The Story of The Mistaken Mother

Have you heard of the book titled Are You My Mother? Here is how that story begins:

A mother bird sat on her egg.

The egg jumped.

“Oh, oh!” said the mother bird. “My baby will soon be here! He will want to eat.

“I must get something for my baby bird to eat!” she said. “I will be back!”

So away she went.

The egg jumped. It jumped, and jumped, and jumped!

Out came the baby bird!

“Where is my mother?” he said.

He looked for her.

He looked up. He did not see her.

He looked down. He did not see her.

“I will go look for her,” he said.

So away he went.

Down, out of the tree he went.

Down, down, down! It was a long way down.

The baby bird could not fly.

He could not fly, but he could walk. “Now I will go and find my mother,” he said.

He did not know what his mother looked like. He went right by her. He did not see her.

He came to a kitten. “Are you my mother?” he said to the kitten.

The kitten just looked and looked. It did not say a thing.

The kitten was not his mother, so he went on.

Then he came to a hen. “Are you my mother?” he said to the hen.

“No,” said the hen.

The kitten was not his mother.

The hen was not his mother. So the baby bird went on.

The story continues with the bird looking for his mother. He goes to different animals and vehicles and asks them if they are his mother. Finally, a bulldozer picks up the bird and puts him in his nest just as his mother arrives back. She says to him, “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes, I know who you are,” says the baby bird. “You are not a kitten. You are not a hen. You are not a dog. You are not a cow. You are not a boat, or a plane, or a snort! You are a bird, and you are my mother.”

The little bird in this story did not know who his mother was. We might call this story The Story of the Mistaken Mother.

Today’s sermon is also titled “The Story of the Mistaken Mother.” In Galatians 4:21-31 Paul shows that the Galatians were confused about who their spiritual “mother” was. Due to the teaching of the false teachers they thought that they were Works’ Children when in fact they were Grace’s Children. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Let’s see how the apostle Paul puts it in Galatians 4:21-31:

Galatians 4:21–31 NASB 2020

21 Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the Law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. 23 But the son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. 24 This is speaking allegorically, for these women are two covenants: one coming from Mount Sinai giving birth to children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. 25 Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is enslaved with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. 27 For it is written: “Rejoice, infertile one, you who do not give birth; Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor; For the children of the desolate one ARE more numerous Than THOSE of the one who has a husband.” 28 And you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But as at that time the son who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one who was born according to the Spirit, so it is even now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.” 31 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave woman, but of the free woman.

Commentator John Stott notes that many people regard our text for today—Galatians 4:21-31—as the most difficult passage in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. There are at least two reasons why it is considered a difficult passage.

First, Galatians 4:21-31 is considered difficult because it presupposes a rather good grasp of the Old Testament, which not many people—even believers—possess. Paul makes reference to Abraham, Hagar, Sarah, Ishmael, Isaac, Mount Sinai and Jerusalem; who are these people and how do they relate to Paul’s point?

And second, this passage is considered difficult because Paul’s argument is fairly technical. It is the kind of argument that theological students love to discuss and debate.

Nevertheless, Paul’s teaching in Galatians 4:21-31 is very important and relevant to people living today. It is particularly relevant to religious people. Paul is writing this section to “you who want to be under law.” Paul is writign this to those in church who want to follow a set of rules in order to earn God’s favor. He shows us what that means.

All religions, with only one exception, teach that salvation involves human achievement. These religions may disagree on what a person must do to be saved, but they all teach that people must somehow earn salvation in some way.

Christianity stands apart from all other religions, proclaiming that God alone saves. Divine favor, says Christianity, cannot be earned. It can only be received. We come before God like poverty-stricken beggars, with nothing to offer except our sin. Out of his superabundant grace, God pours his riches upon us, providing complete forgiveness and everlasting life.

The difference between salvation by works and salvation by grace is all the difference in the world.

A religion of works leads to slavery and death.

A religion of grace brings freedom and life.

Works-oriented people cannot quite accept this truth. They think that they can lift themselves out of the spiritual poorhouse if they just work hard enough.

Paul’s teaching against salvation by works is brought to a climax here in Galatians 4:21-31. As we study this passage we notice that Paul breaks his discussion into three sections. First, Paul gives historical facts. Second, he gives spiritual truths. And third, he gives us some practical applications.

I. The Historical Facts (4:21-23)

First, let’s look at the historical facts.

Paul gives the historical facts by first asking a question and then giving an explanation.

A. The Question (4:21)

Paul’s question is in verse 21.

He asks us this, “you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the Law?”

