Christ is formed in you
Galatians 4:12-20 · Vern Peterman · Sep 2, 2007
Galatians (2007), No. 20
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926038218135

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. As we move into this passage here this morning, there's a lot in it. And so we tend to dig out every morsel. One of the things that comes across real clearly as Courtney read this for us, Paul is perplexed. There's no doubt about it. He and Barnabas had spent time with the believers in Galatia. It's clear as you read through the account in Acts chapter 13 and 14 of their time with them there. They had poured their lives into these believers and had risked their very lives in bringing them the gospel and in teaching them. One of the things we'd point out from Acts 14 is that Paul was stoned, considered to be left for dead. And so this is not something that they take lightly at all. Those who believed, it's clear from Paul's writings and from the account in the book of Acts 13 and 14, that those who believe were indeed responsive to Paul's message.

They listened to what he had to say. They recognized the immense and eternal value of what Paul had brought them. They had been primarily, as Gentiles, caught up in all that paganism had to offer and lost in basically the pagan gods and the pagan superstitions, the pagan religions, And even though it wasn't Jewish, a law system. A law system.

You've got to buy God off with sacrifices. You've got to make God happy by what you do. And make sure you don't make the gods unhappy with what you don't do. As the Gospel was brought to them, fantastic, wonderful improvement. Huge blessing and gratitude.

Paul had taught these believers in Galatia. that there was a huge difference between living under the principle of law, which in fact, even whether the law of Moses or whether the pagan gods and the superstitions are both a principle of law. It's what you do that counts under principle of law. That was contrasted with a principle of grace. It's what God does and what we count upon that he has done is doing and will do. That's the principle of grace.

He taught the contrast to them clearly and well. He also had a sense, and this passage makes clear, that there was a mutual appreciation between them. That they certainly appreciated what Paul had done in bringing the Gospel along with his companion Barnabas. And Paul expresses in this passage, he says, it seemed to me like you were understanding a sacrificial love. A love that is like Christ's love in sacrificing His life for us. That kind of a love.

So he's thinking, what happened? Ever had a perplexing situation like that happen in your life where you're wondering what took place? Why is this so different from what I thought was the circumstance and the case just a short time ago? Here in the very beginning part, and I'm even including just kind of the first sentence there Verse 12, I beg of you brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.

So, looking at that verse, Paul called the believers there in Galatia brethren, didn't he? Well, we notice that this is now the third time he has called them brethren. So, one of the things that's clear is he looks at them as one in the same family. In Galatians 2.4, Paul had called these Judaizers, and sort of the spies that had been sent out, false brethren. Pseudo-brethren is the way it comes across. And it's the one sent to spy out the liberty that they had. They didn't understand it, so they came in secretly, disguised as brethren. False brethren. They'd come with a false identity, and a secret purpose, an ulterior motive.

Paul had this in mind with the relationship with the believers. He had it as his intent from the very beginning to be above board, to be honest, to be from the heart. No disguises, no pretense. Speaking truthfully, as he put it to the Ephesian believers, speaking the truth and love to these his brethren. They were true brethren.

Now, become as I am for I also have become as you are. What does he mean by that? All right, we're going to explore that here for a minute using this famous Grant Wood painting called American Gothic here. Become as I am for I also have become as you are. Now, does he mean by that something like this, you know? Does he mean just smile about a little bit more? I don't know. But anyway, what's he talking about? I'm not sure, but let's figure this out.

As you look at this here, Paul had stood up to the pressure to conform to the law. You see, a number of these Jews who went about, whether in the land of Israel or elsewhere, were constantly pressuring. And I mean really high pressure. They were constantly pressuring people. to conform to the law, conform to the law, conform to the law. And just to kind of use a figure, they were beating people over the head with it. You must conform to the law. You must obey the law. You must, you must, you must. And Paul said, no, absolutely not. He says, I know better than anybody else. He says, I'm a Pharisee. I studied under Gamaliel. Gamaliel, by the way, was a famous rabbi in the time. He had something like a thousand disciples. And when Gamaliel died, the saying among the Jews was, when Gamaliel died, the law died. He was so much about the law.

Paul, who had learned under him, said, nope, salvation is by faith. I know because I heard it directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as we step into this here, Paul was asking them also to stand firm against these pressures to come under Jewish law. He says, don't give in to the pressure. These guys are going to come across. Boy, they are going to twist your arm. They are going to put as much pressure as they know how. He says, push it away.

