The pregnant Apostle

…my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you… (Galatians 4:19)

This was the text for the last sermon I heard in 2006 and it may have been the best I heard (live) the entire year. It was a very challenging sermon for assessing 2006 and making priorities for 2007.

The sermon was by a visiting missionary called Andrew King (he has a blog here, mp3 can be found here). Andrew pointed out the aim of Paul’s life was to see Christ formed in people. Similarly Christ formed in us and in others ought to be our primary goal. But, this is not something for us to be lackadaisical or dispassionate about. Paul was in the ‘anguish of childbirth’ that this occur and the lack of Christlikeness, the spoiled image of God that he saw in others was a consuming pain and passion for him. In fact, that it is only in this total abandonment for others that Christ is formed in us, never mind anyone else.

Grrr, I can’t encapsulate what I’m trying to recount so that it has the impact it had on me, but hopefully you get the gist.

On reflection the sermon reminded me of Bruce Longenecker’s point that Paul in Galatians is too often seen as interested in ‘the issue of the law’ when actually he is concerned for ethics (see my post here).