Galatians: The Gospel of God’s Grace

#9 The Proof of Christ and the Fullness of Time, 4:1-5:12

 One of the tragedies of legalism is that it gives the appearance of spiritual maturity when, in reality, it leads the believer back into a “second childhood” of Christian experience. The Galatian Christians, like most believers, wanted to grow and go forward for Christ; but they were going about it in the wrong way. Their experience is not too different from that of Christians today who get involved in various legalistic movements, hoping to become better Christians. Their motives may be right, but their methods are wrong.

This is the truth Paul is trying to get across to his beloved converts in Galatia. The Judaizers had bewitched them into thinking that the Law would make them better Christians. Their old nature felt an attraction for the Law because the Law enabled them to do things and measure external results. As they measured themselves and their achievements, they felt a sense of accomplishment, and, no doubt, a little bit of pride. They thought they were going forward when actually they were regressing.

Such people are in a situation similar to the airplane passengers who heard their pilot announce: “Our navigator has lost our position, folks, and we have been flying rather aimlessly for over an hour. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that we are making very good time.”

In the ancient world the process of growing up was much more definite than it is with us.

 (i)  In the Jewish world, on the first Sabbath after a boy had passed his twelfth birthday, his father took him to the Synagogue, where he became A Son of the Law.  The father thereupon uttered a benediction, "Blessed be thou, O God, who has taken from me the responsibility for this boy."  The boy prayed a prayer in which he said, "O my God and God of my fathers!  On this solemn and sacred day, which marks my passage from boyhood to manhood, I humbly raise my eyes unto thee, and declare with sincerity and truth, that henceforth I will keep thy commandments, and undertake and bear the responsibility of mine actions towards thee." There was a clear dividing line in the boy's life; almost overnight he became a man.

(ii)  In Greece a boy was under his father's care from seven until he was eighteen.  He then became what was called an ephebos, which may be translated cadet, and for two years he was under the direction of the state.  The Athenians were divided into ten phratriai, or clans.  Before a lad became an ephebos, at a festival called the Apatouria, he was received into the clan; and at a ceremonial act his long hair was cut off and offered to the gods.  Once again, growing up was quite a definite process.

(iii)  Under Roman law the year at which a boy grew up was not definitely fixed, but it was always between the ages of fourteen and seventeen.  At a sacred festival in the family called the Liberalia he took off the toga pratexta, which was a toga with a narrow purple band at the foot of it and put on the toga virilis, which was a plain toga which adults wore.  He was then conducted by his friends and relations down to the forum and formally introduced to public life.  It was essentially a religious ceremony.  And once again there was a quite definite day on which the lad attained manhood.  There was a Roman custom that on the day a boy or girl grew up, the boy offered his ball, and the girl her doll, to Apollo to show that they had put away childish things.

When a boy was an infant in the eyes of the law, he might be the owner of a vast property but he could take no legal decision; he was not in control of his own life; everything was done and directed for him; and, therefore, for all practical purposes he had no more freedom than if he were a slave; but when he became a man he entered into his full inheritance.

So-Paul argues-in the childhood of the world, the law held sway.  But the law was only elementary knowledge.  To describe it Paul uses the word stoicheia.  A stoicheion was originally a line of things; for instance, it can mean a file of soldiers.  But it came to mean the ABC, and then any elementary knowledge.

It has another meaning which some would see here-the elements of which the world is composed, and in particular, the stars.  The ancient world was haunted by a belief in astrology.  If a man was born under a certain star his fate, they believed, was settled.  Men lived under the tyranny of the stars and longed for release.  Some scholars think that Paul is saying that at one time the Galatians had been tyrannised by their belief in the baleful influence of the stars.  But the whole passage seems to make it necessary to take stoicheia in the sense of rudimentary knowledge.

Paul says that when the Galatians-and indeed all men-were mere children, they were under the tyranny of the law; then, when everything was ready, Christ came and released men from that tyranny.  So now men are no longer slaves of the law; they have become sons and have entered into their inheritance.  The childhood which belonged to the law should be past; the freedom of manhood has come.

The proof that we are sons comes from the instinctive cry of the heart.  In man's deepest need he cries, "Father!" to God.  Paul uses the double phrase, "Abba!  Father!"  Abba is the Aramaic word for Father.  It must have been often on Jesus's lips, and its sound was so sacred that men kept it in the original tongue.  This instinctive cry of man's heart Paul believes to be the work of the Holy Spirit.  If our hearts so cry, we know that we are sons, and all the inheritance of grace is ours.

For Paul, he who governed his life by slavery to the law was still a child; he who had learned the way of grace had become a mature man in the Christian faith.

Paul takes three approaches in this section as he seeks to convince the Galatians that they do not need legalism in order to live the Christian life. They have all they need in Jesus Christ.

He Explains Their Adoption (Gal. 4:1-7)

Among the blessings of the Christian experience is adoption (Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5). We do not enter God’s family by adoption, the way a homeless child would enter a loving family in our own society. The only way to get into God’s family is by regeneration, being “born again” (John 3:3).

The New Testament word for adoption means “to place as an adult son.” It has to do with our standing in the family of God: we are not little children but adult sons with all of the privileges of sonship.

It is unfortunate that many translations of the New Testament do not make a distinction between children of God and sons of God. We are the children of God by faith in Christ, born into God’s family. But every child of God is automatically placed into the family as a son, and as a son he has all the legal rights and privileges of a son. When a sinner trusts Christ and is saved, as far as his condition is concerned, he is a “spiritual babe” who needs to grow (1 Peter 2:2-3); but as far as his position is concerned, he is an adult son who can draw on the Father’s wealth and who can exercise all the wonderful privileges of sonship.

We enter God’s family by regeneration, but we enjoy God’s family by adoption. The Christian does not have to wait to begin enjoying the spiritual riches he has in Christ. “If a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Gal. 4:7). Now follows Paul’s discussion about adoption. He reminds his readers of three facts.

(4:1-7) Introduction: some in the churches of Galatia were teaching that a person is saved by law; that is, he is saved by being good and religious and by doing the best he can. Of course, every person...

·         should be good, ever striving to be better and better.

·         should be faithful in worshipping God in church.

·         should do the best he can—always.

       However, Scripture is clear and forceful: a person is not saved by these things, for no amount of effort or energy or work can make a person perfect. And to be acceptable to God—to be given the right to live with God—a person must be perfect.

       How then can man be saved—be justified and made acceptable to God? This passage deals with the issue; it gives the answer. It shows how Christ and the fulness of time prove that a man is justified by faith and not by law nor by works.

         1.     There was a time when the world was in bondage (v.1-3).

         2.     There was a fulness of time when God delivered the world (v.4-7).

What we were: children in bondage (vv. 1-3).