You need to recognize anew the freedom you have in Christ. You need to recognize anew that you are not under the law, as I myself have come to know. Now, for Christians, certainly there are lots of differences among different Christian groups, and a lot of that really doesn't matter. Sometimes it does, but a lot of it is of no consequence. But there really is no biblical basis for part of those who are Christians and part not to be mixed under law and grace. There is only biblical basis for living by grace.

Period. In the next part here, in the last part of verse 12 and into verse 14, he starts off, you have done me no wrong. Truly here, Paul was perplexed. He was obviously quite concerned. He's been talking about his concern here for several different chapters. What he was telling him here is, you have not done some irreparable damage that we can't reconcile here. He says, we can deal with this. I'm not put off permanently. There's a problem. I'm perplexed. But this isn't irreparable. You haven't done something to me that's going to make me go away or be separated from you. He says, I'm not going away, you haven't damaged me irreparably, we're going to work this out.

But, next thing he makes reference in verse 13 to a bodily illness. Now the question is, do we know what that bodily illness is? Paul didn't say exactly what it was, did he? He left some clues, yeah, but he didn't say exactly what it was. We can suggest some possibilities that seem to have some support, and we'll find where that's possibly supported in the text, and look at it from there. So what illness do we have?

The first one is there is some indication that the illness was located in Paul's eyes. He wrote, after all, later on in Galatians, see with what large letters I am writing you with my own hand. And in verse 15 of this very thing, remember you're talking about plucking out your own eyes? By the way, I've got no pictures of plucking out eyes. OK.

Some people thought that Paul may have contracted malaria in some of the lower elevations and that they went up to Galatia, which was more kind of our elevation here, and that that would be a means of getting away from the risk and hazards of malaria. We don't know it in the end, although it seems like there's a fair amount of evidence towards the eye issue. And even with that, we are not sure. One more possibility we've alluded to, and that's that just maybe even some injury from the stoning or other hazards that he'd gone through. Nonetheless, it is clear from reading the passage that the Galatian believers knew exactly what the problem was. He didn't have to give more detail because they knew. They were quite aware of it, and so he brings it up.

And in verse 14, that which was a trial to you, and this, whatever it was, was apparently quite apparent and quite a trial to them, in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe. In spite of the physical problem, it could have been some kind of an obstacle. Like, I can't stand looking at Paul because he just looks so bad, you know. It's so distracting, I can't hear what he says.

In spite of whatever it was, and it was apparently substantial, they were receptive. They took it in. And you folks are like that too. I know in spite of all the gloss and everything, you still look at me, you know. So you folks, I mean, there's a lot of that receptiveness here. I appreciate it. But apparently being disgusted with his appearance would have been an easy thing to do. It was so obvious that he didn't even need to be specific about it. I'm sure they knew what he was talking about.

Now, we have this word here in the middle of verse 14 translated in the English, but, B-U-T. This word here is the word we pointed out from time to time. It's the Greek word because the Greeks had different words that they used. This one is a simple one, Allah. And Allah means a sharp contrast. A sharp contrast.

And the reception of Paul wasn't in accordance with his appearance, which could have been a big obstacle. But in sharp contrast, where did they do? They received him heartily. They could have said, oh, yuck, Paul. But instead, they received him heartily. Right? Okay.

There's this word received. Even that has strong implication in it. It's in what's called the middle voice. And what that means is that something originates from you to come back to you. They received him out of their own motivation, out of themselves, out of their own hearts, and brought him into their hearts. So this word received, the way it's written, is written with personal intensity. They brought him out of their own hearts, out of motivation that comes from within, into their own hearts and lives. The reception that Paul received that he got from them was to the heart and it was personal.

He made a comparison as an angel of God and as Christ Jesus himself. This Greek word here that's translated angel is also the same word for messenger. And he may well have had both things in mind. Nonetheless, what we see, they received Paul as God's messenger. They received Paul as God's messenger. They were as receptive as if Paul was Jesus Christ. They were as receptive as if Paul were Jesus Christ.

They were extremely receptive. They understood the source of the message. Paul, looking at him, was apparently a problem. There was something ugly. Amazingly, they recognized this guy is a messenger from God. This guy is bringing God's message. And his coming to us, even though he doesn't look so good, his coming to us is something wonderful that comes from heaven. That's what they recognized.

