The One Year Bible Club with Teaching
Commentary by Nick Boork
September 18
Galatians 3:23-4:31
Commentary by Nick Boork
September 18
Galatians 3:23-4:31
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September 18 – Galatians 3:23-4:31
But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
4 Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, 2 but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
8 But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. 9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. 12 Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. 13 You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. 14 And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 15 What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
17 They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. 18 But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. 19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, 20 I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you. 21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— 26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27 For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.” 28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. 30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
OKAY, HERE’S MY TEACHING COMMENTARY
Now in this portion of Scripture Paul is trying to get the Galatians to see the temporary purpose of the Mosaic law how it revealed that God was righteous and holy but at the same time revealed to us of our need for Christ. After Christ came and offered his life as the perfect sacrifice to save us from our sins and we come to put our faith in Christ and a born-again then we are no longer under the schoolmaster of the law because now we have been born a new spiritually by the Holy Spirit. The Jewish teachers that kept following Paul around and trying to convince everyone that they needed to remain under the law to be saved or basically saying that the sacrifice of Christ was not enough for us to be made righteous before God. The fact is that once a person trusts in Jesus Christ as their Savior they no longer need to trust in themselves or their ability to keep the Mosaic law because Christ fulfilled it perfectly as only he could and set us free from the condemnation of our sins now we no longer need to follow all the Mosaic law’s anymore.
After receiving Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit produces within our hearts a spirit of son-ship by which we cry out to the father Abba and brings a great freedom from the condemnation of our past. No we are sons and daughters of God by faith in Jesus Christ alone. The Judaizers were trying to get new believers in Christ to come back under the Mosaic law saying that only this way they would be made righteous but the truth is Christ alone makes us righteous in God’s sight by his own death in our place. That’s called justification and brings with it complete forgiveness of all of our sins and for this we can say praise the Lord hallelujah!
Paul goes on to explain that the old covenant was like being in bondage to our past and flesh which brought the judgment of the law. He explained this by comparing the son of Hagar named Ishmael which was born after the flesh and not according to the promise of God. Remember the story of how Abraham thought he could have a son through Hagar his wife Sarah’s servant? That didn’t turn out very well because God instructed Abraham to send both Hagar and her son away from them because God’s promised Son and our Savior Jesus Christ would come through Abraham’s son Isaac. Everyone that is born again having received Christ has receive the promise of God salvation just like Isaac was a child given by the promise of God to Abraham by faith. In the same way that Abraham believed God’s promise you and I also have come to believe in the promises of God and put our faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore we’re sons and daughters of God spiritually being born again by the Holy Spirit into the freedom of Jesus Christ.
These Galatian believers in Christ has come to this same salvation by faith in Christ but were being influenced to go back under the law by false teachers and were beginning to observe all the Jewish holidays and this was causing Paul to become very concerned that they were leaving their faith in Christ and again trusting in the law and their own self effort’s to please God which is impossible! This is why he says in verse 19 that these believers were near and dear to his heart and he prayed for them that Christ would be formed within them again meaning that a true relationship with God would once again be realized by faith in Christ alone.
So how does this apply to our lives today? Anytime we begin to trust in anything other than Jesus Christ alone for our salvation we begin to move in the wrong direction believing that we ourselves can please God to our own self effort's whether it be by trying to keep the old testament Commandments or our own self-imposed righteous standards. No, we have already been given forgiveness and the freedom that comes as a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ so we have to guard that relationship based on faith and not allow ourselves to trust anything else then Jesus Christ blood and his righteousness.
This is why Paul said in Ephesians 2 that it is by grace that we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God not because of any works that we do so we can’t boast about earning our salvation by working like a slave to be perfect. If you find yourself in that condition of living in self condemnation and feeling like you can never live up to being accepted by God because of your own self efforts then I want to encourage you to look again at Jesus Christ on the cross and how that he said it is finished. Our salvation was bought and paid for through Jesus blood on the cross and it’s the only thing that God accepts as the payment for the sins of humanity and trust me it's enough. So let's rely on him and keep our faith in what Jesus did for us and walk in the freedom, liberty and confidence as sons and daughters of God born again by the Holy Spirit.
WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?
1) We cannot save ourselves by trying to keep the laws of God that’s what Paul was teaching here.
2) We are all sons and daughters of God by faith in Jesus Christ and we are born again into the family of God when we received Christ into our hearts by faith.
3) Beware of those they teach that you must live up to some self-imposed standards to be saved or some other legal code to be acceptable to God. No, were saved through grace by faith in Christ alone!
4) If you find yourself or others drifting away from a love based relationship with God through faith in Christ begin to pray as Paul did that Christ formed with in us again and enter into the kind of relationship that God wants for you as his son or daughter enjoying the freedom we have of not being condemned by being in Jesus Christ!
