New Testament 6
Lecture 24
Galatians 4: 8-11
The Point
•	These verses will show the folly of returning back to slavery once a Christian is free.  Paul has just proven in Galatians 4: 4-7 that the Christian has a new relationship to God which faith in Christ brings.  His conclusion was that the believer is no longer a slave, but a ______________  He moves from that grand statement to ask the readers a question.
Which do you prefer?
•	Slavery? Sonship? Do you want to return to ______________ living or remain in______________living? 
The Reminder (v. 11)
•	Paul brings to the readers minds their former way of life under paganism.  The pagan religions, which Paul was more than familiar with, held the people in deep ______________.  Paul says in verse 9 that they were weak and worthless religions.  So, why would they want to return to those religions. For Paul, to return to the life under the law would be almost the same sickening thing.
Dr. Jack MacGorman,
•	Wrote that Paul’s equating of legalism with paganism in these verses is the shocking feature  of this passage.  “In other settings Paul affirms the superiority of ______________ to ______________ (e.g., Rom 3: 1-2; 9:4-5). However, here he links both together in a common bondage.(MacGorman, p. 108).
Paul Reminds the Galatians
•	That with sonship comes great responsibility.  But the responsibility is not for formalism or ______________ or ______________. The responsibility is to watch that the believer doesn’t replace relationship with mere ceremony.  The Galatians had been guilty of doing just this thing. 
Verse 8
•	“However at that time, when you did not know God, you were______________ to those which by nature are no ______________.” 
•	What a contrast. What you were in relation to what you are now.  The before and the after picture is presented here for Paul’s readers.  Their pre-Christian state was one of ignorance of God and enslavement to gods who were really not gods at all. 
Specific References in Verse 8
•	Allow us to see in more detail just what Paul is dealing with.
•	The former gods Paul is thinking of remind him of Acts 14: 9-18. What are we told there? “were ______________” comes from the word meaning” to do service for or to”.  This Paul says made the Galatians slaves to their pagan and idolatrous gods.  
The word “nature” 
•	is ______________ which means “that which belongs to a person or thing by virtue of its origin”. This is its essential character.  It is even used in relation to God’s divine nature which is without an origin.  Paul does not deny that ______________ exist, but denies their ______________.  He puts them in world that is not human, nor divine, but demonic (See 1 Cor 8:5, 6, 10:19, 20; Col 2:15).
But As Christians, (v. 9)
•	“But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it…”
•	They have come to know God. They have experienced God.  They have a vital ______________and ______________with God. 
There Had Been A Time
•	When they did not know God.  Every religion outside of Christianity seeks to help me please God by ______________ and ______________.  But the end result is they become slaves to gods made by the hands of other men.  Paul reminds the readers that these are not merely slaves to gods, but also to idols. 
The Word “how”
•	Is from pos, and may be better translated as “How is it possible”?  It is surely a question ______________ of ______________  The apostle could hardly conceive of such a thing as a believer, having once been rescued from slavery to demons in a pagan religion.  
The Rest of 9b-11
•	Is an expression of Paul’s distress.  How can you turn back to bondage? “______________” is a Greek verb in the present tense that suggests the Galatians were already turning back.  What were they turning back to? To the weak and beggarly elements referred to in verse 3.  This points to the poverty of the Jewish legal system in contrast to that of the power of the Gospel. 
This is a Rhetorical
•	Question. The purpose of this question is to show the absolute absurdity of their actions.  Paul uses two words to mean “______________” in verse 9. The first is ______________ and the second is ______________. The first refers to the repetition of an act.  The second speaks to the repeating of an act which has the same source as the first act.  In other words, the second word shows a return to a former position.  The Galatians were returning to the former position of slavery under false gods and idolatry. 
•	______________ refers not only to returning back to a former ______________, but going back to the elementary ______________ of religious thought. 
Luther’s Position
•	Is helpful here: “Doth Paul take it to be all thing, to fall from the promise of the law, from faith to works, and to do service unto gods which by nature are no gods? I answer: whosoever is fallen from the article of Justification, is ignorant of God, and an idolater…The reason is, because God will nor can be known no otherwise than by Christ…There is no mean between man’s working and the knowledge of Christ.  If this knowledge be darkened or defaced, it is all one whether thou be Monk, a Turk, a Jew, etc.” 
