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GALATIANS Chapter 4 "ILLUSTRATION, and Interpretation." This Bible Study is provided by http://www.theseason.org with permission from it's author R. Christopherson. Paul is addressing the churches in Galatia, and answering the challenge by false brethren that have slipped into their churches. It is no doubt that these were Kenites that are questioning Paul's credentials, because of the attention that Paul is giving to them. Paul is alerting these churches to be on guard against turning back to the old ways, the traditions that had developed through the law. Law has never performed a miracle, yet by faith all miracles are possible. In law, there are no absolutes, law requires two or more men to determine the meaning of the law. Then from this you never get an absolute meaning, but what you get is "law by precedent", which is a court decision that sets an example to be followed in similar cases arising thereafter. In the Scriptures, the Torah, which is the law, points to Christ the Messiah, and to the new Covenant. In Christ you do have an absolute. We know that all men will fall short of the law given by God, so men have created their own standards to live by that they feel comfortable with and those standards created by men are called "traditions of men". Paul is urging the Galatians to close their minds to these Kenites that have come in to bring them back under the law, and continue to follow the absolute, which is Jesus Christ. There is absolute forgiveness through the cross of Christ. Paul is asking them why would you ever want to turn back to the law when you have already been set free from the law. Galatians 4:1 "Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;" This has a two fold meaning. Remember the parable that Jesus gave concerning the heir that was sent to the vineyard, after many servants were sent, and they killed the heir also. You see in the first advent Christ did come as a servant. He came as a child born in a cave, and in innocence during the law period. He lived the perfect life, yet He did not receive His credentials a King, yet He even called Himself a servant. On the earthly level, it doesn't matter if an earthly king has a son, for that son is no better then a servant until he grows and matures into adulthood, where he is able to take over the head, or the kingship. Galatians 4:2 "But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father." The son remains in the servant position until the appointed time of the father, who is the king. The son remains under the tutors and governors until the king steps down and turns over the authority to him. Remember the subject is that the law was a schoolmaster, and we were the children under that schoolmaster until Christ came to pay the price. Galatians 4:3 "Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:" When you were a child of the world, you were trained under the elementary rules of the world. Galatians 4:4 "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law," When the appointed time came, or Heavenly Father sent forth His Son Jesus Christ to be born of a woman. At Christ birth, the world was under the law, the Torah, given to Moses by God. Though we, like Christ were born of woman, there was a great difference, for in the life of all mankind we fall short of that law, yet in the thirty three years that Jesus Christ lived and walked on this earth, He fulfilled every part of the law. He was made under the law, and He kept the law which made him the only perfect sacrifice for the sins committed under the law. The reason that Christ came in the flesh is to show us that God did not ask us to do something that was impossible. Galatians 4:5 "To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." The law is not bad but it is good, for what the law does is shows man's inability to keep the law. The law is just as important today as it was in Moses day, for when you break the law you suffer the consequences. If you steal you pay the price of a thief, and when you do murder, you will suffer the penalties under the law. In fact, the law even sets the standards for Christians, and governs our moral standards. The ten commandments are only part of the law. So while under the law, you cannot be perfect because the law shows your shortcomings and sins, however to become an adopted son or daughter of God, you have to be clean. The law will not do that for you. Every soul is a child of God, however to be adopted into the kingdom of God, and an heir to the throne of God you have to become perfect. Under the law it doesn't matter how many sacrifices you make, you still fall short of perfection. When Christ was formed under the law, He opened the door to redemption where all souls can come to the Father. Galatians 4:6 "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying "Abba, Father." "The Spirit of His Son" is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Christ's Spirit. It is only when you have the Holy Spirit of Christ within you that you can call our Heavenly Father, your Father. Galatians 4:7 "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son: and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." There is no difference in adoption, as far as the Heavenly Father is concerned as far as entering the kingdom. There are position and places in the kingdom, and they shall be exactly as it is written in Revelation 21. Galatians 4:8 "Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods." "You did service" meaning you were in bondage to them. As you did the things of the world, you and the world even thought that those things were all right. Galatians 4:9 "But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?" Paul is telling these Galatians that I was with you once and gave you freedom from that bondage of the beggarly elements of the law, and now you want to go back to them. Think of how frustrating that was to Paul. To give these people the freedom through the redemption of Jesus Christ, and then they allow the legalist to slip in and undermine