They saw that. Here in verses 15 and 16, He asked this question, starts off, where then is the sense of blessing you had? That's part of his being perplexed, part of his being puzzled. Where is it? I don't see it. You've fallen under the law and all of a sudden the sense of blessing has just gone away. Where? He's not referring to the word blessing like we oftentimes think of here at Holly Hills.

Ephesians 1.3 says that we've been blessed as believers with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. This is not referring to that. One of the reasons I can tell you that, it's a different Greek word. It's not the same. And this one here refers to a sense of deep joy and gratitude.

Well, they'd say, Paul, here we were worshipping all kinds of crazy things, and we had idols, and we had all sorts of strange superstitions, and you came and brought us the real Gospel. We worshipped gods and we didn't know which one. And we were even unsure, so we had an unknown God. As a matter of fact, Paul makes reference to that in Athens in Acts 17. The truth is throughout most of the Mediterranean, they had altered to the unknown God because they just didn't know. They were agnostics. They just didn't know. They thought, well, we don't want to miss any. And Paul says, hey, you've missed the very one. The God. The one God. They were grateful. They were joyous for what they'd received from Paul. Now, this is the one about plucking out the eyes. I decided not to show a picture. You know, I've got all kinds of pictures. But that's not a good one to put up here.

Paul was actually with the believers. When he was with them, he felt certain that they had this self-sacrificing love for him, at least at one point in time. He said, I was sure that you guys, if it were even possible, if it were physically possible, that you would have given me your own eyes. That kind of self-sacrificing love. He said, that kind of self-sacrificing love is what I saw from you. That kind of love that comes from Jesus Christ, the one who would pay the price for our sins. He says, I saw that in you. What happened? Where did it go? What changed everything? How could it possibly have disappeared? It was so radical. It was so obvious. It was so evident. Where has it gone? Verse 16. Boy, this is potent.

So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? I told you the truth. Now is that bad? The Judaizers, and I'll use the word legalists as the alternate here, came to the believers in Galatia, and they made friends with them. By what? By telling them a lie. A whole bunch of lies, but a headliner. A headliner lie. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

That's what they said in Acts 15.1. That was their message. Unless you do this, you can't be saved.

And you know that there's a bunch of folks around walking the planet, and sometimes they'll knock on your door. Sometimes two at a time even. And they'll tell you all kinds of stuff like this. Unless you, and then fill in the blank, because depending on which group it is, you get a different story.

Unless you boop, whatever that is, you can't be saved. And sometimes the stuff is ridiculous. Sometimes, I mean, the stuff is crazy that unless you, and then I go boop, but I should be going boop, boop, boop, boop, because the list is real long. They come up with all sorts of stuff. If you do all this stuff, then you can be saved. But unless you do that, you can't be. And what's worse, you could do all the bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, okay? And then not do the bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep for five minutes, and then you're done. Okay? I mean, it's terrible.

Big lie. That's what the Judaizers were doing. With that as a background, you get the idea here. He's asking, these people befriended you by telling you a big lie. And they followed it on with a whole bunch more lies. 613 laws and the laws of Moses. All you've got to do is mess up with one. And you're done. As we put it out a few weeks back, if at first you don't succeed under the law, you're cooked. You're sunk. That's the way the law works. Try, try again. Forget it. You're already done. Notice something else here.

I put a couple of these passages together. You have it on page 3 of your handout. At the end of verse 14 there, you receive me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself. That was this incredible reception that you gave me. But look at the contrast. So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? Notice what the law does. The gratitude and the joy are gone. The receptivity, the recognition that the message of grace is from heaven above is gone. The joy gone, the gratitude gone.

No. Now this guy who once told me the truth, he's wondering. I'm beginning to think, is he my enemy? Now in verses 17 and 18 here, they eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. They want you to go looking for them. What does he mean by that? These Judaizers, or legalists, who'd come in and said, you've got to follow the law of Moses, or you can't be saved, were looking to get the Galatian believers to be followers, to cut off access to Paul.

