No Addition: A Galatians 4:9-20 Devotional

Focal verses: 9, 12, & 16-20

⁹ But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

¹² I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong. 

¹⁶ Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

¹⁷ Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. ¹⁸ It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. ¹⁹ My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, ²⁰ how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you! Galatians 4:9, 12, & 16-20 [NIV]

Paul wrote this letter to the Galatian Christians to combat new teachings of which they became aware. The new teachers said before the Galatians became true Christians, they had to become Jews first by following the laws God set up for the Israelites. The outward expression of being part of God’s chosen people was circumcision. Paul explained in the first seven verses of this chapter that no works by man could help them gain their salvation from sin and death. The other thing he said was by choosing to follow the Law for salvation, they chose to enslave themselves again instead of accepting the freedom God gave them by His grace through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Beginning with verse nine, Paul beseeched them not to turn back from the way they knew God and were known by Him to the old way, the laws of God given for the establishment of His nation, Israel. Those laws, Paul said, were “weak and worthless elemental things.” They enslave people to trying to earn salvation by working for it. Yet salvation can never be attained by the works of human hands since humankind is fallible and sinful, but Jesus Christ is not. That makes God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ perfect.

In verse twelve, Paul begged the Galatian Christians to be as he was just as he became as they were. This verse can confuse us so let us consider it closer. Was Paul saying he became doubters and waffled on the means of his salvation? No, he was not. He meant in this verse that the Galatians became as he was when he spoke to them about salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. They realized they did not have to be Jews to become Christians, but that God gave His grace for every person. Paul, who once was a chief Jew, a Pharisee, gave up his tradition of keeping the laws of God to accept God’s grace gift by faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. He understood that the Law could not provide salvation and he taught that to everyone, including the Galatians. So then what did Paul mean when he said he became as the Galatian Christians were? He meant that instead of making them become as he once was, a Jew, he, by believe in Jesus Christ, became as the Galatian Christians were, non-Jewish believers. Paul did not rely upon the laws to make him a Christian, but only the grace and mercy of the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. Paul gave up his Jewish-ness to become a Christian. In that way, he became like the Galatian Christians who were never Jews and became Christ-followers.

Paul was adamantly against the teachings the Judaizers brought to the Galatian Christians. Why did he say they were teaching this added step to become a Christian? Paul said in verse seventeen, “They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them.” The teachers who taught contrary to what God provided, salvation by grace through faith, wanted to be commended by other people for understanding better and deeper what it meant to be a follower of Jesus Christ. They added on more things to become a Christian hoping to gain notoriety and fame. Do we have any preachers in our day who do this? Do they preach you must give more money to be blessed more by God? Do they say you must worship or fast a certain number of times a year, month or week, for example, to be in God’s will? We must stop and seek God for ourselves to determine if what they teach is in line with God’s revealed Word, the Bible, or if it is contrary to God’s teaching. When the veil tore upon Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, we each we enabled to speak to God for ourselves to ask Him His way. Listen, if someone teaches something that sounds odd and off from what you have read in the Bible, seek God to understand if it is truth or manmade rules. This is what the Judaizers were doing with the Galatian Christians. They added rules for a person to become a Jesus follower. God did not require these rules for them to become Christians.

In verses nineteen and twenty, Paul expressed that he continued to labor for the Galatian Christians even though he was not with them. He wanted them to be formed into the image of Christ – for them to grow in Christlikeness. Paul expressed his concern and stated he was “perplexed” about the Galatians. He reacted like a teacher, even a parent. These people were Paul’s children in Christ. He taught them and brought them before the Lord Jesus. Paul corrected them and showed them God’s way verses manmade ways to salvation and eternal life with God. He wrote and encouraged them and prayed for them. Paul desired to be with them to protect them from false teachings. We can identify with these feelings. If you have children whether young or adult, you continue to raise them in a moral and, hopefully, Christian way so they will grow up to be strong Christians and good citizens in the world. Teaching is not a one-off event, but requires encouragement, explanation, prayer, intervention, and sometimes punishment to convince the child of the necessity and purpose of the godly lifestyle and walk.

Perhaps you had people intervene in your life in the past who taught you about God and the salvation He gives through His Son, Jesus Christ. You probably did not hear about the Gospel once and then lived a perfect life from that point forward. God sent people into your life who helped you mature in your walk. Maybe they even corrected and chastised you to help you get back on the godly path. God used these people in your life as He used Paul in the lives of the Galatian believers. The Christians whose lives intersected with yours, cared and prayed for you. Some may still remember you and pray for you when the Holy Spirit prompts them. This is most definitely how Paul felt about the Galatians.

On the other hand, maybe you have never stopped to hear and consider or no one came into your sphere to tell you about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Today and this week with these lessons, you have heard the Gospel. Because of the sinfulness of humankind and the inability for imperfect humans to work their way to perfection to be in the presence of Holy God, God provided the perfect sinless sacrifice for our wrongs/sins so we could be in His presence. The sacrifice He gave was His Holy Son, Jesus Christ who was sinless and perfect. His life paid the price for the just judgment we deserve for our sins. God provided this sacrifice because He loves you and each of us. He wants to be in a relationship with you but could not because He, being holy, cannot be in the presence of sin. With His Son’s sacrifice, sins are removed, people are cleansed from evil, when they admit they are sinners, believe Jesus Christ is God’s Son given as the sacrifice for their sins, and confess Jesus Christ is Lord of their lives. That is the simple Gospel. You can do nothing to earn salvation, but because God loves you, even as you are now with your sins, He provided the sin sacrifice through His Son’s death. God provided a way for you to be with Him forever with His Son’s resurrection from death. When you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you inherit the kingdom of God – power over sin and death, and eternal life with Him.

