THE ONE TRUE GOSPEL
Meditations in the Epistle to the Galatians
Galatians 4:21-31
CHILDREN OF PROMISE

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THE APOSTLE Paul is continuing to convince the Galatians that to go back in anyway from what he had taught them, to the Jewish system, was to become slaves again and lose the freedom that is in the grace of Christ. It is interesting to note the way Paul uses the notion of the Law. Paul is plainly using the law, which the Galatians were being seduced back to, in order to prove the folly of their actions. In other words Paul is using the concept of the law in the Jewish sense. The Jews referred to all of the first 5 books of the Bible as the Law, and by the Law they meant not just the ten commandments, but all the religious duties and ceremonies which are laid down in these writings. Paul therefore uses a very powerful argument when he uses a section of these writings to show the Galatians that the ceremonies and duties were never meant to be the real thing, but only a temporary measure until Christ, our High Priest, had come.

The story of Abraham and his two sons is well known, but if it is not too well known to you, it would be as well if you read the story in Genesis 16 and 21. One also needs to appreciate the promise to Abraham of a true son, through his wife Sarah, and all that meant in the covenant promise of God. God had promised that in the seed of Abraham, that seed being Christ, all the nations of the earth would be blest. Only if a son was born to Abraham could this promise be realised and the line of births commence which would finally end with the birth of Christ. Because the promised son was so long in coming, Abraham's and Sarah's faith were shaken. Sarah suggests human effort, wisdom and work, in getting a son to Abraham through her slave maid Hagar. They renounced, by this action, faith in the promise and resorted to works. This is just what the Galatians had been seduced into doing.

THE VALIDITY OF THE FIGURE

Paul speaks of the story of Ishmael and Isaac being used figuratively in verse 24. Usually, spiritualising stories can be a dangerous thing, for how do we know that the spiritual interpretation we have placed on the story is valid. It is a proper question for us to ask concerning the validity of the figure here, because on it depends the validity of the argument.

Firstly, we have to say and accept, that Paul was under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit when choosing to use this story of Abraham's sons. Thus it is inspired like all Scripture, and even if the validity of the figure escapes us, we may be sure it is valid because Paul was inspired to use it by God.

However, secondly, by careful study of the history we can see how very valid this history is to be interpreted spiritually and we will see how perfectly the figure is proved.

Ishmael is a very valid figure of the Covenant of works that we are all naturally born under as descendants of Adam. This covenant is one in which our acceptance before God depends on our doing and keeping laws laid down by God. His birth was by natural generation, and by the normal working of human birth. It could be said from the story very powerfully that Abraham worked the birth himself. It was by his own working. The resultant birth of Ishmael vividly reveals the failings of salvation by works. Although he was a son of Abraham, because his mother was a slave woman, he remained a slave and could be nothing else. He could never be free. This is like all the children of Adam by natural birth. Although created by God, yet because Adam sold us into slavery to Satan, we are born slaves to sin and Satan, and nothing we can do by our own efforts can alter this condition.

Isaac too is an exact figure of the regenerate soul. Isaac was a child of promise and supernaturally born. God promised Abraham he would have a son by Sarah, but God waited until a time so that it was impossible, through age, for Sarah to have a child. Then when there was no possible hope of Sarah becoming pregnant, God sends a message to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son, and Isaac was born. The promise was honoured and it was honoured by a supernatural working of God, and Abraham and Sarah could not say that they had worked it in anyway whatsoever, because they knew that humanly speaking they were too old to conceive and bear children. This is like every child of God. They are born supernaturally of the Spirit of God. This is a gift of God's grace on the grounds of the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to a soul that they may be accounted just in God's sight. It is God who raises a soul from the dead, and restores the life and fellowship with God which Adam lost. The soul thus saved has no part in it. It is all by gift, and the faith etc., which lays hold of life, is also a gift from God in the process of giving the promised salvation. Paul outlines this in verse 23.

