"Who's Your Mother? (Galatians 4:20-31)", Will DuVal | 10/12/25
Galatians 4:20-31 | 10/12/25 | Will DuVal
“It is sometimes said that there are only TWO kids of PEOPLE in the world: those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who don’t!” (Ryken, 180)
I have to admit: I stole that clever opener from Philip Ryken, whose commentary - along with Warren Wiersbe’s and J.D. Greear’s - I’m gonna be leaning on extra heavily this morning, due to the especially technical nature of the argument the apostle Paul is going to be making for us here, at the end of Galatians ch4. But Ryken continues on: “Apparently the apostle Paul was in the former category, for he divided the whole world into two groups: the SLAVES and the FREE. The slaves are under the law… while the free are in Christ… [And] this epistle (this letter, to the Galatians) was written to help slaves of religion find true freedom in Christ” (ibid, 180).
If you’ve been WITH us these past 2 months and 3 ½ chapters of Galatians now, we’ve seen Paul do just that on every PAGE of this book so far: draw a clear DIVISION between those who are still under the LAW, and those who are now (in Christ) under GRACE.
But in case you HAVEN’T been with us - “Welcome!” and - allow me to briefly SUMMARIZE Paul’s recurring dichotomy for you:
*At the beginning of ch1, Paul chastised the Galatians for “deserting” Christ and his grace and “turning to a different gospel” instead, that claimed the way to God was through the LAW (1:6).
*Then in the SECOND half of ch1, Paul reminded them that he had HIMSELF once trusted in the Law as his means of trying to earn God’s favor, before Paul discovered on the Damascus Road that the ONLY way to be saved is to be “CALLED by God’s GRACE” (1:15).
*In the first half of chTWO, Paul recounted his INITIAL showdown, years ago, with the “Judaizers”, these “false brothers” who are leading the Galatians astray by twisting the gospel from “Jesus plus NOTHING” - Christ is totally SUFFICIENT for salvation - and they’re preaching instead: “Jesus plus the LAW, of MOSES”.
*But Paul set the record UNAMBIGUOUSLY STRAIGHT in second half of ch2: “a person is not justified [or “made RIGHT with God”] by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (2:16); it’s by trusting NOT in what WE have done for GOD, but in what HE has done for US, through the undeserved GIFT - the GRACE - of His Son JESUS. “[We] do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness[i] were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (2:21).
*Then in ch3, Paul offered 4 proofs that it’s not by the law but by GRACE that we are made the “children of God”: 1) First, Paul reminded the Galatians that they received the Holy SPIRIT not by works, but by faith (3:3); 2) Second, Paul pointed out that from the very beginning of redemptive history, Abraham didn’t WORK FOR God; he “BELIEVED IN God, and it was COUNTED to him as righteousness” (3:6); 3) Third, Paul quoted Deuteronomy 27:26 - “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law” - to warn us that attempting to use the law to win God’s blessing will ACTUALLY only get you CURSED for your inevitable DIS-obedience; and then 4) FOURTH, Paul circled BACK to Abraham AGAIN to note that God CHOSE him - by GRACE - 430 years before He ever GAVE the law to MOSES!
*Thus, having explained what the law was NOT given for, and never INTENDED to do, namely: SAVE us - bring us to God; only CHRIST can do that, by his GRACE - nevertheless, Paul finished ch3 by addressing the question, ‘Okay, so… “Why then the LAW?” (3:19). And Paul offered three answers: the Law served a temporary function as 1) a MIRROR, to reveal our sins and thus our need for a Savior (Rom 3:20); the law served as a 2) MONITOR, to help keep our sin in CHECK (Gal 3:24); and the law served as 3) a MAP, to ultimately point us and BRING us to CHRIST (Wiersbe, 568).
Mirror, Monitor and Map. But the law was NEVER meant to be our MOTHER! And that’s where we’re gonna pick up today, because it’s the exact ANALOGY - the METAPHOR - that Paul’s gonna use here in vv20-31 of Galatians chFOUR now. (And I’m changing my sermon title, cuz this one’s catchier:) You’ve probably all heard the phrase, “Who’s Your Daddy?”. Well, Paul’s question for the Galatians this morning is: “Who’s Your MOTHER?” And if there are really only two types of people in the world - the spiritually ENSLAVED and the spiritually FREE - then Paul’s gonna make the argument here - or, more precisely, he’s going to make the ALLEGORY - that there are really only two MOTHERS, and we are ALL the children of one or the other.
