Galatians 4 (1)

Pray Psalm 142.5-7.
I cried out to You, O LORD:
I said, “You are my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
Attend to my cry,
For I am brought very low;
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are stronger than I.
Bring my soul out of prison,
That I may praise Your name;
The righteous shall surround me,
For You shall deal bountifully with me.”

Sing Psalm 142.5-7.
(Dix: For the Beauty of the Earth)
Out of prison lead me, LORD; thanks and praise to You shall be.
Righteous men armed with Your Word will Your grace bestow on me.
Refrain vv. 5, 6
LORD, You are my Refuge strong! O receive my plaintive song!

Read and meditate on Galatians 4.1-3.

Preparation
1. What are we under while we are children?

2. To what were we in bondage then?

Meditation
Here Paul equates keeping the Law to being like a child who is in bondage to external constraints. That’s where we who believe were before coming to faith in Christ.

In the case of the Galatians, their bondage was to the things of God’s Law. This was not a bad thing; it was a necessary thing. Yet those constraints could never take away the Galatians’ sin or keep them from sinning. Rather, the external constraints of the Law acted as guardians and stewards to keep the “children” from going astray and to direct them to Jesus at the proper time.

Paul deliberately equates the constraints of the Law to “the elements of the world” because that’s what the Law was like. It could only constrain and direct the Galatians outwardly; it could do nothing to heal the sickness of sin within them.

We who were not raised in Jewish homes were also “in bondage under the elements of the world.” Just not the same kind of elements and constraints as the Galatians. Parents and teachers shaped and guided us. Worldly distractions captured our imaginations and affections. And the Law of God, written on our hearts—as on everyone’s heart (Rom. 2.14, 15)—also acted as a kind of constraint, bringing tinges of shame whenever we transgressed it and building up within us a desire to be free from guilt and sin. We may not have recognized or acknowledged that, but it was true, nonetheless. And when confronted with the Gospel, we who have believed were enabled to realize and admit our bondage, cry out for deliverance, and enter the freedom of the sons and daughters of God. “My chains fell off, my heart was free;/I rose, went forth, and followed Thee!” (Charles Wesley)

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
“When I was a child,
I spoke as a child,
I understood as a child,
I thought as a child;
but when I became a man,
I put away childish things” (1 Cor. 13.11).

In that child was the potential to become a functioning adult.

So also, Paul’s description of the child in Galatians 4.1,2:
“Now as I say that the heir,
as long as he is a child,
does not differ at all from a slave,
though he is master of all,
but is under guardians and stewards
until the time appointed by the father.”

In this child there is the potential to become a mature master.

Both children had the potential to metamorphize into something else.

We too, exposed by the Law as needy sinners, have the potential to become the King’s child, an heir in His Kingdom, changed from enemy to son (Rom. 5.8). “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Rom. 8.16, 17). And “that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel…” (Eph. 3.6).

From nobodies to real somebodies.

Joseph rose from being cast into a pit and sold as a slave, by his hateful brothers, to being the second most powerful man in Egypt (see Gen. 37-45). Even in captivity he had the potential to be a great ruler and deliverer. Indeed, as he said to his astonished brothers: ‘I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt…And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt” (Gen. 45.4, 7, 8). The potential for Joseph’s amazing metamorphosis was in him all along; there, waiting for God’s hand to touch his heart and life. Just like God does when He touches our heart and life.

“If anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation;
old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5.17).

Old, through the guardian and steward of the Law;
to new, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Elemental bondage harboring the potential for freedom and sonship in the King.

Reflection
1. How have you experienced deliverance from elemental things?

2. What are the keys to not falling back into such bondage? That is, what must we do to remain free of bondage to elemental things?

3. Whom will you encourage today to hold fast to the freedom we have in Jesus?

They could not fully understand the meaning of the law as given by Moses. And as that was a dispensation of darkness, so of bondage; they were tied to many burdensome rites and observances, by which they were taught and kept subject like a child under tutors and governors. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Galatians 4.1-7

Pray Psalm 142.1-6.
Thank the Lord for being your constant Refuge and for the strength He gives you to fulfill your calling day by day.

Sing Psalm 142.1-6.
(Dix: For the Beauty of the Earth)
With my voice, O LORD, I cry—hear my plea for mercy, LORD!
My complaint mounts up on high, bringing You my troubled word:
Refrain vv. 5, 6
LORD, You are my Refuge strong! O receive my plaintive song!

When my spirit faints away,  You my falt’ring pathway know;
where I take my journey they traps have hidden to my woe.
Refrain

LORD, look to my right and see: None takes notice of my plight.
Is there refuge left for me? Is my soul out of Your sight?
Refrain

Hear my cry, LORD, I am low! They are strong who seek my soul.
Jesus frees from every foe; He will keep and make me whole!
Refrain

T. M. and Susie Moore

If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15). 

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.