Mosaic Law

Why do you want to go back into slavery? (Galatians 4:8-11)

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

“Did Adam have a belly button?”

POST OVERVIEW. How to turn a silly question into an opportunity for extolling the glories of our crucified Savior.

Imagine you are trying to engage someone in a meaningful spiritual conversation, either for the purpose of introducing them to the gospel or because you wish to help them go deeper in their walk with Christ or simply because you are hungry for some spiritual meat in a cultural sea of baby food and pork rinds. Just as you attempt to turn the discussion Christ-ward, the other person asks, with a smirk on their face, “What do you think? Did Adam have a belly button?” The question is intentionally silly and irreverent, a meaningless query of utter insignificance, and your irritation burns. But before you turn and walk away, realize that the conversation does not need to end here. Your friend has brought up Adam’s belly button.

LET’S TALK ABOUT ADAM

“You bring up an interesting question. I am assuming you are referring to the first man, who was created by God, right?” Maybe. “Well, that means that you think that Adam really existed, and that God created him.” Hmmm. “And while the Bible gives no information about Adam’s belly button, either pro or con, the Bible is very clear that the second Adam, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, definitely had a belly button.” And now the direction of the conversation has changed for the better.

The Bible teaches that our Savior, Jesus, was born of a woman (Gal. 4:4) in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3), in the same way that all of Adam’s fallen posterity were born. Jesus, the second Adam, was given a body with flesh and blood so that His flesh could be broken and His blood could be shed. He was given a physical body so that He, the eternal Son of God, could die as a sacrifice for sin. [ASIDE: Consider the “dilemma” confronting God before Jesus’ incarnation. The Law demanded a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin but, because of the magnitude of the sin that needed to be forgiven, only the death of God would be sufficient to pay for the sins of God’s people. But how would it be possible for God, who lives eternally and can never die, to die for His people? The gospel declares that Jesus, God the Son, was given a physical flesh and blood body that could die (see Hebrews 2:14-15) so that He could lay His physical life down (John 10:11-18) as a sacrifice for the sins of His people. END ASIDE]

Adam left this world fundamentally different from the world that he entered. Adam rebelled against God and so brought sin and death into the world. Adam’s sin ruined God’s perfect creation and brought all mankind into a state of sin, ushering the seeds of chaos and rebellion and destruction into the whole creation. This was the work of the first Adam.

Jesus, the second Adam, also left the world fundamentally different from the world that He entered. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the entire Law by His active obedience of all the Law’s demands and commandments. Thus, Jesus vanquished sin by His obedience (He never sinned) and by His sacrificial death on the cross (He atoned for the sins of His people by His own blood sacrifice). Jesus also conquered death when He was raised from the dead, never to die again (Romans 6:9). Jesus’ resurrection guaranteed that the groaning creation will one day be redeemed into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:21.)

The atonement of all the sins of all His people. The promise to all His people of a future resurrection. The redemption of the whole fallen creation. The fulfillment of the Law so that His perfect righteousness is imputed to all His people. This was the work of the second Adam.

A comparison of the work of Adam with the work of the second Adam, Jesus, is presented below. Paul’s inspired comparison is contained in Romans 5:12-21.

First AdamSecond Adam (Jesus)
• Rebelled against the one command he received in paradise.• Perfectly obeyed all the commandments of the Law.
•  Brought sin and condemnation into the world.•  Atoned for the sins of His people and removed condemnation.
•  Brought death into the world.•  Vanquished death for all His people.
•  Ruined man’s fellowship with God by his sin.•  Reconciled man with God by the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20).

So when a spiritual conversation turns to the question of belly buttons, let’s use it as an opportunity to extol the glories of our crucified Savior and the work He accomplished. He is the One who willingly left the praises of myriads of angels (Rev. 5:11) to receive a human body, with a belly button, so that He could be crucified for the sins of His people.

SDG                 rmb                 9/14/2022                   #572

Dealing with the requirements of the Law (Romans 3:20)

INTRODUCTION. This post considers, first, the divine purpose of the Law (Romans 3:20) and then discusses the approaches that sinful man uses to avoid the Law’s message of condemnation. The post concludes by giving the correct response.