the gospel of Christ, and put them back under the bondage of the law. Peter refers to this in II Peter 2:22; "But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, "The dog is turned to his own vomit again", and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." I think that you can see the disgust that Paul has for the thought of these Galatians returning to the bondage of the law. This is happening even today in the Christian Churches, where many of them are placing themselves back under the law. The law is not bad, but placing yourself under the law for your salvation, is to place yourself back under the bondage of the law. Galatians 4:10 "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years." You make a religion out of special days, and months, and times and years, when you should have Christ to worship. God's time came and was set, and when it came, Christ was born into the world. The time was set in the book of Daniel when Christ would come. Those 490 days were outlined in Daniel 9:24-27 are set times and days and years of the Lord. Daniel 9:24 "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy People and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy." Seventy weeks of years equals 490 years, and the time started when Nehemiah went back to rebuild the streets and the walls of Jerusalem. From that date it would be 290 years to the second coming of Christ, however there is a Gap between the sixty ninth year and the seventieth week of these years. Daniel 9:25 "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times." It is interesting that when you take seven weeks, the threescore and two weeks, you have sixty nine weeks of years, and when you apply the Jewish calendar to the Gregorian calendar that we follow, to the day it falls on palm Sunday which is the only time when our Lord Jesus Christ was recognized as the true Messiah. This event is recorded in Matthew 21:9; "And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He That cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest." Daniel 9:26 "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." Back in those days these times and days and years meant nothing to the Jews, for they could not see that it was God timetable right on course. There is a gap between before the final seven years take place in this prophecy, and in those seven years Satan will rule and deceive the people of the entire earth. The flood that he comes in with is a flood of lies and deceptions that come from his mouth. Daniel 9:27 "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.' " When Jesus was telling His disciples what it would be like just before His return to earth, He referred back to Daniel 9:27 in Matthew 24:15; "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)" This is the times that Satan and his fallen angels will rule the earth and only God's elect will have the seal of the truth in their minds to stand against Satan. God has His set times, and He has allowed us to understand the times that we are in through the prophecies written in His holy Word by the prophets of old. When Christ was nailed to the cross, all those weak and beggarly elements of rules placed on man by the law were nailed to the cross with Him. This doesn't mean that you should not follow those laws, but when you fall short in following them, there is forgiveness through your repentance to the Father in Jesus name. Galatians 4:11 "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." Paul is saying, I am afraid for you, because I may have wasted my time on you. Paul came down to Galatia and started churches preaching the truth, and you received the truth gladly. Then when I left you allowed these legalist, these hypocrites to come in and put you back into bondage. They tell you that you must do this on a certain day, and conform to their laws or you are out of God's will, and you run off and believe them. Friend, when you pick one of those laws, or set yourself under one of those days, you have placed yourself back under the law and made the cross of Christ void for you. Once you have accepted one of these days, aside from the freedom that we have in Christ, you have placed yourself under every one of them. If you then fail in just one of those laws you are a lost soul, and nobody, except for Christ Himself can keep all of the law. Most people today know very little of the law, out side of the ten commandments, yet when they place themselves under any part of the law, they are under the entire law. Let every day be to Christ, and when you fall short, that is the time to ask forgiveness. You are skating on thin ice when you start to set up days and times as holy over others, and select certain laws over others. Do not go back to the sows wallow, or the dogs vomit, and try to make it on law, for it just can't be done. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing to people. Galatians 4:12 "Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all." Paul is letting these people know that He is an Israelite just as they were, for they were of the House of Israel, offspring of part of the ten tribes that were scattered prior to 722 B.C. Paul is telling them that by their going back under the law, there is no damage to him at all regardless what they do. Galatians 4:13 "Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first." Paul is reminding them of the weakness that he had when he was there preaching to them, they could see it. Some believe that it was in his sight, because of the fact that Luke did much of His writing. Galatians 4:14 "And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus." When I came there to preach to you, you paid no attention to my infirmity as I presented the gospel to you. When I was there you received me with open arms, and you could not do enough for me. Galatians 4:15 "Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me." Paul asks, where then are all those words of admiration that you gave to me when I was there. With the love that you showed for me, if it would have been possible with my weak