No matter how wealthy a father may be, his infant son or toddling child cannot really enjoy that wealth. In the Roman world, the children of wealthy people were cared for by slaves. No matter who his father was, the child was still a child, under the supervision of a servant. In fact, the child himself was not much different from the servant who guarded him. The servant was commanded by the master of the house, and the child was commanded by the servant.

This was the spiritual condition of the Jews under the age of the Law. The Law, you recall, was the “guardian” that disciplined the nation and prepared the people for the coming of Christ (Gal. 3:23-25). So, when the Judaizers led the Galatians back into legalism, they were leading them not only into religious bondage, but also into moral and spiritual infancy and immaturity.

Paul states that the Jews were, like little children, in bondage to “the elements of the world.” This word elements means the basic principles, the ABCs. For some fifteen centuries, Israel had been in kindergarten and grade school, learning their “spiritual ABCs,” so that they would be ready when Christ would come. Then they would get the full revelation, for Jesus Christ is “the Alpha and the Omega” (Rev. 22:13); He encompasses all the alphabet of God’s revelation to man. He is God’s last Word (Heb. 1:1-3).

Legalism, then, is not a step toward maturity; it is a step back into childhood. The Law was not God’s final revelation; it was but the preparation for that final revelation in Christ. It is important that a person know his ABCs, because they are the foundation for understanding all of the language. But the man who sits in a library and recites the ABCs instead of reading the great literature that is around him, is showing that he is immature and ignorant, not mature and wise. Under the Law, the Jews were children in bondage, not sons enjoying liberty.

(4:1-3) Law—World, Elementary Things of—God, Misconceptions of: there was a time when the world was in bondage. The illustration is brief, yet descriptive: an heir who is a young child is under the care of guardians and trustees or managers until the time appointed for him to receive his inheritance. Until the appointed time arrives, he has no more right to the inheritance than a slave.

       The point is striking: there was a time when man was in bondage under the elementary things of the world. What is meant by the elements or elementary things of the world? Very simply, it means man’s elementary notions and ideas about God and the various ways he tries to approach God. Letting Scripture interpret Scripture:

·         It means the first principles (the ABC’s) of the Word of God, that is, the sacrifices, observances, rituals, and ceremonies of the Old Testament (Hebrews 5:12).

·         It means philosophy, the traditions of men, and the rudimentary or elementary teachings of men—the ABC approaches of men to God (Col. 2:8).

·         It means the elements, the heavenly bodies of the universe (2 Peter 3:10). (There have always been men who tried to rule their lives by the heavenly bodies or astrology and the signs of the zodiac.)

·         It means the ordinances, rules, and regulations of men (Col. 2:20).

·         It means the ceremonial laws, the legal yoke placed upon men as they try to approach God (Acts 15:10).

·         It means the law of the Old Testament, the yoke of bondage (Galatians 5:1; cp. Galatians 4:3)

·         It means the observances of religious days, months, and years (Galatians 4:9).

       Very simply, the elements of the world refers to all the things that men use to get right with God and to secure the favor and approval of God. It refers to anything that man uses to justify himself before God, any approach to God that is taken by man through his own energy and effort.

       The point is this: before Christ, all approaches to God were only elementary approaches. No approach was the right approach, for man had only little knowledge of God—an elementary knowledge that required the discipline and guidance of the law.

       However, when everything was ready for the world to come of age and to gain an adult knowledge of God, Christ came to release men from the law and to reveal that man was intended to have a father-son relationship with God. In Christ men are no longer to be slaves to the law, they are to be sons of God. In Christ they are to enter into their inheritance.

What God did: redeemed us (vv. 4-5).

The expression the fullness of the time (Gal. 4:4) refers to that time when the world was providentially ready for the birth of the Saviour. Historians tell us that the Roman world was in great expectation, waiting for a Deliverer, at the time when Jesus was born. The old religions were dying; the old philosophies were empty and powerless to change men’s lives. Strange new mystery religions were invading the empire. Religious bankruptcy and spiritual hunger were everywhere. God was preparing the world for the arrival of His Son.

From the historical point of view, the Roman Empire itself helped prepare the world for the birth of the Saviour. Roads connected city with city, and all cities ultimately with Rome. Roman laws protected the rights of citizens, and Roman soldiers guarded the peace. Thanks to both the Greek and Roman conquests, Latin and Greek were known across the empire. Christ’s birth at Bethlehem was not an accident; it was an appointment: Jesus came in “the fullness of the time.” (And, it is worth noting, that He will come again when the time is ready.)

Paul is careful to point out the dual nature of Jesus Christ (Gal. 4:4), that He is both God and man. As God, Jesus “came forth” (John 16:28); but as man, He was “made of a woman.” The ancient promise said that the Redeemer would be of “the woman’s seed” (Gen. 3:15); and Jesus fulfilled that promise (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:18-25).

Paul has told us who came—God’s Son; he has told us when He came and how He came. Now he explains why He came: “to redeem them that were under the Law” (Gal. 4:5). Redeem is the same word Paul used earlier (Gal. 3:13); it means “to set free by paying a price.” A man could purchase a slave in any Roman city (there were about 60 million slaves in the empire), either to keep the slave for himself or to set him free. Jesus came to set us free. So, to go back into the Law is to undo the very work of Christ on the cross. He did not purchase us to make us slaves, but sons! Under Law, the Jews were mere children, but under grace, the believer is a son of God with an adult standing in God’s family.

Perhaps at this point a chart will help us understand better the contrast between being a “child of God” and a “son of God.”

 What we are: sons and heirs (vv. 6-7).

Once again, the entire Trinity is involved in our spiritual experience: God the Father sent the Son to die for us, and God the Son sent His Spirit to live in us. The contrast here is not between immature children and adult sons, but between servants and sons. Like the Prodigal Son, the Galatians wanted their Father to accept them as servants, when they really were sons (Luke 15:18-19). The contrasts are easy to see. For example:

The son has the same nature as the father, but the servant does not. When we trust Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us; and this means we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). The Law could never give a person God’s nature within. All it could do was reveal to the person his desperate need for God’s nature. So, when the believer goes back into Law, he is denying the very divine nature within, and he is giving the old nature (the flesh) opportunity to go to work.

The son has a father, while the servant has a master. No servant could ever say “Father” to his master. When the sinner trusts Christ, he receives the Holy Spirit within, and the Spirit tells him that he is a child of the Father (Rom. 8:15-16). It is natural for a baby to cry, but not for a baby to talk to his father. When the Spirit enters the heart, He says, “Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6); and, in response, the believer cries, “Abba, Father!” (Rom. 8:15) The word Abba is an Aramaic word that is the equivalent of our English word “papa.” This shows the closeness of the child to the Father. No servant has this.

