Till Christ Be Formed in You

Galatians 4:12-20

We come again to our study of the book of Galatians in our lessons on justification by faith as opposed to works.  In looking at Galatians, we find ourselves in the  middle of the fourth chapter.

Briefly, just to call to your mind, Paul had established, on his very first missionary tour with his friend Barnabas, various churches in an area known as Galatia.  In several cities there, Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, in the area of Galatian, he had established churches.  He established them on the basis of salvation by grace through faith alone.  No sooner had he left there than some Jews from Jerusalem arrived and claimed to be Christians, then immediately told everyone that it wasn't enough just to believe to be saved, but you had to get circumcised and keep the law.

Word got back to Paul that these people had been sold this particular lie, and so Paul wrote Galatians as a circular letter, to be passed among these churches, to inform them that these Judaizers (as he calls them), those who want to impose Judaistic ritual and ceremony, were wrong.  He told them they needed to cling to the salvation offered through grace in Christ.  That is the message of Galatians.

Now, up to this point in Galatians 4:12, Paul has been handling the situation academically.  It is very impersonal.  He has been handling it like a scholar with a tremendous intellect who is just marshaling his arguments.  Or like a lawyer who comes into court and simply defends his case without any real concern for people.  Or, perhaps, like a theologian who is just amassing all sorts of Scriptural knowledge to prove his theological point.  You might say it this way, so far, it's all head and no heart.  He doesn't even bother to say any kind of greeting to the people, he just fires away.  It's very much of academics and very absent anything personal.

We've seen tremendous conviction, tremendous intellectual powers, tremendous knowledge of the Old Testament, and exposition of it at the same time.  He is battling to preserve a God-authored dogma, or doctrine.  He has seemed very detached, he has preferred truth to friendship, fact to fellowship, and he has preferred principles to people up to this point.

Everything changes in 4:12.  It even begins with the word 'brethren'.  This is the first leak in his academic tank, as it were.  This is the first time that anything begins to seep out that even smacks of personal concern as opposed to academics or theology.  It seems as though he has just pelted out theological arguments and his fury has run its course in defending his case.  By this time, his anger is gone, his frustration is gone, to a point, his rhetoric has all been fired out.  Now, he just kind of comes down and slips from the doctrinal to the personal.

In fact, the words from verse 12 through verse 20 are the strongest words of personal affection that Paul ever uses.  There is even one term that he uses for the Galatians that he never uses for anyone else, the term that is included in verse 19.  It begins, "My little children."  He brings himself down to speaking like a loving mother, "Of whom I have birth pains again until Christ be formed in you."  Now we begin to see that the man is not just arguing academics, but he cares about them as people. 

You know, the term 'brethren' in verse 12, he kind of slides into it, but by the time we reach verse 19 and he uses the diminutive 'my little children', he is just really pouring out personal love.  Latin and Greek languages both use diminutives as terms of very deep affection, and that is what you see here. 

I think it's true too that there must be this side to every man of God, there must be, as well as the tremendous strength of conviction, a gentleness.  Paul had an experience when he arrived in Thessalonica, which he described in I Thessalonians 2:7.  He says, "We were gentle among you as a nursing mother cherishes her children, being affectionately desirous of you."  So aside from the strength, conviction, tremendous intellect, and the ability to put together an argument and defend it, there was the warmth and personal character that we have seen in our morning studies in the book of Acts.

Of course, this isn't just Paul, but Paul got this from Jesus, because Jesus was this way.  It was the same Jesus who cleansed the temple, who lifted up the children and said, "Suffer the little ones to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven."  It is the same Jesus who is described in the book of Revelation as a lion and a lamb.  In fact, the Apostle Paul even ascribed his own gentleness to the fact of the example of Christ.  In II Corinthians 10:1, "I, Paul, myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ."  In other words, he had appropriated, as it were, the gentleness of Christ for himself. 

At the end of the book of Philippians, in 4:5, he says, "Let your gentleness be known unto all men."  He calls upon all Christians to be strong in conviction but also to be gentle.  So as we look at these verses, I can relate to this from my standpoint, I'll illustrate it as a pastor.  There are times when you're preaching, and I'm sure this happens to everyone, you're firing away and building your rhetoric and logic, and driving to a point.  Then, all of a sudden, you've made your point and come off sermonizing, and you say, "Now look, people.  I'm talking to you and here's how it is.  I care about you."  That's Paul.  He isn't sermonizing in verses 12-20, he's not really even writing, he's just pouring out his heart.

