Sept2’07
OH, THE LABOR OF IT ALL!
Galatians 4:19

Some commonly asked questions about pregnancy and childbirth (courtesy of “Basic Jokes- Clean Jokes for a Dirty World”):

Q. My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right?
A. Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.

Q. When is the best time to get an epidural?
A. Right after you find out you're pregnant.

Q. Is there any reason I have to be in the delivery
room while my wife is in labor?
A. Not unless the word "alimony" means anything to you.

Q. What happens to disposable diapers after
they're thrown away?
A. They are stored in a silo in the Midwest,
in the event of global chemical warfare.

Q: I'm two months pregnant now. When will my baby move?
A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.


The Apostle Paul uses the metaphor of childbirth as a means of getting the attention of the Christians in Galatia who have somehow exchanged the freedom they have in Christ for the slavery of rules and regulations. Paul’s desire is that Christians live a life of freedom.

Jesus uses the same metaphor when speaking to Nicodemus about being born again. He said that flesh begets flesh but Spirit begets spirit. Just as a human person can only give birth to a human person, so to only the Holy Spirit can birth a new spiritual life in a person.

The reality is that God the Holy Spirit formed God the Son in me through sanctification, setting me apart from sin and making me holy in His sight (see Galatians 4:19). If you have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior then what is this supposed to look like in your life?

1. When and What are You Expecting?

There is something about pregnancy and childbirth that give us hope. You and I have heard the phrase asked of a pregnant woman: “When are you expecting?” This phrase carries within it the connotation of hope.

There is a certain hope that the Apostle Paul holds out for those who have claimed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

He has an expectant hope that they will grasp the truth and freedom of being a Christian. Adam Clark suggests that as their conversion to Christ had been the fruit of much labor, prayers and tears, so he felt them as dear children.

Consider the implications of spiritual expectancy for your life:

a) Can you handle the truth?

Jesus shows us what it means to live a life of truth. And truth is the perhaps the most difficult battle that a Christian faces. To come to salvation we have to admit the truth of our sinfulness. To grow in this salvation we have to admit the truth of our weaknesses and shortcomings- and yes, even sins we have committed. To reach the place of being sanctified wholly we have to admit the truth our utter reliance on the Holy Spirit’s power for cleansing.

To live the Christian life means that we come face to face with the truth. Jesus speaks to Pilate on the day of his execution about the establishment of the kingdom of truth. Pilate then responds by asking, “What is truth?”

For Christ to form within you calls for you to handle the truth with care.

Another implication that has to be considered is this:

b) Are you truly saved?

Jesus shows us not only what it means to be truly human and to reveal to Christians our Heavenly Father and his love for us, but Jesus more importantly came to “…take away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

Remember, the angel told Joseph: “She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

What the Bible teaches is that “Jesus died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15) and that through identification with His death you can be freed from sin, and have His very righteousness given as a gift to you. The teaching is not Christ for me unless I allow to have Christ formed in me (see Galatians 4:19).

c) Is your faith increasing?

The result of Christ in you is an ever-increasing faith. Now the kind of faith I am talking about is not a fate-faith: what will be will be. Nor is it a false-faith: I say one thing but believe another. But a faith that is grounded in the hope that Jesus Christ has given to us of not only eternal life but a hope of life of power in and through the Holy Spirit.

An expectant Christian knows that what God is forming in their life will bear fruit into a needy world. Just as Mary bore the fruit of Christ into a dark world and just as Alisha bore to us a second son, so to the Christian is to bearing fruits of righteousness into a world that needs righteousness.

Are you expecting?

Something else we need to consider is…

2. Your Life Under Construction.

A pregnant woman has within her life a new life developing and growing within. She carries in her body not only this new life but also bears the marks and weariness of this tiny new life that is ever-present.

For the Christian, the very life of Christ within is growing. And the more this life grows, the more aware they are of changes happening in their own life.

