MESSAGE #14 || AUGUST 2, 2026 || GALATIANS 4:8-11 || Listen HERE
Today, we continue our series of messages from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. After Paul had planted these churches in the province of Galatia (modern-day Turkey), Jewish false teachers had infiltrated them and worked to persuade the new converts that Paul had led to Christ to reject what Paul had taught them about the gospel of grace through Jesus Christ. By the time Paul writes this letter, these false teachers had nearly succeeded in getting these new believers to change their understanding of how God saves sinners.
Paul had preached to them that sinners are saved by God’s free grace as they clearly see their need for a Savior and place their faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ alone, not any works of obedience to any law is what God uses to unite sinners to Jesus and save them from their sin. The false teachers had wrongly claimed that in order for the Gentiles to be saved, they must not only trust in Christ, they must also obey Jewish Law under the covenant God made with Moses.
In Galatians, Paul strongly refutes this lie and from the middle of chapter three until today’s text, he argues against the false teachers by citing examples from the Old Testament that reveal how God had worked among his people, the Jews. Paul labors to convince the Galatian believers that since Jesus had come, they’re no longer under the temporary law covenant of Moses that required obedience to the Jewish law. He argues that because of their faith in Jesus, they’re now under the eternal covenant God made with Abraham four centuries before Moses. This covenant relationship with God requires faith alone to make a person right with God.
We’ve seen the past two weeks that part of what Paul argues is that, even as Gentiles, because of their faith that unites them to Jesus, they are children of Abraham and sons of God. Contrary to what the false teachers claimed, Paul claims that, with the coming of Christ, the law covenant of Moses had expired, was now obsolete and no longer had any authority over them.
He concludes this section (where he cites salvation history to support his argument) in the text that Andy read beginning with verse eight. Because this is the conclusion of this argument, it’s basically a restatement of what he’s already said. After we examine these verses, we must then take up some of the very important theological questions that Paul’s conclusion raises, especially concerning the doctrine of salvation. He begins with verse eight. “8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.”
This verse is typical of what the New Testament teaches about all religions other than Christianity. That is, that anyone who does not believe in Jesus is in some way enslaved to whatever it is they believe in. All other belief systems apart from Christianity are enslaving to the human soul because they are false. Only truth—the truth of the gospel, can spiritually liberate a sinner from the enslaving power embedded in all false religions. This includes Judaism after Jesus. The Jews who rejected Jesus as their Messiah and believed that law-keeping can make a person right with God were enslaved to those lies. But just as enslaved, were the pagan Gentiles in these Galatian churches. They were enslaved by their former worship of pagan idols that, while claiming to be gods, are not gods.
We saw last week that part of the reason that the idol worship of paganism enslaves its worshippers is the truth Paul reveals in First Corinthians 10:20. That is, “…what pagans sacrifice [to their false gods] they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.” Though the pagan gods are not gods, they are not harmless. Paul reveals that there are demonic powers behind the false pagan gods. Therefore, worshipping demonized pagan gods is spiritually enslaving.
In our text for today, Paul, as he did back in chapter one, expresses his astonishment at these Galatian believers. He is absolutely dumbfounded that these new believers in Jesus, having left behind their enslavement to false gods, and having experienced the spiritual liberty that comes from faith in Jesus, can now turn back to their former enslavement to false religion. This is his point in verse nine, “9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”
This verse confirms what we’ve seen before. That is, that Paul assumes these Galatians are genuine believers, followers of Christ. He says that they “have come to know God or rather to be known by God” (more on that later). One reason for his astonishment at the believers’ return to their former enslavement is in verse 10 when he says, “10 You observe days and months and seasons and years!”
We know from later in the letter that the Galatian Gentile believers had not yet submitted to the Jewish rite of circumcision. But verse ten reveals that they were well on their way to living like Jews in their obedience to other areas of the law of Moses. When Paul speaks of them observing “days and months and seasons and years” he’s referring to the Jewish holy days prescribed by God to Moses—the sabbaths, new moons and the Jewish festival days.
It’s important that we see the amazing connection Paul makes here between the paganism these Gentiles left behind and the Judaism they were beginning to embrace. He reminds them that they came out of paganism where they worshipped gods that were not gods. He says in verse nine that they were turning “back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world.” Last week, we saw that the “elementary principles of the world” was a phrase implying demonic enslavement due to the demonic nature of the idols they worshipped.
And yet, the mind-blowing revelation from Paul in verse 10 is that he cites as exhibit “A” that they were turning back to these demonic elementary principles of the world, NOT that they were returning to worshipping their former pagan gods. No, what he equates with their turning back to the demonic elementary principles of the world is their observation of the Jewish calendar! Do you hear what he’s saying here? He’s equating the Gentiles’ previous worship of their demonic pagan gods with their current observation of Jewish law! Paul teaches here that worshipping false pagan gods and trying to earn merit with God by obeying his law are BOTH equally expressions of the “elementary principles of the world.” This is astounding!