The son obeys out of love, while the servant obeys out of fear. The Spirit works in the heart of the believer to quicken and increase his love for God. “The fruit of the Spirit is love” (Gal. 5:22). “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy [Spirit]” (Rom. 5:5). The Judaizers told the Galatians that they would become better Christians by submitting to the Law, but the Law can never produce obedience. Only love can do that. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

The son is rich, while the servant is poor. We are both “sons and heirs.” And since we are adopted—placed as adult sons in the family—we may begin drawing on our inheritance right now. God has made available to us the riches of His grace (Eph. 1:7; 2:7), the riches of His glory (Phil. 4:19), the riches of His goodness (Rom. 2:4), and the riches of His wisdom (Rom. 11:33ff)—and all of the riches of God are found in Christ (Col. 1:19; 2:3).

The son has a future, while the servant does not. While many kind masters did provide for their slaves in old age, it was not required of them. The father always provides for the son (2 Cor. 12:14).

In one sense, our adoption is not yet final, because we are awaiting the return of Christ and the redemption of our bodies (Rom. 8:23). Some scholars think that this second stage in our adoption corresponds to the Roman practice when a man adopted someone outside his family to be his son. First there was a private ceremony at which the son was purchased; then there was a public ceremony at which the adoption was declared openly before the officials.

Christians have experienced the first stage: we have been purchased by Christ and indwelt by the Spirit. We are awaiting the second stage: the public declaration at the return of Christ when “we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:1-3). We are “sons and heirs,” and the best part of our inheritance is yet to come (see 1 Peter 1:1-5).

(4:4-7) Adoption—Redemption: there was a fulness of time when God delivered the world. This is one of the great passages of Scripture dealing with the mission or work of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Note several significant points.

      1.           Note that God had prepared the world for the coming of Christ.

      2.           Note that God sent His own Son into the world to deliver men. It was not an angel or some other creature that God sent—nor was it some great leader from among men. It was God’s very Son that He sent. God cared and loved men so much that He would send no less than His own Son to deliver men from the terrible condemnation of the law: the bondage of sin and death.

    3. Note that God sent His Son “made of a woman” (genomenon ek gunaikos), that is “born out of [ek] a woman.” He came into the world just as all men do, through a woman. But note the most glorious truth: He was “sent forth” by God. Jesus Christ was “His Son,” the Son of God. God spoke the Word and the woman conceived miraculously. The Virgin Birth did take place: God’s very own Son has been sent into the world as a man to save men.

      4.           Note that God sent His Son born under the law. Jesus Christ had to live under the law in order to secure the perfect righteousness of the law for man. He had to obey the law in every single precept and stand before God as the Perfect and Ideal Man—the Ideal Embodiment of Righteousness. As stated, He had to do what no other person had ever done: secure the Ideal Righteousness and Perfection so that the Ideal and Perfect could stand for all men.

      5.           Note why God sent His Son: to redeem men.

      6.           Note the result of God sending His Son to redeem men.

a.  Believers are adopted as sons of God. When a person believes in Jesus Christ, God takes his faith and counts the person as being in Jesus Christ. Since Christ is God’s Son, the believer is counted as a son of God—all because he is seen as being in Jesus Christ. His faith in Jesus Christ causes God to cover him with the Sonship of His Son, to adopt him as a son of God.

b. Believers receive assurance of being accepted by God through the Spirit of His Son. The Spirit of Christ is sent by God to dwell in our hearts and to give us a personal relationship with God. The Spirit of Christ, that is, the Holy Spirit, gives us a fellowship of communication and communion with God: He stirs our hearts to cry out to God as our Father: “Father, Father.”

c.  Believers are made heirs of God. But note: they are heirs because they are sons of God. Both sonship and heirship are “through Christ”—through faith in Him.

(4:4) Fulness of Time: the coming of Christ upon the world scene was not by chance. His coming was under the strategic timing providentially set aside by God. His coming was not one day before or behind the appointed time. A child who is placed under the control of guardians is under their control until “the date fixed by his father” (Galatians 4:2). God and God alone decided the fulness of time for the coming of Christ. Christ was born of a particular person, at a particular time, in a particular way (incarnation), under a particular system (the law). He shared the frustration and agony of being subjected to the very system from which He came to save men. The world had been wonderfully prepared for His coming.

      1.           The law had done its educational work. It had shown through the Jewish nation that men are terrible transgressors, and despite all of God’s favor and blessings, men still failed to worship God in love. The world now had a picture of the depraved heart of man. (Cp. Romans 3:10-18 for a clear description of man’s sinfulness.)

      2.           The world was full of people spiritually starved. The worship of self, pleasure, gods, philosophical ethics—all had left many empty and barren. The soul was now ready to have its hunger met.

      3.           The world was at peace under Roman rule. The world was an open door for the spread of the gospel—without any restraint.

      4.           The world spoke Greek as a basic language, making communication possible with many from all over the world.

      5.           The world had a system of roads for mass travel which allowed Christian missionaries to reach the farthest parts of the earth. It also brought commercial travelers to metropolitan centers where Christian believers were concentrated.

(4:5-6) Adoption: the word “adoption” (huiothesia) means to place as a son. The picture of adoption is a beautiful picture of what God does for the Christian. In the ancient world the family was based on a Roman law called “patria potestas,” the father’s power. The law gave the father absolute authority over his children so long as the father lived. He could work, enslave, sell, and if he wished, he could pronounce the death penalty. Regardless of the child’s adult age, the father held all power over personal and property rights.

       Therefore, adoption was a serious matter. Yet, it was a common practice to ensure that a family would not become extinct by having no male children. And when a child was adopted, three legal steps were taken.

1.      The adopted son was adopted permanently. He could not be adopted today and disinherited tomorrow. He became a son of the father—forever. He was eternally secure as a son.

2.      The adopted son immediately had all the rights of a legitimate son in the new family.

3.      The adopted son completely lost all rights in his old family. The adopted son was looked upon as a new person—so new that old debts and obligations connected with his former family were cancelled out and abolished as if they never existed.

The Bible says several things about the believer’s adoption as a son of God.

1.      The believer’s adoption establishes a new relationship with God—forever. He is eternally secure as a child of God. But the new relationship is established only when a person comes to Christ through faith (Galatians 3:26; Galatians 4:4-5).

2.      The believer’s adoption establishes a new relationship with God as father. The believer has all the rights and privileges of a genuine son of God (Romans 8:16-17; 1 John 3:1-2).

3.      The believer’s adoption establishes a new dynamic experience with God as father, a moment by moment access into His very presence (Romans 8:14, 16; Galatians 4:6).

4.      The believer’s adoption gives him a very special relationship with other children of God—a family relationship that binds him with others in an unparalleled spiritual union.

5.      The believer’s adoption makes him a new person. The believer has been taken out from under the authority and power of the world and its sin. The believer is placed as a son into the family and authority of God. The old life with all of its debts and obligations are cancelled and wiped out.

