POST OVERVIEW. A commentary on Galatians 4:8-11, where Paul, having just told the Galatians (4:1-7) about their adoption in Christ so that they have become heirs of God, again becomes amazed by their following the Judaizers into slavery to the Mosaic Law.

There will be an article in the future on Galatians 4:12-20.

This article is going to be a commentary on Galatians 4:8-11. Before we begin examining our intended passage, we want to briefly remember the main message of the letter and where we are in Paul’s argument.

ESTABLISHING THE CONTEXT FOR GALATIANS 4:8-11

THE OVERALL LETTER. Paul has written this letter to the Galatians because he has heard that they were abandoning the pure gospel of Christ-crucified and were instead being tempted by the Judaizers to add to their faith a slavish obedience to the Mosaic Law. The letter emphasizes that salvation is by faith alone apart from any “works of the Law.”

IMMEDIATE CONTEXT. The section that we are studying (Gal. 4:8-11) follows a passage in which Paul taught the doctrine that, by faith in Jesus Christ, the Galatians have become sons, and since they are sons, then they are heirs through God (4:1-7). When they worshiped pagan deities, they “were enslaved to the elementary things of the world” (4:3), but now, having heard the gospel and having believed the gospel, the Galatians have been set free from their sin by their faith in Christ. So, when Paul left the Galatians (Acts 14:22-23), they were established in the faith and were free from idols. But now, under the deception of the Judaizers, the Galatians are drifting back into slavery, this time to the Mosaic Law. Paul’s appeal to them is urgent and direct. He calls them to abandon this course of action and return to the crucified Savior.

BIBLICAL CONNECTION. Geographically, the maps in your Bible will reveal that the cities of Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe are all part of Galatia. These cities appear in Acts 14:1-24 when Paul and Barnabas visited Galatia on Paul’s first missionary journey. In our study we will connect the events of Acts 14 with Paul’s teaching in this section of Galatians.

⁸ However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. ⁹ But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? ¹⁰ You observe days and months and seasons and years. ¹¹ I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. – Galatians 4:8-11

COMMENTARY

First, we need to observe that Paul is no longer teaching doctrine but is instead applying the doctrine he taught in 4:1-7. In the previous passage he established that, by faith in Christ Jesus, the Galatians are sons of God and heirs of God. But now he is going to apply this doctrine to their recent personal history to show the reason for his dismay at their interest in the Law.

4:8. Before they were believers (“at that time”), they were slaves to their pagan religions and to petty deities. We know that these so-called deities are really demons (1 Cor. 10:20) whose purpose is to enslave unbelieving humans in useless religious practices so that they will never come to the knowledge of the truth. These religious practices were the “elemental things of the world” of Gal. 4:3. Call this original state of unbelief “Slavery #1.”

4:9. “But now . . .” Now that the Galatians have believed in the Lord Jesus and have been baptized into Him (3:27), they are free from their slavery to false gods and useless religious practices. “Galatians! Don’t you understand what you have received in the gospel? Don’t you know that, when you believed in Christ as your Lord and Savior, you received ‘every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ’ (Eph. 1:3)? In Christ, you are free and blessed and have been adopted as sons and heirs of God. Now ‘you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God!’ There is no spiritual blessing that you lack. So, why turn back?”

But not only were the Galatians apparently turning back, but they were, incredibly, turning back again to “the weak and worthless elemental things, to which [they] desire to be enslaved all over again.” They were forsaking the freedom of salvation in Christ for the slavery of elemental things. Notice that both here and in 4:3, Paul refers to the “elemental things.” Both the religious slavery of keeping the Mosaic Law (4:9) and the slavery of idolatry and pagan worship (4:3) are based on “the elemental things.” What Paul is implying is that, in this world, there are many different varieties of “elemental things” which can draw us away from Christ. The common feature of these godless “elemental things” is that they seek to enslave their victims in the chains of human works rather than in the freedom of the finished work of Christ on the cross. The “elemental things” are from a common source and differ only in their method of achieving slavery. They may be the useless efforts to appease pagan gods or they may be the endless striving to keep all the commandments and the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law, but they are all the works of fallen man that rely on man’s efforts rather than on the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement on Calvary’s tree. All such striving after these “elemental things” is blasphemy, because “if righteousness comes through [man’s efforts], then Christ died needlessly” (Gal. 2:21). “For if [man’s works] were able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on [man’s works]” (3:21), and Christ’s death on the cross would have been unnecessary.

Thus, the Galatians were heading toward a new slavery, a slavery to the works of the Mosaic Law. This dangerous state of reliance upon man’s works we will call “Slavery #2.”

4:10. The Galatians were beginning to pay attention to the Jewish Old Testament calendar, which gave “days and months and seasons and years,” that needed to be observed. This example is given to point to a dangerous trend. First, they were Gentiles and did not need to obey any of the ceremonial laws of the old covenant. But second, and most importantly, no amount of obedience to the Law or observance of its ceremonies will ever atone for a single sin. For any believer to observe the Law in the hopes of being justified declares that the death of Jesus on the cross was deficient and that we must add to Christ’s work to be saved. This is why Paul is appalled at the Galatians’ behavior.

4:11. There is no doubt that Paul intends this verse to hit the Galatians with maximum shock value. He is communicating to them their danger in the most strident terms he can muster, expressing his fear for them in terms that call their salvation into question (“I have labored over you in vain”). As we consider this verse, any notion we might have that Paul was talking to the Galatians about some secondary issue is blown away. This drifting toward Slavery #2 is a matter of heaven or hell. In Gal. 5:2, Paul declares their peril in other words: “If you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.” Can there be anything more terrifying than to imagine that Christ is of no benefit to me? Paul is warning the Galatians, and thus warning all professing believers, that if you are relying on Christ’s death on the cross plus anything else for your salvation, you are in extreme peril. No matter what a person thinks or says, a person is either relying entirely on the finished work of Christ on the cross as the once for all atonement for all their sins OR that person is relying on their own works. Either you are completely trusting in Christ-crucified OR you are depending on your own efforts. Either you get to heaven because of Christ’s righteousness OR you hope to get there on your own. That is what is at stake in this letter.

APPLICATION

The doctrinal drift of the Galatians called their salvation into question, but we, too, need to make sure where we stand. Are we completely relying on Christ or are we hedging our bets with a confidence in our own human works?

In another post we will look at Galatians 4:12-20 to see how Paul further expresses his concern and love for these Galatian believers.

Soli Deo gloria            rmb                 10/23/2023                 #675