Chuck Larsen

Jews would have spit upon encountering Paul’s diseased person. The Greeks would have rejected him and his message because of his lack of an imposing appearance. But the Galatians had received Paul as though they were receiving Christ. Everyone in God’s eyes is a sinner. We are all unattractive. We all have the infirmity that disgusts God. Yet in His great love for us, while we were still disgusting, God demonstrated His own love for us by sending the only perfect person, His only begotten Son, to die on the cross and pay the penalty for our sins (read disgustingness). God’s love for all people, He so “loved the world,” was such that there was nothing He would have held back to win us back from sin. He made that clear on Calvary. That is the way of love.

Like God and Jesus, the Galatians had received the small, unimpressive Paul with all his diseases and weaknesses. Even though he was very unimpressive in physical appearance and strength there was an appeal to his message that was undeniable. In the 2^nd Century document entitled, “The Acts of Paul and Thecla,” we read of his movement during his Galatians travels en route to Iconium. In that text we read that Titus had given Onesiphorus a description of Paul so he would recognize him as he came from Lystra to Iconium. The writer then describes Paul as a very unimpressive figure, yet he appeared to be “full of grace” and sometimes “had the countenance of an angel.” This description is interesting because in Galatians 4:14, Paul said that the Galatians had initially received him as “angel of God.” Paul was full of grace, the Judaizers were full of law.

In Galatians 4:15, Paul confronted the Galatians and asked them, “What then has become of your blessedness?” He wants to know what has changed. Their gracious acceptance of him in all his imperfections has now turned into seeing him as a despicable sinner who is not worthy of their fellowship. The legalists had turned their hearts from love to law. Paul wanted them to see that the law rejects and condemns, love accepts and embraces sinners in spite of their despicable nature. Love sacrifices itself for others. That’s what God did. Love motivated God’s sacrifice and love motivated the Galatians’ sacrifice for Paul in all his infirmities as well. He finishes verse 15 with, “For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.” That was when you experienced God’s grace! Now under law, there is only condemnation and rejection. Which do you want, law or grace? I’ll take grace every time! Do you want the way of law or the way of love? I’ll take love every time!

Paul did not preach his message of Grace from a position of strength. Those who preach the necessity of keeping the law always do so from a position of perceived strength. When I first became a believer at age 31 in 1978, we immediately fell under the influence of legalists. They seemed so much more spiritual than the average person and it was compelling to want to live up to their standards. We threw out our TV, Kathy stopped using make-up, I dressed the part, and we adopted the religious language of our group. We denounced other “professing believers” as deceived and diluted because they did not practice the same standards we did. This gave me strength. I preached from a “better than you” position for several years. I still have to look out for this tendency. Legalists always present their message from a platform of strength.

Paul reminds the Galatians that he preached his message of grace from the bed of sickness, weakness. In Galatians 4:13-14 he writes, “You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.” We don’t know what the sickness was but there is no lack of suggestions by the commentators, bruises and broken bones from his beatings, malaria, some kind of blindness, epileptic seizures, and many others. Most people in the world, Jews included, looked on sicknesses as God’s punishment for sin. Those under the law were outcasts and “unclean” with respect to the religious system, but as Christ ignored the “uncleanness” created by the law in sick people, so too did the Galatians ignore Paul’s sickness and just as Christ received the infirm, they had received him.

The Greek term for “scorn” that Paul uses here literally means “to spit out.” It was customary for religious leaders to spit when affronted by unclean, sick people. It was a way of warding off any contagion as well as an expression of contempt for the sinner who was receiving just punishment from God. Paul also says that they didn’t despise him. I expect that much like today, leaders are expected to have an impressive appearance. The tall, handsome ones always get a better hearing than the less attractive ones. According to the Acts of Paul and Thecla, (a text from the 2^nd century), Paul is described as “small, short, bow-legged, with eyebrows knit together and an upturned nose.” To the Greek way of thinking, his appearance would have been repulsive. To the Jew his infirmity made him unclean. To the Gentile his appearance should have cause them to reject him. Jesus accepted the sick: lepers, blind, lame, etc. Jesus loved the deformed (Zacchaeus). Grace receives the weak! Law spits and ridicules. Paul and Jesus love the despicable. Even me! Even you!

In Galatians 4:12, Paul issues a brief plea to his Galatian converts. He says, “Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong.” Paul had become like the Galatian gentiles in order to win them to Christ. He set aside his Jewish religious prejudices against the disgusting gentile practices and actually became like them. He didn’t present himself as better than them, as was the custom of the Jews. That’s still true today. On one of our flights from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv, Kathy sat next to a Hasidic Jew who refused to shake her hand, and made sure there was never any opportunity for their shoulders to touch. Gentiles made Jews unclean! But Paul cared more about the salvation of the Gentiles than he did about personal defilement, just like Jesus did in His encounter with the woman of Samaria, with lepers, with various diseases, and even with dead bodies.

Instead, the Galatians were adopting the Jewish customs of superiority with their own kind and were actually treating Paul and his Gospel as something inferior to the Jewish Law. They were actually cutting themselves off from Paul by rebuilding the same barriers that he had worked so hard to destroy. Paul’s exhortation to become as he is most likely refers to their accepting others as equals, clean, and deserving of love, just as he had. As a former Jew, he had accepted them as clean and as equals in God’s eyes and worthy of His love. He wanted them to keep the love and acceptance of Christ in the forefront.

He goes on to say that the Galatians are not doing him any wrong or harm. This is a difficult phrase and it has been the subject of much debate. There are two possible interpretations. First, it could be Paul’s way of saying that they were only hurting themselves. To turn from the gospel of grace to a gospel of the works of the law, wouldn’t change his life, but it would certainly ruin theirs. Second, it could be a reference to what the writer of the book of Hebrews has said about “crucifying Christ again.” Turning back to the law actually reduces the value of the death of Christ on the cross to an equal status of the sacrifices offered under the Jewish laws. It makes Christ just another religion. It’s just another way up the mountain to God. It reduces the grace of God to another simple performance based religion. Paul wasn’t being injured by them. They weren’t deserting Paul, they were deserting God; “I am astounded that so quickly you are deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6).

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 the “weak and worthless” attempts 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, it’s about Christ and the work He has done! When we have confidence in our own effort and ability, we trust in the weak and worthless.