Over the years, I've had various contacts with some serious cult groups I told the folks my sister's seventh grade teacher was Jim Jones. I used to have PTA potluck dinners sitting across the table from Jim Jones. I remember the time my brother was sitting next to me, and he didn't realize that was Jim Jones. And he was saying, boy, you ought to hear the stories my sister comes home with about her teacher. Anyway. But we've had other instances. We had the Moonees. There was a 600-acre Moonee camp. Well, I tell you, this place is a magnet for cults. There was a 600-acre Moonee camp.

And one time we were driving by their front gate and we saw two people running to the front gate. And we stopped realizing they were trying to get out because there was a car coming behind them. They climbed over the gate, and we said, get in. And we went and just floored it, hauled off, and went off up in the hills and lost the car that was behind me because they had to unlock the gate.

Anyway, helped them get out. We used to do stuff like that left and right. And it was a different group, another group, Children of God. They worked with trying to get one gal out, and she eventually later got out. Here's the thing that they do. They, one, want to control, and two, they want to cut off access to the people and the connections that count, the people that care about them. And I've seen it again and again, and sometimes it just leads to a lot of sadness and misery, and I've seen it lead to death. Paul's motives here were for the believer's benefit. Huge, huge contrast.

Not commendably. The Greek here is actually real simple, and the King James brings it across pretty well. It just means not good. Okay? Not good. You could put it this way. They eagerly seek you. That's not good. Okay? And it was pretty easy to sum up the character and approach of these Judaizers, these legalists that came up to the believers in Galatia. It's just not good. Real bad. Real bad.

My brother spent a night with a friend of his that was next to this Mooney camp I was telling you about. And they spent the night in high school and whatnot. You'd go spend the night with a friend or something like that. Spending the night wasn't bad, but it would have been nice to sleep because of all the screaming that was going on.

They were screaming and hollering and yelling at the people basically in their brainwash sessions. The control effort of these Judaizers is what Paul is getting at. What they're doing is not good. They want to get control over you by putting you under this bondage called the law. They want to shut you out.

Because of the gospel of grace, was something that legalizers couldn't use to get control. And that's one thing. We teach grace here. I'll tell people, if you want condemnation, you've got to go somewhere else. I can't help you. From here, we'll say, gee, we'd like you to sign up to mow the lawn. And if you don't, your position is exactly the same in heaven.

There is no threat that it can be made. There's no effort of control. One of the problems with these guys is they're into the control. They're into the threats. And they want you to live in fear. They wanted to shut Paul out. Nah, you don't want to go with Paul.

He's that grace guy. You'll be on a banana peel if you follow that grace stuff. But he says, but it's good always. It is good. to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, in a way that's good. And not only when I'm present with you. Paul said it was good, and not just some, always. Grace, it's always good. And the believers in Galatia who would seek Him out, would seek Him out in a good way. He says, that's good.

In human relations, if we can relate to Paul's situation, in human relations, When things go well with somebody and then it turns around when we're out of their presence, all of a sudden everything goes sour, we're confused, aren't we? It's a confusing thing. Paul is understandably confused. He's understandably perplexed and unsettled. But there's a good reason for things to be so drastically different, and that is that the legalist had to have the string puppet kind of control.

We've got to hold the law over these people. and control their every move. And Paul said, no, I want you to learn about the Lord's grace. And I want you to be motivated by grace. No more string puppet. The legalists had to shut him out. They said, well, that's no good.

How can we have our strings on these people if Paul goes and teaches grace? We've got to shut Paul out. We've got to teach them that Paul's a bad guy. So now in verses 19 and 20, We look at that one after Paul called these believers who were in the churches in Galatia, brethren, three times now in this passage. He calls them here, my children. This is a first. And by the way, this is the only place in the whole New Testament where he directly calls a whole church, my children. So very interesting. Why does he do that?

By calling them brethren, certainly Paul had been acknowledging that these believers, he and these believers, was he older than the Lord? Yeah. Had he actually spent time with the Lord and been an apostle, given a particular message from the Lord, sent? Yeah, he was. But spiritually speaking, they shared the same household. They shared the same family lineage in Christ. in calling them children. Okay? In calling them children. He wasn't being condescending. Little children. Okay? No, that wasn't his point.

What he was saying was that I was involved in your spiritual birth. No, the Lord had to be the one to make this happen. If the Lord had not died on the cross as a starter, this would never have come about. But he says, I was involved in your spiritual birth personally.

