Year 8, Day 140: Galatians 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

There are multiple levels that we can go with this lesson today.  I think the most readily insightful teaching is the one about law versus gospel.  Paul says it in multiple ways.  Law equates to bondage; gospel equates to freedom.  Law equates to immaturity; gospel equates to maturity.

As I was taking this all in, an analogy about human civilization hit me.  I’ve begun to notice that the more we legislate people’s behaviors, the less they seem to be able to behave in society.  I’m not talking about rebellion, I’m actually talking about decision-making capacity.  The more laws we make, the less we teach people to think.  The more laws we make, the more restricted we allow people’s brains to become.  They grow unaccustomed to making decisions because the law tells them exactly what they cannot do.  Since they become unaccustomed to making decisions, when an opportunity for a decision comes along, they are more apt to make the wrong one.  We don’t want a civilization where people are legislated into right choices because it’s the only choice available to them!  We want a civilization where people grow up to make right choices because they have been taught how to make good decisions and they want to make good decisions.  Righteous people come out of freedom, not legalism!

Here’s another analogy.  It can be amazing to watch someone who has only gone to a specific restaurant suddenly go to a new restaurant.  Take a child that has only ever been to McDonalds and only ever gotten the hamburger kids meal.  You pick them up and put them in a restaurant that has a good, yet normal, selection of food.  In most cases, even though the child could have anything they want, they will want the hamburger – and probably not even want lettuce, onion, or tomato on it.  They will want a bun, some meat, and few condiments.  That’s what legalism does to people!  That’s why Paul wants people to be free in Christ, not bound by the Law.

Another direction that I went as I read today’s verse is that Paul seems to be asking the Galatians why they reverted back to legalism.  Paul wants to know why someone would choose bondage when freedom is available!  Paul wants to know why someone would go into a wonderful restaurant professionally trained chef and voluntarily choose to order the plain burger.  Why do human being so often prefer to be bound than free?

The answer is usually easy to discern: simplicity.  Choice is difficult.  Making good decisions is a hard skill to master.  Learning how to choose what is best instead of what is fun or easy takes maturity.  That’s why legalism doesn’t lead to maturity!  It is far easier to get up and go through the motions every day than to get up and make meaningful decision after meaningful decision.  It’s easier to believe in a religion where there is only one right course of action than it is to believe in a God who offers you a plethora of right decisions and knows that the opportunity for making a plethora of bad decisions also exists!

Why did the Galatians go back to the Law?  Why does the child who only knows hamburgers order a hamburger at every restaurant?  It’s easier.  It’s not a matter of better.  It’s often not even a matter of happier.  It’s a matter of ease.  Human beings are creatures of ease, which is what makes us creatures of habit.

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