PRAYER TO APPLY THE WORD OF GOD TO OUR LIVES
ORDINATION
We provide Ministry Credentials and Ordination through Diamond Ministerial Association. Click to learn more and apply! http://www.diamondinstitute.org/ordination
ONLINE COURSES
For Bible courses and ministry resources see our online school Diamond Institute. Enroll free today! http://www.diamondinstitute.org/enroll
But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
4 Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, 2 but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
8 But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. 9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. 12 Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. 13 You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. 14 And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 15 What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
17 They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. 18 But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. 19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, 20 I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you. 21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— 26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27 For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.” 28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. 30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
OKAY, HERE’S MY TEACHING COMMENTARY
Now in this portion of Scripture Paul is trying to get the Galatians to see the temporary purpose of the Mosaic law how it revealed that God was righteous and holy but at the same time revealed to us of our need for Christ. After Christ came and offered his life as the perfect sacrifice to save us from our sins and we come to put our faith in Christ and a born-again then we are no longer under the schoolmaster of the law because now we have been born a new spiritually by the Holy Spirit. The Jewish teachers that kept following Paul around and trying to convince everyone that they needed to remain under the law to be saved or basically saying that the sacrifice of Christ was not enough for us to be made righteous before God. The fact is that once a person trusts in Jesus Christ as their Savior they no longer need to trust in themselves or their ability to keep the Mosaic law because Christ fulfilled it perfectly as only he could and set us free from the condemnation of our sins now we no longer need to follow all the Mosaic law’s anymore.
After receiving Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit produces within our hearts a spirit of son-ship by which we cry out to the father Abba and brings a great freedom from the condemnation of our past. No we are sons and daughters of God by faith in Jesus Christ alone. The Judaizers were trying to get new believers in Christ to come back under the Mosaic law saying that only this way they would be made righteous but the truth is Christ alone makes us righteous in God’s sight by his own death in our place. That’s called justification and brings with it complete forgiveness of all of our sins and for this we can say praise the Lord hallelujah!
Paul goes on to explain that the old covenant was like being in bondage to our past and flesh which brought the judgment of the law. He explained this by comparing the son of Hagar named Ishmael which was born after the flesh and not according to the promise of God. Remember the story of how Abraham thought he could have a son through Hagar his wife Sarah’s servant? That didn’t turn out very well because God instructed Abraham to send both Hagar and her son away from them because God’s promised Son and our Savior Jesus Christ would come through Abraham’s son Isaac. Everyone that is born again having received Christ has receive the promise of God salvation just like Isaac was a child given by the promise of God to Abraham by faith. In the same way that Abraham believed God’s promise you and I also have come to believe in the promises of God and put our faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore we’re sons and daughters of God spiritually being born again by the Holy Spirit into the freedom of Jesus Christ.
These Galatian believers in Christ has come to this same salvation by faith in Christ but were being influenced to go back under the law by false teachers and were beginning to observe all the Jewish holidays and this was causing Paul to become very concerned that they were leaving their faith in Christ and again trusting in the law and their own self effort’s to please God which is impossible! This is why he says in verse 19 that these believers were near and dear to his heart and he prayed for them that Christ would be formed within them again meaning that a true relationship with God would once again be realized by faith in Christ alone.
So how does this apply to our lives today? Anytime we begin to trust in anything other than Jesus Christ alone for our salvation we begin to move in the wrong direction believing that we ourselves can please God to our own self effort's whether it be by trying to keep the old testament Commandments or our own self-imposed righteous standards. No, we have already been given forgiveness and the freedom that comes as a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ so we have to guard that relationship based on faith and not allow ourselves to trust anything else then Jesus Christ blood and his righteousness.
This is why Paul said in Ephesians 2 that it is by grace that we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God not because of any works that we do so we can’t boast about earning our salvation by working like a slave to be perfect. If you find yourself in that condition of living in self condemnation and feeling like you can never live up to being accepted by God because of your own self efforts then I want to encourage you to look again at Jesus Christ on the cross and how that he said it is finished. Our salvation was bought and paid for through Jesus blood on the cross and it’s the only thing that God accepts as the payment for the sins of humanity and trust me it's enough. So let's rely on him and keep our faith in what Jesus did for us and walk in the freedom, liberty and confidence as sons and daughters of God born again by the Holy Spirit.
WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?
1) We cannot save ourselves by trying to keep the laws of God that’s what Paul was teaching here.
2) We are all sons and daughters of God by faith in Jesus Christ and we are born again into the family of God when we received Christ into our hearts by faith.
3) Beware of those they teach that you must live up to some self-imposed standards to be saved or some other legal code to be acceptable to God. No, were saved through grace by faith in Christ alone!
4) If you find yourself or others drifting away from a love based relationship with God through faith in Christ begin to pray as Paul did that Christ formed with in us again and enter into the kind of relationship that God wants for you as his son or daughter enjoying the freedom we have of not being condemned by being in Jesus Christ!
PRAYER TO APPLY THE WORD OF GOD TO OUR LIVES
ORDINATION
We provide Ministry Credentials and Ordination through Diamond Ministerial Association. Click to learn more and apply! http://www.diamondinstitute.org/ordination
ONLINE COURSES
For Bible courses and ministry resources see our online school Diamond Institute. Enroll free today! http://www.diamondinstitute.org/enroll