They had, at least up to this point, grown under his care. Yeah, they'd grown under his care. And so he, in that sense, could call them his children. One of the patterns we see, and this is individual, grant you, but one of the patterns we see where Paul, and in one case here, Peter, had a close relationship with other believers in which he invested his life and time Timothy, once in each of his letters that we have, my son, my son. Titus, my true child. Now here's a Gentile. Titus is a full-on Gentile, my true son. How about that? And Peter, my son Mark. So this is a pattern that the apostles used individually here. Paul uses that for the entire church body, all the churches in Galatia. with whom I am in labor again."

Now, what's amazing about this? This is not just labor like work. This is actual birth labor. That's what he means. So I put in maternity ward. I'm not joking. But maternity ward again. This is interesting. He's picturing himself as going through this maternity ward kind of labor all over again. So there's a couple ways in which this is puzzling, and one of them fairly obvious, he's a man. Okay? So how is it that this man here is giving birth, and especially again?

The second one is these people are already born again. He has called them brethren three times. He's called them children. In the prior chapter, he talked about them having received the Spirit by hearing with faith. These were believers. He's not talking about being born again, again. So what is he talking about?

One of the things that Paul did, and this was one example. Here was another one in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2. But we proved to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having so fond an affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.

Paul was not afraid to go ahead and lay out that picture if that picture got the point across. And that's what he does here. My children, with whom I am again in labor here. This labor wasn't to have them be born again. No, they already were. But he wanted them to return to a path of growth. Return to a path of growth.

Nancy and I, when we were raising our three kids, well, sometimes it seems like there were more, but anyway. Raising our three kids, okay? If there was anything that seemed like, boy, that's not on the path to growth and growing up, at whatever level, whether we're concerned about their health, whether we're even concerned about them learning something, whether we're concerned about their spiritual standing. You know, at every time when that was the case, when it seemed like they were off the path in one of those respects, we, at heart, were very concerned to see them restored to that path of growth.

We wanted to see them back on the path, whether it was... we want to see them back on the path of health. We want to see them back in a place where they're walking with the Lord. back in a place where they're learning and growing in the way that they should be. And that was very natural. And that's what he's talking about here. He says, I so very much long and I have a full commitment of heart and body to see you back on a path of growth. That's what he's looking for.

Until what? Until Christ is formed in you. In our eternal position, now let me change that, in our unchanging eternal position, that which is true of us which cannot be touched, which does not change, for every single believer, which is the same for everyone here who believes, that, it can't be lost, it can't be diminished, I can't even blow it. Isn't that neat?

That, That's not going to be touched. I'm not going to worry about my standing with the Lord. But the spiritual growth process that Paul is talking about with them here, he wants them to return to this path. And the only way that's going to happen, they've got to turn away from trying to follow the law in any degree or form and back to following the Lord. Turn their sights back to beholding Him. It's as simple as that.

Notice this big word, until. Huge word. Not only on the screen. This word, until, indicates an anticipation. An anticipation. If I told you, you folks are going to have to wait. I know we've got five million dollars set aside for each of you, but each of you are going to have to wait until. Boy, I tell you, you're really looking for the words after that, aren't you? It's that word until.

It's really big. Even if it's only five letters long. And it's big here. Until Christ is formed in you. These words point to the process of our daily condition. I'm a believer in Christ. Am I saved eternally? Am I a part of His flock? Am I seated in the heavenlies? Yep. Untouched. And never to be changed. Never to be lost. I can't even blow it.

But, this is a process He's talking about here. It's not something that is fixed. And he says, I am anticipating your return to this path of growth with this ultimate thing, that Christ be formed in you, your daily condition. Spiritual growth towards maturity here is exactly what he had in mind. It's a process. That doesn't mean that the end result is impersonal. At all. It doesn't mean that the end result is simply, okay, I'm now through this manufacturing process and we turn the crank.

It is very much until Christ. Christ. It's Him personally. He is the focal point of this process. He is the one whom we behold. If we are on this path of growth, we're beholding Him. If we're on this path of growth, it's His life living through us. It's all about Him.

Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Lord, as we look at the things that you've laid out here, there is this huge until. And we notice that the word right after that is yours. Until Christ. And Lord, we look to you in this process. We look to you as we walk along the path each step of the way. And look to you to pull it off, to make it happen. And we thank You, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.