6.      The believer’s adoption is to be fully realized in the future at the return of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:19; Ephes. 1:14; 1 Thes. 4:14-17; 1 John 3:2).

7.      The believer’s adoption and its joy will be shared by all creation on a cosmic scale (Romans 8:21). There is to be a new heavens and earth (2 Peter 3:12-14; Rev. 21:1-7).

He Laments Their Regression (Gal. 4:8-11)

What really happened when the Galatians turned from grace to Law? To begin with, they abandoned liberty for bondage. When they were ignorant sinners, they had served their false gods and had experienced the tragedy of such pagan slavery. But then they had trusted Christ and been delivered from superstition and slavery. Now they were abandoning their liberty in Christ and going back into bondage. They were “dropping out” of the school of grace and enrolling in the kindergarten of Law! They were destroying all the good work the Lord had done in them through Paul’s ministry.

The phrase weak and beggarly elements tells us the extent of their regression. They were giving up the power of the Gospel for the weakness of Law, and the wealth of the Gospel for the poverty of Law. The Law never made anybody rich or powerful; on the contrary, the Law could only reveal man’s weakness and spiritual bankruptcy. No wonder Paul weeps over these believers, as he sees them abandon liberty for bondage, power for weakness, and wealth for poverty.

How were they doing this? By adopting the Old Testament system of religion with its special observations of “days, and months, and times, and years” (Gal. 4:10).

Does this mean that it is wrong for Christians to set aside one day a year to remember the birth of Christ? Or that a special observance of the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, or the blessing of the harvest in autumn, is a sin?

Not necessarily. If we observe special days like slaves, hoping to gain some spiritual merit, then we are sinning. But if in the observance, we express our liberty in Christ and let the Spirit enrich us with His grace, then the observance can be a spiritual blessing.

The New Testament makes it clear that Christians are not to legislate religious observances for each other (Rom. 14:4-13). We are not to praise the man who celebrates the day, nor are we to condemn the man who does not celebrate. But if a man thinks he is saving his soul, or automatically growing in grace, because of a religious observance, then he is guilty of legalism.

Our evangelical churches have many different kinds of observances, and it is wrong for us to go beyond the Word of God in comparing, criticizing, or condemning. But all of us must beware of that legalistic spirit that caters to the flesh, leads to pride, and makes the outward event a substitute for the inward experience.

Paul is still basing on the conception that the law is an elementary stage in religion, and that the mature man is he who takes his stand on grace.  The law was all right in the old days when they did not know any better.  But now they have come to know God and his grace.  Then Paul corrects himself-man cannot by his own efforts know God; God of his grace reveals himself to man.  We can never seek God unless he has already found us.  So Paul demands, "Are you now going back to a stage that you should have left behind long ago?"

He calls the elementary things, the religion based on law, weak and poverty-stricken.  (i)  It is weak because it is helpless.  It can define sin; it can convict a man of sin; but it can neither find for him forgiveness for past sin nor strength to conquer future sin.  (ii)  It is poverty-stricken in comparison with the splendour of grace.  By its very nature the law can deal with only one situation.  For every fresh situation man needs a fresh law; but the wonder of grace is that it is poikilos, which means variegated, many-coloured.  That is to say, there is no possible situation in life which grace cannot match; it is sufficient for all things.

One of the features of Jewish law was its observance of special times.  In this passage the days are the Sabbaths of each week; the months are the new moons; the seasons are the great annual feasts like the Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles; the years are the Sabbatic years, that is, every seventh.  The failure of a religion which is dependent on special occasions is that almost inevitably it divides days into sacred and secular; and the further almost inevitable step is that when a man has meticulously observed the sacred days he is liable to think that he has discharged his duty to God.

Although that was the religion of legalism, it was very far from being the prophetic religion.  It has been said that, "The ancient Hebrew people had no word in their language to correspond to the word 'religion' as it is commonly used today.  The whole of life as they saw it came from God, and was subject to his law and governance.  There could be no separate part of it in their thought labelled 'religion.'

"Jesus Christ did not say, 'I am come that they may have religion,' but, 'I am come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.'"  To make religion a thing of special times is to make it an external thing.  For the real Christian every day is God's day.

It was Paul's fear that men who had once known the splendour of grace would slip back to legalism, and that men who had once lived in the presence of God would shut him up to special days.

Appeal One: Do Not Turn Back, 4:8-11

(4:8-5:12) DIVISION OVERVIEW: Justification: a person is justified by faith and not by law nor by works. It does not matter how many good works a person does nor how good he may become; he can never secure perfection. Therefore, a man can never earn or win the right to live in God’s presence. A man cannot make God accept him—put God in debt—by being good and doing good. God is perfect; therefore, if a man is ever going to live in God’s presence, it will be because God loves man enough to provide some way for man to become perfect. Glorious is the news! God has provided the way through His very own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When a man believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, God takes His belief and counts it as righteousness, as perfection. God accepts the man on the basis of faith, the kind of faith that says, “Lord God, I believe that your Son died for me. He took my imperfection, my shame, my sin, my being short of your glory; and He died for it all. I honor Him. I give my life, all I am and have, to serve Him. Save me—accept me in Him.”

       When a man approaches God in such a spirit, he honors God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And God honors any person who honors His Son. He honors the person by doing the very thing the man believes or asks. If a man believes in Jesus Christ for righteousness, then God counts that man’s belief (commitment to Christ) as righteousness. This is justification; this is the way a person becomes acceptable to God.

       Justification by faith in Jesus Christ has been proven. This has been the point of the last six passages in the Book of Galatians. Now Paul launches a fivefold appeal to the church: a fivefold appeal to be justified by faith.

         1.     Appeal One: Do Not Turn Back (4:8-11).

         2.     Appeal Two: Restir Affection for the Minister of God (4:12-20).

         3.     Appeal Three: Listen to What the Law Really Says (4:21-31).

         4.     Appeal Four: Stand Firm in the Liberty of Christ (5:1-6).

         5.     Appeal Five: Obey the Truth (5:7-12).

(4:8-11) Introduction: the first appeal is just what would be expected. A people who have or are about to turn their backs upon God need but one message: do not turn back!

         1.     Remember your former life (v.8).

         2.     Look at your present life: you know God and are known of God (v.9).

         3.     Consider your turning back (v.9-11).

(4:8) Idolatry—Backsliding: remember your former Life. Remember what you were when you were an unbeliever, before you ever believed in Jesus Christ and experienced salvation. The unbeliever is characterized by two significant traits.

      1.           The unbeliever does not know God. This means that he does not know God in a personal way; God’s Spirit does not dwell in the unbeliever filling the unbeliever with the fulness of God. The unbeliever does not experience God’s...

       The unbeliever does not have the day by day experience of knowing God, of experiencing the presence and fellowship and communion and care and provision of God—of experiencing the abundance of life with God. And as tragic as any of his shortcomings, the unbeliever does not have the absolute assurance of living forever with God.

