Galatians 4:19 – “Cause It’s All About You Jesus

As usual, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:

¹⁹My little children, for whom I am in labor again until Christ be formed in you …

Over the years, I have become more and more thankful for musicians. In every generation, the Lord raises up scores of people He has gifted to encourage the rest of us with their music. One of those musicians is Michael W. Smith who wrote “Heart of Worship.” The song is so appropriate to this generation, as the chorus says:

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus

It’s true of me and I think of pretty much our entire generation that we got so caught up in “religion” that we missed the point of it all. Jesus.

And I quote the song here because I think that’s what Paul is trying to tell the Galatians. They’re missing the whole point of it all. Jesus. The Judaizers have them thinking it’s about the rules. And even though what they’re talking about is the very OT itself, when it takes the place of Jesus, even the OT law, inscribed by the very finger of God, becomes “weak and beggarly elements.” As he says in Colossians, those things “were a shadow of things to come; the reality however is Christ.”

Thus in his emotional frenzy of concern, Paul blurts out, “My little children, for whom I am in labor again until Christ be formed in you…!” and never finishes his sentence. “Until Christ be formed in you …” The point of it all. Jesus.

Alas, for us! Children of Adam. Born with dark hearts. Alienated from God. Enslaved to our own desires. Literally hell-bent in self-destruction. Made in the image of God but twisted and broken.

But from the very beginning, God promised the Seed of the Woman who would come and crush the head of the serpent! At that time, God covered them with the skins of animals but He intended so much more. He is a saving God, a Redeemer. From the beginning, He planned to send Jesus to win the victory of the Cross, pay the penalty of our sins, and make it possible not just to somehow cover our sins, but to send the Holy Spirit, the very third Person of the Trinity, to literally take up residence in our dark hearts, and empower us not just to “do right” but to be right.  Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, fallen, darkened, self-destructive, hopeless sinners can actually become like the perfect man, Jesus. Christ can be “formed in us.”

I confess until I studied this book of Galatians, I never really understood the enormity of all of this. The New Covenant Holy Spirit indwells us to actually empower us not just to do right but to be right, to be Christ-like. I’m not just a redeemed sinner trying to live a Christ-like life. I have Divine power living in my heart, there to totally change who and what I am! That I might be not Adam but Christ! Not a child of sin but a son of God!

“Until Christ be formed in you.” Back in Deut 5:25-29, Moses gave the people God’s law, and they responded, “… tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey.” The Lord told Moses, “I have heard what this people said to you … Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always …”    “Oh, their hearts …” Even then, the Lord wanted their hearts. What they failed to realize was they could not make such a promise, “We will listen and obey.” While a few Israelites (David, Daniel, etc.) rose to exemplary lives, yet the nation as a whole was living proof that there was something grossly lacking. 1400 years after Moses they proved the depths of their depravity by crucifying the very Messiah Himself.

Jesus quoted Isaiah 54:13 when He reminded them of a time of future blessing, “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’” And of course Joel prophesied, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days” (2:28-29). And Peter explained this was exactly what was happening on Pentecost: “These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:15,16).

What was going on? The Lord was fulfilling His own desire, “Oh their hearts …” Jesus' victory on the Cross meant He could now send the very Holy Spirit of God to not only “help” people but to literally take up residence in their hearts! Born children of Adam? Yes. Still their natural heart rotten even with faith? Yes. But when indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God they can be said to be “born again!” The change is so dramatic, Paul could actually tell the Thessalonian believers, “Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other” (I Thess 4:9). Again this is the very change of which Jesus quoted Isaiah 54:13, “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’”

Holy Spirit indwelling. That our heart may be changed. That “Christ be formed in you!”

This is in one sense “the point of it all!” Not just “shadows of things to come” but “the reality which is Christ!”

This is the profound difference between Old and New Testament believers. Again, the Holy Spirit obviously helped OT believers, taught them, empowered them, and changed them. But there was an “outside/in” sense to it all. They still had those rotten hearts. This side of the Cross, He literally takes up residence in our hearts! We all have the indwelling presence of a power to put on Christ that simply didn’t exist before! We are no longer under the tutelage of the Law because we are children of God, we are the heirs. The time of tutelage ended. It is time to stand up and accept the inheritance, the estate.

Again, I have to confess I’ve never understood the enormity of all of this before. I think I have always seen myself much as an OT believer, working from the “outside/in,” trying to figure out how to live Christ, but in sense “on my own.” “Oh, yes, the Holy Spirit is there,” I would have acknowledged, but somehow it was still an outside/in thing.

But this is the glorious age of the outpoured, indwelling Spirit! I have dwelling within my very heart infinite Divine power to be changed, to be different, to be like Christ, to not just “learn” God’s heart, but to actually share it, to see the world through His eyes, to see myself through His eyes, to see others through His eyes!

This is all why Paul can say later in the book, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (5:22,23). “Against such things there is no law.” Why not? Because people who understand don’t need laws. People indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God have the power available within them to see God’s big picture, to see the goals, and to rise above the power of their flesh, to rise above the power of indwelling sin, and be controlled instead by the indwelling Holy Spirit!

In a sense, I only need to let Him! I still need to feed on the Word. I still have to make choices to live according to that Word. I still must “choose” to love. But it is also true in a sense it’s not up to me. I am indwelt. There is a sense in which the choice is only to “walk in the Spirit.” 
 

As John Eadie said, “Christ is the one principle of life and holiness, -- not Christ contemplated as without, but Christ dwelling within by His Spirit; not speculation about His person or His doctrine, nor the vehement defense of orthodox belief, not the knowledge of His character and work, nor profession of faith in Him with an external submission to the ordinances of His church. Very different – Christ in them, and abiding in them: His light in their minds, His love in their hearts, His law in their conscience, His Spirit their formative impulse and power, His presence filling and assimilating their entire inner nature, and His image in visible shape and symmetry reproducing itself in their lives.

This is all so liberating and encouraging! It is the “freedom for which Christ has set us free!” And it is the very reason Paul is so distraught about the Galatians resorting to legalism – which is totally an “outside/in” thing, at best, even when the Laws were God’s! They’re missing the “point of it all.” God wants us to be like Christ. And in the NT, it isn’t just a “hope so.” It is as present and real as the indwelling Holy Spirit Himself. My old rotten spirit (my “flesh”) is still there, but the infinitely greater Holy Spirit is there too and He will empower me to be like Christ!

I hope you see why I so identify with Michael W. Smith, as I quoted his song back at the beginning:

 I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus

May we not waste our NT blessing. May Christ truly be formed in us!