eyes, you would have plucked out our own eyes and given them to me. Now where is that great love that you once knew once you heard of the the freedom that was given to you through Christ. You can always tell the legalist by the the way that they take the offering, many of them like to pass the plate two or three times, and try to keep you all tied up in knit-picking of little laws and traditions. They don't think of your soul, but use your soul to get to your bank account. Look out for them. Galatians 4:16 "Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" Galatians 4:17 "They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them." Paul is saying that all they can talk about is their days, customs, tradition, and points of the law. They exclude you from the true gospel so that you will listen to them and become their servants. They take you away from the gospel of Jesus Christ when they place any form of legalism on you. Do want to be a bond servant to them and support them and their way? Galatians 4:18 "But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you." Paul is urging the Galatians to be zealous for the gospel of Christ all the time, and not just when he is around. Our Heavenly Father is with us every moment of every day, and He is the one that you should be zealous in your faith for. Galatians 4:19 "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you," Paul was very hard on these people, but in his love for them, Paul comes back very tenderly. Paul is telling them that he hurts for them, much in the same travail that a woman has when giving birth. Though the pain is there, also is the happiness for them as a mother looks towards here new child. I don't know if Paul really knew how labor pains are, for no man can have that experience, yet I'm sure it hurt Paul a great deal to see the turn that the churches at Galatia were taking. Paul birth these churches into Christianity, and the gospel of Christ and this is why Paul would call them his little children. Spiritually that is exactly what they were. Galatians 4:20 "I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you." To "change my voice", is to change the tone of the voice from being stern and corrective to the soft loving voice of one who cares. Galatians 4:21 "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? Paul is asking those that say they want to be back under the law, "Don't you understand what being under the law means?" Galatians 4:22 "For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman." Of course these two sons are Ishmael, by Hagar, and Isaac by his wife Sarah. Ishmael would become the Arab countries of the world, while Isaac became Israel, as well as the offspring of Esau. Galatians 4:23 "But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise." The bond woman was Hagar and her son was Ishmael. Isaac was born to Sarah many years after her childbearing years, by the promise that God gave to her and Abraham. Abraham was one hundred years old, and Sarah was ten years younger. She was to old to give birth physically, yet God gave her a son. This is why Isaac was a child of promise. Galatians 4:24 "Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar." This is the commandments and laws that were given on that mountain. The other covenant was God's promise to Abraham, and it was Abraham's faith that God counted as righteousness. Galatians 4:25 "For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children." What God gave to Moses on mount Sinai is the law, and both the children of Hagar, and those that live in Jerusalem are in bondage to that law. Galatians 4:26 "But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." But the Jerusalem that is from above, that Jerusalem that Christ would bring back with Him, is free. That Jerusalem comes when Jesus Christ returns as King of kings, and Lord of lords to reign on the earth. You can play games in the law, and you can play games with old Jerusalem, but the new Jerusalem is coming very shortly. Christ brings it with Him, and it will be established in the same place as the old Jerusalem. Jesus talked about this time in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, where He stated that a time is coming where this temple and city will be completely destroyed, and there will not be one stone left on top of another. Then later I will bring another down and set it right where the old was sitting. Jerusalem is your habitation of peace, and it is from above and it is free. There is no bondage attached to it. You can not be part of that city and still be attached in any way to the bondage of legalism. You are free only because of your faith in God, and your acceptance of His way, which is Christ Jesus. Galatians 4:27 "For it is written, "Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she that hath husband." This is quoting from Isaiah 54:1 "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, "saith the Lord." You have to understand the prophecy of Isaiah 54 before you can understand what Paul was talking about. This is prophecy of the end times, and being barren means that they who were the elct, were not taken by in the wrong marriage, and become part of the bride of the Antichrist. They knew that the false Christ, Satan the Antichrist would come first, and they were not taken by him. We are to remain barren to the very end. Isaiah 54:2 "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen they cords, and strengthen thy stakes;" This means we are to make our tent much bigger, because under salvation the barren [those of faith] shall have more children then all. When you have faith, and believe on His Son. Isaiah 54:3 "For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." Isaiah 54:4 "Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of they widowhood any more." When Satan returns and most of the people are whoring after Antichrist then they will curse you for taking a stand. Most of the Christian world will not have the eyes to see what they are doing, and they will believe that Satan is Christ, the true Messiah returned for