      2.           The unbeliever serves false gods. Even before their conversion, the Galatians had sensed the need for God. They had not been atheists or agnostics. They had been a religious people seeking to become acceptable to God. Their worship had been the worship of many gods including both Jupiter (Zeus) and Mercury (Hermes). This, of course, meant that they had been enslaved to heathen gods, religion and worship, rituals and ceremonies, rules and regulations, superstitions and idols.

       Note what is said about the unbeliever: he serves gods which by nature are not gods. By their very nature, the objects of man’s worship are not gods. How could they be, for they are only a creation of the unbeliever’s mind. He may count them as gods, but they are no more than ideas in his own mind.

     What most people worship is only a creation of their own mind. They have an idea of god, who he is and what he is like, and they worship that idea. Few ever seek after God’s revelation of Himself, the revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. If men really believed that Jesus Christ was the living revelation of God, then they would study Him and His life and seek to know Him with every ounce of energy they had. But few ever do, and this failure is a clear indication that they do not believe, not really.

     The point is this: since the unbeliever does not believe in Jesus Christ, the One who came to reveal God to the world, then whatever it is that he worships is false—a false god. It is a figment of his imagination, only an idea in his mind. Whether a man bows to an idol or not, he is merely worshipping his own idea, thought, concept, and imagination.

    Every believer needs to remember where he came from before he came to know God. God has been most merciful to us all; therefore, we must never forget that Jesus Christ has purged us from our sins.

(4:9) Knowledge, of God: look at your present life. You are given the most wonderful privilege of knowing God, or more accurately stated, you are known of God. Think about the glorious privilege of knowing God and being known of God Himself!

       As R.A. Cole points out, when a person accepts Jesus Christ as His Savior, he comes to know God personally not just intellectually—but in a much deeper way, for in the Bible “to know” means far more than just intellectual knowledge. It means an intimte relationship; that is why the Bible uses the word “know” to express the most intimate relation between man and wife: “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived” (Genesis 4:1). (The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. “Tyndale New Testament Commentaries,” ed. by RVG Tasker. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1965, p.118.)

       However, note a critical point. When a person turns away and separates himself from the world to know God, the most wonderful thing happens: God accepts him and becomes a Father to him and knows him as his son or daughter. The person becomes known by God. This is exactly what Scripture says:

            “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:17-18).

       Again, imagine the glorious privilege of such a precious relationship! Not only to know God as Father, but to be known by God as His son or daughter!

     Believers should constantly look at their present lives—the glorious salvation God has given them: the privilege of knowing Him and of being known by Him. But note: we must always remember that we do not come to know God by our own efforts or works, not by doing the best we can and obeying the law, as important as all these are. We come to know God through justification, that is, by faith in Jesus Christ and by faith in Him alone.

(4:9-11) Backsliding—Law: consider your turning back.

      1.           Note a critical point: the Galatians were about to turn back to the elementary things or notions about God (see note—^ Galatians 4:1-3). Does this mean they were about to turn back to their pagan idolatrous worship? No, that was not what they were about to do. What were they turning back to? The false teachers (Judaizers) in Galatia were teaching that a man was to approach God by the law and works—that a man became acceptable to God by his own efforts, by working and doing as much good as he could.

       Of course, this is exactly what all religious people do, no matter their religion: they try to please their god, to secure the god’s approval by doing what pleases him. This means that all religions (except Christianity) are religions of works and of law. Therefore, if the Galatians subjected themselves to the law and to a religion of works, they would be returning to a life of bondage—the bondage of working and working to get God to pay attention to them and to receive and accept them.

       The crucial point is this: there is no difference between seeking God through the law and seeking God through pagan worship. The foundation of all religious seeking (except Christianity) is the same: that of working to keep the laws that please a person’s god—that of doing good so that a person’s god will accept him.

       Note that Paul calls man’s elementary notions of God weak and beggarly.

a.  The law and other approaches to God are weak in that they are helpless in saving man. The law itself could only point out man’s sin, but it could never justify and make him acceptable to God.

b. The law and other approaches to God are beggarly, that is worthless in saving man. The law itself is meaningless, of no use whatsoever in justifying and making man acceptable to God. It is not the law nor man’s works and attempts to be good that saves him.

       Note also that Paul illustrates his point by referring to special religious holidays. The point is that ritual, ceremony, and the keeping of religious days will not justify and make a person acceptable before God. Christ and Christ alone—faith in Him—saves a person.

      2.           Note the results of backsliding, of turning back to the world and seeking to please God by self-effort and self-righteousness.

a.  A person becomes enslaved in that he tries and tries to please God by keeping the rules of the law, but he finds he cannot. But he still slavishly tries and tries again. However, it is all to no avail, for the man finds himself still in the bondage of sin and death. He still sins and he still dies, and there is no absolute assurance within of eternal life. And it is the lack of assurance, of knowing that one is acceptable to God, that is so enslaving. The question and doubt of living with God gnaws and gnaws at man—always without the sure knowledge and assurance of God’s love. Perfect assurance, confidence, and security come only through faith in Jesus Christ.

b. A person lives a wasted life. Every approach to God fails except faith in Jesus Christ. Every approach leads to death and condemnation; therefore, every life that approaches God by any other means than faith in Jesus Christ is a wasted life.

He Seeks Their Affection (Gal. 4:12-18)

Paul was a wonderful spiritual father; he knew just how to balance rebuke with love. Now he turns from “spanking” to “embracing” as he reminds the believers of their love for him and his love for them. At one point they were willing to sacrifice anything for Paul, so great was their love; but now he had become their enemy. The Judaizers had come in and stolen their affection.

Bible students wish Paul had been more explicit here, because we are not sure just what events he is talking about. When Paul had originally visited them, he was suffering from some physical affliction. If, as noted in Galatians 1, Paul wrote this letter to the churches of South Galatia, then he is referring to his first missionary journey, recorded in Acts 13-14. Apparently Paul had not intended to visit these cities, but was forced to do so because of some bodily infirmity. We can only speculate as to what this was. Some have suggested malaria; others, an affliction of the eyes (see Gal. 4:15). Whatever it was, it must have made Paul somewhat repulsive in appearance, because he commends the Galatians for the way they received him in spite of the way he looked. To them, he was an angel of God. It is a wonderful thing when people accept God’s servants, not because of their outward appearance, but because they represent the Lord and bring His message.

Now Paul asks them: “What has happened to that love? What has happened to the blessedness—the happiness—you experienced when you heard the Gospel and trusted Christ?” Of course, Paul knew what had happened: the Judaizers had come in and stolen their hearts.

