The confusion and controversy over grace vs. works is a non-issue for the

person that just simply loves the Lord. Love is the fulfillment of the law.

Galatians 5:23 tells us that. No law can do what love can do…

There are some that have heard that or something like that so many times that

they’ve stopped asking within themselves, “What does that really mean?”

Stopped truly processing that statement…, and it’s not good. When you love

someone, you are always seeking the deepest and most understood

understanding. When you violate what He says, eventually you can’t hear

what He’s saying… You will hear over and over and you will understand but

not in the way that leads to righteousness and more than righteousness,

holiness. Hearing the Word of God and it not leading you to holiness is

evidence of missing understanding.

Grace that does not lead to holiness is not grace at all. Grace never leads us or

gives us license to live unlike Jesus because that leads to destruction. Grace

always leads us into the desire and ability to live unto God…

Galatians Chapter 4 Verse 12

 Notice Paul’s love for these people. Three and a half chapters of

frustration. Disappointment in their turning from his instruction.

Discouragement in their ready acceptance of folks preaching and teaching

against even him personally. And yet he isn’t angry, he has somehow not

taken it personally. That right there is a work of the Holy Spirit, a mark

of love and evidence of understanding unto holiness.

 Folks get a little peeved too that Paul tells an entire region of churches,

multiple churches, to become like HIM! Why not Christ? Is it wrong for

him to invite folks to become like him? Only if that will harm them…

Only if that leads them to be a little less like Jesus… It’s an interesting

thought. If you said to someone struggling or immature in an area of their

faith, “Hey, be like me…” would that be the right thing to do to help

them? Apparently and biblically for Paul…, it is…

 Christians should be ready examples and good examples for folks to

observe and even imitate. Imitation is a high form of learning, it’s even a

high compliment, and in the faith, it’s essentially what discipleship is. SO,

are you worthy to say the same to folks around you? We all can be ready

examples if we walk in the Spirit, therefore we all should be…

 And Paul isn’t perfect. That’s for sure. He knows that. But what has a

perfect grip on him is the perfect gospel. That he is freed from the slavery

and bondage of the flesh. Not without struggles for sure but even in the

handling of his own struggles, he messages freedom and joy and love and

grace… And he leans on that witness now in a personal example…

 There’s even grace and forgiveness in how he handles folks that turn away

or against him… He says here, “you have not injured me at all…”

Freedom is not just in the circumstance of what Christ has done for you

but its also expressed and accessed in what you are now able to do for

others. And that’s simply to forgive them and continue to run your own

race whether they come along or not…

Galatians Chapter 4 Verses 13 – 16

 Paul recalls how they welcomed him at first. With a visible physical

infirmity, in that culture, you would have been readily condemned as

cursed. It’s just how they operated… But Paul says, “you received me as

an angel of God even,” why now would you do differently?

 And this gives us perhaps a clue as to what Paul struggled with which he

spoke of 2 Corinthians 12:7-9. “And lest I should be exalted above

measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was

given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above

measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it

might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,

for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

 It is quite apparent and obvious (at least to me) that Paul had a problem

with his eyesight that was somewhat noticeable and visible to everyone

around him. He will write at the end of this book in Galatians 6:11, “See

with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!” Which

tells us further that eyesight was a problem for Paul.

 I have heard the most creative of ideas about Paul’s thorn in the flesh over

the years. Some have said that it was anger or lust or disbelief…, I

personally consider all of those as entirely ridiculous and just someone

projecting their own vices onto Paul to feel better about their own sin. The

Bible is clear what Paul’s problem was and we ought not to look for

something else when what the Bible has to say is sufficient.

Galatians Chapter 4 Verses 17 – 20

 Paul teaches here that man-made religion and religious mandates,

expectations, instruction and models…, anything suggested that is outside

of the scriptures in terms of what we ought to do and be as born-again

citizens of heaven, adopted sons and daughters into the family and

kingdom of God through the Person and sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone…,

anything additional and or outside of the Word of God, it’s all to bring you

under their control and power…, of which Paul rightly calls “bondage.”

