Till Christ be Formed in You
Gal. 4:12-20
Introduction
Until this point in the letter to the church in Galatia, Paul’s approach has been confrontational and impersonal. He has been writing like a scholar or debater, marshalling every possible argument and illustration to get his message across. He has taken the stance of a determined lawyer in a court, giving a irrefutable presentation.
But the apostle’s approach changes dramatically here in verse 12 of chapter 4. His anger at the Judaizers subsides, and he moves from the purely doctrinal to the more personal. In fact, verses 12-20 are the strongest words of personal affection Paul uses in any of his letters. He does not so much preach or teach as simply pour out his heart in personal exhortation. He says, in effect, “I care about you more than I can say. I love you dearly just as you have loved me dearly. Please listen to what I’m saying, because it’s so vitally essential.
Paul’s source of gentleness was Christ Himself. Paul’s spirits here reminds us that there must be a gentle side to every faithful servant of God. No matter how serious the doctrine he may have to defend or how corrupting the immorality he may have to expose, he dare not lose his sensitivity and compassion.
In the course of his intimate outpouring to the Galatians here, Paul first appeals to them, then fondly remembers their loving acceptance of him, warns them about the ulterior motives of the Judaizers, and finally tells them of his desire to be with them again in person.
I. His Appeal to Them (v. 12a)
“I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.”
• Paul’s appeal to his brethren in Christ was for them to recognize and live by the spiritual freedom all believers have in God’s grace.
o That is the central truth of the letter to Galatia, a truth he had previously preached and taught to the Galatians but one the Judaizers had seduced them into doubting and forsaking.
o I Beg of you,…become as I am, he pleaded, free from trying to earn salvation by keeping the law and free from having to live by its outward symbols, ceremonies, rituals, and restrictions.
o “I died to the Law, that I might live to God”, is what Paul had already written to them in 2:19.
o While all believers are called to live in obedience to God’s moral standards that never change (such living is the evidence of salvation), they can no more live by the law than they could have been saved by it.
o Later in Gal. 5:1 Paul writes, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
• For now, Paul presents no more arguments but rather gives a heartfelt exhortation.
o You know how I have always lived since receiving Christ, Paul says in effect, “and how I lived while I ministered among you. That is the way I want you to live as well.”
• The reason for Paul’s appeal is also personal: because I also have become as you are.
o When he came to Christ he had torn away every shred of legalism, in which he had been entangled more tightly than perhaps few other Jews of his day.
o Although he now willingly became like a Jew when among Jews and like a Gentile when among Gentiles, becoming “all things to all men, that [he might] by all means save some”, Paul never represented himself nor thought of himself as anything but a sinner redeemed by Jesus Christ.
• The Jewish believers in Galatia knew well that Paul had abandoned his former subservience not only to the rabbinic traditions but even to the ceremonial law of Moses.
o Many of those believers, like Paul himself, had paid a dear price when they turned from Judaism to Christ, being ostracized from their families and synagogues and treated as if dead.
o Yet they were now being intimidated by the Judaizers into returning to their former bondage under the law.
o Paul here is telling them, “I introduced you to freedom, don’t turn back to slavery.”
II. His Remembrance of Them (vv. 12b-16)
• Paul makes a rather abrupt change of emphasis here, reminding the Galatians of how rich and deep their personal relationship with him had once been.
• They not only had done him no wrong but had openly and lovingly received him while he was in extremely adverse personal circumstances.
• “How then,” he was wondering, “could you reject me now, after being so accepting of me then?”
• When Paul first went to Galatia, many Jews turned against him when they realized his message was as much for Gentiles as Jews.
• But God used him in the salvation of many converts there, both Jews and Gentiles, and those who accepted his message also accepted him, despite a serious physical affliction he had at the time.
• It was, in fact, because of a bodily illness that Paul had preached the gospel to them the first time.
• On his first missionary journey Paul apparently either became seriously ill while in Galatia or else went there to recuperate.
• Whatever the illness, it was a trial to the Galatians, because his bodily condition was such that the normal response to it was revulsion.
• But the believers there did not despise or loathe Paul’s affliction, repulsive as it was.
