To Know
9 But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you return to the weak and bankrupt elemental forces? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? Galatians 4:9 (HCSB)
It is easy to miss, but in verse 9, Paul points the Galatians back to a right relationship with the Father. He makes a comparison between being a slave to an impersonal and nonexistent idol-“god” (v 8) and knowing the true God relationally.
But then he seems to correct himself: “now that you know God—or rather are known by God” (v 9). Paul isn’t saying they don’t know God. Anyone who has eternal life knows God (John 17:3), and Paul does not question that they have “put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). The word “rather” probably means “more importantly.” Paul is saying: How can you turn back to idols since you know God and, more importantly, are known by God?! What makes a person a Christian is not your knowing God but His knowledge of you.
“To know” in the Bible means more than intellectual awareness. To know someone is to enter into a personal relationship with them. So then, Paul says, it’s not so much your regard and love for God, but His regard and love of you, that makes you a Christian. So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:3 that anyone who loves God does so because God knows them.
That is, He has set His love on us in Jesus. Our knowledge of God will rise and fall depending on many things. But God’s knowledge of us is absolutely fixed and solid.
Before his conversion, Paul was one of the best legalists who ever lived. A loyal Jew, he tortured Christians who stepped outside Jewish tradition to follow Christ. If a person could reach God by obeying the Law, he, the strict Pharisee, would have done it.
Chapters 3-4 draw sharp contrasts: a prisoner and a free man, a sheltered child, and an adult are presented. Don’t act like a slave or a child, Paul says. Instead, act like a privileged son, an heir to a great fortune!
Galatians 3-4 are valuable to us reading the Old Testament Scriptures. It shows us that the spiritual lessons of the Old Testament are not for the Jews only but have an application to Christians today (see Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11–12). In the Old Testament, we have preparation for Christ; in the Gospels, the presentation of Christ; and in the Acts through Revelation, the appropriation of Christ.
Your Christian life should take on new wonder and meaning as you realize all you have in Christ. And all of this is by grace—not by Law! You are an adult son in God’s family, an heir of God. Are you drawing on your inheritance? This will be Paul’s theme in the next section.
Unfortunately, many New Testament translations do not distinguish between children of God and sons of God. By accepting Christ, we become children of God by faith in Christ, born into God’s family.
Every child of God is automatically placed into the family as a son or daughter. One has all the legal rights and privileges as a son or daughter. However, when a sinner trusts Christ and is saved, as far as his condition is concerned, he is a “spiritual babe” who needs to grow (1 Peter 2:2–3). Still, as far as his position is concerned, he is an adult son who can draw on the Father’s wealth and exercise all the extraordinary privileges of sonship.
We enter God’s family by regeneration but enjoy God’s family by adoption. The Christian does not have to wait to begin enjoying the spiritual riches he has in Christ. “If a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Gal. 4:7). Now follows Paul’s discussion about adoption. He reminds his readers of these facts.
The Law paved the way for Jesus 3:27-29
Before Christ, we were in bondage to sin - Gal 4:1-3
God Redeem us - Gal. 4:4-5
We are now sons and heirs -Gal. 4: 6-7
Paul expresses concern for the Galatians -Gal. 4: 8-11