Chuck Larsen

Paul speaks about turning back from God’s grace in Christ to slavery. We were once slaves to “the elementary principles of the world.” Here’s what Paul says in Galatians 4:8-9, “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” The basis of our relationship with God is what He did for us, not what we do for Him. A focus on the latter is what we know as “legalism.”

Paul makes an interesting parenthetical statement in this passage. He changes his thought from our having come to know God to having been known by God. Paul’s understanding of man’s total depravity precludes the idea that any man can come to know God by his own efforts. Job’s age old question always assumes a negative answer: Can man by searching find God? Of course not! It’s not that God doesn’t know everything at all times, it’s that God takes the initiative in salvation – not man! We have free access to the Father through Christ Jesus. Instead of taking advantage of that the Galatians are turning back to “weak and worthless” procedures of self-effort. The only thing that the law, any law, will do for you is point out your failure. In contrast to Christ, the law is powerless to set us free, to make us righteous, and change our roles from slaves to sons.

Richison attacks such a foolish notion as that of the Galatians. He writes, “Man’s efforts of merit are trash; God’s grace is treasure for us. Salvation is all of grace. God finds us; we do not find Him. God extends His grace to us; we offer Him nothing. When we turn back into earning God’s favor and approbation, we turn back the clock spiritually. There is a proclivity to revert to the past. Somehow, someway, we want salvation or the Christian life to depend on us. That is a warm and wonderful feeling not based on the Bible. Many people need to trade in their religion and get the gospel of grace found only in the finished work of Christ on the cross. This is a bitter pill to swallow for those who are impressed with their self-effort.” It’s not about me, or the work I do, about Christ and the work He has done!

As Paul continues his discussion about our being “children” of God rather than slaves, he talks about the beauty of it. It changes so much about us. Here is what he says in Galatians 4:6-7; “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” It changes so many things about us. First off, when we begin the beautiful relationship with God through faith in His Son, it changes the way we pray. One commentator put it this way, “We don’t come groveling to the Almighty. We don’t snivel in self-contempt as beggars who have no right to be there, as wayward derelicts who have to come to the back door for a handout. We come as children of the King, knowing that we are welcome. Abba, Father describes our relationship, a shared love and fellowship in which the Father pours out all His blessings upon His children. And we pray in that knowledge and with the childlike anticipation of receiving all the Father has for us.”

The second thing that changes is our sense of self-worth. We live in a culture in which individuals struggle most with their identity. “Who am I?” is a question that haunts us in the 21st century. I remember studying “reality therapy” founded by William Glasser. He took a very radical position regarding mental health. He said that there wasn’t any such thing as mental illness. The problem is that we don’t experience true love and therefore we can’t love others. It is extremely difficult to feel worthwhile to ourselves and others in our culture. Maxie Dunham wrote. “To know that we are loved and accepted by God frees and empowers us to love ourselves and others and to know that we are worthwhile.” John tells us that we can love others because God first loved us (1 John 4:19).

Finally, when we begin our new relationship with God through faith in His son, Jesus Christ, it changes our ministries. It’s often a burden to care for others when we don’t have the capacity to feel cared for ourselves. With the presence of God’s Spirit we finally come to realize that we’re not operating alone. Again, Dunham puts it this way, “Strength comes directly from God, and indirectly, through the shared strength of the Christian community. This strength can work in rhythm with our weakness as we become vulnerable. In our sonship we are vulnerable to God, open and receptive to the incursion of His Spirit. But, in the confidence of being loved and accepted by God, we can be vulnerable to others, open to the claims of our neighbors responding in sensitivity and care. We do not have to pretend, therefore we can risk failure, rebuff, shame, unappreciative response, and negative reaction. Our self-worth is secured in our sonship and we can continue to minister, whatever the response.”

As I wrote yesterday, “When the father deemed the heir ready, he celebrated this time by a festival known as ‘Liberalia.’ … At this time, the heir received his ‘toga virilis’ (coat of adulthood). The boy burned his childhood toys at this festival. This person now has authority over the slave that governed him as a child.” I wonder if this is what Paul was thinking when he wrote Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Don’t you think it sounds like that?

