Chuck Larsen

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.

I mentioned in a previous sermon on this passage that Paul addressed the difference between being a slave and being a son or daughter. I began by asking if they knew the difference between being a slave and being a child. One grandmother brought her granddaughter to me and told me that when I asked that question the girl turned to her and whispered “there is no difference.” I thought that was really funny. Paul is going to explain what she said is true. In Galatians 4:1-3, Paul writes, “I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.”

During Paul’s time, children were placed under the authority of a guardian, usually a trusted slave in the household. As Richison points out, “Roman custom did not specify an age when a person became ready for adulthood. 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.” Richison goes on to say, “A person who operates under the law is no different than a child who is heir to an entire estate and placed under guardianship. He was the legal heir but he did not have the privilege of utilizing his legal rights to his estate. The law was the guardian (3:24–26) that watched over believers in the Old Testament. A Christian who reverts to the law puts himself back under slavery.”

I remember trying to get out of a large parking lot. The sign said “do not enter.” Yet it was in the middle of the day and no one was coming in or going out. The exit was just a few feet ahead. I was almost out of gas and didn’t like the thought of going all the way around the lot to find the right exit. So I quoted Jesus (Mark 2:27), “man was not made for the law, but the law was made for man.” My passengers all mocked me for breaking the law. How long would you wait at a red light before you broke the law and drove on? Motorcyclists know what I mean. Their vehicles are often too light to trigger the sensors that change the light to green. In Kentucky, House Bill 197 would amend state law to allow motorists to drive through an intersection against a red light under certain conditions. Why? Because the law was made for man not the other way around. Unfortunately, we’re still accountable for the decisions we make. I might have a clear conscience for driving out the wrong way, but had a policeman caught me, I would still get a ticket!

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 have 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 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 are 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.”