When I Became a Man

Introduction

Dr. Sellers: Remember my good old friend David Jeremiah? He reminds me in his commentary on Romans of the time when he and I were both in Dallas — I didn’t know him, and he didn’t know me; he still doesn’t know me. But it reminded me of the special Bible lectures we used to have, where a famous graduate would come back and teach one book of the Bible, first thing in the morning at chapel time. He was there teaching the book of Romans — and I think he’s been on that recently, since he, being dead, yet speaks on the radio. He was a funny guy; his favorite line was “now candidly” — he had a great Southern accent. In the process of telling us that the law was dead, he said there was a woman in Texas. Now, I think the thing was spurious, but it made the point.

Here’s what it was: a lady in Texas grew up with her boyhood sweetheart, married him, and they had a wonderful life. Then one day John died, and she said, “I can’t do without him — what can I do?” So she had him embalmed, put him in a sealed glass case, and set him right by the front door. As you walked in, there was John, sitting in the chair in the case. She would go by and say, “Hey, John, how are you doing today?” And he always answered: nothing at all.

Anyway, she went on about her duties, and at one point she went to Europe on vacation. She met a man there, and they traveled all over Europe together, and finally got married and honeymooned there. She never told him anything about John. When they came back to the big plantation mansion, he thought, “I’d better carry you across the threshold,” so he picked her up, opened the door, and stepped in — and about dropped her. There was John, sitting in the foyer. “What is that?” he said. “Oh,” she said, “I forgot to tell you — that’s John. That’s my first husband.” “Well,” he said, “he’s dead. And because he’s dead, he ought to be out there in the ground.” So that very night he dug a big hole and put John — case and all — in the ground and covered him over. He’s dead, and he ought to be in the ground. He ought to be forgotten.

The point of the story was that the law is dead. And since the law is dead, it ought to be put in the ground and taken away. It does not do anything for righteousness — only Christ does that. In fact, the law pointed to Christ; the aim of righteousness under the law was Christ all along. That made a good point — that the law has been done away.

And people still have it today. “Oh, we’ve got to have a big pile of things.” Now, I don’t mind the Ten Commandments — if you just leave out number four, I’d be fine. Most of that is true today, too. We’ve got to understand: you can’t have all this other business of the law when you have Christ. They do not mix. So that’s his point here. In chapter 4, verses 1 to 11, he’s going to talk about “when I became a man, I put away childish things.” That’s what the law was — childish things. That’s what he’s going to say.

I. Our Situation — 4:1–3

A. The Illustration — 4:1–2

“Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but he is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.”

This passage from childhood to manhood was well known in the first century. The Romans had it, the Greeks had it — basically, when a young man came of age, he donned the toga virilis; he became a man. The Jews, of course, had a different name for it: that passage from boyhood to manhood is called bar mitzvah, which happens at age thirteen or fourteen. But in Hebrew circles, at that age he wasn’t a man yet — he was moving from boyhood toward manhood, but he wasn’t mature; he didn’t reach his majority until age twenty-five. So it makes a lot more sense to see Paul not talking about a child here, but about one who is a man — one who is in his majority.

During that time, it was his estate — he was the one who owned it, but he didn’t do anything about it himself. He was under tutors; people told him what to do. Comb your hair. Get up. Eat your breakfast. All of that — they told him what to do, and these were slaves telling him what to do.

In the Roman situation, the picture was this: if a man died, he left his will and testament, and in that will he spelled out exactly how it ought to be. His last will and testament made the whole thing plain. And this whole process was called adoption. I’m stressing that because we’re going to see later that the word adoption does not mean getting someone into the family. I hear people say that — even Brother Jeremiah. But it’s not that. Just keep in mind that this process is adoption — it has to do with the inheritance. That’s the illustration.

B. The Application — 4:3

“Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.”