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You remember from middle school English class what an ALLEGORY is? Merriam-Webster defines it as “the expression of (deep) truths… about human existence by means of symbolic figures and actions” (https://www.merriam-webster.com); “symbolic narrative” (dictionary.com). It’s a STORY where the characters and events all represent and thus REVEAL something about deeper, often SPIRITUAL truths. Pilgrim’s Progress, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter… they’re all ALLEGORIES, that retell the story of the GOSPEL through symbolic narrative.
According to Paul, there’s ANOTHER important Christian allegory that deserves to be unpacked, and we don’t even have to look outside the BIBLE to FIND it. Paul’s gonna take us back to the Old Testament, to the LAW; cuz that’s what the Galatians had become so OBSESSED with - the LAW. So Paul’s gonna say, “You claim to love the LAW so much… but you’re not even paying ATTENTION to it! If you WERE, you’d realize that the whole story about father Abraham - who the Judaizers ALSO loved so much; they boasted about being the DESCENDANTS of Abraham. And Paul already told them back in ch3: “it is [ONLY] those of faith who are the [TRUE] sons of Abraham” (v7). But like any good pastor, now Paul’s gonna say the same thing in a slightly different way for a third, fourth… TENTH time; squeeze 45 minutes out of just 12 verses… - But in PAUL’s case, it’s more like 1 and ½ chapters: Genesis ch16, and the first half of Genesis 21 - Paul retells, or really he just re-IMAGINES, he INTERPRETS the story of Abraham and his two SONS, by two different WIVES, as an ALLEGORY - a PICTURE - of the two different types of PEOPLE that exist: those under LAW, and those under GRACE. Every ONE of us is either an ISHMAEL… or we’re an ISAAC. And it all depends on how you answer the question of the day: “Who’s your MOTHER?”
(SCRIPTURE:) Let’s read it together now; Would you STAND with me as you’re able… Galatians 4:20-5:1. [Bibles… Info Bar…] This is the word of the Lord THROUGH his anointed messenger, Paul, writing TO the Galatians, but FOR all of US still today as well:
“I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.”
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
This is the word of God… Seated…
Ryken notes of this passage (185): “Paul’s analogy (here) is complex… the two MOTHERS (Hagar and Sarah), with their two SONS (Ishmael and Isaac), stand for two COVENANTS (a covenant of WORKS and a covenant of GRACE), which correspond to two CITIES (the present Jerusalem and the Jerusalem above)”.
Here’s a SUMMARY slide, for you VISUAL learners to see the CONTRAST Paul is setting up for us here: two MOTHERS; two SONS; two COVENANTS; and two CITIES. And FROM this contrast, Paul is going to extrapolate THREE REASONS here for the SUPERIORITY of the NEW covenant of GRACE, over against the OLD covenant of LAW; Why is grace so much better? Three big reasons he’ll give us.
But to get our heads around ANY of this, we’re gonna have to first understand the original STORY from the book of Genesis that according to PAUL serves as an ALLEGORY here. And before we do THAT, let me give you two quick, related reminders:
First reminder is that I HOPE you are preparing for our Sunday mornings together by following along in the READINGS from Galatians on your OWN, before you get here. I know I mention that at the beginning of every sermon series, and I really ought to RE-mention it all throughout our study of a book. But if you ARE in the habit of faithfully following along, HOPEFULLY when you came to this passage this past week, and you read, “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman…”, I hope at least SOME of you thought to yourself, “You know, I probably ought to re-FAMILIARIZE myself with this story Paul is referencing here…”, and you took the time to flip back and actually READ Genesis ch16. Anyone DO that? Be honest… [“No? It’s a good thing salvation is by GRACE and not by WORKS, or y’all would be in TROUBLE!...” OR “Yeah?! Good job - you get 50 “righteousness points”. But don’t get too excited; Paul’s gonna tell us this morning they won’t improve your standing with God in the SLIGHTEST…]
But my SECOND reminder and PLUG here is for our “After the Sermon” podcast. I’m gonna ask y’all to please step it up there as well. We’ve only been averaging 2 or 3 questions submitted per week for the past several sermons, and I KNOW it’s not because my sermons are so CLEAR and COMPREHENSIVE that I answer every possible question you could and should have. I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt, that maybe you’re just too lazy to lean forward and grab a PEN out of the CHAIRback in front of you; well, can’t use that excuse anymore, cuz now you can TEXT your questions in, to the number on the screen. That is my PERSONAL cell number, so I’m not gonna read it out loud, in case we’ve got Russian bots listening in.
