Galatians 4: 21-31

Friday, September 13, 2013       Galatians 4: 21-31

The break’s over and Paul has jumped into the deep end of the theological pool to press on with his argument. I suspect his argument here was more for the Judaizers than the Gentiles, because his argument is somewhat convoluted and depends on a pretty thorough knowledge of the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar in order to grasp Paul’s point.

In its simplest form, the argument of the Judaizers was that the people of God had their origin in Abraham and are subject to the Law of Moses. Therefore, if a Gentile wanted to accept Jesus as the Messiah and become a part of the people of God, he must first be circumcised and then submit to the Law of Moses. Paul countered this argument by pointing out that the origin of God’s people came through the promise of God to Abraham and Sarah. The child Isaac was born through Abraham and Sarah’s faith in God’s promise; the child Ishmael was born out of Abraham, Sarah’s and Hagar’s wisdom and strength, or as Paul likes to call it, their flesh. For Paul, keeping the Law of Moses was a work of the flesh; to become the people of God is an act of faith, believing God’s promise that Jesus is His Messiah.

This passage may seem archaic and obsolete for Christians today, until you ask them if they believe they will go to heaven when they die. The most common response is, “I hope so.” When pressed further, the typical Christian will say they hope they are good enough. “Good enough’ is reliance on performance, on keeping the law. I have encountered so many Christians through the years that believed God was angry with them or that they weren’t good enough for God, and therefore they interpreted the bad things in their life as God’s punishment.

God’s not angry with us, but I believe His heart aches over the difficulty we have in simply believing His promises. Somehow, we need to own those powerful words of Brennan Manning: “God loves us unconditionally, just as we are; not as we should be. Because no one is as they should be.” (All is Grace by Brennan Manning)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  In addition to this BLOG they are distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.