 Think of it and its glaringly obvious. A group, a leader, a person tells you

what you ought to do so that you can be right in their eyes. It feels like an

invitation. And then the moment you don’t do one of those things, you are

excluded. In your exclusion, you now have to worry and work to get right

in their eyes again…, and thus you become zealous for them, for the

group, for the religiosity and in all of that… a masterful distraction… all

of that takes you away from the simplicity of the freedom, forgiveness of

all sin and positional acceptance and righteousness with God, knowing

Him and being known by Him, in and through the Gospel of Jesus

Christ…

Galatians Chapter 4 Verses 21 – 23

 We did go over the account of Abraham a bit in Chapter 3. That Abraham

was given the promise of God that he would have a son, but ten years

later, no son. So, he and his wife devised a plan to essentially achieve

God’s promise by their own works which Paul calls here, “according to

the flesh.” So, he had a son by one of his servants, an Egyptian named

Hagar and that son was Ishmael. The Son of the flesh… Turned out to be a

real problem, and still is for Isaac who was the son of promise born to

Abraham and Sarah 14 years later…

 Abraham has Ishmael by Hagar and Ishmael grows to be a young man in

his home. Then God speaks again to Abraham and tells him that he will

have a son by Sarah and Genesis 17 tells us that Abraham fell facedown,

and laughed… He was 100 years old and his wife 90 and he said in his

heart, shall Sarah have a child when she is barren, and far beyond the

years of childbearing? He says to God in Genesis 17:18, “Oh, that Ishmail

might live before You!”

 God replies in Genesis 17:19, “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son,

and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him

for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.”

(Children of promise) So Isaac is indeed born and at Isaac’s coming of age

party, Hagar was ridiculing him and Sarah saw it. So, Sarah said to

Abraham, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of this

bondwoman shall not be heir with my son…” Abraham was displeased but

God said in Genesis 21:12, “Listen to what your wife has said to you.” All

a picture and type of the promise of God verses the work of the flesh…

Galatians Chapter 4 Verses 24 – 27

 In our relating to God, we must either relate through the law of through

the Spirit. The law is not the Spirit and the Spirit is not the law so you

cannot do both. They are mutually exclusive. And, Galatians 2:16 says

“By the works of the law it is evident that no one can be justified.” So that

leaves us with only that a true relationship with God is ONLY through the

Spirit, which is found ONLY in His grace through the finished work of

Jesus Christ.

 I know if feels barren. That’s why Paul quotes Isaiah 54 here. I am

barren. I can’t birth forth works that cleanse me to the point of right

relationship with God. It is only by God’s Word and promise, its by faith,

that I enter into right and saving relationship with God! “In my weakness,

You are made strong.”

Galatians Chapter 4 Verses 28 – 31

 The end of the matter is the reality that all the law could ever do for us

was arrive us at the recognition of the curse and the problem. It’s grace,

it’s Jesus, He is the only answer, the only way, the only truth and the only

life. And Paul gives us an offensive data point as he closes this section of

his letter and I think he is being overt….

 He says here, “He who was born according to the flesh persecuted him

who was born according to the Spirit.” Every time we venture back into

our old nature and walk for a season in the things of this world, the things

of the flesh, Ishmael’s are born. One of the reasons some born-again

Spirit-filled Christians today have a tough time still in life is simply

because of the amounts of Ishmael’s running around in their hearts and

lives. Bitterness, envy, harshness, cruelty, impatience, lack of grace for

others, these are all symptoms of Ismaels and they must be personally cast

out through real mirror work and repentance!

 And, Jon Courson teaches a section here that I find fascinating…, the

harsher Christians, those that sneer or stand against the grace and freedom

they see in others, that’s typically a result of past or present carnality. The

person unable or unwilling to seek personal holiness in their own heart of

hearts will condemn those in any sin/offense that is visible. Makes total

sense and Paul overtly goes after that here…

 On the flip side, if you take someone who just simply loves the Lord,

loves what He loves, conforms their own mind to think like He thinks,

Titus 1:5 says, “To the pure, all things are pure,” they tend to not even see

the flaws and red flags in others… they simply walk by grace. The stricter

carnal Christian will point out so much about others while the lover of

Jesus Christian won’t see it and won’t know what they’re talking about…

Looks pure to them… One is looking for what needs to be fixed, the other

is looking for what needs to be loved… The thing though that I will add to

that…, we need both…, and the true conviction of the Spirit always comes

from a place of grace, never condemnation.

 Courson says, the more sin you’ve been involved in, the more cynical you

become. Legalism or harsh Christ-unlike Christianity is not the cure

for carnality. It is the result of it. We are to be like rocks in a rock

tumbler. Leave a rock alone and it remains sharp with points and

dangerous edges. But mix it with other rocks and through the applied and

received interaction, it smooths and becomes a gem. If you keep getting

hurt in the same way by different people, it may just be a sharp edge God

is trying to file off… Let Him cook! NO law can do what love can do!