In verses 12-20, we see four features of his personal word to the Galatians.  His appeal to them, his remembrance of them, his warning to them, and his desire for them.  All of this is expressed in these verses.  I hasten to add this.  Don't look for great doctrinal truths here.  There are some that are implied, and I'll show you that when we get to verse 19, but basically, what we have here is not doctrine.  It's just plain old personal exhortation.  Paul isn't building a case in these verses, he's not showing them great reasons out of the Old Testament why they ought to hang on to grace and believe in Christ and stop there and not try to add works.  He's just begging them to do it.  He's not giving any more reasons, he just says, "Do this for me!"  It's a personal cry.

Let's look first of all at his appeal to them in verse 12.  I want you to see the nature of it.  "Brethren, I beg you, be as I am, for I am as you are."  That's what it says in the authorized version.  Paul begs them.  Notice the word 'beseech', it's the word for beg.  "I beg you, brothers."  That's the first time he's bothered to call them that. 

"Be as I am, for I am as you are."  Now, believe me, commentators have worked that one over, because it really doesn't say a whole lot.  You have all of those monosyllabic words.  That means one syllable; I just looked it up the other day.  But anyway, you have all of those one syllable words there and it seems like it would be very simple.  "Be as I am, for I am as you are."  But what is he saying?

Well, in the first place, we begin to look at the verbs there and the verb is GENOMY which means 'to become'.  So what he's really saying is, "Become as I, for I became as you."  You say, "Does that help?"  Yes it does.  "Become as I, for I became as you."  This is his appeal.  What does he mean?

Let's take the phrase 'become as I.'  To interpret that, all you need to do is acknowledge what Paul is saying throughout Galatians.  All throughout Galatians, he's saying, "Look.  Be free from the law," isn't he?  Look at Galatians 5:1, you'll see it right there.  "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free."  So he's saying, all the way through, "Don't get hung up on law."  By law, we don't mean God's moral law is evil, we mean the ceremonial, ritual law.  "Don't get hung up on that, don't look at any kind of law as a way to salvation, but don't get hung up in the ritual.  Be free from the law like I am."  He's saying, "Become like me, free from the law.  You can't be saved by law, there's no point in putting yourself under Jewish ceremonialism, you can't live under that.  Be free in Christ like me, live in grace like I do."  There's no argument here, he just says, "Do it."  This is the emotional appeal.

There is a place for emotion.  There is all this academics in here, but right in the middle, he just pours out his heart.  He doesn't make any particular doctrinal plea, he just says, "Please do this."  It's emotional.  "Be free like me; disentangle yourselves from the bondage of the law that the Judaizers have imposed on you and be free."  You say, "Why?"  Verse 12.  "I became like you." 

What does that mean?  As a Jew, Paul was a legalist.  Pharisee of the Pharisees, the whole thing.  He had all the legal stuff going for him.  He was into the law, deep.  He kept all the law and observed it, he was a Pharisee, which means he was hyper-legal.  But when Paul came to Christ, he tore away from legalism, didn't he?  He became like a Gentile, out from under Jewish law.  He says, "When I came to you in Galatia, I behaved like you.  I was as you are.  I became like one of you, now I want you to become like me." 

He had forsaken the law as a means of salvation, and he'd also forsaken the ritual law, the ceremonial law, as a means of sanctification.  He had thrown the whole thing over.  When came to Christ, he removed himself from law.  He went to Galatia just like a Gentile who was no longer under the pressure of the legal system.  He became free from the law, he introduced them to that freedom, then they went back to the law, which they'd never been under.  By the law, I mean the ceremonial and ritual law.

So he's saying, "Look, somehow this whole deal got reversed.  I got freed from the law, became like one of you, then you became what I used to be when you didn't even used to be that!"  Got it?  I'm sure you do.  So he says, "Look, let's switch it back the way it was.  You become like me because I became like you to get you to be like me."

You know, when a Jew would kick over the traces of legalism and put himself out from under all the ceremonial law, he paid a big price.  We can't really relate to that; we can't relate to the tremendous pressure of the Jewish mind the threat of living outside the law.  That's for an Orthodox Jew.  To imagine that is just horrifying to an Orthodox Jew.  Not to keep the ceremonies, not to obey all the strictures. 

