Galatians 5:2-4 :

Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.

We learn here that one way to fall away from grace is to “desire to be justified by the law.” Notice how easily you can give up your faith in Christ. To do this is evidence that you never really understood Christianity in the first place. Christianity is all about God’s work not ours. Yes, we do have responsibility in the household of God as His children, but all of our merit for God’s favor comes only from the work of Christ and none of our own. Merit for service as children of God is rewarded with rewards. God’s favor is given as a gift only. Sainthood is not something that comes from the Catholic church. It is a gift when you believe. Murderers who believe are saints right next to the pope (if he believes in Christ and none of his own work for salvation).

See the slippery slope we find ourselves on if we allow just a little bit of our own work into the equation? It voids the work of Christ immediately. It is one of the best tricks in Satan’s hand. When we start to look at our own efforts, Jesus fades into the background.

Notice that the Jewish law also has a requirement that you must do it all. You become “a debtor to do the whole law.” You can’t pick and choose parts that you will do and parts that you let Jesus do. It doesn’t work like that. It won’t save you when you stand before God expecting to get into heaven! If you choose the path of the law, God expects you to live like His Son Jesus did, who followed and obeyed the whole law. Then you and Jesus would be allowed in on that basis. I am speaking an obviously ridiculous thing in order to show the ridiculous idea that the law can be mixed in and do you some good.

To find yourself having no need of Christ, is to find yourself fallen away from grace. This is what Paul feared for the Galatians, and this is what I fear for a very large number of “Christian” churches today.

Galatians 5:1 :

Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

I believe that one of the biggest problems we have as Christians is the attack of legalism against Christian freedom. True Christians are free ones, and by that, I mean the ones that realize that the Christian life is not lived by trying to be good for God, but instead, trust God to make them good.

Sin is a kind of slavery that we can see clearly when we try to follow rules. When we try to prove ourselves to God, sin takes over and we find that we have no power to combat it. Sin is an addiction that we can’t stop by our own power.

The alarming thing about religious legalism, is that it can actually help you sin more instead of less. Jesus died to take away our sin and to free us from legalism which encourages us to take action without God’s help in order to help God out. Don’t let religion put you in jail when you should be living the free Christian life. It’s no wonder that Satan likes religion so much. God has power over religion in our lives lives as long as our lives are in Christ. Just as He saved us from Hell, He keeps us from sinning. It has nothing to do with anyone’s religious system.

Standing firm is to oppose the systems in the world around us. Not only are there many kinds of legal systems imposed by religious groups, there are also legal systems imposed by those who don’t even believe in God! There are humanistic religions that preach that we should follow all kinds of rules in order to protect the earth, society or even fight against other religions. They obviously don’t realize that things won’t get better by setting up a non-biblical legal system. They have probably never understood what the Bible says about how legalism helps to cause failure by exciting rebellion. It is not very reasonable for imperfect people to attempt to create their own system of righteousness. Only a perfect God can create a good one.

Now is the time for us to take off our chains. We shouldn’t give in to these religious systems. We should obey the truth of the Gospel and let Jesus give us success in our Christian lives. We need to recognize that we died with Christ and He lives in us and that only by trust in His life can we actually overcome our addiction to sin. If we let God live in us, we are free. Since you already died in Christ, you are free forever and Christ’s love can now shine out through you which is what the law could never accomplish.

Galatians 4:26-31 :

But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written,

“Rejoice, you barren who don’t bear.
Break forth and shout, you that don’t travail.
For more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband.”

Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. However what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the handmaid and her son, for the son of the handmaid will not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So then, brothers, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the free woman.

All Christians are miracle children. That’s what it says here. We were born miraculously by God’s promise and we relate to Isaac in the Abraham story. By all reason, we should never have become children of Abraham, but that is exactly what we are.

We don’t work for our salvation. We don’t “travail,” or “bear” any kind of labor in order to get to God. We have believed a promise and that’s all. That is how we were saved and that is how we became Abraham’s children. We are not saved by following a set or rules. That would be to believe that we would be saved by the one that was thrown out. God does not recognize that kind of “salvation.” He will only save those who believe in His promise. As we can see from the story of Abraham, if we attempt to add our own flesh into the promise of God, it will cause us trouble, just like Hagar and Ishmael ended up causing Abraham and Sarah trouble.

Christians, because they have come to God in faith and not by the law, are included in the inheritance. The Law system cannot be used to gain access to God. It is represented by Hagar, and as we read here, God does not accept that system.