The fullness of time might refer to the time for the world of mankind to grow up and put away all their childish things and become mature adults. John wrote that “God so loved the world…” and it was this world of mankind that God loved. We were the target of His love and redemption. The word “time” indicates a duration or length of time. It was the time when the Mosaic Law would lapse. Law had done its task to some extent. It wasn’t the Jewish Law necessarily, but law itself. The Pax Romana brought relative peace throughout the world. One commentator observes, “There was great political stability throughout the Roman world. Freedom to trade and travel throughout the world was at the greatest level in history. The Greek language was the language of the empire making it an opportune time for spreading the gospel. Jesus did not come at some random time; He came precisely at the moment God designed from eternity. This is the time when God put to an end the dispensation of the law by sending His Son to fulfil all the demands of the law.” But make no mistake the “law” as such had done its work in civilizing the world to the extent that God’s Truth could be proclaimed.

A human father in the Roman Empire marked a specific time when his child became an adult son. It was the time that the Father’s law had accomplished the task of civilizing his son. It was the time that the self-centered child had learned the lessons taught by the Father regarding right living and law keeping. God the Father also marked a time when He sent His Son into the world. This was a momentous moment for all people. I like the way Roy Gingrich says it, “God delivered both Jews and Gentiles from their respective bondage by the same method, by redemption and adoption. God redeemed the Gentiles from the condemnation of the natural law and the Jews from the condemnation of the Mosaic law that He might adopt them as His mature sons. He redeemed and adopted them that He might deliver them from their respective bondage.” After this redemption and liberation, the adopted children, the legitimate heirs, were not under slave masters, but over them.

In Christ we are all part of the Family of God. When we come to faith in Christ, we become “new creations” (2 Corinthians 5:17), we are “born again” (John 3:3), and we’ve been “adopted” into God’s family. This is what Paul says in Galatians 3:27-29; “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” All of the distinctions that separate humanity have been destroyed and we’re all brought together into one new family – The Church of Jesus Christ! Notice that this does not refer to water baptism but to the work of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12:13 we read, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” When a person by faith trusts Christ for salvation, the Holy Spirit puts him into the body, the family of God, so that you become “children of God” (Galatians 3:26).

My sister was the oldest of us three kids. When we were little she’d make us play dress up with her. This is something that my brother and I haven’t been real proud of. But playing dress up now is something I really enjoy! All of the family members in God’s family play dress up! In this passage he talks about “putting on” Christ as if He was a garment. Isaiah 61:10 speaks about putting on a “robe of righteousness.” But just a few chapters later in Isaiah 64:6 he says “all our righteousness’s are as filthy rags.” We’re all wearing dirty clothes! I mean they are really, really dirty! Through our faith in Christ God removes our dirty, dirty clothes and exchanges them for the perfect robes of righteousness; Christ Jesus Himself! In Jesus we all play dress up. Jesus took our filthy clothes and wore them to the cross. His blood washed them clean!

In his comments about the dying thief on the cross next to Jesus, Max Lucado writes, “…The purity of Jesus lifts and covers the dying thief. A sheet of radiance is wrapped around his soul. As the father robed the prodigal, so now Christ robes the thief. Not just with a clean coat but with Jesus himself! ‘Baptized into union with him, you have all put on Christ as a garment’ (Gal. 3:27 NEB). The One with no sin becomes sin-filled. The one sin-filled becomes sinless. It is eternity’s most bizarre exchange. Paul explained it like this: ‘Christ took away the curse the law put on us. He changed places with us and put himself under that curse’ (Gal. 3:13). When he sees sin, a just God must either inflict punishment or assume it. God chose the latter. On the cross ‘God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself’ (2 Cor. 5:19). I know John says that Jesus was carrying his own cross as he walked up the hill, but he wasn’t. He was carrying ours. The only reason he carried the cross was for us thieves and crooks. ‘Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could become right with God’ (2 Cor. 5:21). It wasn’t his death he died; it was ours. It wasn’t his sin he became; it was ours.”

