Download discussion questions:  Galatians 4:20 – 5:1
Calvary Institute – Fall 2018 Index

An Allegory

The most conspicuous feature of this passage is Paul’s extended allegory (“being taken figuratively” in CSB; allégoroumena, ἀλληγορούμενα).  The natural question is, “What is an allegory, and why is Paul using one here?”  We also discussed the question, “How would the new Galatian believers fresh out of paganism understand his figurative language if they were not familiar with the story the allegory is based on?”

One member of our group summarized the six chapters (Genesis 16-21) that Paul condensed into nine verses (22-30).

• God had promised Abraham (then named Abram) abundant offspring (Genesis 15:5).
• Years passed without a child, so Abram’s wife Sarai suggested that God’s promise could be fulfilled if Abram had a son by the servant girl, Hagar (Genesis16:2).
• At age 86, Abram had a son, named Ishmael, by Hagar (Genesis 16:15-16).
• At age 99, Abram was visited by God who renamed him Abraham (“Father of Nations”) and promised him a son by his wife (age 90) who God renamed Sarah (Genesis 17:15-16).
• Sarah gave birth to Isaac (Genesis 21:2). Abraham, Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob (renamed to Israel) became the fathers of the Jewish nation.

(Go back and read all six chapters of Genesis to get the full story.)

With that brief background, we considered the point Paul wanted to make with the allegory.  One person asked if the contrast between slaves and sons was about non-Christians and Christians.  After some discussion, the consensus was that Paul was probably describing Christians, some of whom were still relying on their own performance rather than the on the grace of God through faith in Christ.  That has been Paul’s theme in this letter.  As one member of our group pointed out, this was not Paul’s first attempt to make the Galatian believers understand the mistake they were making if they wanted to be under the law (Galatians 4:21).

• He had defended his own credentials as an authentic bearer of the true gospel (Galatians 1:1-2:10)
• He had pointed out the impossibility of keeping the law as a means of being right with God (“justification”) even for the Apostle Peter himself (Galatians 2:11-21).
• He had appealed to their own conversion, their experience of the work of God’s Holy Spirit, and the suffering they had faced (Galatians 3:1-5).
• He had reminded them that even Abraham, who first received God’s covenant of circumcision, was justified by faith and not his keeping of rules (Galatians 3:6-14).
• He resorted to logic and the principles of civil law, that binding covenants (like God established with Abraham) cannot be invalidated (Galatians 3:15-29).
• He reminded them of the difference between a slave living under rules and a son and heir looking forward to a promise (Galatians 4:1-11)
• He appeals to the relational connection between them, how they had received him and his message in the past (Galatians 4:12-20).

Indeed, the entire letter from Paul to the Galatian churches has been his repeated ways of showing them the beauty of grace through faith in contrast to the slavery they are being drawn into by submitting to legalistic requirements.  So as the group member commented, Paul is “taking one more run at convincing them.”  This time he chooses an allegory, taking events from Jewish history in the book of Genesis and suggesting spiritual significance.

Without trying to explain the allegory exhaustively, we focused on the general point Paul was making.  He associated the law with slavery (v. 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31; 5:1), the flesh (v. 23, 29), and a yoke (5:1).  He contrasts the law with words like free and freedom (22, 23, 26, 30, 31; 5:1), promise (v. 23, 28), the Spirit (v. 29).  Often figurative language (like this allegory) can display truth at a level deeper than propositional arguments can explain truth.  After his varied appeals from history and logic, perhaps Paul wants them to feel the immensity of the choice they are facing – slavery or freedom.  In the first century, that stark choice would have had much more impact than we might realize, since we are not immersed in a culture where slavery was a part of everyday existence.

Christ Formation and Freedom

The allegory that Paul provides is sandwiched between two profound statements, his desire to see “Christ formed in you” (Galatians 4:19) and his assurance that Christ’s intention for us is freedom (5:1).We discussed the potential misunderstanding.  If Christ is being “formed in us” (as we discussed last week – sanctification, holiness, Christlikeness, Christian maturity), doesn’t that restrict our freedom rather than liberating us?

We considered the meaning of the word “freedom” and agreed that most people think of doing whatever you want whenever you want.  Someone suggested that such a definition, applied to everyone, would be chaos.  Another suggestion was “correct restraint” or appropriate boundaries that define freedom.  An analogy of a high-speed train was mentioned – the rails provide the correct restraint to enable the train to travel faster than most cars.  Without the rails (“freedom” in the sense of complete lack of restraint) the train could not even move.  Freedom provides a context for fulfilling an intended purpose.

We were created to live forever “knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ His Son” (John 17:3).  Christ being formed in us is the only way to the freedom of experiencing that intended purpose.  Seeking alternative sources of life (like the Galatians following the law) restricts our freedom as we resist Christ:

The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call ‘Myself’ becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop.  What I call ‘My wishes’ become merely the desires thrown up by my physical organism or pumped into me by other men’s thoughts or even suggested to me by devils. Eggs and alcohol and a good night’s sleep will be the real origins of what I flatter myself by regarding as my own highly personal and discriminating decision to make love to the girl opposite to me in the railway carriage. Propaganda will be the real origin of what I regard as my own personal political ideas. I am not, in my natural state, nearly so much of a person as I like to believe: most of what I call ‘me’ can be very easily explained. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.[1]

Soul Care

Learning to recognize the effects of “heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires” is the first step toward freedom from the slavery that they impose on us.  Those kinds of subtle influences often drive our self-obsession, the priority of our self-protection at any cost to others.

Conversely, as Christ is formed in us, we begin to resemble Him and His perfect desire to do the will of the Father, and we grow in God-obsession reflecting that desire.  We grow toward the persons we were intended to be, like Christ, the perfect man, completely God-obsessed, displaying the image of God, “manifesting His name” (John 17:6, NASB).  Soul Care is an effective approach to moving from self-obsession toward God-obsession in ourselves and in the process of helping others in that journey.

Christ being formed in us can be described as God-obsession replacing self-obsession.  We grow in the freedom of a loving, trusting relationship with Him.  Our slavery to the opinions and expectations of others and to our own passions yields to the freedom to carry out Christ’s desire:  “I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 5:30).  Our growing, Christ-formed freedom liberates us from dependence on circumstances and enables us more and more to trust God and to find our joy and satisfaction and identity in Him, now and in anticipation of paradise.

[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York:  HarperCollins, 1980), Kindle Edition, p. 225-226.