THE LAW’S MESSAGE

The old covenant Law was rigidly absolute in its condemnation of all infractions and, at the same time, was absent of any provision for forgiveness of intentional sin. There was a divine purpose in this, for the Law was delivered to Moses in this “condemnation-with-no-forgiveness” form so that the sinner would feel the terrifying weight of his condemnation and thus would seek for a Savior with his whole heart. The Law as delivered at Sinai made clear that the LORD God was perfectly holy and would accept from man nothing less than a lifetime of sinless, perfect obedience (see Matthew 5:48) for admittance into heaven. Any violation of the Law renders the violator guilty and condemns him entirely. The Holy Spirit-inspired word of the living God clearly warns the sinner that he is under God’s wrath and condemnation because of his sin. This is the message and the purpose of the Law (Romans 3:20).

THE MODERN APPROACH

The problem arises when God’s clear message is proclaimed to sinful man. For the fact is that fallen man rebels against God’s gospel message of sin and condemnation. The typical approach of the sinner in our day is to reject the idea that God will judge him for his sin, so he refuses to subject himself to the Law of God (Romans 8:7). Instead of accepting his wretched condition and crying out to the Lord for mercy, modern man imagines that a generous grading curve exists as part of the Law and he assumes that if he is relatively “good” (whatever that means), God will welcome him into heaven. By applying the man-made concepts of a grading curve and “relative goodness,” the Law’s intended warning about God’s wrath against sin is neutralized. Thus, modern man’s approach to dealing with the Bible’s warnings about sin is to assume that God judges sin on a grading curve.

THE APPROACH OF THE PHARISEES

In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees had developed a more formal approach for accomplishing the same thing. The Pharisees were a sect of religious Jews who claimed to strictly adhere to the Mosaic Law. Like people today, the Pharisees did not like or accept the clear message of the Law and the prophets which declared that “the soul who sins will die” (Ezekiel 18:4). To correct the Bible’s “error,” the Pharisees invented literally hundreds of rules to remove the absolute standard of the Law and to define what it meant to keep the Ten Commandments in terms that people could actually achieve. So, for example, “keeping the Sabbath” (the fourth commandment) was not treated as an absolute command where violators are punished by death (see Numbers 15:32-36), but instead, “keeping the Sabbath” was defined by not doing certain things that the Pharisees themselves had defined as unlawful. (See Mark 2:23-28; 3:1-6; Luke 13:10-17; 14:1-6; John 5:9-16; 9:13-34; 19:31) In the same way, each of the absolute commands in the Law was broken down into many acts of external “obedience.” The net result of all this invented legalism was that the Pharisees confused adherence to their own contrived rules of external performance with real obedience to the Law, and then they equated man-made “obedience” with God’s required righteousness. In this way, the Law, which was given to drive people to despair at their failure to keep the Law, became instead a means to earn a relative righteousness based on your own best performance. This meant that in the Pharisees’ religious system, a person could be blameless (Phil. 3:6) without a heart change, without repentance, without acknowledging your own sin, without faith, and without a Savior. All that was required was knowing all the man-made rules and keeping them better than most other people. So, according to the Pharisees, righteousness could be achieved if you were willing to work hard enough.

SUMMARY. In summary, then, the key to dealing with God’s holy Law is to eliminate the Law’s absolute demands for perfect obedience. The modern approach for doing this is to assume that God accepts as “good enough” whatever efforts we make to obey His commands and then curves them up so that almost everyone gets a passing grade. Thus, the modern approach sees the holy and righteous Law of the living God as a toothless tiger giving us helpful ideas about how we can be better. By contrast, the Pharisees’ approach sees the Law as a genuine threat, as God’s published requirements necessary for us to avoid condemnation. We must, therefore, work hard to achieve our own righteousness. But both these approaches miss the mark.

THE GOSPEL APPROACH

What is the right approach? First, we must accept the full weight of the Law. The Law is given by God to reveal to us His perfect holiness and our abject sinfulness (Romans 3:20). When we are crushed by our failure to keep God’s Law, we must cry out to Him for mercy. When we, by faith, cry out for mercy, we will find the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who will impute to us His perfect sinlessness and who died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins. By faith in Jesus, we fulfill the righteous requirements of the Law, of a sinless life (imputed to our account by Jesus) and of a perfect blood sacrifice to pay for our personal sins (Romans 8:3-4).

When we trust Christ as our perfect sacrifice and as the One who perfectly kept the Law on our behalf, we can rest in the truth that, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

SDG                 rmb                 8/17/2022                   #559