One of the marks of a false teacher is that he tries to attract other men’s converts to himself, and not simply to the truth of the Word or to the person of Jesus Christ. It was not the Judaizers who originally came to Galatia and led them to Christ; it was Paul. Like the cultists today, these false teachers were not winning lost sinners to Christ, but were stealing converts from those who were truly serving the Lord. Paul had proved to be their loving friend. He had “become as they were” by identifying himself with them (Gal. 4:12). Now they were turning away from Paul and following false shepherds.

Paul told them the truth, but the Judaizers told them lies. Paul sought to glorify Christ, but the Judaizers glorified themselves and their converts. “Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them” (Gal. 4:17, niv).

A true servant of God does not “use people” to build himself up or his work; he ministers in love to help people know Christ better and glorify Him. Beware of that religious worker who wants your exclusive allegiance because he is the only one who is right. He will use you as long as he can and then drop you for somebody else—and your fall will be a painful one. The task of the spiritual leader is to get people to love and follow Christ, not to promote himself and his ministry.

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Prov. 27:6). Paul had proved his love to the Galatians by telling them the truth; but they would not accept it. They were enjoying the “kisses” of the Judaizers, not realizing that these kisses were leading them into bondage and sorrow. Christ had made them sons and heirs, but they were rapidly becoming slaves and beggars.

They had not lost the experience of salvation—they were still Christians; but they were losing the enjoyment of their salvation and finding satisfaction in their works instead. Sad to say, they did not realize their losses. They actually thought they were becoming better Christians by substituting Law for grace, and the religious deeds of the flesh for the fruit of the Spirit.

Is your Christian life moving forward into liberty or backward into bondage? Think carefully before you answer.

Paul makes not a theological but a personal appeal.  He reminds them that for their sake he had become a Gentile; he had cut adrift from the traditions in which he had been brought up and become what they are; and his appeal is that they should not seek to become Jews but might become like himself.

Here we have a reference to Paul's "thorn in the flesh." It was through illness that first he came to them.  We discuss this thorn more fully when dealing with 2 Corinthians 12:7.  It has been held to be the persecution which he suffered, the temptations of the flesh, which he is said never to have succeeded in suppressing; his physical appearance, which the Corinthians regarded as contemptible (2 Corinthians 10:10).  The oldest tradition is that it was violent and prostrating headaches.  From this passage itself there emerge two indications.

The Galatians would have given him their eyes if they could have done so.  It has been suggested that Paul's eyes always troubled him because he had been dazzled so much on the Damascus Road that ever afterwards he could see only dimly and painfully.

The word translated you did not turn from me with loathing literally means you did not spit at me.  In the ancient world it was the custom for a man to spit when he met an epileptic in order to avert the influence of the evil spirit which was believed to be resident in the sufferer; so it has been suggested that Paul was an epileptic.

If we can find out just when Paul came to Galatia, it may be possible to deduce why he came.  It is possible that Acts 13:13, 14 describe that coming.  That passage presents a problem.  Paul and Barnabas and Mark had come from Cyprus to the mainland.  They came to Perga in Pamphylia; there Mark left them; and then they proceeded straight to Antioch in Pisidia, which is in the province of Galatia.  Why did Paul not preach in Pamphylia?  It was a populous district.  Why did he choose to go to Antioch in Pisidia?  The road that led there, up into the central plateau, was one of the most difficult and dangerous in the world.  That is perhaps why Mark went home.  Why, then, this sudden flight from Pamphylia?  The reason may well be that, since Pamphylia and the coastal plain were districts where malarial fever raged, Paul contracted this sickness and his only remedy would be to seek the highlands of Galatia, so that he arrived amongst the Galatians a sick man.  Now this malaria recurs and is accompanied by a prostrating headache which has been likened to "a red-hot bar thrust through the forehead."  It may well have been that it was this prostrating pain which was Paul's thorn in the flesh and which was torturing him when first he came to Galatia.

He talks about those who were sedulously paying court to the Galatians; he means those who were seeking to persuade them to adopt Jewish ways.  If they were successful, the Galatians would in turn have to pay humble court to them to be allowed in order to be circumcised and enter the Jewish nation.  Their sole purpose paid court to the Galatians.  but they only did so to get control of the Galatians and reduce them to subjection to themselves and to the law.

In the end Paul uses a vivid metaphor.  His bringing the Galatians to Christ cost him pain like a mother's travail; and now he has to go through it all again.  Christ is in them, as it were in embryo; he has to bring them to birth.

No one can fail to see the deep affection of the last words.  My little children-diminutives in Latin and Greek always express deep affection.  John often uses this expression but Paul uses it nowhere else; his heart is running over.  We do well to note that Paul did not scold with bitter words; he yearned over his straying children.  It was said of Florence Allshorn, famous missionary and teacher, that if she had cause to rebuke any of her students she did so, as it were, with her arm around them.  The accent of love will penetrate where the tones of anger will never find a way.

Appeal Two: Restir Affection for the Minister of God, 4:12-20

(4:12-20) Introduction: a backsliding people need appeal after appeal, for they are walking a dangerous course when they turn their backs upon God. Also, a backsliding person is usually alienated from his minister: he wants little to do with the minister when he is turning away from God. The Galatian churches went even further. False teachers and critics of Paul had begun to attack Paul personally, both his person and his ministry. They were tearing down his character every way they could. There was great danger that the churches would reject his ministry; therefore, Paul had to do all he could to stop the mess and to save the churches from destruction and apostasy. The present passage is an appeal for the believers to remember and restir their affection for the minister of God.

         1.     Treat the minister of God as a brother (v.12).

         2.     Welcome true ministers of God (v.13-16).

         3.     Guard against and reject false ministers (v.17).

         4.     Receive true ministers—always (v.18-20).

(4:12) Ministers, Duty Toward: treat the minister of God as a brother. Remember that some in the churches of Galatia were criticizing and attacking Paul. But note several significant facts.

      1.           Paul called them brothers: he did not treat them as enemies, not even as antagonists. He did not murmur, gripe, complain, or even attack them. The very opposite is true: he sensed and expressed deep brotherly affection for them.

      2.           Paul beseeched them; that is, he was not commanding or instructing, but he was begging and pleading from the heart of a true minister of God.

      3.           Paul begged them to be as he was, for he had become one of them. He had always loved and cared and shown affection for them, and he wanted them to do the same for him—not to abandon and turn against him and his ministry.

       It should be noted that many commentators understand Paul to be saying that he had become as they were, that is, a Gentile; therefore, he wanted them to remain as he was, a Gentile who trusted Christ, and not to turn to Jewish law in seeking God’s approval.

      4.           Paul assured them that what they had done had not injured him: he held no bitterness, anger, or malice against them.

(4:13-16) Ministers: welcome true ministers of God. There are three areas in which true ministers should be welcomed.