I want to make it perfectly clear that God dearly loves the earthly children of Ishmael and has also given His son Jesus for them just as He has for all Gentiles. God loved the whole world when He sent His Son to save it. God expects the children of Ishmael to come to His Son so that they may join the numerous children of Abraham.

There is a Jerusalem from above that will soon meet the Jerusalem on earth. The Jerusalem we see now has yet to be saved as well. This world will be restored someday and so will this Jerusalem on earth. The Jerusalem from above will be forever and that is what all true believers in the Messiah Jesus hope for.

Galatians 4:21-25 :

Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the free woman. However, the son by the handmaid was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise. These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that exists now, for she is in bondage with her children.

Allegories are powerful when they are understood. They can, however, be difficult to interpret. It is very important that we concentrate on this allegory so that it speaks the truth to us.

To understand this section it is important that you remember the story of Abraham and Sarah and the fact that they had no children for a long time and what happened between them and God (see: Genesis 15 – 21). It was a pretty big ordeal. First, Abraham thought that he would turn his estate over to a relative, and God said, “No, I will give you a child.” That was the promise. Well, God didn’t let that promise be answered in a natural way. He allowed Abraham and Sarah to reach about 100 years old without children. This challenged their belief in God’s promise and Sarah came up with this idea that since she couldn’t have children, that her servant girl should do the job. Well, that worked, but it was natural not miraculous and it wasn’t based on faith in God’s promise. The servant girl was Hagar and Ishmael was the first son of Abraham.

Well, God kept his promise and gave Sarah a child in her very old age anyway. It was a miracle and that really confused Abraham’s household. The natural son fought with the son of promise… does the allegory sound familiar yet? Eventually, Sarah fought with Hagar as well and things were in chaos. Then God said something that might seem strange if you don’t realize that these events were intended to be a living allegory. God told Abraham to send both Hagar and Ishmael away. God promised to take care of Ishmael and gave him a promise as well. God loves people but the truth of God’s word cannot be perverted. We find out right here in Galatians why they had to be sent away.

Now it is important to understand this. Paul tells us that Hagar is equal to Mount Sinai in Arabia and stands for Jerusalem. Now that is difficult because the physical children of Abraham’s promise were those physically in Jerusalem. Paul was saying that the covenant that that started at Mount Sinai is represented by Hagar in history. Do you remember what happened on Mount Sinai? That was where Moses received the 10 Commandments! Mount Sinai, represents the law!

The following of the law is a bondage, just like Hagar was a servant. It wasn’t the promise that God intended. It was a temporary thing to hold sinners in jail until they could be properly freed by their Savior. Notice that both the Jews and the Ishmaelites are shown to be in bondage here? The non-children of Abraham, were already in bondage to sin so that isn’t even mentioned because they were the outsiders already. No one was winning here. We all needed salvation; Jew, Ishmael, and outsider. All of us! Like my brother says, sin was an “equal opportunity destroyer!”

God’s righteous requirements were physical, not of promise and not miraculous to us. They were right, but they could not save us.

Galatians 4:19-20 :

My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you— but I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

It is obvious that Paul deeply loved the Galatians. This is an interesting place where Paul takes a motherly tone and compares himself to a woman who is giving birth to a child. It is very important to remember that both man and woman were made in the image of God according to Genesis. God is represented by both men and women and Paul was showing God’s love to the Galatians by way of an illustration using a mother’s love through the pain of childbirth.

True leadership really cares. It isn’t just about about being wise or knowing more than others. It’s about having a genuine love for those those that you are guiding. Paul cares so much and is so distressed by their behavior, that he was torn between calling them his children and wanting to give them a spanking for being bad.

Notice that caring leadership doesn’t run from the problem. The Galatian church had made Paul their enemy and all Paul could think of was to go right strait to them. I am sure that Paul was not afraid to address the issue head on. It would have been pretty easy to just say that they have made their choice and leave them alone to suffer in it. Paul treated them like his own children and simply wouldn’t let them go the wrong way if there was anything he could do about it.

Lastly, we see here that perplexity isn’t a sin. It is easy to think that you “need to have it all figured out.” Evidently, even Paul didn’t have it all figured out and would get perplexed from time to time. We know now, looking back, that Paul was addressing one of the biggest problems the church as a whole would face going into the future. Many would need to hear Paul’s instructions about this very issue as we need it right now. This problem was a big blow from Satan and Paul was perplexed. I would say that he was also hurt by rejection.

God knows when we are confused and hurt and He is always there to guide us through and bring us to a major victory. I think Paul, although he was thinking about whether or not his effort was wasted, knew in his heart that God was going to bring a victory in this situation. God did bring victory to me through these words. I am very thankful that he cared enough to write them down and attempt to do something about the problem.

