Galatians 4:21-31 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise. These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child, shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
In the above passage, Paul explains the difference between the people of the law and the people of God. The people of the law are Hagar’s children; they are children who are attempting to please God through their own efforts, implementing the covenant given to Moses through their own plan of how to be right with God. Hagar’s progeny are locked in the jail of restrictions and rules, attempting to please God through regulations and rituals. Paul is exasperated with the Galatians because he sees them beginning to bind themselves to the law. He knows this will lead them into slavery to these restrictions and rules, where they can concomitantly lose their freedom in Christ. The covenant they are beginning to follow will never lead them to God, but away from him and his redeeming work through Jesus Christ. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. He also includes the Temple in the Holy City of Jerusalem in this description of depending on man’s works to know God . Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. All of man’s efforts to know God through the law and his sacrifices are not a substitute for the efficacious work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Only Jesus’ work and his work alone wins freedom for men and women from their sins and causes them to be right with God. Paul is upset with the Jews preaching circumcision because the work of the cutting away of the flesh does not identify people as God’s people, only the cutting way of the fleshly heart signifies who belongs to God and who does not. This cutting away of the fleshing heart is an act performed by Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus died as the flesh dies in circumcision when it is severed from the living body. Jesus died outside the city, dead to people and dead to God. Jesus cried, Why have you forsaken me or why am I abandoned outside of your Holy Presence? Jesus experienced the full penalty for sin: his flesh severed from the living God. No human could pay the debt for the sins of others: only God himself in the flesh could pay the complete price for the sins of mankind. Jesus died to his position of power for the sake of sinful men and women. The sacrifices of bulls, sheep, and goats would have to go on forever if people found their rightness with God in the sacrificing of these animals. The animals are but temporary on this earth; their existence is finite. But the eternal God through Jesus Christ, the complete representation of God on earth, dies once and for all, for mankind’s complete eternal salvation. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (Hebrews 1:3) In the grave of permanent death, the Holy Spirit is sent to raise Jesus from death to life. We who are IN CHRIST have this same hope of being raised by the Spirit of God from death to life. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Roman’s 8:10-11) We now live with this glorious promise of life because the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead now lives in us and gives us life.
Even though our mortal bodies are subject to sin, since we are IN CHRIST we are alive as eternal beings right now. Paul is upset with the Galatians because they are forsaking the life and freedom they have IN CHRIST for the dead works of the law. They are doing something that will never win them favor with God. Paul knows it is an impossibility for them to win God's righteousness through the son of Hagar. Hagar is Abraham’s attempt to fulfill God's promises to him. But God’s divine plan was to be executed through the dead womb of Sarah. She was past the age of having children, Hagar was not. From Abraham’s perspective, the fulfillment of God’s promises could come only through a woman who could bear a child. However, this covenant that God made with Abraham was an eternal one, not based on man’s efforts or understanding, but upon God’s work. Sarah, with her impossibility to have a child, was the woman God would use to materialize the promises to Abraham and subsequently to all mankind of eternal life because she was Abraham’s true wife. Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child, shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband. Sarah lived most of her adult life in sorrow because she could not bear children. But God used her womb to fulfill his promise to Abraham, through Sarah, the barren woman, God’s work would be realized. Paul emphasizes that all of us who are born again are God’s workmanship, through Sarah’s dead womb and not through Hagar who could bear children. He tells the Galatians if they do not separate their carnal idea of knowing God from God’s plans, they will lose their freedom that Christ has earned for them. Their salvation is in danger. But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” Man’s efforts will never earn the inheritance of eternal life. Only the son of Sarah, Issac, will receive that inheritance of being right with God forever. Only through the Son, the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ, will the children of God be realized. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that He would bless all nations through his Seed. As we read in Acts 13:26, Fellow children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. Because the Seed of Abraham passed from generation to generation until the fullness of time when God brought forth his Son, we are heirs of the promise of God and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus.
Paul categorizes the sons of Abraham as representing either slavery or freedom. Ismael represents slavery because man’s efforts will never make him right with God; he will always be in the bondage of sin. Issac represents freedom; standing right with God, without the restrictions of the law and its regulations governing life. The former is man’s usual inclination of how to win God’s favor: right and wrong, good and bad. But right and wrong, good and bad never bring mankind closer to God. Circumcision, obeying all the law and its regulations, will never provide man with a close relationship with the Creator. In the Old Testament we see God disciplining the Jewish people again and again as a consequence of their sins. The Jews were a special people, selected from all the people of the world, known as God’s own people. But they felt the heavy hand of God’s discipline many times. Finally, God’s anger was so fierce against them that He dispersed them throughout the world as captives and foreigners in many lands. The Jews never could be completely obedient to God’s demands on their lives. In fact, they became so bad in their behavior that God told them their sins were worse that the six nations they replaced in Canaan. They worshipped their ancestors, they sacrificed their children to Molech, a serpent idol, they bowed down to many different and strange gods of the other nations. They were chained to to foreign gods in their daily routines. They forsook the Creator God who had miraculously delivered them from Egypt. Their lives were totally estranged from God. Now Paul is saying, get rid of your bondage, your way of life, and serve the living God through the freedom of knowing Christ Jesus. Christ alone has paid for your sin. He has made you free, walk in that freedom. If you bind yourself to circumcision and the law, you will die in bondage and never know the freedom God has won for you. By serving the Lord through circumcision, the Galatians were putting something else, a work of circumcision, between God and themselves. But the Holy Spirit has made all of us who know Jesus Christ as our Lord free to serve as his children. We have a direct communication with the Father because we have been made right with him through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. He speaks through us when we cannot even find the right words to say to God. He is perfecting God’s will in our lives by communicating to the Father when we are weak and unstable in our lives. Paul is saying there is no bank shot to God through the law and its regulations; there is no intermediator between God and man other than Jesus Christ and him crucified. Put aside the slave woman and her son. You now have a vertical relationship with God, so pray as Jesus prayed: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. As children of God, free as He is, we have a direct relationship with him. We do not need circumcision, laws or regulations to know God. We need only Christ who died for us and who is our propitiation for our sin. He has made us free; free indeed. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm,then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 Accept your freedom today by accepting Christ Jesus as your Savior and Lord. He wants to come in and be Lord of your life.
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