But if you are listening ACTIVELY, not just passively, you oughta have QUESTIONS. FOR INSTANCE… I’m gonna give you a FREEBIE right up front, and it’s a BIGGIE: “Why does Paul interpret the Hagar/Sarah story ALLEGORICALLY here in the FIRST place? Does that mean that WE ought to read stories from the Old Testament symbolically, or as MERELY symbolic? Doesn’t this threaten to UNDERMINE our faith in the historicity of the LITERAL story?” SOMEONE oughta be asking that… And plenty MORE questions, as we work our way through this morning.
Alright, let’s get TO it: Why is GRACE so much better than the LAW?
Reason #1: Because under the LAW, we live in SLAVERY, but under GRACE, we can live in FREEDOM. [4:20-22; 4:30-5:1]
The Law brings SLAVERY; GRACE brings us FREEDOM.
Note the structure of Paul’s overarching argument with me; look at how it OUTLINES, in your bulletin there: Paul OPENS (in vv20-22) and CLOSES (in vv30 - v1 of chFIVE) with this same theme and emphasis on “SLAVERY vs. FREEDOM”. That’s how he BOOKENDS the passage; if Paul’s making a theological SANDWICH here, these are the slices of BREAD in his argument. Or, if it’s the BEST kind of sandwich (and it IS! Paul is fixing us a gourmet lunch today); the BEST sandwiches are all grilled and toasted, so we might even call this outer layer of the argument his “bread AND BUTTER”. So you could certainly make a case for why reason #1 here for grace’s superiority to the law - the FREEDOM Christ brings us - why this first point is his most important. There’s a REASON why Paul begins and ENDS with it… There’s a reason why the only verse in this entire passage that you might have memorized is the LAST one: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm…”. Some will point out that Paul’s whole argument is structured so as to BUILD to that climactic culmination. And with some sandwiches, the bread is really the highlight.
But what’s just inside THAT? V23 and then skip down to vv28 & 29… the CHEESE! That delicious, melted cheese. I hate to ruin the suspense of filling in those blanks in your bulletins, but I’m GONNA: if the bookends focus on the LIFE of Abraham’s two children (in either SLAVERY or FREEDOM), then the CHEESE in point #2, vv23 and 28/29 is gonna focus on our BIRTH (either by FLESH or by PROMISE).
And then FINALLY, what’s right, square in the MIDDLE of the sandwich? Vv24-27… the MEAT! And even though it’s the most difficult of Paul’s three points to UNDERSTAND - he claims “Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, which corresponds to the present Jerusalem”, which is located some 240 miles NORTH of Sinai, but is, according to PAUL, “in slavery with her children”, even though the Judaizers, Paul’s OPPONENTS who had traveled FROM Jerusalem to infiltrate these churches in Galatia with their heresies, they would have INSISTED that Paul was CRAZY! “SLAVES?! Who you callin’ SLAVES, Paul?! We ain’t NOBODY’s slaves!” – Paul is intentionally reminding us here of the interaction JESUS had with some of the Jews of his day in John ch8, when he said, ““If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
But they replied, ““We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?””
And you remember what Jesus says, “everyone who practices sin is a slave… The slave does not remain in the house forever (Ishmael got kicked OUT); but the son remains forever. So,” Jesus concludes, “ if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (Jn 8:31-36)
So Paul traces this theme of freedom all the WAY through, but as I was saying, the MIDDLE, even though it’s the toughest to understand - Paul’s gonna quote a pretty OBSCURE passage from Isaiah ch54 (““Rejoice, O barren one…”), but I’m gonna argue that that middle section, that we’ll END with, really is the MEAT of his argument, the CENTERpiece of it all. Nerds call this literary structure of “sandwiching” like this - where you have A, then B, then C, then B again, then end with A again - they call it “chiasm”. And IN a chiasm, whatever’s in the MIDDLE… “C”... the “MEAT” - THAT is the real zenith. So we’ll build to it.