Now that Jesus has come and made obsolete the Mosaic law, that means that seeking to please God by following the Jewish law is now a false religion and is therefore part of the same “elementary principles of the world” that are demonically charged. Judaism cannot get you to God any more than pagan idol worship can. Only faith in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, can bring people to God as his adopted sons who cry to him “Abba, Father.”
Paul concludes in verse 11 with, “11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.” What does Paul mean here by laboring in vain? He’s concerned that his labors in the gospel on behalf of the Galatians might count for nothing if they turn back to false religion. But does he mean that he’s concerned that the Galatians might have lost their salvation? We know he can’t mean that because of what he says elsewhere. For instance, in last week’s memory verse in Philippians 1:6 where he says to the church in Philippi, “6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
That tells us that our salvation is God’s work, not ours. Paul is sure—he has zero doubt—that the Philippians will remain in the faith because it is GOD who began the work of their salvation and GOD will most definitely complete his saving work in them. Anyone who, by God’s grace, is born-again will see their salvation completed at the day of Jesus Christ at his second coming. So, because God always completes any saving work he begins, Paul is clearly not worried about the Galatians losing their salvation.
We see more proof of the assurance of the unbreakable nature of salvation in Romans chapter eight. Speaking of God, Paul says, “30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” No one who God calls to himself through Jesus falls through the cracks. If he called you, he will justify you and if he justified you, he will glorify you when you see Jesus. There are no dropouts or weak links in this glorious chain of salvation.
So, if Paul clearly believes that a genuine believer cannot lose his salvation, what does he mean here in his concern over laboring in vain among these Galatians? We get some insight from other similar statements from Paul. He says in Philippians chapter two. “14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing,15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”
The condition that determines whether or not you are a genuine believer is NOT, if God allows you to walk away from him. He won’t allow that. But those who ARE saved at the judgment are those who, by God’s grace, persevere in their faith or, as Paul says are “holding fast to the word of life.” True saints persevere to the end. That’s his point. We see the same truth in First Corinthians 15.
Paul says, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” Vain belief, or faith that does NOT save, is a faith that does not hold fast to the gospel. A so-called believer who walks away from Christ hasn’t lost his salvation. He was never a genuine believer in the first place. That’s what Paul means when he expresses his concern about laboring in vain over them. He’s concerned that, even after all his work in the gospel, these Galatians could still not be genuine believers because, as we have seen elsewhere, believers “hold fast to the word” preached.
That’s the text for this morning. Now, we must think for a while about some of the important theological questions Paul raises here. At the heart of those questions is Paul’s statement in verse nine. He’s speaking about the fundamental change in their relationship with God that these Galatian believers experienced when they turned from their false gods to faith in Christ.
We only mentioned this first part of verse earlier. He says, “9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” The reason for Paul’s astonishment, beyond anything else, is that these Galatians had come to know God. We’ll get to the rest of this verse in a moment, but we dare not skip over the fact that when a person believes in Jesus, he/she comes to know God on a personal level. At the nuclear core of what it is to be in a right relationship with God is to know him.
Jesus reveals this in his prayer in John 17:3. He says, “3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Don Carson says of this verse, “Eternal life turns on nothing more and nothing less than knowledge of the true God. Eternal life is not so much everlasting life as personal knowledge of the Everlasting One.[1]” God through Jeremiah reveals the essential difference between the Old Covenant of law in Moses and the New Covenant in Christ. He says in chapter 31, “34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
At the heart of the New Covenant relationship that Jesus Christ died to bring is the foundational blessing of sinners being able to personally know God. And Paul has revealed in Galatians just what kind of personal knowledge this is. This is knowing God as your Father—NOT some kind of estranged or aloof father, but to know God as a Father to whom we cry “Abba”—a cry of extreme intimacy.
Most believers are just not all that deeply impacted by the truth that we can come to know the holy, infinite Creator and Sustainer of the universe with the intimacy of a child to his father. Our failure to be absolutely gob smacked by that truth is a testimony to the dullness of our hearts. In a million years from now, when glorified believers are in heaven, we will still be utterly blown away by the fact that the infinite and eternal God is …our Father, just like he is the Father of his Son, Jesus.
Paul is astonished that someone who knows God could begin to turn back to enslaving spiritual estrangement. In addition to this, Paul does something unusual for an author of Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit. He communicates our knowledge of God in a curious sort of way. He says, “9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God…” You can’t miss the fact that Paul says something and then immediately qualifies what he has just said. He speaks first of coming to “know God” but he immediately qualifies himself. “or rather to be known by God.” It’s certainly true that believers know God. That is an accurate statement.