“Even so we” includes Paul — the writer — and it also includes the other Jews there in Galatia. He goes on: “We were children, and we were in bondage under the elements of the world.” That phrase, “elements of the world,” would certainly refer to the Gentiles. So he’s talking about all of us. Before Christ came, everyone was under rules and regulations — that’s what religion is. Religion is keeping rules. We don’t have a religion; Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is a relationship — we have a relationship with the Lord, and it’s not by a bunch of rules.

So it’s easy to see the reference to Israel in this passage, but “the elements of the world” have to refer to the Gentile religions. That’s readily clear, I think, as we read Paul’s warning in Colossians 2:20–23 — and I want to read the whole thing, because it’s important to see what he’s saying:

“Since you have died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations — ‘Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,’ which all concern things which perish with the using — according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.”

They are ways of indulging the flesh. In fact, we have these things today — you ever hear of the filthy five, the nasty nine, and the dirty dozen? Certain things you just can’t do — this, this, or this. My doctor once asked me, “Do you smoke or drink?” I said, “No, I don’t lust or swear either.” He chuckled a little at that — but that’s it: smoke, chew, drink, lust, swear. These are the things we put on people. I’m not saying whether you should or shouldn’t do those things. What I’m saying is: those can become works that we try to put on people, saying, “This is what you have to do if you’re really going to be a Christian.”

Concerning these elements, Hendriksen says this: “They are little more than high-sounding nonsense that is distinctly worldly in its origin and character.” I heard about a church that had a system where, when people came in, someone would be out there measuring the length of the boys’ hair — this was back in the sixties and seventies, I expect. They’d measure the boys’ hair, measure the girls’ skirts, and if you weren’t right, you couldn’t come in — you couldn’t even come into the church. Well, that happens, and that’s religiosity going crazy.

So the entire religious system was in need of the grace of God. That was our situation.

II. Our Salvation — 4:4–7

A. The Arrival of the Savior — 4:4–5a

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.”

It was the right season — “the fullness of time.” The condition described above was temporary; now we have a fullness of time — just the right time. We know it was temporary because we’ve already heard it. In fact, that’s why Paul launched into this back in Galatians 3:19: “Why then the law? It was added because of the transgressions, until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.” Remember, we talked last week about seeds and seed. Well, the seed was coming — the seed had come. And now, he says, it’s the fullness of time.

1. It was the Right Season

a. A Common Language — Greek

It was the right time because they had a common language. It’s necessary to have a common language in order to have a cohesive people, and that’s the work of Alexander the Great — his worldwide conquest. Every place he went, he Hellenized it; they learned Greek. The language of commerce was Greek throughout the empire. That’s one thing he gave us — it was a good language. It was a precise language, as some of you who have been through Greek know. It’s very precise, and it could take the intricacies of theology — all that God wanted to give His people — and nail it down exactly right. It was that precise, and it was available to the entire known world at that time.

b. A System of Communication/Transportation

It was also a system of communication and transportation. The Romans had the Roman roads all throughout the empire — you could travel from one place to another with relative safety. The evangelists and teachers could go around; it was easier for them to travel from one town to another, one city to another.

c. Pax Romana — the Peace of Rome

There was also the Pax Romana — the Peace of Rome. Roman law brought peace; no one would even think of attacking Rome at that point, so there was a great deal of peace. Roman citizens were protected — as we remember from Paul, we saw that in the book of Acts — protected wherever they went in the whole empire. So these people could go to various places and carry the gospel.

d. The Bankruptcy of the Pagan Religion

It was also the ideal time because of the bankruptcy of the pagan religions. They offered nothing of eternal value. If you read sometime in Acts chapter 20, about the Ephesians and Diana, you’ll see how silly that was — it had no value at all. Sometimes people even went to the Jews, and found out the Jews didn’t have anything to offer either. So it was bankrupt.

e. The Failure of Israel

And add to that the failure of Israel. Israel had a failed leadership. Who was supposed to lead the country? The king, of course. But at this time the priesthood was running Israel, and the priesthood had gotten rich by robbing the people right in the temple, right in the process of worship. You’d bring your lamb, and they’d say, “Oh, no, that lamb’s not good enough — here, I’ll sell you one.” You’d bring your money, and they’d say, “Oh, no, that money’s no good — take it to the money changers and they’ll change it into the coin of the realm” — and then they’d shortchange you all the way through. That’s how the priesthood got so rich and so powerful. And where was the king? The kingship had sunk so low that the one who was in line to be king — his father, the legal father of the next king — was working as a carpenter. He wasn’t ruling anything. That’s the failed leadership of Israel.

Israel also had a failed mission. The nation was to carry the message of the one true God to the world, all the way to the ends of the earth. But you know what Jesus said about them? “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” That’s pretty poor mission work, I’d say.

It was the right season — it was time for something to happen. And it was also the right Savior.

2. It was the Right Savior

“God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” He was the promised Seed — remember, seed, not seeds. He was the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, according to Matthew’s first verse. He came to be out of woman — “born” is fine, as long as you understand the word really means He came into existence by woman. That has to be a reference to the virgin birth. It doesn’t say so directly, but there’s no mention of His father at all. He became of a woman, and He became under the law — He lived under the law and kept it perfectly, and He did that so He could redeem those who were under the law. There is no article before “law” — it’s not “under the law,” it’s “under those who are under law.” So “law” here refers to all the laws that were placed over people in an effort to reach God. The verb translated “redeem” here is the same one used in Galatians 3:13, where Paul says they were freed from the curse of the law. He’s not talking about the curse here — he’s talking about freedom from the control of the law. That’s what He did. So the arrival of the Savior was noted.

B. The Adoption of Sons — 4:5b

“that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

The adoption has to do with the inheritance. It does not refer to how we get into the family — I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again because it’s that important. How do you get into the family? We were born into the family — born of water and the Spirit, he says. So we’re born into the family; the question is how we come to receive the inheritance. The inheritance came at the time we believed on Jesus Christ — we received eternal life, and we also received that inheritance. The adoption is ours.

So in the illustration he used at the beginning — with the law — there was only one in the family who received the inheritance. He was the heir, usually the oldest one; he received everything, and then he was to take care of the whole family. Well, you know how that goes — if you’ve been in any kind of family gathering, especially more recently, where it’s “this” and “what about this,” pretty soon everybody’s mad at everybody, because they didn’t divide it up right. Well, this man — it was his; it belonged to him. He was supposed to take care of everybody in the family. Sometimes the management of the estate wasn’t very good, so the arrangement didn’t always work out well there.

But Paul says that we have all received the adoption — every one of us. We don’t have to worry about someone else’s. Don’t come to me and ask about your adoption — you’ve got your own. Everybody gets an adoption; that’s an inheritance with God. So the inheritance is in your own hands — it’s upon your own head, really. What you do with it is up to you, and one of these days we’ll stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of how we handled the inheritance God left us. Remember the picture of the servants — one brought two talents, another brought five, whatever they were — all responsible for what God had given them. So while salvation is by grace through faith, the responsibility of taking the inheritance and using it for the Kingdom, for the Lord’s work here, aims toward the Kingdom of God — and if you don’t do that, then you’ll stand before Him at the judgment seat of Christ, and He’ll say, “What did you do with the inheritance?” “What inheritance? They didn’t tell me about that in my church.” Oh, we have the inheritance — it’s in our hands, and how we handle it here will determine how we serve in the Kingdom there, for eternity. That’s the arrival of the Savior, and the adoption of sons.

C. The Advent of the Spirit — 4:6

“And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’”

Everyone who believes receives the Holy Spirit when he believes — we’ve talked about this before: “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Romans 8:9). So everyone who is a believer, who has eternal life, also has the Holy Spirit.

The law cried out to them, “Sinner.” Did you ever see a mother with a little baby in a stroller, and someone comes up and says, “Hey, how old are you?” The baby can’t talk — he’s one year old, he can’t tell you that. So what happens? The mother says, “Say, I’m one year old — how are you today?” The mother says, “This is what you say.” Well, the law was like that. If someone said, “How are you?” the law would say, “Say, I’m a sinner — that’s what you are. You didn’t keep the law.” The law didn’t tell you anything but bad — you’re a sinner.