But we’re actually gonna spend the most TIME here on point #1, not only because PAUL does, but because we really DO need to back up now and review the OT story that Paul is interpreting here if we’re gonna make sense of ANY of this. So here’s the quick summary for you:
About 2,000 years before Paul and before JESUS, there lived a guy named ABRAM. Ordinary guy… PAGAN, polytheist. What was EXTRA-ordinary about him was that he was CHOSEN and CALLED by an extraordinary GOD, to be the “FATHER” of God’s special people, the “father of a multitude” - that’s actually what the NAME that God GAVE him (“Abraham”), what it MEANS: “father of a MULTITUDE”.
The PROBLEM was: by the time God MADE this promise to him, Abram was already 75 years old and CHILDLESS, and married to a 65 year old, barren wife named SARAH. Nevertheless, Abram, the “man of FAITH”, he BELIEVED.
But some 10 years LATER, when they were STILL childless, Sarah started DOUBTING. So she came up with a PLAN; this is Genesis 16 now: “Behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. [Notice how she BLAMES God; she ignores his PROMISE, and charges him with actively PREVENTING her from bearing. So she said,] Go in to my servant [HAGAR]; it may be that I shall obtain children[a] by her.”
Now it’s worth noting that Abraham - despite being the “man of faith” he was - he didn’t put up much of a FIGHT on this one. Cute young maidservant… still no kids… “ALRIGHT, Sarah; I’ll DO it!” So we read: “So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived.”
Now I’m gonna speed up for sake of time: Hagar gives birth to ISHMAEL. Sarah gets JEALOUS. God shows BACK up and says, “Don’t worry; Sarah’s gonna have her OWN child.” Sarah LAUGHS. God says, “Did you seriously just LAUGH at me?”. Sarah says, “No…”. God says, “Yeah you did, LIAR.” As punishment, your baby gets a funny name, literally; ISAAC means “laughter”.
But they’d have to wait another FOURTEEN YEARS after Ishmael was born, for Isaac. But in Genesis 21, he finally arrives, and then we read: “the child grew and was weaned [perhaps around the age of THREE or so.] And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar…, laughing.” Speaking of “laughter”, Ishmael was making fun of his baby half-brother, trying to drink his milk out of a BIG BOY cup for the first time. So Sarah gets mad and demands of Abraham, ““Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” ” Abraham is SAD, but God assures him, “Don’t WORRY; I will personally look out for Hagar and Ishmael…”
And 2,000 years later Paul claims, “ALL of this was REALLY about the LAW and GRACE. OLD covenant vs. NEW covenant.”
You say, “HOW SO?!”
Paul says, “Glad you asked…”
And this is where I’m gonna let Warren Wiersbe unpack the analogy for us, because I really can’t explain it any better myself. Wiersbe points out FIVE big similarities between HAGAR and the LAW (pp568-9):
“(First of all,) Hagar was Abraham’s SECOND wife. God did not BEGIN with Hagar; He began with Sarah. As far as God’s dealings with men are concerned, God began with grace… In Eden, after Adam and Eve sinned, in his grace God provided them with coats of skins for a covering (Gen 3:21). He did not give them laws to obey as a way of redemption… In His relationship with Israel also, God first operated on the basis of grace, not law. His covenant with Abraham was all of grace, because Abraham was in a deep sleep when the covenant was established (that was Genesis 15, we talked about a few weeks ago). When God delivered Israel from Egypt, it was on the basis of grace and not law, for the law had not yet been given (as Paul reminded us back in Galatians chTHREE; the law came 430 years LATER). Like Hagar… the law was ‘added’ (Gal 3:19).
(Second,) Hagar was a slave. Five times in this section she is called a ‘slave’... Likewise, the law was given as a servant… It served (remember) as a mirror to reveal sins (Rom 3:20), as a monitor to [regulate] sin (Gal 3:24), and as a MAP to] ultimately lead us to Christ (Gal 3:22); but the law was never meant to be our MOTHER!
(Third, and related:) Hagar was not meant to bear a child. Abraham’s marriage to Hagar was outside the will of God; it was the result of Sarah and Abraham’s (sinful) unbelief and impatience. Hagar was TRYING to do what only SARAH could do, and it FAILED. The law cannot give life (Gal 3:21) or righteousness (Gal 2:21) or the gift of the Spirit (Gal 3:2) or an inheritance (Gal 3:18)... No amount of religion… can give the dead sinner life. