THE ONE TRUE GOSPEL
Meditations in the Epistle to the Galatians
Galatians 4:8-20
GRACE AND WORKS CONTRASTED

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IN THIS passage we are brought back to the concern which Paul had for the Galatians. Plainly some new teachers had come. They had taught that more was needed to progress in the Christian religion than faith in Christ alone and his work for us. They had taught that certain things had to be observed for perfection, which Paul refers to here in verse 10 as observing days, months, seasons and years. Paul saw that they had been taken back to natural religion which puts the emphasis on self effort for our acceptance with God, either moral laws or religious duties, which Paul calls in verse 9 as weak and miserable principles.

As the Apostle speaks to the Galatians in this section of his letter we can detect Paul contrasting the Gospel which he had taught these Christians, and the result of this new teaching they were now espousing. These contrasts are cogent and most helpful to notice, and this is what we shall be seeking to do in this meditation.

KNOWN OR NOT KNOWN

Paul opens these verses in verse 8 with a wonderful description of what it means to be saved through Jesus and be a true Christian. It is not just that we know God. This is wonderful enough, though it does not necessarily mean that we are in the favour of God. We can know God in all sorts of ways. The wicked will eventually know God as Judge, but this will bring no joy. We can know God in creation as the high and lofty creator, but this also can give no assurance that God cares about us. The Gospel rather is that we are known by God. This is the far greater privilege and blessing.

To be known by God has all the comfort and assurance that anyone could ask. It is a declaration that God takes a personal interest in us for good. It tells us that God accepts us as his own people. It tells us that God has engaged to save us and give us a share in his everlasting kingdom. It assures us of the grace and mercy of God towards us, and that he loves us with his infinite unfailing love. It tells us that we are God's peculiar treasure.

Paul shows the contrast between grace and works, between sole trust in Christ and a mixture of trusting Christ and the performing of religious duties. Grace brings us into the wonderful blessing and safety of being known by God and owned by God as his people. It is to be saved from our sins and to be heirs of heaven. It is to be made a new creation, and to walk in the light of his guidance and protection all our days.

On the other hand if we resort to self effort of any kind for our acceptance before God, then God ceases to know us, because by such action, whatever our words and stated beliefs, we have said by this action that Christ's work for us is not enough, that more is needed for salvation, and so we denigrate the Saviour, and instead of accepting us, God gives us over to his law and all its demands, and lets the law be our judge and condemnation. To resort to self effort for salvation in any way is to fall from grace and to return to being judged upon our own weak and failing merits, which in fact are no merits at all.

God cannot know us for good unless we are completely righteous in his eyes. We can only be known by God if there is no accusation of the law against us. There is no way that this can be true of us if we are relying in any way upon our own works of righteousness. There is only one way in which we can have a righteousness which is acceptable to God, and fulfills the whole law of God, and that is when we are imputed with the righteousness of God provided by Jesus Christ. So we are only known of God when we are trusting alone in Christ, and have renounced all trust in personal righteousness.

By this we are not saying the Christian ceases to be concerned how he or she may live. This is a false accusation so many bring against the Gospel. Paul answers this accusation in Romans chapter 6. In fact, because the Gospel takes away all necessity for us to work for our salvation, and salvation is given freely through the work of Christ for us, we find we have a grateful heart and new heart and disposition which promotes practical righteousness and good works in us in way that was not possible before. Our new heart loves the law of God so we want to live by it. Our grateful heart for such love from God causes us to love God and seek to please him in every way we are able. None of this is done to earn favour, neither is it necessary for this end. All our lives henceforth are an expression of serving God in thankfulness for such love bestowed upon us.

FREE OR ENSLAVED

The second contrast Paul uses is that between freedom and slavery. It is a total alien thought to those who are not free through faith in Jesus Christ that they are enslaved. In spite of the fact that the desires within are so strong that there is rarely a person which does not find their life dominated by some desire or other; yet still to the person of the world, it is the Christian that is enslaved and not them.

Paul directly mentions two directions in which Christ has made us free. He says firstly in verse 8 that the Galatians were enslaved before they trusted Christ "to those who by nature are not gods". Then in the next verse he speaks of them being enslaved to miserable principles, which he then describes in part as the observing of special days. He was referring to the sort of additions to their faith that these new teachers were introducing into the religion of the Galatians.