Lightfoot’s position
•	Is illuminating: “It is clear however from the context, that the apostle is not speaking of the Jewish race alone, but of the heathen world also before Christ – not of the Mosaic law only, but of all forms of law which might be subservient to the same purpose.  This appears from his including his Galatian hearers under the same tutelage. Nor is this fact to be explained by supposing them to have passed through a stage of Jewish proselytism on their way to Christianity.”  
“St. Paul distinctly refers
•	 to their previous ______________ ______________(Verse 8), and no less distinctly and emphatically does he describe their adoption of Jewish ritualism, as a return to the weak and beggarly discipline of childhood, from which they had been emancipated when they abandoned that worship.”
Here’s A Question for You to Ponder?
•	How could Paul put into a class such as we have above, a divinely ordained law which he describes in other places as “______________” and “______________” and “______________” (Rom 7:12)?  He puts this into a category with degraded human systems which here he calls reprobates with a “fellowship of the devils” (1 Cor 10:20).
Do You Have An Answer?
•	Paul has to see the ______________in a two fold manner…spiritual in many aspects, but also ritualistic in many other respects.  It is in this second area that I think Paul is dealing.  Judaism could become a system of bondage just as any pagan religion would be.  The traditions of men soon were escalated above and over the authority of the Word.  Used incorrectly the Law of God can become a yoke of slavery.
Verse 10
•	Shows that some of Paul’s readers had already begun to keep some of the special Jewish holidays.  “______________” is an intensive verb, indicating a rigid following of the holiday.  The TCNT translation reads, “You are scrupulous in observing”.  Mere legalism or ritualistic religions develop a deep scrupulousness. Paul, the former Pharisee, would be well acquainted with such a religion.  
“Days” has reference
•	 to weekly sabbaths (Rom 14:5; Col 3:16).  “______________” refers to the monthly moon cycle found at the beginning of each month cycle (Num 10:10; 28:11; 1 Chron 23:31; Ps 81:3, Isa 1:13).  Seasons probably refers to celebrations not limited to one day, such as feasts of Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles etc. 
The Four Terms
•	“Days, months, seasons, and years,” may be listed simply to include all kinds of ______________ that the Jews approved.  Paul’s point and intention is to show the Galatians that their worship and religion had degenerated into an external formalism and was dead of any inner transforming life.
What Does Other Passages Say?
•	Colossians 2: 16-17?
•	Colossians 2: 20-23?
In His Commentary
•	On The Message of Galatians, John Stott mentions the story of John Newton’s conversion and this song, “______________”.  He relates that Newton was an only child and seven years old when his mother died. At eleven he went to sea as a sailor and was involved in the slave trade of Africa.  He was hardened by life and was able to outdo his contemporaries in evil and immoral things.  At 23 his ship was caught in a storm and he feared for his life. In desperation, he called out to God for mercy.  He was marvelously saved. 
He did not want to forget
•	 this even and had Deut 15:15 inscribed above his mantel.  What does it say?
•	“And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord Thy God redeemed thee.”   
Verse 11
•	Paul ends this verse with what ______________ thought? 
•	Had he possibly wasted his time and effort on these Galatian believers? All his travel, labor, hardships, struggles, surviving stonings, illness, and pain, had been for nothing as far as these believers were concerned.  All these would be nothing if they returned to their slavery.
Marin Luther is correct
•	With his words, “These words of Paul breathe ______________.”  We need to make it clear that Paul is not fearful for the future of these believers.  It suspects that what he fears has already happened.  His deep concern was for the spiritual welfare of his Galatian brothers. They are the object of his fears.
No wonder the plea
•	Is so impassioned.  The thought of all that effort and work being made void and of no effect would compel Paul to write as he did.  The word “______________” is a word that means to labor to the point of near exhaustion.  It is in the perfect tense indicating the finished, thorough piece of work Paul had done in the evangelism of the Galatians.