To be under the Law means that person relies upon the Law to have a right standing before God. It means they live lives good enough and do not sin as well as work off their original sin.

But if we go back to Galatians 4:4-5

Galatians 4:4–5 NASB 2020

4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters.

You should notice that Christ was born at the right time but He was also born under the law “so that He might redeem those who were under the Law.”

Apart from Christ, the only way to be in a right relationship with God is by living a perfect life, to perfectly obey the Law God has established and that also means not what you do but what you don’t do as well as what you think and don’t think.

But Jesus, born under the Law, is the only person to ever live a perfect life in accordance with the total Law. By doing that, Christ is the only person who has the ability to take on the consequences of sin so that those consequences were paid.

Because He was the perfect man, He was able to take on sin and give us forgiveness which then changes our status from slaves to the Law to sons and daughters of God. And our “sonship” is based on God’s grace, not the law we failed to keep.

So Paul’s question goes something like, “Tell me, Christians who want to now be back under the Law, do you not remember that the Law was what condemned you. Have you even looked at the Law and seen it and realize that you will give up your “sonship” and be condemned once again?”

B. The Explanation (4:22-23)

Paul then answers his own question.

He refers to Abraham, Abraham’s two wives, and his two sons. Paul writes in Galatians 4:22-23:

Galatians 4:22–23 NASB 2020

22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. 23 But the son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.

In order to understand what Paul is saying we need to know the history to which Paul is referring.

Perhaps the easiest way to grasp the history is to trace briefly Abraham’s experiences as recorded in Genesis 12-21. Using Abraham’s age as our guide, let’s trace the events upon which Paul is basing his argument.

At 75 Abraham was called by God to Canaan. God promised Abraham many descendants (Genesis 12:1-9). Both Abraham and his wife, Sarah, wanted children, but Sarah was barren. God was waiting until both of them were (in the words of Bible commentator Warren Wiersbe) “as good as dead” before he would perform the miracle of sending them a son (cf. Romans 4:16-25).

At 85 the promised son had not yet arrived, and Sarah became impatient. She suggested to Abraham that he sleep with Hagar, her maid, and have a son by her. This act was legal in that society, but it was not in the plan and purpose of God. Abraham followed Sarah’s suggestion and slept with Hagar (Genesis 16:1-3).

At 86 Hagar got pregnant and Sarah got jealous! Clearly Abraham was not the one with the problem producing a child. Things got so difficult in the home that Sarah threw Hagar out. But the Lord intervened, sent Hagar back to Sarah, and promised to take care of her son. Hagar’s son was then born, and Abraham called him Ishmael, which means “God hears” (Genesis 16:4-16).

At 99 God spoke to Abraham and promised—again!—that he would have a son by Sarah. Abraham was to name this son Isaac, which means “laughter.” Later, God appeared again and reaffirmed the promise to Sarah as well (Genesis 17-18).

At 100 Isaac was born (Genesis 21:1-7). Abraham named the boy Isaac as God commanded. But the arrival of Isaac created a new problem in the home; Ishmael now had a rival. For 14 years Ishmael was his Father’s only son, very dear to his heart. How would Ishmael respond to the presence of a rival?

At 103 Isaac was weaned. It was customary for Jews to wean their children when they were about 3 years old and also to make a great occasion of the weaning. At the weaning feast, Ishmael started to mock Isaac (Genesis 21:8ff) and create trouble in the home. There was only solution to the problem, and a costly one at that: Hagar and her son Ishmael would have to go. With a broken heart Abraham sent his son away, because this is what the Lord told him to do (Genesis 21:9-14).

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

II. The Spiritual Truths (4:24-27)

Second, let’s examine the spiritual truths.

Paul presents the historical facts in order to reveal spiritual truths that illustrate the inconsistency of salvation by works. So Paul says in verses 24-26, that these things may be taken allegorically. Each woman represents one of the covenants. One covenant from Mt Sinai, also known as present day Jerusalem, which is Hagar, giving birth to those under the Law and are therefore slaves.

The other coming from the Jerusalem above, which is Sarah, who gives birth to those who are free. And it is that mother, Sarah, from the Jerusalem above, who is the mother of the free.

Paul’s point is that Hagar and Ishmael represent the law covenant of Sinai and the earthly city of Jerusalem, which by and large represents people who are not yet Christians, and who are therefore in slavery (4:25). This refers to those who are “under the law” (4:21). People who are trying to earn their own salvation through their own works are described as slaves. So Hagar represents salvation by works.