But on the other hand, the Spirit says something else. The Spirit says, “Abba, Father.” So when someone says, “Whose child are you?” the Spirit says, “Say, Abba, Father — that’s who you are. You’re a child of the Father.” Abba, Father — Abba is the Aramaic word, of course; pater is the Greek word; Father is the English word. That’s what he’s saying. But the word Abba is more informal than that. If I asked you what you called your father, I’d get various answers, but probably not “Father.” I’ll tell you where you’d get “Father” — Father Knows Best. Eleanor Donahue always called Robert Young “Father.” Strange, but that’s what they did. What you called your father was probably more like “Daddy.” I called my father Daddy — later on I called him Dad. Daddy’s a little bit childish; you call him something more familiar. My son called me Pop. Now my granddaughter calls me Pop Pop — I hope I don’t have great-grandchildren calling me Pop Pop Pop! Anyway — I called my father Dad, and my son called me Pop; he’d say, “Hey, Pop,” and I’d say, “Yeah, what?” — that’s nice; I wanted to hear something special. And that’s what he’s saying here: God is more than just “the Father” to you — God is your Daddy. That’s the relationship you have.

D. The Abolition of Slavery — 4:7

“Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

You are no longer a slave. The summary of this section is this: you are no longer a slave, you are a son, and since you are a son — a first-class condition, assumed true — then you are an heir of God.

We used to go to camp meeting when I was a kid, in a holiness church, over at Ellendale, Maryland — that’s where the big camp was. One time I remember we sat up on the platform; there was no other place to sit — my father, my brother, and I, just the three of us went. The song they liked to sing was “I’m Just as Rich as You”: “I’m just as rich as you, I have a mansion too; I’m joint heir with Jesus, and a home beyond the blue. My Father owns it all — the earth and heaven too; I have a crown of glory, and I’m just as rich as you.” No slavery — I’m a son, and since I’m a son, I’m an heir of God. Everything God has is mine. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills — if you’ve got a problem, ask Him to sell a few cattle; He’s got it, He’ll get it.

“My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” — all your need, according to His riches, not out of His riches. You know, “out of” is: I’ll give you something out of my money — if I have a hundred dollars, I’ll give you fifty cents out of it. That’s “out of.” But if I give you something according to my riches, then you have all the way up to my hundred dollars. It’s “according to.” God supplies all our need according to His riches in glory, because we’re heirs. If you’re a son, no longer a slave, you are an heir of God. That’s our situation, our salvation.

III. Our Selection — 4:8–11

A. You Were Ignorant — 4:8

“But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods.”

You did not know God — you were ignorant of God. Paul is not making excuses for the Gentiles, as though not knowing God were understandable and excusable — not so. He says in Romans 1:19–32 — I won’t read it all — that those who do not know God are without excuse; nature itself, in creation, shows who God is, and they are responsible for that knowledge. So he’s saying that in that time, when they were ignorant of God, they served gods who were nothing. Those gods are nothing. It hit me — really, all the gods people served then, and all the gods people serve today, are not the one true God. Anyone who does not come to God through Jesus Christ is serving a no-god. No God. I don’t care who they are, what they call their religion or their god — it is not God, and they don’t get to Him unless they go through Jesus Christ, worldwide, until Jesus comes.

B. You Became Illumined — 4:9a

“But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God,”

This verse is not teaching that the Gentiles had no part in coming to know the Lord — that’s not what “or rather are known by God” means. What he’s saying, I think, is that they did come to know God, but it wasn’t totally by themselves, nor was it totally by God alone. There are different views on this — some say, “Oh, I came to God, and God had nothing to do with it; I just came to Him and asked for my salvation, and I did it.” Others say, “No, it wasn’t you at all — you didn’t do anything; you were dead, and God came to you and just zapped you with salvation.” No — it’s neither of those. Balancing the Christian life — Charles Ryrie, I’ve heard him say it often — the truth is not out there on the edges; the truth is in the middle, bringing the things together. You had to believe, but you could not believe apart from the Holy Spirit opening your eyes so that you could believe.

