Galatians 4:21-31 We are Children of Promise WC McCarter
Introduction
In Genesis
15:1–6 Abraham is sorrowful because there is no heir to fulfill the promises
that God had made in Genesis 12. There is only Eliezer the slave. Yet, God
renews the promise to Abraham that he would have a son.
In Genesis
16:1-4, 15-16 Abraham and Sarah weaken in faith and rely on their own human
effort. They trust themselves to fulfill God’s promise.
Then, 14
years later, in Genesis 17:15-22 God says to Abraham that his wife, Sarah, will
have a son. God will fulfill His promise in a way that will not allow any room
for Abraham or anyone to take credit. The fulfillment will not be dependent on
any man. God rejects what Abraham was able to accomplish on his own by taking
another woman as his wife and having a son by her. That is not what God
intended. Abraham and Sarah were old, they could not have kids, and so what
would be accomplished would be completely dependent upon God. It would be
miraculous.
So, in
Genesis 21:1-3 we are told that Sarah conceived and delivered a son. Isaac was
not born according to the flesh because his birth was the result of God's
supernatural intervention in fulfillment of his own promise. Abraham had
learned his lesson: the only response to God's promises is to trust that He
will be faithful to His promises, not works of the flesh, that is, human
effort.
Galatians
4:23 sums up the story: "The son of the slave was born according to the
flesh, the son of the free woman through promise."
One more
passage that we should review is Genesis 21:8-13 which says that Ishmael
persecuted Isaac, and Abraham was required to send Hagar and Ishmael away. The
Lord promises to take care of Ishmael, but the covenant promises would continue
through Isaac.
READ Scripture- This is the Word of God
History (21-23)
Paul speaks
sharply to the Galatians who were either thinking of submitting to the Law or
maybe already had. There is a bite in verse 21 as he states the irony of their
situation. Some of them desired to be under the law, but they were not
listening to what the law has to say. Well, the apostle will tell them what the
law has to say. He does so by pointing their attention back to Abraham’s
narrative in Genesis. This was the great ancestor of the Jews. Abraham was
literally the father of their nation. Abraham was their father, their founder,
and their hero. So, what does Paul do? He strips the Judaizers of their leading
man. He contrasts Abraham’s sons, Ishmael and Isaac, and uses them as symbols.
Symbolism (24-27)
Charting out
Paul’s thought here is very helpful. I have filled in some of the contrasts to
help us see the whole picture.
Abraham
Two Sons
Two Covenants
Symbolic
Ishmael
Isaac
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
Law | Faith
Bondwoman | Freewoman
Flesh | Promise
Mt. Sinai | Mt. Zion
Arabia | Heaven
Jerusalem Now | Jerusalem
Above
Bondage | Free
Hagar | Sarah
--------------------------------- ---------------------------------
“according
to the flesh” “through
promise”/”according to the Spirit”
The primary
contrast is between the origins of the two sons. Ishmael was instigated by
Sarah and Abraham and fulfilled by the effort of Abraham and Hagar while Isaac
was instigated by God and brought about by God.
“Sarah is
never designated as a ‘free’ woman in the OT,” so it is Paul who, “is the one
who has brought the language of ‘freedom’ into the story” (Moo, 294). What is
Paul wanting to accomplish? He has been laying the groundwork for his main
point here: those legalistic false teachers are all about human effort which
only brings about slavery, while the Gospel is all about the promise and work
of the Spirit which leads to freedom.
Lastly, Paul
quotes from Isa 54:1, “about the reversal of fortunes experienced by a barren
woman in verse 27” (Moo, 292). What this illustrates is the work of God. Sarah
was a barren woman. She could not have kids all of her life. God made the
promise to make her descendants as numerous as the sky’s stars.
Contemporary (28-31)
Paul puts
the Galatians, using the word “we,” in the category of the children of promise
(and all Christians by extension). Remember that Ishmael mocked or scoffed at
Isaac. Paul says that Ishmael persecuted Isaac which is the same thing that the
he and the Galatians were enduring. “Cast out the bondowman.”
Verse 31
concludes Paul’s argument here. He has taught that, “. . . it is not biological
descent from Abraham that marks the true children of Abraham but descent
through the line of promise” (Moo, 293). You can be a son of Abraham one of two
ways, according to the flesh or through the promise, that is, according to the
Spirit. What does Paul say that the Galatian Christians are? They “are not
children of the bondwoman but of the free.” We have been born through the
promise and by the Spirit.
Conclusion and Christian Application
(1) You will be persecuted, even from
within the “church.”
(2) Your status and Christian progress
are due to the work of God and not the effort of man. Your status was ensured
by the promise of God, and your new birth came about through the work of the
Holy Spirit.
(3) Note, again, that freedom is a key
component of the Christian life. We are not enslaved to the elements of this
world, this present wicked age, the guilt of our sin, any kind of rules and
regulations, we are not bound to religious performance, and we are not enslaved
to the fear of Judgment Day. We are free!