The truth is that it is only Christ who can set us free from spiritual, moral and religious slavery. When we trust alone in the work of Christ for us, we know that through his righteousness reckoned as ours, we are free from condemnation. We know that we are heirs of heaven. We experience, as well as know, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. This is a freedom based on the fact that all has been done for us, and we have not got to depend in any way upon our weak efforts. In contrast to this, wherever you have religion that has added the necessity of our good works to gain salvation, there is always bondage, because there is no assurance of reaching the goal of heaven. We never know whether we have done enough. This bondage is expressed in the answer to the questions 'do you know you are forgiven' or 'do you know if you will go to heaven' which is always in the order of 'I hope so' or some other expression that involves uncertainty. Then when people talk of life after death, they express their uncertainty by still praying for those who have died that they may be in eternal rest, and have a vague, or less vague, idea of an intermediary place for the dead, where they are purged from the rest of their sins. The uncertainty goes further, because there is no assurance of when, if ever, a loved one will be purged enough to leave this mythical intermediary place, and be allowed into heaven. Then there is the further bondage of fear of the after life, which must be by definition unpleasant and painful, if we are to be purged for our sins. Although there is always the pious belief or wish that a person who has died is at peace, there is absolutely no assurance that this is necessarily so. The slavery is seen in that all through life people struggle to be good enough, by religious worship and duties, and by acts of charity, etc. but their consciences never give them any assurance that they have done enough.

This what Paul means when he says 'you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.' This religion puts us into slavery to the deity we are worshipping, but it is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. People in this condition of slavery believe in a god who gives no real love, but is always demanding and never giving assurance of safety. It is not the true God of the Bible, but an invention of the human mind. Thus we are in bondage to men, who have thought up a religion which places the worshipper in slavery.

In fact outside of Christ and trust in his work alone, we can never know peace. It is written on our conscience that God requires perfection, and that his law must not be broken. In spite of this people still look on God's view of them like a school exam where there is a pass mark, which is less than 100%, though nobody knows what the pass mark may be, or whether they have reached it or not. Doubt is always there and so in consequence bondage. In fact the Bible tells us clearly what the pass mark is. It is 100% and nothing less will do. The Bible tells us that God can't overlook the smallest failure in keeping his law, and that the sentence against failure must be death. It is only in Christ that we can become 100%, because in Christ the perfect keeping of the law by Christ is reckoned as ours and put to our account, together with his paying the price of sin against the law.

We cannot be anything else but enslaved unless we place our faith and trust in Christ alone, now and always. This is why Paul is so insistent with the Galatians that the new teachers were bringing them into bondage.

JOY OR NO JOY

In verse 15 Paul cries "what had happened to all your joy". Joy is peculiarly a Gospel experience. The world does not really know joy, rather it speaks of happiness instead. Notice the nature of this joy in the context. Paul, when he first came to preach to them, had been rather a burden to them all. He had been sick. The way Paul talks suggests that it was the sort of sickness which had unpleasant effects and results, so that looking after the patient was not pleasant. Paul calls the care his illness demanded as a trial. Further it was the sort of illness that made Paul appear outwardly rather unpleasant, but such was the joy in their hearts through the Gospel, that these Galatians had no contempt or irritation over Paul's illness, but only love and care. They saw the light of the Gospel in Paul and emanating from Paul, and this caused all the trials of the illness to pale before the joy of the Gospel in their hearts.

The Gospel alone gives true joy. It is the only teaching which brings to our minds the full assurance that we are loved by God, and to our hearts and experience the real sense of that love of God lavished upon us. It gives joy because in every trial there is always present the assured hope for the future, where all trials and pains will cease. It gives joy because, having seen and believed the joy of Christ when he accomplished redemption, and having seen that this goal was the joy set before him that enabled him to rise above all his suffering, we are filled with a similar joy of being part of the accomplishment of God's purposes of love in the world. The Holy Spirit writes in our hearts the joy of the assurance that caring for those in suffering and need, we are doing the will of the Lord we love, and sharing in the manifestation of his love. The Spirit also gives us the joy of the assurance that however bad things may get, we are in the loving purpose of God, and he will bring us through all our trials, and we also know the joy of the strength of the Lord in all our sufferings. Further we have the joy that we can always cry to the Lord, and relieve our hearts by unburdening our souls to him. We have the joy that having done this we can safely leave the future to him.

