the top, it broke free and rolled back to the bottom. He had to start all over again. Keeping the law was like that. Keep it all, or despair! (The story reminds me of a Louisville golf course with a short hole unlike any I’ve seen before or since. The tee was at the bottom of a small, incredibly steep hill. My first shot didn’t make it quite to the top, but hit a few inches below. The ball rolled all the way back down to land at my feet! Louisiana has no holes like that.)

:11 – Indeed, the only way to righteousness is through faith. To prove it, especially to those of Jewish background, Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4, The righteous shall live by faith. Again, by citing their OT Scripture, he shows proof to those of Jewish background, who accepted the authority of the Hebrew Bible. It is said this verse profoundly moved Martin Luther, who may have written the word “ALONE” in the margin, making it “The righteous shall live by faith alone.

A traditional summary of Protestant thought is: Only faith, only Scripture, only Christ. Sometimes you find: Faith alone Scripture alone, Christ alone. Are you trying to add something in your thought about salvation?

:12-14 – The Judaizers wanted Christians to keep the law. Paul reminds the Galatians – and us – that if you go that route, you must keep the entire law, not just part. No one, of course can do that – thus, the curse. Instead, Jesus became a curse in place of us. (Paul again offers proof by quoting a Scripture.) Jesus’s death on the cross was for us – vicarious. No one really understands how God transformed the cross and resurrection into salvation for all who believe – but He did. One popular way of putting it says it took God’s Son living a perfect life in order for Him to be a sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world. Another widespread view is that Jesus was ransom paid to Satan for our souls. Still another is that His sacrifice appeased the wrath of God over our sins. My biggest problem with all of these is that the NT over and over presents the cross as the free act of Jesus and His Father coming from love, not wrath nor compulsion from the devil. And what would be the source of the rule so powerful that God would have to obey it? Presumably our sin has formed a barrier to our closeness to a God who knows no sin.

Jesus’s death came in a world universally used to sacrifice and to a people accustomed to sacrifice. We must strive to understand the Cross in that context, a Sacrifice to end all sacrifice. In animal offerings, the creature’s life was freed by sacrifice to be given to the worshipper. Once a year the sins of the nation were laid on a scapegoat, driven into the wilderness. Jesus became our scapegoat, driven into the ultimate wilderness of death carrying away our sins. God overruled that death and proclaimed resurrection and life as the last word! Somehow He died in our place, and because He did, we can live eternally, participating in the abundant life He came to give us.  

Arabia, Jerusalem, and Points Beyond

Galatians 1:11-2:21

How do you counteract an attack by Fake News?

Paul did it through authority.

He went to the top! Here and in 2 Corinthians, he stresses his apostleship, his being called by God. Central to that claim was the transformation on the road to Damascus. What does Paul include in that testimony?

1 - He claimed he met the risen Christ, that he saw Jesus after His resurrection just as the apostles did. Thus Paul qualified as a witness to the resurrection in direct contact with Christ!

This matched any qualifications other had.

2 - God had commissioned him to be a missionary to the Gentiles. This is at least part of what he meant when he talks about the Gospel he preached. The call to discipleship included an appointment as a missionary to foreigners!

3 - He had not been instructed by the earlier apostles or disciples. Presumably as a well trained rabbi involved in putting down the Christian heresy, he would have heard many or most of the teachings of Jesus and about Jesus. He would not, therefore be playing the game of “I follow Peter,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow whoever.” (Compare the opening of 1 Corinthians where exactly that is going on.)

4 - His authority and teachings came directly from Christ. Therefore he speaks with authority and his words are a faithful guide to God’s will. Remember at that time they had no New Testament. Galatians is one of the earliest NT books to be written.

> What’s your commitment and mission? Consider that Christ did not invite Paul to follow Him, he demanded he follow. Could he have refused? Sure. But the experience was so overwhelming it changed his entire life. Was your calling that powerful? What is the central driving force in your life?

Paul stated clearly that his Jewish background matched anyone else. He plays this theme in several other places, especially in 2 Corinthians 11.  But he sees his Damascus experience as fulfilling why God created him in his mother’s womb. Conversion made him complete.

And conversion makes everyone complete! How would your life change if you fully committed to finding why God created you and what He has or would commission to do?

Why Arabia?

First, most of what was known as Arabia was what we now call Jordan. Elsewhere ( ) Paul said he had problems with   the king of the Nabateans. I believe these were the people who lived in the wonderful wall buildings of Petra.

Once again, there are several possibilities of why Paul went to Arabia.

1 - My favorite is that he took time to digest his experience and re-think all its implications for his theology.

2 - Some feel he plunged immediately into missionary work. Even though the people of Arabia were mostly Semitic, since they were not Jews, they were Gentiles to whom Paul was called to preach.

3 - A recent suggestion by one Bible scholar is that Paul was going to Mt Sinai as Moses and Elijah did - getting in contact with the roots of his faith.

4 - You can fairly easily combine all these ideas by saying Paul felt the need for a retreat to assess what had happened, what differences it would make, and where to go from here. What better place to go for that than Mt Sinai? On the way back to Damascus, he could well have begun his preaching and teaching in the lands east of the Jordan.

Anyway, in Galatians, his main point is that it was three years before he set foot in Jerusalem again. When he did go there, he apparently only visited with Peter, James, and a few other leaders. He didn’t see enough people that Christians would recognize him.