Galatians 4:15-18 :

What was the blessing you enjoyed? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? They zealously seek you in no good way. No, they desire to alienate you, that you may seek them. But it is always good to be zealous in a good cause, and not only when I am present with you.

Although I can’t tell for sure from this letter, it is logical that Paul suffered from some kind of problem with his eyes. Here he says that the Galatians would have exchanged theirs for his, so I believe it is safe to assume that they would have done it because Paul was in pain. It is interesting to consider that God used Paul’s eyes to remind him of who was in charge. When he was first converted Paul lost his sight entirely. This time, as he suffered, God caused Paul’s message to bring a brand new church to birth! We also know that Paul often dictated his letters and he even mentioned that when he wrote that he would use large letters. It seems pretty likely to me that Paul had some kind of serious eye problem.

My thinking is that his condition became acute right as he came to visit the Galatians the first time. They not only responded to the message but also responded to Paul’s needs with great affection. Paul noticed a significant difference in that they were treating him as an enemy now. Something definitely went wrong!

Paul explains to the Galatians that the reason that these bad teachers had come, was so that they could get a following for themselves at Paul’s expense. It was political. They just wanted the power and they were zealous for power! Now that created an issue for Paul because he strongly believes in zeal, but not the selfish, power hungry kind.

Paul believes in zeal so much that he said, “it is always good to be zealous in a good cause.” Notice the word “always” here. Now, many people in my culture are terrified by the very presence of zeal itself. I have noticed that zeal has become a cultural weakness or even a sin; even something that should be controlled or subdued. This is very wrong and comes only from the world and Satanic influence. Wouldn’t it be nice if Satan didn’t have to worry about anyone getting too excited about doing what is right. It would be a lot easier to get things done if everyone would just settle down. No, Paul says we ought to be zealous for good causes! Not only should we be zealous for good causes, but we should be that way whenever possible! Paul even adds that we should be zealous when no one is looking. We should put ourselves entirely into doing the good that God has called us to do.

It may scare some of those who live in this dull world at first, but when that that zeal becomes their salvation, they will learn to follow your example.

Galatians 4:12-14 :

I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong, but you know that because of weakness of the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time. That which was a temptation to you in my flesh, you didn’t despise nor reject; but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Paul was not aloof. He didn’t try to act like one who was greater than others. In fact, he would try to bring the message of Christ into the lives of those he preached to by adopting as much of their culture as he could. He tried to communicate the Gospel in the clearest way possible.

Some people think that the best way to communicate is to modify the gospel. That is absolutely wrong. This whole letter from Paul is about exactly how and why it is wrong. But we read that the transfer of that Gospel is done by learning the language of those to whom we are preaching, whatever that language might be.

In Christian history, there have been serious denials of this principle. At one time, the Bible was not even allowed to be read by those who were not approved to do so. This is one of the reasons why Martin Luther saw a need for the Catholic Church to be reformed. God intends for His ministers to speak as clearly as possible in the language and culture of the people who need to hear the message.

It is a great blessing to have clear translations of the Bible in our language. This one reason I dont believe the King James Only idea. Just as we don’t speak Latin anymore, we also don’t speak Old English either. It’s impractical to use Old English language if we intend to communicate to this culture. That being said, there are very serious problems in many of the English translations today. We should carefully learn which translations are appropriate.

Those new believers who heard Paul’s message, heard it at a time when Paul was sick or weak for some reason. It isn’t a great thing to have a leader so weak he cannot even teach well. It would have been easy for the people to deny him on the grounds that God allowed him to be sick. That’s another thing we hear today that is simply wrong. Paul got sick as did other great workers for the Gospel. Evidently, the sickness, or whatever weakness Paul had at the time he preached to the Galatians ended up being the reason he told them the Gospel. God can and does use sickness! The Gospel is more important than our health. God can easily heal us just as he will someday raise us up from the dead. I am not saying that you should allow yourself to become sick. Paul asked God to take sickness away, and we should follow his example.

I think that we can all relate to the fact that when we hear and understand the Gospel for the first time it is so wonderful to us that the person telling us would be beautiful no matter what they looked like. Paul was reminding them that they acted abnormally back then because of the great message of salvation that the Holy Spirit spoke to them. It made them so happy that they treated a sick man like an angel. Paul loved them and didn’t want to see a good thing fall apart. He was reminding them that things used to be better before they were under the influence of these bad teachings.