THE FIGURE APPLIED

What is the covenant illustrated by Ishmael? It is a covenant of works. Abraham stopped exercising faith in the promise, and resorted to human wisdom and working to gain a son. Ishmael's birth was natural, due solely to the normal process of human birth which Abraham had resorted to. Paul tells us that this is the covenant at Sinai, where the Jews were put under law, and God's favour depended on their ability to keep the law. The history of the Jews ever after testify to their impotence to keep the terms of this covenant even in the most imperfect way. It is because of this inability to keep the law, Paul talks of people under this covenant being slaves. They are slaves to keep the whole law, and are under the sentence of death if they fail. There is no freedom, because they are totally unable to keep the terms of this covenant of works. This is illustrated in the life of Ishmael, because although he was a son of Abraham, because his mother was a slave, he must always remain in slavery, and could not inherit as a true son from Abraham. This covenant of works is of this life, of the earthly Jerusalem. It only gains privileges in the earthly scene, but not before God and the eternal and heavenly scene. Under this covenant of works there is a blindness to the Gospel, and because of this blindness people under works always persecute those who believe the Gospel. They feel jealous of the believer in the Gospel, and their covenant tells them the Gospel is all wrong and evil. The failure of this covenant is illustrated in the life of Ishmael. He and his mother were cast out. All under the covenant of works are in the end cast out of the presence of God and the blessing and inheritance of God. This is the culmination of the death which is certain for all who depend on their own works for salvation.

The case of Isaac figures the Covenant of grace in Christ. Firstly Isaac was a child of promise. All the hope of the Messiah was bound up in his birth. Christ too was born and lived and died according to promise. In the promise of Isaac was bound up the promise of the Christ, the Saviour. Salvation is not by our working but through the promised gift of God through the promise of a Son. Secondly the birth of Isaac was supernatural. It was wholly of God without any human working. Christ was born supernaturally, and his birth was a miracle by the gift of God. Salvation is not by human effort but by the supernatural new birth of the spirit. Thirdly, in Isaac was bound up all the spiritual blessings in the promise of grace, because Paul says he was of the heavenly Jerusalem. He was the progeny from which Christ would be born, through whom alone we receive the blessing of acceptance with God and the inheritance of heaven. Fourthly Isaac was born free. He is truly the figure of the redeemed in Christ. In Christ, like Isaac, we inherit all the riches of the eternal kingdom of God. We are free because acceptance is by the promise in Christ, which is freedom from the Law through the righteousness provided by God as a gracious gift. Fithhly our birth involves no labour pains by us, as all the pain has been borne by Christ. Sixthly, as through working their own salvation there are no children born as children of God; so through the promise in Christ many are spiritually born. Seventhly, we are hated by the world, just as Isaac was hated by Ishmael. However we are delivered at last and brought into our eternal inheritance, just as Isaac inherited totally from his father Abraham

The sum of all this is that all the blessings which came to Isaac were by grace and promise and not by the works of the law, or human effort. In contrast Ishmael was born by human effort, but all this was of no avail as he was cast out, so is it with all who add works of any kind to their faith in Christ.

CHRISTIANS ARE OF THE FREE WOMAN

Paul's deduction is in verse 31, "Therefore, brothers, we are not of the slave woman, but of the free woman." From the Law Paul has proved to the Galatians that ceremonies and duties, together with circumcision, are not necessary for the acceptance of the believer in Jesus. These were all temporary measures until Christ came. What do we glean from this figure concerning the believer?

a. We are accepted by promise not by law.

God's promise to Abraham, that was bound up in the supernatural birth of Isaac, was that in Abraham's seed, all the nations would be blessed. We understand from this letter and from the New Testament that the seed meant was Christ, who would obtain, for those who believed on him, eternal salvation through taking our place, and fulfilling the whole law of God for us. This was the promise, that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. So that forgiveness and eternal life should be totally secure and complete, and accessible to us, God made this promise that he would provide in the seed a perfect Saviour for us. Anyone who trys to win God's forgiveness by their own efforts and are willing to face the reality of their situation, have to come to the conclusion that they are unable to succeed. Those who refuse to face the facts, always remain in doubt, and the best they can say is that they hope that they are accepted and forgiven. In Christ, the promised seed, there is no uncertainty as our acceptance is on the basis of Christ's perfect work.

b. Free from the Law's authority.