There is no true joy outside the Gospel. The religions which add or subtract from Christ, always place burdens on people which destroys joy. How can there be joy when we are always fearful that we have not done enough to be sure God will not judge or punish us. How can there be joy when we never know whether we have reached a state of goodness that God approves. There may be moments, when in some uplifting time of worship, or when we feel that we have done quite well, that we feel God must now be favourable towards us; however this euphoria soon vanishes as we come to the next failure, or the next trial, or the next knock in life. The joy of the Gospel is that we can never lose the love and favour of God whatever we have done, or whatever our circumstances, because our favour is secured by the work of Christ for us. We can always have inner joy at the most unhappy times, because we know we are in the hands of a loving God who will in the end make all things well.

It is only in the Gospel that the trials and pains of life can be faced with an inner joy of the assurance that these are not forever, and will end in final bliss.

SERVE GOD OR MAN

It is in verse 17 in which Paul lets the 'cat out of the bag' concerning all religions that are not wholly founded on the faith of Christ alone. The aim of these new teachers was to win the Galatians over to allegiance to themselves. They wanted the Galatians to 'be zealous for them'. To accomplish this they had to denigrate the Gospel and those who preached it.

It is characteristic that when the Gospel is perverted in some way, the people are encouraged to look towards men for their religion and security. These religions always have the effect of making God remote and unapproachable. They have the tendency to call people to place their trust, not in Christ alone, but in religious ceremonies and services. The result is that the priest or the minister becomes the focal point of faith, and he or she is treated almost as God. Because God has become less approachable, intermediary mediators are introduced. Forgiveness is not received direct from Christ, but through the priest or minister. People tend to leave the salvation of their souls in the hands of the priest or minister.

It is also true that in this sort of religion the minister or priest tends to take to himself authority and status, which alone belongs to Christ. Take the Holy Communion as it is taught and ministered in much of the Church of England. The impression is left with the worshippers that attendance at the Eucharist will secure their salvation. The more they attend, the more safe they become. The priest, and the minister believes himself to be a priest in the strict sense of the term mediating before God for the people, and believes himself to be offering the body and blood of Christ before God, and by this act securing the favour of God upon the people. The priest is actually taking to himself the work of Christ in heaven, which belongs to Christ alone, of presenting before God the finished work of Christ, and so securing God's forgiving grace. Nor is this ministry perfect. Christ by his heavenly intercession, his presence before the Father with the proof of his perfect atonement for sinners, secures a complete justification forever for the believer. The believer can never be condemned by God ever again. In contrast the priest at Holy Communion acts in the same temporary way as the priests in the Old Testament, and only believes he achieves a partial forgiveness, and the worshipper needs to come again and again for further priestly work.

This man-made religion is so hopelessly flawed. The Communion service as instituted by Christ is meant to assure us of the perfection of what Christ has achieved for us, and strengthen our faith in the security and blessing we have in Christ. It is meant to preach to us in all the circumstances of life, that in Christ we are safe and secure and in the Fatherly care of God. Yet by this taking of this priestly prerogative, the clergyman is destroying the true blessing of the sacrament. Further he is seeking to usurp the glory and work of Christ, and suggests by his ministry that the Saviour is imperfect as a saviour and needs the help of priests on earth to bring his work to completion. No doubt these clergyman never think like this, but their ministry is in fact just this.

The truth is that when faith in Christ alone is abandoned for some additions, the worship of God really becomes the worship of man, or as Paul says at the beginning of this passage, the worship of those which are not gods.

CONCLUSION

Paul is a faithful teacher. Contrasts such as these clarify what in the cleverness of Satan is intentionally made misty and cloudy, so that people will be trapped in deception. Satan's strategy is not to take religion away, but so to corrupt the faith of Christ, that it becomes in fact the worship of men and the way of the devil. We need constantly to dwell in the epistles of the New Testament in order to keep the dangers in mind, and the true faith of Christ clear in our minds and hearts.