In our scripture text, the Apostle Paul speaks to the Galatians of his concern that they have turned their hearts away from the previous work in their hearts. Now I am not going to get into whether the Galatians have lost their salvation and now need to start their Christian faith all over. Commentators have drawn some lines in the sand that I’m not willing to draw. However, know this: how can any person, who believes in Jesus Christ for salvation, continue to follow him if they have rejected the very essence of his life in theirs?

There are some important comparisons about a normal pregnancy and the new life you now carry in your heart:

a) The importance of a good nutrition.

The Galatian church allowed the wrong things to influence them. They did not practice good nutrition in order to grow in their faith. They allowed the wrong kinds of things into their life- namely, the former spiritual life they once lived. They traded their trust in Jesus Christ for trust in another belief system.

b) The importance of your responsibility.

The fact of your life under construction is realizing consistently and daily that Jesus was your substitute for your new birth. And if Jesus was your substitute for your new birth, then he is going to also be your power for new life.

Paul’s point to the Galatian Christians is their life is supposed to be different from their previous life. You as a Christian is not about you have a buffed up new you, but drastically changed you.

“[God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Today’s view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us. But what Paul tells us is that Jesus was “made … to be sin for us… ” Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the only explanation for His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy for us. We then become acceptable to God not because we have obeyed, nor because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and for no other reason. (Chambers)

In a similar sense, as Kevon was growing within Alisha he grew- not because of all the specific things she has given up- but because of a particular death that she experienced to give him a growing life. She gave of her total self in order to see him grow and be born the healthiest that

c) The importance of good influences.

Studies have shown that children are affected during pregnancy through the stresses the mother deals with and even the kinds of music she listens to. Some believe that a pregnant woman should read to her unborn child and talk to him.

This brings up the issue of influences in your life. What is it that is influencing you for God’s glory? Having the right kind of advice as you walk with God and as Christ is being formed in you is crucial to your spiritual growth. So often we can be influenced by the liberal news media and those who oppose anything remotely Godly.


Last week as Naomi and I were at Butterworth Hospital for those four days, we had the opportunity to share our faith with a few nurses. A couple of them talked of their frustrations as moms, in-laws and so forth. One in particular was a single mom of two beautiful boys. She affirmed her faith with us but admitted how difficult it was to get to church.

We urged her to go. We told her that her children needed the church, they needed positive role models for their lives. I then told her that the times she really needed to be at church were the times when she felt least like it.

And I hold that same challenge to you. When you wake up and don't feel like coming to church- don't let the devil defeat you. You come to church. You need the family of God and the family of God needs you.

We need church. We need spiritual leadership. We need each other. As Keith Drury titled his book: There’s No I in Church.

What is influencing your spiritual growth?

Paul is share’s his frustration with the Galatian Christians so that they can realize the liberty that they have in Christ. This is the destiny that God calls every believer to.

3. Your Destiny of Liberty.

An unborn child cannot live in the womb forever. As nice and cozy things are, there is a point of freedom that they go through. And from birth they begin to exercise their freedom.

Parenting is really all about letting go at the right times. If a parent let’s go too soon, then the child falls into the danger of low self-esteem and rebellion. If a parent doesn’t let go soon enough the child falls into the danger of low self-esteem and rebellion. So what’s a parent to do?

The Galatian church was wallowing in slavery. This is not the kind of life God calls any Christian to. Galatians 5:1 sums up best the destiny for the believer: “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of bondage.”

Paul is stating very clearly that end goal for your life is freedom from sin and over sin.

a) This was the mission of Christ.

Isaiah 61:1 prophecies Jesus mission as well as Jesus taking ahold of that prophecy as being fulfilled through him. “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for prisoners.”

b) The truth is the instrument of liberty.

John 8:32- “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

c) The Spirit of life gives you freedom.

You see, “because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2)

Furthermore, “…where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.” (2 Cor. 3:17)

Conclusion: Your Life in Christ.

Oswald Chamber said it best:
Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.