In making this assertion we need to be absolutely clear as to what we mean. We are simply talking of the Law as the means of life, which has power to condemn and pronounce the sentence of death upon all who do not come up to its perfect standards. If Christ had never come, and the promise of the seed had never been made, then all of us would have remained under the authority of the Law. We would be bound to keep ever jot and tittle of the Law without failing in any small way at any time in our lives, otherwise the Law with its authority and power would condemn us. In Christ we are free from this authority of the Law, because as our representative and substitute, Jesus took our place with regard to the Law. He fulfilled it in ever part and way, and so as far as we are concerned the Law has been completely fulfilled, and has no more authority over us. We are free from the Law.

This does not mean that we have a licence to sin. Far from it. Bound up in the freedom is the creation of new life within us. We are new born with the nature that perfectly loves the holy way of God. The Law which expresses the Holy way of God is now loved and we desire to live by it as our rule of life. This is the desire of the new nature, the new person that has been created by God. While in this life, we still struggle with the sinful desires of the flesh, and so there is conflict between the new person we are in Christ, and the flesh which is the remnant of the old person. We will struggle with this conflict until we leave this earthly life and this sinful body will be changed for a pure new heavenly body. In this conflict when we go against the desire of the new person that we are, we sin, yet we are still free from the authority of the Law to condemn and punish because of Christ and his keeping of the law for us. Also through Christ's love for us and new birth we love the Law of God in our inner being.

c. Born supernaturally by the Spirit.

Isaac's birth was a supernatural birth. It was totally of God's grace and gift, according to the promise. Every true believer in Jesus also receives this gift of new birth which we have already spoken under the previous point. It is the creation within us of a totally new person. The old sinful and condemned person we were was condemned to death in Christ and is no more. A new holy person has been created "to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24). This new person is of the perfection of heaven and is undefiled. We are fit for heaven immediately we believe because of this new creation which purely loves God. This new creation can never die, and never be defiled. It is the product of Christ's atonement and imputed righteousness. We do not need any more to keep the Law to merit salvation. The Law now is simply an expression and explanation of the holy way of God which we love in this new person and want to follow. It is because of this that we long, with Paul, to be free from this body of sin, which is the cause of all our failures in our living, and causes us so much grief, specially so when we fall short of the law we love.

Our sanctification is daily learning to live by the desires of this holy new life within us, and by it and the Spirit learning to mortify and subdue the evil desires of our flesh, so that our whole lives on this earth more and more show forth the holiness of God. It must be seen from the nature of this new life from spiritual birth, that it is impossible ever for the Christian to live in sin, or be careless about sinning. This new holy life within would be mortally offended and cry out in pain. Further this new life within causes us to see all sin as hurt and pain against our loving heavenly Father. To sin is to grieve and cause pain to God, which is a tremendous grief to us in our new life. How grateful we are for this inestimable gift of resurrection from the dead, and new life in the kingdom of God.

d. Inheritors of the promised land.

Paul says in verse 26, "but the Jerusalem that is above is free". By this statement he is telling us that the child of promise is born a citizen of the Jerusalem above. This is nothing less than the eternal and heavenly kingdom of God. This free gift of God in the promise to Abraham and to all who believe, sealed to Abraham by the gift of Isaac, from whose line the Messiah would come, is that we are translated from the kingdom of this world, which is under the dominion of sin and Satan, into the kingdom of God and heaven. Being made children of God, we inherit all the riches and blessings of the kingdom of God. We have a foretaste of these blessings as we dwell in the love of God here on earth, and know the sanctification of our lives, but we have the fulness still to come in heaven. Because of the promise in Christ, heaven is certain and sure, and we look forward to it with eager anticipation. It is the time when we shall see our loving Lord face to face, and dwell with him forever, and because we have a new body totally free from sin, we will be able to serve him in purity for eternity.