The Bible speaks =
of
receiving the sonship, having the Spirit sent into our hearts, and becoming=
an
heir. This defines the Christ=
ian
life in its three stages—past, present, and future.
Howeve=
r, in
Galatians 4:8-20, Paul dwells in the present. The Galatians are not clear what s=
hould
be currently happening in their Christian lives, so he tells them that Chri=
st
should be formed in them (4:19). This is similar to spe=
aking
of a pregnancy. There is a
conception and a delivery, referring to the beginning and the end. But the middle is the formative
stage. What a woman eats, dri=
nks,
and breathes, together with how she exercises and rests to a large extent,
determines how the child will be formed.&n=
bsp;
The Galatians had=
Christ
within and a beginning relationship with Him (v. 9), but began involving
themselves in other things, things that would have a detrimental effect on =
the
formation of Christ within them.
These were weak and poor elements, such as the religious observation=
of
days and months and seasons and years (v. 10). Once the Christian life is directe=
d to
externals such as those, even the work of a brother like the Apostle Paul c=
an
become useless (v. 11, 20).
How do=
we know
whether Christ is being formed in us?
Paul gives a few examples to the Galatians. He reminds them of how they initia=
lly
were when he came among them and how differently they are now (4:14-16).
Behind=
the
confusion was a group of religious workers who were quite zealous for the
Galatians. This confused the
saints. Isn’t zeal alwa=
ys
good? Isn’t it always r=
elated
to joy and love? Paul said no=
. They were zealous, but not rightly=
. They were excited, but it was exci=
tement
over the prospect of shutting the Galatians out from grace (4:17).
Paul
prioritized everything in this present time as less important than having
Christ formed in us. He treat=
ed any
item somehow related to God, but not contributing to the formation process =
as a
weak and poor element.