• In ancient time, without benefit of good medicines, sterile bandages, and other such modern care, diseases were often disfiguring and their stench nauseating.
• To most ancients, including Jews, physical affliction was considered a form of divine judgment.
• The fact that Paul’s affliction was not a barrier to his credibility either to the Jews or Gentiles of Galatia was totally unexpected.
• The apostle was amazed that they even received him as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself.
• They did not question what he said or the way he looked.
• They had no doubt that he was God’s messenger and the apostolic representative of the Lord Jesus and were grateful beyond measure for blessing of spiritual life they had received because of his ministry.
• From the human perspective, Paul’s going to Galatia seemed purely circumstantial, necessitated by a tragic disease.
• Yet his reception by those who believed the gospel he preached was beyond anything he could have anticipated.
• But now he asked them, Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness, that if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.
• Paul here tells them, that from the beginning you were satisfied and happy with me and with the message of grace I preached, What made you lose that satisfaction? Why have you turned against me and against the gospel of grace?
• He refreshed their memories that once they loved him so much that you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.
• Whatever the specific nature of Paul’s illness, his primary point here is clear that the Galatians had loved him with a love that would have compelled them to make any sacrifice on his behalf.
• After only a few years, however, the situation had radically changed.
• The Galatian believers who had succumbed to the Judaizing heresy were guilty of spiritual defection.
• Nothing tears the heart of a faithful pastor, teacher, youth worker, or missionary, so much as seeing someone they have led to the Lord turn away from the faith.
• How much more does such defection grieve the Lord Himself?
• The implication is that on a second trip to Galatia by Paul some of the church members there had already come under the influence of the Judaizers and had begun to doubt the truth of salvation by faith alone, which they had learned and accepted from him.
• Many people appreciate a preacher or teacher only as long as he says what they want to hear.
• The confused and defecting believers in Galatia had once greatly admired Paul, but now they looked on him as their enemy, because he confronted them with the truth about the genuine gospel of God, which had saved them, and the false teaching of the Judaizers, which led them back into the bondage of legalism.
• There is little doubt that among the Galatians there were also some who had never really been saved and thus were easily turned back to self-righteous legalism.
III. His Warning to Them (vv. 17-18)
• Paul again warns the Galatians about their real enemies, the Judaizers.
• Most cults show keen interest and even affection toward prospective members, promising them great personal fulfillment and happiness.
• As with the legalism of the Judaizers, the true nature of their spiritual enslavement is hidden.
• The Judaizers had no interest in the Galatian believers beyond entrapping them in legalism.
• Their true wish and objective was to shut…out the Galatians from God’s grace and gain recognition and acceptance for themselves.
• Their true motivation was “to make a good showing in the flesh.”
• Paul warned against the Judaizers not because they opposed him and personally wounded him, but because they opposed the glorious, saving gospel of Jesus Christ.
IV. His Desire for Them (vv. 19-20)
• Speaking like a mother, Paul now addressed the Galatian believers as my children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.
• He was not arguing like a lawyer before a skeptical jury but pleading like a parent to a wayward child.
• Paul’s compassion was always evident.
• For example, to the Thessalonian church he wrote, “We proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having thus a fond 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” (1 Thess. 2:7-8).
• With the Galatians, however, after having spiritually nursed them in their new life in Christ, he became again in labor with them, the text tells us.
• He implies here to the people, “You have already experienced the new birth, but now you are acting as if you need to be spiritually born all over again. You make me feel like a mother who has to deliver the same baby twice.”
• But however abnormal and tragic their spiritual condition, Paul would not forsake them until Christ was formed in them.
• The Father sent the Son to earth not only to die that men might be saved but also to live as the divine example for those who are saved.
• Paul’s great desire was to deal more directly with these issues that would require him to be present with the Galatians in person and to be able to change his tone with them.
Closing
Every Christian worker experiences times when they come to an impasse and finds their own resources are completely exhausted. After saying and doing everything they know to say and do, those they are trying to help – sometimes unbelievers, sometimes believers – remain completely out of reach and even turn against them.
Let me finish tonight with this quote from John R.W. Stott, “The church needs people who, in listening to their pastor, listen for the message of Christ, and pastors who, in laboring among the people, look for the image of Christ.”
