<p>4:19 <i>My little children, of whom I am again in the pains of childbirth</i>- See on :17. I do wonder whether this kind of figure suggests Paul was taking it all rather too personally; for the converts were not born out of him personally, but from the Lord. But then it is also true that the work of converting others is ultimately personal and involves intense personal engagement.</p><p><i>Until Christ be formed in you</i>- The Galatians had not <i>per se</i> left Christianity; they had adopted a version of Christianity which trusted in works for salvation. Paul understands this as meaning that Christ is no longer within them. This is the scary thing, as we survey our surrounding Christian scene in which so few seem solidly persuaded that if the Lord returns today, they will surely be saved because of their faith in His grace. It is having &quot;Christ in you&quot; which is &quot;the hope of glory&quot;, the guarantee that we shall eternally live with Him (Col. 1:27). Here in Galatians Paul has expressed that truth in terms of the Spirit of Christ being placed within the believer as a guarantee of salvation (4:6), what Eph. 1:13,14 calls sealing with the promised Holy Spirit as &quot; a guarantee of our inheritance, of the final redemption&quot;. But the Galatians no longer had this, because they sought salvation not by the Spirit but by obedience to the letter.</p>