In Galatians 3:21-23 Paul turns from denouncing the law as a means of salvation to talk about what the law actually is. The law is good. God gave us the law as a mentor to lead us to Christ. It does that by pointing out our need for a savior. It convicts us all of sin. Here’s what Paul said, “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.” We were all “captives” of the law. That means we were slaves. It is only through Christ that we are set free. The law with the reality of our sinfulness opens the door to our salvation through faith in Christ. It doesn’t save anyone. It just makes it clear we need to be saved!

Evangelist Fred Brown used three images to describe the purpose of the law. First he likened it to a dentist’s little mirror, which he sticks into the patient’s mouth. With the mirror he can detect any cavities. But he doesn’t drill with it or use it to pull teeth. It can show him the decayed area or other abnormality, but it can’t provide the solution Brown then drew another analogy. He said that the law is also like a flashlight. If suddenly at night the lights go out, you use it to guide you down the darkened basement stairs to the electrical box. When you point it toward the fuses, it helps you see the one that is burned out. But after you’ve removed the bad fuse, you don’t try to insert the flashlight in its place. You put in a new fuse to restore the electricity. In his third image, Brown likened the law to a plumb line. When a builder wants to check his work, he uses a weighted string to see if it’s true to the vertical. But if he finds that he has made a mistake, he doesn’t use the plumb line to correct it. He gets out his hammer and saw. The law points out the problem of sin; it doesn’t provide a solution.

The purpose of the law has always been the same. When we preach salvation by grace through faith alone, we are preaching the gospel message that has gone down through history from the time of Christ. John Calvin wrote, “From this we see that the law was not given to the fathers so that they might purchase salvation; nor were the ceremonies added so that, by observing them, men might attain righteousness. The only purpose of the law was to remove all confidence that people might place in works, so that they might rest all their hope in the grace of Christ.”

In Galatians 3:18-20 Paul turns from denouncing the law as a means of salvation to talk about what the law actually is. The law is good. God gave us the law to serve all mankind. I live in my house, not because I’m stronger than my neighbor, but because law has given it to me. In a world without law we have no peace, no security, no free pursuit of happiness. The law establishes boundaries for all of us. The law served to restrain sin. Here’s what Paul said, “For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.”

The first function of the law is to help stay, hinder, suppress, and reduce sin. We are all sinners and if left to ourselves it would become like the days of Noah. We would be killing and stealing and cheating one another. Law gives us restraint. Whenever I see a state trooper on the highway I look at my speed? Don’t you? The law was designed to restrain our fallen human natures. Gromacki writes, “If no restrictions were ever placed on unregenerate wills, then sinners would manifest their position in every conceivable evil practice. The intent of the law, therefore, was to reduce the amount of sin that could be committed.” Paul also tells us in Romans to obey the law because God ordained its representatives. God gave us law so we could live peaceful, godly lives. Law is still good because there are still sinners in the world.

Notice the comment that it was “ordained through angels.” Acts 7:53 says the same thing! If you remember the mediation of the law to Israel from Sinai everyone was afraid and ran. It underscores the fearfulness of the law! Hustable says in the Pulpit Commentary, “The whole passage is tinctured with the feeling that the giving of the law, as contrasted with the dispensation of the Messiah, was marked by distance, sternness, and alienation.” The people (Exodus 20:19-21) demanded Moses to serve as their mediator. That shows their great anxiety concerning the law. Obviously, the law does not bring peace and joy but great fear. However the Gospel of Christ, which is received by faith, brings great peace and joy. This restraining power of the law is only needed when the depraved nature of man dominates. When the “seed” shall come, Christ, He will redeem us from slavery to the law and put His law in our hearts. This clearly lets us know that God’s intent from the beginning was that the law be a temporary remedy for the sinfulness of man, it was never intended to be the cure. But when Christ came, He came to give sight to the blind and to bring healing to the sick. In Christ the restraining function of the law is unnecessary!