      1.           True ministers should be welcomed in their witness. Note: the Galatians had welcomed Paul when he first preached the gospel to them, and they had readily responded to his message. They did not question his call to preach nor the message he preached. There was no criticism nor censoring of his person or preaching. Their arms were wide open and their hearts were receptive.

       Note that Paul was appealing for the same spirit of welcome and receptivity now. No other spirit should ever characterize God’s people—not toward the minister of God—not toward any child of God.

      2.           True ministers should be welcomed even in the infirmities and weaknesses of their flesh. Too often, this is not true. Churches and believers sometimes abandon and ignore the minister of God when he is stricken in body or spirit. When Paul first went to the Galatian churches, he was stricken with some infirmity. Just what the infirmity was is not known, although the best guess seems to be some serious eye problem. The point is that the Galatians...

·    did not despise him

·    did not reject him

·    received him as an angel or messenger from God Himself.

       This last fact stresses just how wide open the welcome to Paul was. There was no lack in receiving and caring for the minister of God. They would have even plucked out their own eyes and given them to Paul if they had been able.

      3.           True ministers should be welcomed in the truth they proclaim. Paul had been proclaiming the truth: a person is justified by faith and not by law nor by works—not by trying to earn God’s acceptance by doing good deeds here and there. Was the church going to treat Paul as an enemy because he had told them the truth?

(4:17) Ministers: guard against and reject false ministers. Note that the false teachers (Judaizers, religionists) were zealous in their teaching and they were out to secure as large a following as possible. And note how they went about it: by excluding the people, trying to cut them off from the minister of God. They not only sought people through the merits of their own teaching, but they attacked and tore down the minister in order to alienate the people from him.

       Note the difference between what the Christian minister (Paul) was doing and what the false teachers were doing. Or, to put it in the form of a question: What is the difference between the evangelistic efforts of the true minister of God and false teachers?

Þ  False teachers seek to focus people upon law, works, effort, ritual, ceremony, observances, sacrifice, rules, and regulations—upon something that requires man to work at being good or doing good in order to become acceptable to God.

Þ  The true minister of God seeks to focus people upon God Himself: His love, honor, and praise—upon the fact that God Himself has provided the way for man to become acceptable to Him, and that way is through His Son Jesus Christ.

(4:18-20) Ministers: Paul said that the church should always welcome ministers who seek to do well, ministers who labor for the church’s welfare. Note that he was encouraging the church not only to accept his ministry but the ministry of other true ministers. They must reject false ministers and have nothing to do with them, but they must receive the ministry of true ministers in order to grow in Christ. Paul himself demonstrated three reasons why the church is to receive true ministers of God.

      1.           True ministers hold believers within their hearts as dear children. The minister’s heart is ever so tender, warm, caring, protecting, and providing toward the church.

      2.           True ministers agonize over the growth of believers. They seek “Christ to be formed” in the believers. They want them living as Christ lived and conformed into the image of Christ.

      3.           True ministers guard the church against error. Note: if there is any doubt about the matter, he warns the church.

We parents never seem to outgrow our children. “‘When they’re little, they’re a handful; but when they’re grown, they’re a heartful!” I remember hearing my mother say, “When they’re little, they step on your toes; but when they’re grown, they step on your heart.”

This is what Paul was experiencing as he tried to help the Galatian believers with their confused spiritual lives. When he had first come to them with the Gospel, he had “travailed” spiritually to see them turn to the Lord. But, after all, the Lord Jesus had travailed on the cross to make possible their salvation (Isa. 53:11), and Paul’s travail was nothing in comparison. But now the Galatian Christians were falling back into legalism and a “second childhood” experience; and Paul had to travail over them again. He longed to see Christ formed in them, just as we parents long to see our children mature in the will of God.

Since the Judaizers appealed to the Law, Paul accepts their challenge and uses the Law to prove that Christians are not under the Law. He takes the familiar story of Ishmael and Isaac (Gen. 16-21) and draws from it basic truths about the Christian’s relationship to the Law of Moses.

The events described actually happened, but Paul uses them as an allegory, which is a narrative that has a deeper meaning behind it. Perhaps the most famous allegory in the English language is John Bunyan’s A Pilgrim’s Progress, in which Bunyan traces Christian’s experiences from the City of Destruction to heaven. In an allegory, persons and actions represent hidden meanings, so that the narrative can be read on two levels: the literal and the symbolic.

Paul’s use of Genesis in this section does not give us license to find “hidden meanings” in all the events of the Old Testament. If we take that approach to the Bible, we can make it mean almost anything we please. This is the way many false teachings arise. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to discern the hidden meaning of the Genesis story. We must always interpret the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament, and where the New Testament gives us permission, we may search for hidden meanings. Otherwise, we must accept the plain statements of Scripture and not try to “spiritualize” everything.

The Historical Facts (Gal. 4:19-23)

Perhaps the easiest way to grasp the historical account is to trace briefly Abraham’s experiences as recorded in Genesis 12 through 21. Using his age as our guide, we will trace the events on which Paul is basing his argument for Christian liberty.

75—Abraham is called by God to go to Canaan; and God promises him many descendants (Gen. 12:1-9). Both Abraham and his wife, Sarah, wanted children, but Sarah was barren. God was waiting until both of them were “as good as dead” before He would perform the miracle of sending them a son (Rom. 4:16-25).

85—The promised son has not yet arrived, and Sarah becomes impatient. She suggests that Abraham marry Hagar, her maid, and try to have a son by her. This act was legal in that society, but it was not in the will of God. Abraham followed her suggestion and married Hagar (Gen. 16:1-3).

86—Hagar gets pregnant and Sarah gets jealous! Things are so difficult in the home that Sarah throws Hagar out. But the Lord intervenes, sends Hagar back, and promises to take care of her and her son. When Abraham is 86, the son is born, and he calls him Ishmael (Gen. 16:4-16).

99—God speaks to Abraham and promises again that he will have a son by Sarah and says to call his name Isaac. Later, God appears again and reaffirms the promise to Sarah as well (see Gen. 17-18).

100—The son is born (Gen. 21:1-7). They name him Isaac (“laughter”) as commanded by God. But the arrival of Isaac creates a new problem in the home: Ishmael has a rival. For fourteen years, Ishmael has been his father’s only son, very dear to his heart. How will Ishmael respond to the presence of a rival?

103—It was customary for the Jews to wean their children at about the age of three, and to make a great occasion of it. At the feast, Ishmael starts to mock Isaac (Gen. 21:8ff) and to create trouble in the home. There is only one solution to the problem, and a costly one at that: Hagar and her son have to go. With a broken heart, Abraham sends his son away, because this is what the Lord tells him to do (Gen. 21:9-14).

On the surface, this story appears to be nothing more than a tale of a family problem, but beneath the surface are meanings that carry tremendous spiritual power. Abraham, the two wives, and the two sons represent spiritual realities; and their relationships teach us important lessons.

