The Signs of the Times, vol. 25

March 15, 1899

“Studies in Galatians. Bond-Servants and Freemen. Galatians 4:7-31; 5:1” The Signs of the Times, 25, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The fifth chapter of Galatians contains a great deal of personal matter which is interesting as showing the apostle Paul’s zeal and tenderness, but which for the purpose of our study may be summarized in a few words. The thirteenth verse lets us know that he was in great bodily affliction when he first preached the Gospel to the Galatians, and the fifteenth verse seems to indicate that his eyes were specially affected. His deep affliction may have had much to do with the vigor with which he preached the Gospel to them, causing them to see Christ crucified; for he tells us: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9, 10. We see that the brethren had conceived a deep love for him, because of the blessedness which they experienced through his preaching, and to this he appeals. He assures them that in their departure from the faith they have not injured him at all; he is not troubled over their disaffection towards him, but over their falling away from Christ. SITI March 15, 1899, page 180.1

With this introduction we may proceed with the study, beginning with verse 7, the one with which we closed our last week’s lesson, and skipping from verse 11 to verse 21. SITI March 15, 1899, page 180.2

The Scripture

“Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are; ye have not injured me at all. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 4:7-31; 5:1. SITI March 15, 1899, page 180.3

Heathen Bondage. —“At that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them which by nature are no gods.” Galatians 4:8, R.V. The Galatians had been heathen, worshiping idols, in bondage to horrible and degrading superstitions. Bear in mind that this bondage is the same as that which is spoken of in the preceding chapter,—they were “shut up” under the law. It was the very same bondage in which all unconverted persons are, for in the second and third chapters of Romans we are told that “there is no difference; for all have sinned.” The Jews themselves, who did not know the Lord by personal experience, were in the same bondage,—the bondage of sin. “Every one that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin.” John 8:34, R.V. And “he that committeth sin is of the devil.” 1 John 3:8. “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God.” 1 Corinthians 10:20. But ourselves once walked “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), and we “were aforetime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another” (Titus 3:3, R.V.). So we also were “in bondage to them which by nature are no gods.” The meaner the master, the worse the bondage. What language can depict the horror of being in bondage to corruption itself? SITI March 15, 1899, page 180.4

In Love with Bondage. —“Now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known of God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again?” Is it not strange that men should be in love with chains? Christ has proclaimed “liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isaiah 61:1), saying to the prisoners, “Go forth,” and to them that are in darkness, “Show yourselves” (Isaiah 49:9); yet men who have heard these words, and have come forth, and have seen the light of “the Sun of Righteousness,” and have tasted the sweets of liberty, actually turn round and go back into their prison, submit to be bound with their old chains, even fondling them, and labor away at the hard treadmill of sin. Who has not had something of that experience? It is no fancy picture. It is a fact that men can come to love the most revolting things, even death itself; for Wisdom says, “All they that hate Me love death.” Proverbs 8:36. In reading the Epistle to the Galatians, we are reading a perfectly human experience. Would that to every reader it might be his own experience to the end of the book. Let us not stop here. SITI March 15, 1899, page 180.5

Observing Heathen Customs. —“Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.” This was an evidence of their bondage. “Ah,” says some one, “they had gone back to the old Jewish Sabbath; that was the bondage against which Paul would warn us!” How strange it is that men have such an insane hatred of the Sabbath, which the Lord Himself gave to the Jews, in common with all other people on the earth, that they will seize upon every word that they think they can turn against it, although in order to do so they must shut their eyes to all the words that are around it! Anybody who reads the Epistle to the Galatians, and thinks as he reads, must know that the Galatians were not Jews. They had been converted from heathenism. Therefore, previous to their conversion they had never had anything to do with any religious custom that was practiced by the Jews. They had nothing whatever in common with the Jews. Consequently, when they turned again to the “weak and beggarly elements” to which they were willing again to be in bondage, it is evident that they were not going back to any Jewish practice. They were going back to their old heathen customs. “But were not the men who were perverting them Jews?”—Yes, they were. But remember this one thing, when you seek to turn a man away from Christ to some substitute for Christ, you can not tell where he will end. You can not make him stop just where you want him to. If a converted drunkard loses faith in Christ, he will take up his drinking habits as surely as he lives, even though the Lord may have taken the appetite away from him. So when these “false brethren”—Jewish opposers of “the truth of the Gospel” as it is in Christ-succeeded in seducing the Galatians from Christ, they could not get them to stop with Jewish ceremonies. No; they inevitably drifted back to their old heathen superstitions. SITI March 15, 1899, page 180.6

Forbidden Practices. —Read the tenth verse again, and then read Deuteronomy 18:10: “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.” Now read what the Lord says to the heathen who would shield themselves from just judgment that is about to come upon them: “Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.” Isaiah 47:13. Here we see that the very things to which the Galatians were returning, were forbidden by the Lord when He brought Israel out of Egypt. Now we might as well say that when God forbade these things He was warning the Israelites against keeping the Sabbath, as to say that Paul was upbraiding the Galatians for keeping it, or that he had any reference to it whatever. God forbade these things at the very time when He gave the commandment concerning Sabbath-keeping. So far back into their old ways had the Galatians gone that Paul was afraid lest all his labor on them had been in vain. SITI March 15, 1899, page 180.7

Desiring to be Under the Law. —“Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?” After what we have already had, there will be no one to come with the objection that to be under the law can not be a very deplorable condition, else the Galatians would not have desired to be under it. Ah, “there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death”! Proverbs 14:25. How many there are who love ways that everybody except themselves can see are leading them direct to death, yes, there are many who, with their eyes wide open to the consequences of their course, will persist in it, deliberately choosing “the pleasures of sin for a season,” rather than length of days! To be “under the law” of God is to be condemned by it as a sinner chained and doomed to death, yet many millions besides the Galatians have loved the condition, and still love it. Ah, if they would only hear what it says! “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” SITI March 15, 1899, page 180.8

“What Saith the Law?” —It saith, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” To what place shall the wicked bond-servant be cast out?—“Into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Therefore, “remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.” Malachi 4:1, 4. All who are under the law, whether they be called Jews or Gentiles, Christians or Mohammedans, are in bondage to Satan,—in the bondage of transgression and sin,—and are to be cast out. “Every one that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin. And the bond-servant abideth not in the house forever; the son abideth forever.” Thank God, then, for “the adoption of sons.” SITI March 15, 1899, page 180.9

E. J. WAGGONER.

Continued next week.)