Sarah, on the other hand, represents salvation by grace. Paul says that “the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother” (4:26). The heavenly Jerusalem is the city of believers.

It is important to realize that Paul is using the story of Abraham as an allegory. Tim Keller points that some people are disturbed that Hagar (who in the actual story is an innocent victim) represents something negative, while Sarah (who in the actual story is an unbelieving collaborator with Abraham) represents something positive. But we must remember that Paul himself says in verse 24, “These things may be taken figuratively.” In other words, though we must read the account as a literally true story and learn the moral and theological lessons of it, that is not what Paul is doing here. He finds the story to be a good symbolic illustration of grace and works.

The reason this is such good illustration of grace and works is because of the choices that Abraham made. Abraham had two choices before him. Tim Keller puts it well. Abraham “could wait to receive what only God was capable of doing, or he could go out and attain what he was capable of doing. Put another way, Abraham could choose to have faith in God’s promise and wait to receive the son, or Abraham could have faith in his own ability and work to attain the son.” Do you see the two choices? Abraham was exercising faith in one choice or the other. Either he would trust in God’s ability to provide, or he could trust in his own ability to attain.

Abraham initially chose to trust in his own works. The result was disastrous. Sarah became jealous of Hagar, and the family was torn apart by dissension and strife, which exists even to this day as Ishmael is the father of the Arab peoples and Isaac the father of the Jews.

Paul’s analogy is so good. The gospel is not what we can attain by our own righteousness. When we try to achieve our own righteousness, we discover that the result is disastrous. But rather, the gospel is that we receive a righteousness provided by God. God in His grace gives us what we cannot provide for ourselves. God gave Abraham the promised son Isaac when he could not provide that for himself. That is the gospel.

III. The Practical Applications (4:28-31)

Finally, let’s note some practical applications.

Paul writes in verse 28, “And you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.”

Paul means that we are all born under the law, and are children of works. But Christians are supernaturally born into God’s family. We are descendents of Abraham spiritually and therefore are members of God’s family.

Paul makes two applications.

A. We Must Expect Persecution (4:29)

First, we must expect persecution.

Until we get to heaven, we must expect persecution. And that persecution will come from our half-brothers—people who are religious.

Paul writes in verse 29 that the people born according to the flesh, those who are not Christian, will persecute the people who are born according to the Spirit. And even to this day, this is what we see.

Why should Christians expect persecution? Because the gospel is threatening to religious people. Irreligious people don’t care much about God and how to get into a right relationship with God. But religious people have developed ideas, which consist mainly of rules and regulations, about how to get into right standing with God. But the gospel insists that our best deeds are useless before God. They are never sufficient to save us. And so John Stott says,

"The persecution of the true church, of Christian believers who trace their spiritual descent from Abraham, is not always by the world, who are strangers unrelated to us, but by our half-brothers, religious people, the nominal church. It has always been so. The Lord Jesus was bitterly opposed, rejected, mocked and condemned by his own nation. The fiercest opponents of the apostle Paul, who dogged his footsteps and stirred up strife against him, were the official church, the Jews. The monolithic structure of the medieval papacy persecuted all Protestant minorities with ruthless, unremitting ferocity. And the greatest enemies of the evangelical faith today are not unbelievers, who when they hear the gospel often embrace it, but the church, the establishment, the hierarchy. Isaac is always mocked and persecuted by Ishmael."

B. We Must Get Rid of Works (4:30-31)

And second, we must get rid of works.

Galatians 4:30-31 reads:

Galatians 4:30–31 NASB 2020

30 But what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.” 31 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave woman, but of the free woman.

The second application is that we must get rid of works.

Hagar and her son Ishmael symbolize works, whereas Sarah and her son Isaac symbolize grace.

Hagar and Ishmael symbolize our attempt to do what only God can do. This self-righteous approach cannot co-exist alongside grace. Therefore, just as Hagar and Ishmael were cast out of Abraham’s household (Genesis 21:10, 12), so must we cast out all of our works-righteous attempts to please and satisfy God.

C. S. Lewis once wrote, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’” The former are people of faith and have Sarah as their spiritual mother; the latter are people of works and have Hagar as their spiritual mother.

So, like the little bird in the book titled Are You My Mother?, you also need to ask who your spiritual mother is. Is your mother Sarah? Or is your mother Hagar?

If Sarah is your mother, you have a faith based on grace. But, if Hagar is your mother, then you have a faith based on works.

Let me encourage you to examine your faith, and base your faith on grace and not on works.

Let’s pray.

May we be sanctified by Your Word, may we be brought into Your communion and share in Your blessings.