In Genesis 34:17, it says, "If you will not hearken unto us to be circumcised, then will we take our daughter and will be gone."  In other words, there will be no connection, no marriage, no nothing unless you're circumcised.  Verse 15.  "But in this will we consent unto you, if you will be as we, that every male of you be circumcised."  Now, the Jews said, "We will not even relate to you in any way," and of course, the ultimate would be marriage, "We won't relate in any way unless you become like we are."  Listen, Jews did not become like Gentiles easily.  Paul had lived his entire life subscribed to this kind of thing.  He threw the whole thing over, expressed his liberty in Christ, communicated the Gospel freely to Gentiles, ate with Gentiles, acted like a Gentile, did what Gentiles do, and now someone came along and dragged the Gentiles right back into what he was freed from that they had never been in bondage to.

So he says, "Be as I am, for I became as you.  Don't undo everything that I did."  In Acts 21:21, it says, "And there informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying, 'They ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.'"  They said, "Paul, are you the guy going around telling all these guys not to stay in line with Moses?  Are you the one saying a person doesn't need circumcision anymore?"  "That's me."  He literally became as a Gentile.  He had abandoned the ways of his people, he had cut himself adrift from the traditions to which he had been moored, he became what Gentiles are: not living under the law, not looking for the law to satisfy his righteousness, not looking for the law as the way to live, not subscribing to the ceremony and the ritual.  Now, the Galatians, who were never under Jewish law, were being dragged under by the Judaizers.  It was a tragic thing.

So he says, "Become like I am, because I became like you.  Let's not both go back into this thing."   He had learned the great truth that the way to God is to shed all hope of self-righteousness.  You must reject the Satanic teaching of salvation by law and return to the simplicity that is in Christ.  That's his appeal; it's very, very simple.  He just became what they are.  But you know, this was his pattern.

In I Corinthians 9:20, it says, and you know the passage, "For though I am free from all," he had perfect liberty in Christ, "Yet I have made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.  To the Jews I became as a Jew."  You know, when he got in with the Jews and he was with the Jews, he didn't want to offend them, so he did what they did.  It didn't matter to him; he was free from everything. 

If I was going to go to Israel, and I wanted to minister to some Orthodox Jews, I don't mind going to the synagogue with them.  I don't mind doing the things they do, and if they want to have a meeting at a certain time during the week, if they want to have a festival, I'd go along to try to teach them and reach them.  That's no problem for me.  Why?  Because I'm free.  I'm free in Christ.  I don't have to worry about that.

So Paul says, "If there are Jews around who want to do things a certain way, I'll go along with that.  It doesn't bother me a bit.  If they don't want to eat certain things, I won't eat them.  It doesn't matter to me.  I just want to be what they are so that I can minister to them, so that I can reach them."  That's true, isn't it, in almost every sense.  For us to communicate the Gospel with a certain culture, we have to somehow adapt.  That doesn't mean to become a drunk to reach a drunk, it has its bounds within the areas of obvious propriety and Biblical ethics, but at the same time, it means that there must be some sort of adaptation to a certain kind of life, in order that you don't ostracize yourself from people.  That's all he's saying.

He says, "If a Jew was around, I became a Jew that might gain the Jews.  To them that are under the law, as under the law.  To them that are without the law, as without the law."  In other words, "If I went to the Gentiles, I did what they do.  Not in areas of immorality, but in the general cultural features of life."  So he says to the Galatians, "When I was with you, I just was like you.  Don't you remember that?  I was free.  I introduced you to the freedom.  Don't go backwards!"

You know, he does build on that appeal.  He builds on it by point two, in his remembrance of them.  That runs from verses 12-16.  He says, "Look, just remember how it was.  You remember that I was free.  You remember that I came to you, became like you.  You believed my message of grace, my message of faith in Christ.  Everything was great.  Let's remember that."  This is really an interesting thing.

Verse 12.  "You have not injured me at all."  What that means is, "You did me no wrong."  Really, 12b should be connected with verse 13, which should probably start with the words, "You have not injured me at all."  You did me no wrong, remember that?  This is his remembrance of that. 

It's a very abrupt transition, I'll grant you, from verse 11, it's abrupt to verse 12.  From the middle of verse 12, it's abrupt to the second part.  He says, "Look backwards!  You accepted me then; you didn't injure me.  You didn't fight me; you didn't accuse me of wrong.  You didn't treat me ill."  What's he saying?  He's saying, "Look, remember how willingly you accepted me?  You heard my message, you believed it.  You accepted me lovingly, openly, warmly, totally.  You didn't injure me.  You weren't against me then." 

What he's saying is, "How could you turn on me now when you didn't turn on me then when I was there?  When I told you then, you didn't turn.  What happened?  When I lived with you like a Gentile, when I did what you Gentiles do, you didn't hassle me then!"  In fact, do you know that when he arrived in Galatia and started preaching, you know who walked out of his services?  All the Jews.  But the Gentiles said, "Let's do this again next week."  He came back and preached to them again, and you know what?  He had a Gentile audience who loved and accepted him. 

He says, "Hey!  What happened?  How come, when I was there, acting like a Gentile, you didn't hassle me?  But now, you want to impose Judaism on everyone.  You loved me  then, when I didn't act that way."  The Gentiles begged him for more teaching when he arrived. 

This is a heartbreak for Paul; he loves these people.  And he knows that they don't like him.  They simply don't like him; they're turned off to him.  They've bought the whole bag that the Judaizers were selling and now he knows what heartbreak is.  He's saying, "I introduced freedom to you.  I was free among you like a Gentile.  I was doing what you did an you loved it; you accepted me.  You didn't injure me, you didn't fight me, you didn't hassle me.  You accepted me.  What happened?" 

This is what you call 'spiritual defection', and I suppose this is the greatest grief that a person in the Lord's service knows.  I was preparing this and thought to myself, "I know how this affects me and other Christian people, but I wonder how it affects Jesus?"  Have you ever thought about what the Lord must think about someone who accepts salvation and then just defects, just drifts away, gets caught up in false teaching.

Well, from an Old Testament view, you get a glimpse of it.  In Matthew 23:37, Jesus said, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that kills the prophets and stones them who are sent to thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings and you would not."  It was at that occasion, you know, that Jesus wept.  He shed tears over Jerusalem.  Here was a case of God giving all that He could possibly give to Israel, His child.  God was dispensing all the grace, the information, the blessing and Israel is continuously defecting, defecting, defecting.  It grieves the heart of Jesus.

Jesus, since He was the human embodiment of God, shed real tears.  But have you ever wondered how God Himself felt, or feels even today over spiritual defection?  I think it's clearly illustrated in the book of Hosea, and I want to call your attention to it because I really feel this is a very important passage.

Hosea 11 is one of the most tender insights into the nature of God anywhere in the Scripture.  If you want to know what God is like, and does He feel emotion, does He love His children, Hosea 11 really will help you to see that.  I always think of the Pulitzer prize-winning play by Connelly called Green Pastures where there is a particular character who plays the part of God.  He sits at his desk and has a great line.  He says, "You know, even being God ain't no bed of roses."  There is a sense in which, though that is a very secularized statement, there is a sense in which God's heart is grieved over His children.  Here is one of the most beautiful portions to describe the tender love of God.  Hosea 11:1. 

"When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt."  You'll remember that Moses came to Pharaoh and God said, through Moses, "Israel is my son, even my firstborn."  Yes, it was out of Egypt that He called His son.  "When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt."  But all of a sudden, there is grief here.  Verse 2.  "As they called them, so they went from them.  They sacrificed unto Balaam and burned incense unto carved images."

Many of you parents have the suffering of loving a child and rearing that little child in the tender years, then finding that one day, the child became a young man or young lady and defected, walked out of your home and turned his or her back on you and the things of God.  We know about that, don't we?  We deal with that kind of thing all the time.  Well, God knows about that.  "When Israel was a child, then I loved him."  God means, "I spent myself on him," like a doting father. 

Verse 2.  "But he sacrificed unto idols."  I love verse 3.  "I taught Ephraim also to go."  You know what that means?  "I taught Ephraim how to walk," God says.  "When Ephraim was a little child, I taught him how to walk."  Listen to the rest of the verse.  "Taking them by their arms."  Have you ever taught a child how to walk?  How do you do it?  Grab those little arms, and the little feet begin to kick.  We've got one just at that point now, and they take that first wobbly step and their eyes are really bright.  That's God.  He says, "I loved Israel.  I taught Ephraim how to walk; I held his arms."  I love this.  "But they knew not