Galatians – Part 7

Series – October 2022 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Galatians – Part 7

Having looked at the first part of Galatians 4 last month, we will now move on to verses 13-18 ( KJV ): “ Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. 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. 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. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.”

What was the nature of Paul’s illness? That we are not told. However it appears to me that the infirmity here and the trial which was in the apostle’s flesh are the same as the thorn in his flesh which he made mention of to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 12:7-9). If that is so, then it is clear to me it was a problem he was having with his eyes, otherwise why would the Galatians have plucked out their own eyes and have given them to Paul if his eyes were in very good health? Why not give him a hand or a foot or an ear? Remember, he was beaten five different times receiving 39 stripes on each occasion (11:24). Moreover, he was stoned once (v.25); some of those stones could have hit him in the face and on his eyes. That would also explain why it seems that he dictated most of his epistles except this one; and he called attention to see how “large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand” (Gal. 6:11).

The doctrinal matter The Epistle To The Galatians addressed was so serious that the apostle would not wait to dictate the letter. Therefore he picked up his pen and wrote in spite of his apparent eye problems. Preachers of the law had so greatly deceived the Galatians that they were now behaving as though Paul were their enemy. But all that Paul had done was to tell them the truth of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Those preachers were trying to isolate the Galatians from Paul that the people might become followers of themselves and of the law. They had no good intentions for these Christian believers at Galatia. The apostle’s attitude was quite the opposite; he desired only good for them at all times, not just when he was with them but when he was absent as well.

In Galatians 4:19-20 the apostle wrote with endearment: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice [or tone]; for I stand in doubt of you.” It was like birth pains for the apostle in bringing them to a saving knowledge of Christ in the first place, and it was as though he was passing through it again in bringing them back to the truth. Why? Because he was uncertain as to where they stood in regard to the truth of Christ.

They had gone to keeping days and months and times and years, as did the Jews. “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain” (v.11). Similarly in verse 20 he says, “I stand in doubt of you.” Therefore he asked in verse 21, “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?” Why? Because no one in their right mind, having come to Christ and enjoying the freedom wherewith the Son has made him free, would desire to give up all that he has in Christ to be placed under the law. For this reason, the apostle challenged them as to whether they actually knew what the law says.

He went on to illustrate freedom and bondage by using Isaac and Sarah and Ishmael and Hagar (Agar), Jerusalem on earth and Jerusalem above, the bondwoman and the freewoman: “For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

“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 which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. 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. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free” (vv.22-31).

In these verses the apostle showed that Hagar, her son Ishmael and earthly Jerusalem prefigured the law, to which they were desirous to be in subjection. On the other hand, Sarah, Isaac and “Jerusalem which is above” set forth the grace of God and the Christian liberty into which all believers are brought through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son. Scripture makes it plain that grace and law cannot co-exist. It cannot be law and grace, it must be law or grace, for Scripture says, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.”

It might be a grievous thing to cast out the bondwoman and her son, as it was with Abraham when he was called upon to do so. But “God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Gen. 21:12). The law and all that is connected with that system must go. It is in the ways of God to take away the first and establish the second. Know this dear reader, that the law has no power, dominion nor governance over the believer, for we are not under the law but under grace. Does this mean that there is no restraint – we can live as we like and commit sinful acts? God forbid; a thousand times, “No!”

The believer is subject to Christ. The apostle Paul pointed this out in Romans 7:1-6, where we have these words: “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

These verses are saying that the Jews to whom the law was given are under obligation to keep the law, as a wife is under obligation to her husband. But now the law, like that husband, is dead. So the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is under no obligation to her dead husband (the law) but now lives in subjection to the new and living husband, which is Christ!

By Milton Jamieson

Look for Part 8 of this Series next month.