So, Paul is not correcting a mistake here in speaking of believers coming to know God. But why does the Holy Spirit that inspires Paul want us to see that we “come to know God” but more precisely, we “are known by God?” Why does he phrase this like that—first stating it, and then immediately expressing it more precisely? The reason Paul qualifies his statement by reframing how he spoke about our knowledge of God is this. He wants to clarify and EMPHASIZE who is the active agent in initiating this relationship and who is the passive agent? When Paul speaks of believers “who come to know God,” that could be understood as him saying that believers take the initiative to know God. We come to know God.
Paul, however, makes an extra effort here to absolutely ensure we do NOT get that impression! It’s NOT that people actively seek after God and in their searching, they come to know him. That understanding makes the sinner active and God more or less passive in the process of sinners coming to know him. But Paul wants us to be clear that this is NOT how a sinner comes to know God! In Romans chapter three, he says, “11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.” No sinner seeks to know God. As much as some would have us think otherwise, sinners are NOT seekers. Its GOD who ALWAYS takes the initiative in making himself known to us.
One reason for this is because of what Paul reveals in Ephesians chapter two, “1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins.” Spiritually dead people don’t seek after God. In order for them to know God, they must first be brought from death to life and only God does that through the miracle of regeneration or the new birth. Along the same line, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14 “14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
Even the things of God, much less God himself, are folly to the unsaved person. They’re not able to spiritually discern God in any way, much less come to know him as their “abba.” But this is not just Paul who emphasizes our inability to know God on our own. Jesus says in John 6:44 “44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
The verb translated “draws” literally means to pull or haul with force. This same word is used in Acts 16 for Paul and Silas being dragged into the marketplace. In Acts 21, it’s used for people dragging Paul out of the temple. It’s transparently clear who the active party is in establishing this relationship. It’s GOD who drags the sinner to Jesus. This is why Paul wants to make clear that no one, independent of God’s initiative in saving them, comes to know God. The only people who know God are those who, by HIS decisive act, are actively brought into relationship with him. Again, Paul’s point is to clarify and EMPHASIZE that GOD is in the active participant in initiating this relationship.
As we close, what are we to take from this text? One truth is that I hope we see more clearly now that we must think biblically about those who claim to be believers, but who are not walking with God. The bible reveals many related truths about to people who we commonly call “backslidden.” First, it’s important for us to know that genuine believers, genuine sons of God can be backslidden for a season. They can temporarily drift from away from God. The hymnist is right when he says that are hearts are “prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”
We mentioned the prodigal son recently as an example of backsliding. But also, Hebrews chapter three says, “12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” This warning verse would make no sense if it were not possible for a genuine believer to withdraw from God. The author of Hebrews tells us the church is an important restraining influence that God uses to keep believers from wandering away. As we daily exhort one another to remain faithful, God can and does use that to keep us from falling away.
For the genuine believer who is wandering, God will intervene through his loving discipline to bring the believer to his/her senses and repent of their waywardness. Hebrews 12:7 says, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is here whom his father does not discipline.” Verse 10 continues, “10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” The true son of God who is wandering will, because of God’s fatherly love, receive discipline, be miserable, and will produce the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
So, it’s possible for a child of God to backslide, but we must not take that truth and apply it past its biblical foundation which, sadly, so many believers wrongly do in the west. You hear this done all the time from family members who claim that their loved ones are believers. These loved ones typically prayed a “sinner’s prayer” when they were kids or were active in youth group, but they haven’t been part of a church or read their bibles or in any discernible way followed Christ for several years. If these people die in their wayward state, it’s not uncommon for their believing loved ones to remind the pastor that he should, at the funeral, confirm to those in attendance that their loved one is now with Jesus. At that point, it’s the words of Jesus, not the wishes of grieving family members that must prevail.
Jesus says in both Matthew 24:13 and Mark 13:13, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” For Jesus, the final, conclusive test for whether a person is a genuine believer is, he or she endures to the end of their life, faithful to Jesus. Again, the Fighter Verse from last week means that an indefinite falling away period does NOT indicate a believer is backslidden but was much more likely never saved. Again, Paul says in Philippians chapter one, “6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Because God is faithful to complete our salvation, someone who claims to have prayed a prayer or had a spiritual experience 20 years ago, but who has given no sign of spiritual life since then, has not been brought to completion which means we have no reason for confidence that they are a believer.
I speak from personal experience; these truths are very sobering for their loved ones left behind or parents who have wayward offspring. Many of us have children who at one time professed Christ and perhaps showed what appeared to be spiritual fruit, but who walked away from Christ years ago. We do a disservice to the power of God to keep his people saved and bring them to completion when we claim these people are believers.
The good news is that, for those still alive, there is always hope that God will hear our prayers for the salvation of our lost loved ones and will bring them to a true saving knowledge of God. But it’s better to act on the biblical truth about their souls and, by God’s grace, pray that our lost loved ones will come to Christ than to hold out vain hopes for something for which we have no biblical support for believing.
May God give us the grace to be known by God and follow him closely all our lives for his glory and our joy.
[1] Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 556). Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