That’s what he’s saying: they are without excuse, and now they have become illumined — they have known God, and God has known them. The addition of “or rather are known by God” simply reminds them that they came to know Him by faith alone in Christ alone, but not by their own ability or effort. It was faith — but it was faith in Christ, and in what Christ had already done.

C. You Became Immersed in the Law — 4:9b–10

“how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years.”

They were ignorant; they became illumined; and they became immersed in the law again — these were Gentiles, and now they’re coming under another system. You left the grace position — you were saved by grace through faith, plus not one thing, and that freed you from all your pagan religious stuff. Throw that away! Now somebody comes in and says, “Oh, here’s another system,” and you go under those rules. What happened to you? It surprised Paul — he says, “You’re exchanging one kind of slavery for another.” They went from bondage to non-existent pagan gods, to another kind of slavery, to an equally non-existent system — the Mosaic Law — because the Mosaic Law had been done away. Now they kept special days — probably the weekly Sabbaths — and months, the new moons; and seasons, maybe the festivals: Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles; and years — the sabbatical years, the years of Jubilee. All of that you find in Colossians 2:16.

1. It is Powerless

So this law is powerless. It could not energize you for godly living — it couldn’t do it then. When it was in force, when it was being used by God, it could not energize people to godly living. It couldn’t do it then, and now that it’s gone, it can’t do it now. It’s powerless.

2. It is Miserable

But it’s also beggarly — it’s poor, it has nothing to give. It cannot provide an inheritance, the way the grace of God did when you were saved. And such a decision was appalling to the apostle Paul. He says: you were ignorant, you became illumined, you became immersed in the law, and you are about to become disinherited.

D. You Are About to Become Dis-Inherited — 4.11

“I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.”

Now understand something — Paul is not talking here about their salvation. They were saved by grace through faith, and what do you get when you believe on Jesus Christ? You receive eternal life. How long is eternal? Forever. Salvation is by grace through faith, plus not one thing, and you cannot lose it — the Bible says so. So he says, “I am afraid” — but what’s he afraid of, then? He’s talking to believers; he’s already called them that. He’s saying, “You have exchanged one form of slavery for another, and that’s what scares me. You can’t serve God by works — let us hold fast to grace, that we may serve God acceptably” (Hebrews 12:28). So, he’s saying, you’re no better off — and in chapter 5, verses 2 through 5, we’ll find him saying some things far harsher than this: “You’ve fallen from grace, Christ is of no benefit to you,” and more. We’ll see what he’s saying there when we get to it — but he’s not saying to them that they’ve lost their salvation. What he’s saying is that they’re no better off, because before, they were under the laws and the slavery of the pagan religions; they came to Christ, received salvation by grace through faith, and eternal life; and now they’re going back to another system of slavery. Are you crazy? I think that’s what he’s saying. No — they are no better off than they were before. That’s why Paul is afraid for them, and that’s why he says, “I preached to you in vain — nothing happened, you’re back where you were.”

Now, the law has been done away — the law has been done away. We don’t keep the law; we have a new covenant. The word “covenant” means “testament.” We have a new covenant — find one in your Bible, it’s on the right-hand side. The left side is the law; on the right side, he’s in the covenant. And that New Covenant has things for us to do to serve the Lord — but not to receive our salvation, not to be accepted by God. You were accepted with God the moment you believed. You will not be any more accepted if you keep all the law — even if you could. You’re not to be any more accepted with God later on than you are right now. You’re accepted with God. And one day, if we serve God — if we use that inheritance to please God and serve Him here and around the world — then we will be ruling and reigning with Him for the thousand years, the millennium, and also forever in the Kingdom that God has set up. That was our situation, our salvation, and our selection.

IV. Conclusion

Now the question is: are we going to bury it? Are we going to bury it like they buried old John — put him in the backyard and forget about him — and then serve the Lord by grace? That’s the only way you can please God.

Lord, thank You.