Lent: The Intimacy of Grace
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What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.
3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces[a] of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 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?
10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.12 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong. 13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you,
14 and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.
15 Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.
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!Hagar and Sarah
21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.
24 These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
27 For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.
30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”
31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. -
An Allegory
Continuing with our study of Galatians. I want to look at Galatians Chapter 4 in three sections and take each in reverse order.
Galatians 4:21-31, Paul contrasts the slavery of self-sufficiency with the freedom and all-sufficiency of grace.
Galatians 4:8-20 Paul warns the Galatians and us about falling away from Grace.
I will end with those wonderful verses Galatians 4:1-7 on what it means to be heirs of the promise made to Abraham.
Galatians 4:21-31
Paul uses allegory as a teaching method, speaking about two children: Ishmael and Isaac, two women: Sarah and Hagar and two statuses: Slave and Free. In the story of Ishmael and Isaac – the two sons of Abraham were conceived by two different women Hagar (Sarah’s slave) and Sarah. Verse 23 says the son of the slave woman was born in an ordinary way, but the son by the freewoman was born as a result of a promise. Abraham was promised that he would have a child who would be his heir, the bearer of the line that would bring salvation into the world. God told him it would be Sarah's child despite her being barren. Sarah is a picture of grace, that God would provide, his promise is trustworthy.
The narrative develops that in time they lost hold of the promise and decided to do it their own way rather than waiting for God's timing and God's supernatural way. Ishmael was conceived through human attainment. The contrast between law and promise is coming across here.
Paul in v25 says Ishmael and Hagar represent the law, the Covenant of Sinai and the earthly city of Jerusalem. They are a type of people who have not accepted Christ, are still in slavery, they are under the law.
Conversely, Isaac and Sarah represent being saved by Grace. The Heavenly Jerusalem, the Kingdom for all who believe is true freedom. The historical account is literal but we can also learn from the story as an allegory. History records that there has been strife and warfare between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael down the years.
The gospel of grace is that we cannot attain freedom by our own abilities.
So, a ritual prayer a certain number of times per day in a particular posture or a certain amount of good deeds, a certain amount of giving of money may be all good stuff but it amounts to slavery, not freedom. It can never equate to the righteousness that has been provided for us through our Lord Jesus Christ. Ultimately there is nothing that we can do to gain our salvation
‘a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,’ — Galatians 2:16.
Pastor Paul — Galatians 4: 8-20
Turning now to Galatians 4:8-20. An overview of this is that the Galatians were formerly in slavery to other gods but then they came to know the true God. But why are they now returning to your former slavery becoming hostile to Paul?
‘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 4:19-20
Paul refers to the fact that at first the Galatians received Paul very warmly and they were very kind to him when he was ill and we don't know much about that illness, a bit of a tangent to go into the details of it.
But later he saw a great change in them the joy that they used to feel for Paul has gone. So, he asks what has happened to your joy. He detects that these false teachers have got in and poisoned their loving fellowship with pastor Paul and he's trying to tackle it.
He feels so much affection for them. He's their pastor and he's hurting from the loss of fellowship.
Paul's love and concern for them are also about how they're falling from grace. In Galatians 4:19 he is laying into them sensing they are on the brink of a terrible error.
Paul, also speaks as somebody with authority. One who is their pastor. The Galatians had recognized Paul’s ministry before and the authority of the Gospel. We read in the early chapters that they had welcomed it, but now something had changed. And they seem to be wandering from the gospel which is not of human origin and from the apostle who was Christ-appointed. That’s a glimpse of his authority that I read into this section but it also shows us his pastor’s heart.
19 ‘I am in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed and you,’
the pastor is suffering here. It’s a glimpse of a pastor’s mindset, he longs for the people to grow spiritually. Longing for the church or the Fellowship to grow, and he sees the potential in them, and he is pained whenever people are wandering from the truth. How we need to pray for our pastor’s leaders and ministers today.
Intimacy of Grace — Galatians 4: 1-7
Finally, Galatians 4: 1-7, what it means to be children of God and heirs.
Notice that our sonship is not a universal thing about our common humanity, that we are made in God's image. Being a child of God is a much deeper thing, and it's about a relationship. Again it is about grace and receiving that all Christ has for you through his victory on the cross.
Let's deal with this idea of calling everybody ‘sons’ – I sense a feminist backlash! Of course, we can translate it as ‘children of God’ rather than sticking with the word ‘Son’ but we miss an important point relating to the culture and the time when this was written by Paul. Daughters could not inherit property, so when Paul refers to ‘son’ he means legal heir. He has already clarified in Galatians 3:26 that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female.
Paul in 4:1-2 uses the illustration of a son who is an heir to a great Estate. When that child is a minor, he's no better than a slave because he's under the authority of Guardians. But when he ‘comes of age,’ he comes into his inheritance and he gets the freedom to use it all that estate whatever it was. ‘You gain the full rights as sons,’ Galatians 4:5. In other words, what Jesus has done makes us come of age, it is not something that happens to us later when we reach some kind of spiritual maturity – we come of age at ‘new birth’ as it were. The inheritance is not earned, is not even something that we deserved. It comes to the child automatically because of the legal status.
The inheritance is also a privilege of intimacy 4:6 ‘crying Abba father.’ Abba is a word of emotion and intimacy based on our confidence in God's love for us. A child doesn't worry about getting sacked for disobeying the family rules, you can't suddenly get a letter from Dad saying you're no longer in the family.
I did once get a letter from my 7-year-old daughter saying I was no longer her father because I did not allow her to have sweets one Friday. That was a bit extreme, she said ‘you are no longer a dad you are just a man.’
God will never disown us, if anything, the father's heart goes out even more to a wayward child, not less, that's the message of the prodigal son and that’s a message for us. We can go back to our father when we've failed, or whenever we're in trouble and we say, Daddy, we're hurting or daddy, we're sorry. It is a really intimate relationship, full access to God in prayer. Our salvation has won for us that same nearness to God that Jesus had with God.
In my work as a hospital chaplain, I noticed three things about prayer when health or even life is threatened. Three things that are almost instinctive when you can’t even think to pray Galatians 4:6 "God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries “Abba, Father.”
Three words — three things
Cry
Abba
Father
The First is we cry.
Some people think prayer is when we present our list of wants to God. Please Lord I want this and that. But the message in Galatians 4:6 ‘crying.’ Not a prayer, not a praise but crying a word of emotion. No fancy words, no deep meaningful thoughts; a cry of emotion. The Holy Spirit within us does this in our hour of need. When you come to the Lord and cry or any longing will do, you will be with the father you will know his peace and comfort, strength and courage to endure
The second thing is that we cry Abba.
Aramaic (the language that Jesus spoke) and we are told it means ‘daddy’ not Father. I believe Paul was getting at something much deeper because Abba was not a word children of those days used for daddy it is more primal than that. Abba is like the first words of a child-like Da-Da or Ab-Ba. It is primal, the infant says Da, reaches out, she just wants his presence, his touch, comfort, wants to be safe, to be held. Everyone can pray but something new happens when you become a child of God, a Christian, you get an instinctive primal prayer ‘Abba’ simply wanting nearness, touch, the safety of our heavenly Father.
The third thing is kinship, crying Abba Father.
When Jesus taught us to pray ‘Our Father…’ he gave us a language of intimacy because we are God’s children — both Kith and Kin, friends and relations of Jesus, sons and daughter of our Father.
‘you are no longer a slave, but a son and if a son, then an heir through God.’ — Galatians 4:7
You have a position in the family of God of being known, loved precious.
Praise his name.