Do not let people of the world tell you you must do more and be more for God to love you and accept you. God loves you already and is waiting for you to turn to Him. Maybe you need to confess your sins to Him because you are already His child, but have let your sins build a wall between you and God. Or, maybe you have not trusted in Jesus Christ and you need to do that now accepting Him as your Savior and Lord, giving Him your life. Whatever you need to do, now is your time to choose. What will you decide?

Not Slaves but Adopted Children of God: A Galatians 4:1-7 Devotional

¹ “Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, ² but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.

³ So also, we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.

⁴ But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law ⁵ so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. ⁶ Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

⁷ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” Galatians 4:1-7 [NASB]

Paul wrote this letter to the Galatian Christians after he left there and later heard about a group of teachers who taught contrary to what he taught. The group of teachers told the Galatian Christians they had to become Jews before they could become Christians. In essence, they said they had to undergo circumcision under the Jewish Law before they could become Christ-followers. Paul spent this letter to the Galatian Christians explaining the difference between the Law and the grace gift of God through Jesus Christ, His Son.

In Galatians 3, Paul told the Galatians the Law was a tutor for the Israelites to lead them to God, but belief in Jesus Christ’s as God’s one and only Son is the only way to complete redemption from sin and guilt. The Law led the Jews to recognize their sinfulness and inability to cleanse themselves perfectly and permanently.

In today’s passage, Galatians 4:1-7, Paul used a metaphor to explain living under the Law of God versus being a son or daughter, an heir, of God. The metaphor he used applied commonly in their society. When a person was a minor, though by law an heir of his father, and until the person became a legal adult, the child was not different from a slave. He (at that time, and for our day, she, as well) took orders from his father or the father’s manager/steward/overseer. This is equal to guardians of children today when parents have died. Until the child is an adult, he takes orders and instructions, and obeys them. This makes the child equal to a slave in that regard though he is still an heir of his father.

The second part of this metaphor comes in verse three. In this extension of the metaphor, the “child” is the person who lives by the Law of God. The person who lived by the Law after God provided the perfect sacrifice and freedom from the Law was still in bondage to something less than perfect. Paul equated a person in bondage to the Law as a child/slave, a person still in bondage to elemental things. These elemental things were elementary and rudimentary principles of the world. For people after Christ’s death and resurrection, these elemental things included working to earn salvation according to the Law of God. Remember, the Law of God could not save a person from his or her sins, but only led a way to God.  

Understanding these two metaphors as Paul used them in this passage then means people who followed the Law of God sought to work their way to salvation. These people were entrapped by works theology, the elemental levels of faith. That made the person no better than a child under civil law and a basic son of God able just to drink the milk of God’s Word. To accept by faith the truth of the Gospel – God’s perfect and complete redemption of people through the redemption of a person from the filth and power of sin, the person must believe only in Jesus Christ for redemption and cleansing. Redemption is the redeeming by a form of payment the price to recover a person from the power of another person. Christ redeems and frees people from the power of sin and death.

How does this happen. Paul explained this in verses four through six. He said, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law so He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive adoption as son.” Because God gave His laws to rule the religio-political society of Israel, anyone born from that point (Jewish and even Gentile, who knew of the Law) came under those laws. God chose to have His Son born to a woman under those laws so when this Jewish boy grew to a man and showed Himself as the Son of God through His teaching, miracles, death, and resurrection, people could see the Son of God surpassed the Law of God. Belief in Jesus Christ is paramount. Only through His sacrifice is perfect/complete redemption from sin received. Annual sin sacrifices never permanently cleansed a person from his or her sin. Jesus’ sacrifice of His life as the spotless Lamb does.

Paul taught further in verse six when a person believed in Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God for his or her salvation, he or she received the Spirit of the Son. When a person believes in Jesus Christ as his or her Savior, Jesus’ Spirit resides in him or her and he or she becomes an adopted son or daughter of God. Romans 8:14 says, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” Galatians 3:26 says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who came to take away the sins of everyone in the world makes you a son or daughter of God and an heir of God. Paul explain in verse six, because you are sons and daughters of God, you can now call to Him, “Abba! Father!,” which means “daddy, father.” You can use that term of endearment because you are in a personal relationship with God through Christ. You no longer have to go through a priest to talk to and hear from God.

To conclude his metaphor, Paul said in verse seven, when you believe in Jesus Christ, “You are no longer a slave (or a minor), but a son (and daughter), and if a son/daughter, then an heir through God.” What do you gain by being an heir through God, a co-heir with Christ? You receive peace from knowing your relationship with God is permanent because your sins are completely and permanently washed away and you can stand in the presence of Holy God. Since you have an unending and eternal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, you will have eternal life with Him in His kingdom, heaven. Death will not separate you from Him.

Relationship with God; God made us for this purpose. He chose us before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight, In love He predestines us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4-5). Jesus said this same thing in Matthew 25:34, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”

What do we have to do with this teaching? Consider, like Paul wanted the Galatians to consider, whether you are listening to other teachings instead of accepting by faith that the only work needed to be done for your salvation and redemption Christ did on the cross. Nothing more needs to be added and nothing removed. Our salvation from our sins and self comes completely and perfectly through God’s gift of mercy and grace – Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. It is not a works-based salvation. Nothing we can do is worthy enough to earn our release from the judgment we deserve for our sins. God provided the exact sacrifice needed to release us from His just judgment, His holy and blameless Son.

What is keeping you from believing in Jesus alone? Do you feel you have to earn God’s love? You cannot earn it. You are fallible. God loves you no matter because He created you. His showed His extreme love by allowing His one and only Holy Son to die the worst death, asphyxiation from hanging on a cross. Will you accept that is all that is necessary? Believe. Do not add to the Gospel by trying to prove your worth. You are worthy because God created you, now give Him your heart.

What will you decide today?