them. We are in widowhood because our husband died on the cross, and He has ascended into heaven. We rejoice because we know there is a time coming very shortly when He shall return, and we know exactly when that shall be. The entire world will not claim to be a widow, for they will run to their husband upon his coming to earth. We read in Revelation 18:7 "How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, 'I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.' " That old church system sitting up there along with Antichrist making her claim that she is not a widow, but a queen, as she goes whoring after Satan and his system. Isaiah 54:5 "For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall He be called." It is God the creator of all things that is our husband, not Satan the fake. Isaiah 54:6 "For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God." This is why there is a wife and a bride mentioned in Revelation 19. There was a wedding a long time ago, in the first earth age, and the wife of that wedding are God's elect that were justified. Those that live by faith know that the law is our teacher and keeps us out of trouble. When you break one of those laws, you are going to repent quickly or you are going to pay. God provided the way for us through faith in His Son can escape the curse that is under the law. Galatians 4:28 "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." When you accept Christ and sin, there is absolute forgiveness when you repent from the heart. That forgiveness come because of God's promise to you. You become children of that promise when you are in Christ. Galatians 4:29 "But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." This is even very common today, where those that try to follow legalism try to drag all the other Christians into their church. They take one of the commandments of laws of God, and they try to build a religion around it. They overlook the fact that when they put one commandment over another, they bind themselves to them all, and the are then under the bondage of the law and now of faith. In doing this you have separated yourself from Christ, and without Christ thee is no forgiveness. Galatians 4:30 "Nevertheless what saith the Scripture? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." This is quoting Sarah when she saw how Hagar's son Ishmael was treating her son Isaac, the sole heir to the Abrahamic covenant. She saw where Ishmael was receiving favorable treatment from Abraham, and She knew the promises of God, and would have nothing to do with the mixing of the bond and the free sons. You just can not have a mixing of the two. Either you are a legalist, and hold the law up to be your salvation, or you commit yourself to your faith in Jesus Christ. Paul is saying tat you have to make that commitment and then stick with it, for with Christ we release ourselves from the bonds of the law, and when they are broken we seek forgiveness through repentance immediately, then put the guilt of that sin behind you. Under the law it is continually brought up and remembered, for one act sets the precedence for all other like acts, and is not forgiven but used as an example. Is that the way you want your sins to be remembered, to be thrown back into your face every time you turn around. That is legalism, and is common in many churches. Once a divorcee, always a divorcee as long as you are in that church. Once you have been branded for an act you did, they don't believe that you can repent of that sin, and they brand you with it. The only thing to do is run from those legalist clowns, and don't look back. Galatians 4:31 "So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." It is through the seed of the free woman that Christ would come, and by our belief in Jesus Christ, and our repentance to the Father in Christ name we become children of the free. God has placed His laws in the minds of all men, and when those laws are broken man becomes bound by the guilt that convicts him in his own mind. There is no release from that guilt under any part of the law, for all the law does is puts under the chains of additional laws. In most cases it is the guilt within the mind of the law breaker that gives him or her away. Satan is the accuser that stands in heaven and accuses you before the thorn of God, and let me tell you, he and his evil spirits are not going to let you get away with anything. The freedom that we have in Christ allows us to come to the Father when we have sinned, and receive absolute forgiveness from that sin, when we repent in then name of Jesus Christ. His name is our credentials, for when we use His name in faith, it shows our belief in Christ, and that we believe Jesus is the Son of God, who came to earth in the form of flesh man, lived the perfect life, and suffered, and died on the cross. It shows our commitment to our faith that Jesus is resurrected from the dead, and that He now lives in Heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father. The sin that you commit that is recorded in heaven, is sin that is committed against the laws of God, and the guilt in our minds from those sins will not be released until their is repentance for them. Once those sins have been repented of, they are blotted out of the heavenly books, and God will never hold them against your account, for the blood of Christ has paid the full price for them. They are gone, and He has told us not to bring them up again. When you are in a legal system, they are not gone, but they become a matter of record that that is used for the future to judge over and over. Are you starting to see the difference between the freedom that we have in Christ and the bondage that we have in Christ? It is a matter of your release from the guilt of sin, and having to live your life in Christ by faith, that when you do fall, you repent and get on with your life. You do not allow anyone to bind you by sins that you have committed and repented of, especially not in a church where they claim to be of Christ.
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