"Decision Time: Law or Grace?"

Many consider this morning’s text as the most difficult passage in Galatians for at least two reasons:

1. It assumes a knowledge of the OT which few possess today and may even had been a challenge to the Gentile believers in Galatia. There are references to Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, Isaac, Mount Sinai, and Jerusalem. NOTE who Paul is addressing - (v.21)

2. The argument of Paul is somewhat technical—a kind that would have been familiar in rabbinical schools. It is allegorical, though not arbitrary (it’s not open to just any interpretation). In other words, even though the people and places represent something else, you can’t just abstract any meaning you want.

This is not to in any way to diminish the importance of this passage today! Last time I checked, there are still many who, “…want to be under the law!”

(READ TEXT - PRAY)

There are THREE STAGES to Paul’s argument:

I. STAGE ONE: The HISTORICAL Background - (4:22-23)

Stott - “One of the Jews loudest and proudest boasts was that they were descended from Abraham, the father and founder of their race. [Because of the covenant God established with Abraham and his descendants] …the Jews believed themselves to be safe—eternally, inviolably safe.”

Both John the Baptist and Jesus had to deal with this issue:

Matthew 3:9–10 CSB

And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

(John 8:31-47)

PAUL NOW ELABORATES what John the Baptist implied and what Jesus explicitly taught: True descent from Abraham is not physical but spiritual!

Abraham’s true children are not those with an impeccable Jewish genealogy, but those who believe as Abraham believed and obey as Abraham obeyed!

Galatians 3:14 CSB

The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Galatians 3:29 CSB

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.

Romans 4:16 CSB

This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to the one who is of the law but also to the one who is of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all.

KEY: We cannot claim to belong to Abraham unless we belong to Christ!

This DOUBLE-DESCENT from Abraham, Paul sees illustrated in Abraham’s two sons: Ishmael, and Isaac!

BOTH had Abraham as their father, but there were important differences:

1. They were born of DIFFERENT MOTHERS - (v.22)

Ishmael’s mother Hagar was an Egyptian slave woman; Isaac’s mother Sarah, was a free woman (as well as being Abraham’s wife)!

Paul’s POINT: Ishmael was born into slavery, but Isaac into freedom!

2. They were born in DIFFERENT WAYS! - (v.23)

NOT, of course, that the biological processes of conception and birth were different, but that the different circumstances gave rise to their birth.

(v.23a) - “But the one by the slave was born as a result of the flesh …”

On the other hand, Isaac, “…was born through promise” – (v.23b).

“Isaac was not born according to nature, but rather against nature. His father was a hundred years old and his mother, who had been barren, was over ninety!”

Hebrews 11:11–12 CSB

By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful. Therefore, from one man—in fact, from one as good as dead—came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore.

II. STAGE TWO: The ALLEGORICAL ARGUMENT! - (4:24-27)

(v.24) - “…for the women represent two covenants,” and now Paul addresses the covenants by introducing an ADDITIONAL element: location.

1. MOUNT SINAI, HAGAR, and the PRESENT JERUSALEM - (vv.24b-25)

Though allegorical, Paul’s argument is SAME as he had previously given – (Galatians 3:22-25)

The LAW, represented by Hagar, Mount Sinai, and present-day Jerusalem (under the Law) represents bondage—slavery!

2. SARAH and the ‘ABOVE’ JERUSALEM! – (v.26)

(Hebrews 12:18-24) eloquently contrasts Mount Sinai and the “…Jerusalem above!”

3. Paul’s GROUND - (v.27) – “For it is written…”

Isaiah 54:1 CSB

“Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth; burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.

Just as God promised restoration from the Babylonian captivity, the “…children of promise” (v.28)will FAR EXCEED the children “…of the woman who has a husband!”

Simply put, the children of FAITH/PROMISE will far exceed the children of the Sinai, or Hagar!

III. STAGE THREE: The PERSONAL APPLICATION! - (4:28-5:1)

(v.28)- As a child “…of promise,” what can I expect?

1. We must expect PERSECUTION from the spiritual descendants of Ismael – (v.29)

Genesis 21:9 CSB

But Sarah saw the son mocking—the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham.

Just as Ishmael “persecuted” Isaac, the world will “persecute” believers today!

2. We must anticipate FUTURE INHERITANCE – (v.30)

Genesis 21:10 CSB

So she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a coheir with my son Isaac!”

It must have been a tremendous shock that Paul takes the very Scripture the Jews interpreted as God’s rejection of the Gentiles and totally reverses it to show God’s exclusion of unbelieving Jews from the inheritance of “…the son of the free woman!”

J.B. Lightfoot - “…the Apostle thus confidently sounds the death-knell of Judaism.”

3. We must STAND FIRM in our FREEDOM! – (4:31—5:1)

I see at least three reasons to stand firm:

FIRST, because it’s not WHO YOU ARE! – (v.31) - You are children of the “free woman!”

SECOND, Christ SET YOU FREE! – (5:1a)

THIRD, God wants you to LIVE FREE, not with “…a yoke of slavery!” – (5:1b)