Galatians 4: Let Christ Take Shape in You

Introduction

"Who do you want to be when you grow up? Who do you want to look like?" Rubén Gramaje, pastor of the Iglesia Evangélica Bautista El Buen Pastor Madrid, asks this question starting from a news story: that week, Messi was retiring from the Argentine national team, and every child looks up to that player and wants to become like him. The believer has a different model: the Lord Jesus.

This message is part of a series on the letter to the Galatians, whose key verse is Galatians 4:19: "until Christ is formed in you," or, in another version, "until Christ takes definitive shape in you." The pastor sees in the letter steps that help us grow: seeking God's approval and not people's (chapter 1), "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (chapter 2), the role of the Spirit received by faith (chapter 3). Chapter 4 is the fourth step.

Starting from Galatians 4:15-20, he takes up three questions that Paul asks the Galatians and addresses them to the Church today: your joy, your relationship to the truth, and the quality of your concern for others.

Outline of the Message

1. Looking Like Christ, in Concrete Terms

To want to look like Jesus is to want to speak like him, live like him, and eat with those he ate with. "He is our supreme reference." Jesus is Lord, and we follow him above all else.
First trait: washing the feet of others. In John 13, Jesus washes his disciples' feet, then says he did it to give them an example. Our reference is this humility.
Second trait: denouncing injustice. Jesus, who rose early to pray and loved prayer, finds moneychangers doing business in the temple and overturns their tables. "The Lord Jesus was a man of character."
Third trait: eating with those he ate with. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, and people pointed fingers at him for it. "Perhaps he died the way he died because he ate with whom he ate." He came to seek what was lost.

2. Paul's Pastoral Heart

The context is well known: the Judaizers, whom Paul calls agitators, push believers toward circumcision and the keeping of religious calendars. Paul reminds the Galatians that they are justified by faith and that they must embrace the freedom found in Christ.
Paul sees himself as the spiritual father of the Galatians. Years earlier, he had strengthened their faith. Now he writes to them: "My little children, of whom I am again in travail."
Paul is not obsessed with winning followers for himself. He tells the Corinthians: "Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ." He always points to Christ.
The pastor's message: the mind of Christ must take a real and definitive shape in us. It does so through the Spirit, without our losing joy, anchored in the truth of the gospel, with a sincere brotherly concern for the good of others.

3. First Question: Where Has Your Joy Gone?

Verse 15: "Where then is the blessing you enjoyed?" The Galatians had welcomed Paul with joy, as a messenger of Christ. They would have plucked out their eyes to give them to him. The pastor notes that some see here a sign of an eye condition, perhaps the thorn in the flesh, though the text does not say so exactly.
The question becomes ours: what can produce a lack of enthusiasm in the Lord's work? Jesus sums up the law like this: love God with all your heart. The pastor insists: "You cannot love God with half of your heart, nor with almost all of your heart."
The Church in Ephesus, in Revelation 2, worked hard, but it had abandoned its first love. The Lord tells it: repent and do the first works. "He does not tell it: play the victim. He does not tell it: justify yourself."
"It's cold season," the pastor says with a smile, his throat sore, "but it's also the season of spiritual colds." Jesus had announced it: the love of most will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.
There are many thieves of joy: worries, circumstances. In Galatians, the thief of joy is legalism.
A burglarized family tells the forensic police that they had locked the door. "But did you turn the key?" No. "Then you did not lock it properly: you left the door open." We often blame the thieves of joy, but we must admit that we ourselves leave certain doors open. It is up to us not to allow it.

4. Second Question: Does the Truth Still Confront You?

Verse 16: "Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?" The truth hurts. When we come to the gospel, it confronts us: we are sinners and we must repent.
The pastor's question: does the truth of the gospel continue to confront your life? The price to pay for following Jesus comes up every day, not only on the day of conversion.
The rich young man asks what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus answers him: sell what you have, give it to the poor, and follow me. "Did he go away happy?" No, very sad, because he had great wealth. The problem is not the things, but the things that take the place that belongs to God.
"How many times do we say: family first. The gospel does not say that. Work first, the gospel does not say that either. Health first, even less so." We must take care of all of these, but Jesus says: "seek first God's Kingdom and his righteousness."
Christian freedom cost the Lord dearly, for he gave his life on a cross. "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free": to know, here, is not to accumulate information, it is to truly meet the Lord.
As a child, the pastor often came home with scrapes. His mother would say: "Don't worry, Rubén, I'll get the hydrogen peroxide." He would cry just hearing it, because it really stung. "The truths of the gospel sting, they offend, but they heal." The Lord uses living water, a water that heals and fills with life.
The Galatians were slaves to legalism. Today, we are sometimes slaves to emotionalism, to emotional dependencies, and to the emotional blackmail that keeps other family members from growing. Others build a faith to their own measure instead of seeking God's approval.

5. Third Question: Is Your Concern for Others Sincere?

Verse 17: the agitators are zealous for the Galatians, but not for their good. They want to isolate them from Paul so that they have no choice but to follow them. "It is almost a cultlike intention: they only want to win followers."
The pastor pauses on a word. The Church, the ekklêsia, already referred to the assembly of citizens summoned to the agora in Athens. The first Christians took it up to speak of the community of those "called out." In this Church, everyone has a place: "you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).
The verb used in verse 17 is very similar to it, but with the opposite meaning: to exclude, to isolate, literally to shut the door. "How is it that you, who would have given me your eyes, now shut the door on me?"
Verse 18: the Galatians' own concern showed itself only when Paul was present. Christian concern must come from the heart, seek the good of brothers and sisters, and last.
Timothy is the example. Paul writes to the Philippians: "For I have no one likeminded, who will truly care about your state." True concern is founded on love and tenderness.
To be concerned for others is to offer your shoulder and carry burdens together. But the second question often comes back: sometimes you will have to tell a brother that a truth of the gospel confronts his life, "with all humility, all tenderness, and all compassion."

6. From Labor Pains Until Christ Takes Shape

"My little children, I love you so much." Paul compares his suffering to that of a woman giving birth. "We men have a hard time understanding this text. Those who are mothers will understand it much better." The pain is inexplicable, but then comes the joy of the baby's arrival.
Paul suffers in this way until the moment when Christ takes definitive shape in the Galatians' lives.
First applications: if some elements of your life make you lose enthusiasm and joy, take responsibility before the Lord and tell him that you want to walk by the Spirit, the theme of chapter 5.
There are aspects of the gospel that confront us and that we must accept. It is a process of maturity. There are values of the gospel that you have not yet let into your own life.
Take care of the fellowship of your Church: pray for its unity and work actively at the bond between brothers and sisters, so that together you can accomplish the mission that Christ has entrusted to you.
The pastor ends with a simple prayer: "Lord, help me so that my life reflects Christ." May he help us to live by the Spirit and to move forward in all humility.

Key Takeaways

The goal of the Christian life is for Christ to take shape in us: his humility, his character in the face of injustice, his table open to the lost.
Thieves of joy are many, but we often leave the door open to them. The remedy is to repent and return to our first love.
The truth of the gospel confronts our priorities every day. Like hydrogen peroxide, it stings, but it heals and sets us free.
Christian concern for others comes from the heart, it lasts, and it dares to speak the truth with tenderness.

Personal Application

Have you lost the joy and enthusiasm of your early days with the Lord? Which door have you left open to what steals them from you?
What comes "first" in your life: family, work, health, or the Kingdom of God?
Which truth of the gospel is stinging you right now, one you are still avoiding accepting?
Does your concern for your brothers and sisters last when no one is watching? Do you know how to tell a truth with humility and tenderness?
Can you make this prayer your own this week: "Lord, help me so that my life reflects Christ"?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "until Christ is formed in you" mean in Galatians 4:19?

For Rubén Gramaje, it is the great challenge of the believer: to think, speak, and live like Jesus. The mind of Christ must take a real and definitive shape in our lives. It does so through the Spirit, without losing joy, by staying anchored in the truth of the gospel and with a sincere concern for the good of others.

What had stolen the Galatians' joy?

Legalism. Influenced by the Judaizers, the Galatians were turning back to circumcision and religious calendars. The preacher reminds us that there are many thieves of joy, but that we often leave the door open ourselves. The answer is the one given to the Church in Ephesus: repent and return to the works of the beginning.

Why can the truth of the gospel hurt?

Because it confronts our priorities, as it did for the rich young man. Rubén Gramaje compares it to the hydrogen peroxide of his childhood: it stings, but it heals. The truths of the gospel sometimes sting and offend, but they heal, because the Lord wants to set us free.