Galatians 3:4 Commentary

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Galatians 3:4

Comments

Just as he reminds the Galatians how they first received the Spirit, so he reminds them that that they were willing to pay a great price for their discipleship at the beginning. Some of this was seen in connection with the persecution that Paul himself had to suffer in order to preach the gospel among them. He was naturally the primary target of the Judaizers, but their antagonism would certainly also be directed against those converted through his message. The Galatians understood that this was part of the cost of discipleship, and their joy in having found the Lord made that cost seem small compared to the pearl of great price. But if they now turned back to the law again, then they would lose Christ who they had once esteemed so highly. How could their evaluation of his worth have changed so much? This departure would mean that all their earlier suffering was for nothing since they had gained nothing from it. Do they really now think all that suffering was a mistake? What aroused the anger of their persecutors was the gospel with its terms of salvation that gave no credit to the flesh and therefore made a righteousness based on the law to be nothing. That they could not tolerate. ‘If it yet be in vain.’ He does not want to crush them as if he had already lost all hope for their recovery, for then they would give up the struggle. He therefore fans the flame back into life, the dying embers, and leaves open a narrow crack in the doorway through which they can pass. These powerful appeals are designed to win them back. The eternal spiritual welfare of the Galatians is at stake and there is a danger that they will fall from grace. Paul’s love for them as brothers and sisters in Christ, brought to faith through his preaching, makes him determined to win them back to a right way of thinking.

Application

Though he knows that none of the Lord’s chosen people can be lost, he also knows that it is by means of these warnings that God will restore them. But how can they be restored if they do not take these warnings seriously? Nevertheless he was confident that he will succeed, and though he speaks with passion, he does not speak with desperation. We are actors in God’s drama; the plot is written in advance but we must live out our parts as if all depended on us, for God has made each one the guardian of his own spiritual interests.

We must be careful when we are dealing with those who are in danger of falling away from the gospel that we do not falsely comfort them with their security in Christ. At such a time we may need to pull a veil over this doctrine, not because we do not believe it, but because it is not appropriate to hold out any hope except that based on the individual’s willing return to the Lord.

Questions

The word ‘suffered’ may also be translated ‘experienced’, in which case the reference is not to their persecutions but to all that they had experienced of the life of faith, which they were now turning their backs on.

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Galatians 3:4 Commentary and Bible Study