Appeal Three: Listen to What the Law Really Says, 4:21-31

(4:21-31) Introduction: the way to heaven is not by works nor by the law. A person cannot do enough works nor keep enough laws to become perfectly good. And for a person to live in God’s presence he has to be perfect. What then is the way to heaven? If a person cannot be good enough nor do enough works to make it to heaven, how can he get there? By faith in the promise of God. God has promised heaven to those who believe on His Son—to those who genuinely trust Jesus Christ to save them.

       However, most people in the world do not believe the promise of God. They still think they have to earn and work their way into the favor of God—that they have to build up a long list of good works that will force God to accept them. They think that they have to make themselves righteous by being good and doing religious things in order to enter heaven. Therefore, they place themselves under the rules and regulations of the law and of religion, and they do the best they can to make it to heaven. This is the appeal of this passage; the person who approaches God through the works of religion and law must listen to what the law really says.

         1.     Hearing the law is absolutely essential for the legalist or religionist (v.21).

         2.     Hear 1: Abraham had two sons (v.22-23).

         3.     Hear 2: the two mothers represent two covenants (v.24-28).

         4.     Hear 3: legalism persecutes and enslaves believers (v.29).

         5.     Hear 4: legalism is to be cast out—have no inheritance (v.30).

         6.     Hear 5: legalism has no claim upon the children of grace (v.31).

When we seek to interpret a passage like this we must remember that for the devout and scholarly Jew, and especially for the Rabbis, scripture had more than one meaning; and the literal meaning was often regarded as the least important.  For the Jewish Rabbis a passage of scripture had four meanings.  (i)  Peshat, its simple or literal meaning.  (ii)  Remaz, its suggested meaning.  (iii)  Derush, the meaning deduced by investigation.  (iv)  Sod, the allegorical meaning.  The first letters of these four words-P R D S-are the consonants of the word Paradise-and when a man had succeeded in penetrating into these four different meanings he reached the joy of paradise!

It is to be noted that the summit of all meanings was the allegorical meaning.  It therefore often happened that the Rabbis would take a simple bit of historical narrative from the Old Testament and read into it inner meanings which often appear to us fantastic but which were very convincing to the people of their day.  Paul was a trained Rabbi; and that is what he is doing here.  He takes the story involving Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac (Genesis, chapters 16, 17, 21), which in the Old Testament is a straightforward narrative and he allegorises it to illustrate his point.

The outline of the story is as follows:  -Abraham and Sarah were far advanced in years and Sarah had no child.  She did what any wife would have done in those patriarchal times and sent Abraham in to her slave girl, Hagar, to see if she could bear a child on her behalf.  Hagar had a son called Ishmael.  In the meantime God had come and promised that Sarah would have a child, which was so difficult to believe that it appeared impossible to Abraham and Sarah; but in due time Isaac was born.  That is to say, Ishmael was born of the ordinary human impulses of the flesh; Isaac was born because of God's promise; and Sarah was a free woman, while Hagar was a slave girl.  From the beginning Hagar had been inclined to triumph over Sarah, because barrenness was a sore shame to a woman; there was an atmosphere charged with trouble.  Later Sarah found Ishmael "mocking" (Authorized Version) Isaac-this Paul equates with persecution-and insisted that Hagar should be cast out, so that the child of the slave girl should not share the inheritance with her freeborn son.  Further, Arabia was regarded as the land of slaves where the descendants of Hagar dwelt.

Paul takes that old story and allegorises it.  Hagar stands for the old covenant of the law, made on Mount Sinai, which is in fact in Arabia, the land of Hagar's descendants.  Hagar herself was a slave and all her children were born into slavery; and that covenant whose basis is the law turns men into slaves of the law.  Hagar's child was born from merely human impulses; and legalism is the best that man can do.  On the other hand Sarah stands for the new covenant in Jesus Christ, God's new way of dealing with men not by law but by grace.  Her child was born free-and according to God's promise-and all his descendants must be free.  As the child of the slave girl persecuted the child of the free woman, the children of law now persecute the children of grace and promise.  But as in the end the child of the slave girl was cast out and had no share in the inheritance, so in the end those who are legalists will be cast out from God and have no share in the inheritance of grace.

Strange as all this may seem to us, it enshrines one great truth.  The man who makes law the principle of his life is in the position of a slave; whereas the man who makes grace the principle of his life is free, for, as a great saint put it, the Christian's maxim is, "Love God and do what you like." It is the power of that love, and not the constraint of law, that will keep us right; for love is always more powerful than law.

 (4:21) Law—Religion; hearing the law is absolutely essential for the legalist or religionist. The legalist or religionist is the person who approaches God by the law or by the works of goodness or religion. The legalist and religionist need to hear and really understand what they are doing, just how they are approaching God. They need to understand the implication of what they are doing.

(4:22-23) Abraham—Sarah—Isaac—Hagar—Ishmael: first, hear that Abraham had two sons. Remember that the way to become acceptable to God and to enter heaven is not by law nor by the works of goodness, but by the promise of God. Paul uses the illustration of Abraham to prove the point (cp. Genesis 16-17, and Genesis 21). Briefly and simply, Abraham had two sons. One son had been promised by God to Abraham through his wife Sarah; however, many years passed without Sarah ever having a child. She seemed incapable. She became discouraged, so she sent a slave girl, Hagar, in to Abraham. Hagar bore a son, Ishmael. Sometime later, however, God kept His promise and the impossible happened: Sarah, well beyond childbearing years, bore a son and his name was Isaac (Romans 4:10).

     1.   Note the facts about Ishmael. He was...

·    born after the order and process of nature.

·    born into slavery, being born of a slave girl.

·    born because of the work, effort, and will of Sarah.

·    born because of the fleshly impulses, urges, and attraction of Abraham.

     2.   Note the facts about Isaac. He was...

·    born as a free man, born of a free woman, Sarah.

·    born by the promise of God alone. God had promised Abraham that Sarah would bear a son, and when Isaac was born, Abraham and Sarah were both well beyond the years of childbearing—one hundred years old. Isaac was a miracle-child, born miraculously by the working of God—all because God had promised Abraham a son. Isaac was, therefore, a promised child.

     The point is this and it must be remembered: Ishmael, the child born by human ingenuity, energy, and effort, was born into slavery. But Isaac, the child promised by God, was born miraculously by the promise of God—by His love and power alone—all because He alone had made the promise.

The Spiritual Truths (Gal. 4:24-29)

Paul now explains the meanings that lie behind these historical events; perhaps they are best classified as shown in the chart at the top of page 710.

Paul begins with the two sons, Ishmael and Isaac (Gal. 4:22-23), and explains that they illustrate our two births: the physical birth that makes us sinners and the spiritual birth that makes us the children of God. As you think about this, and read Genesis 21:1-12, you discover some wonderful spiritual truths about your salvation.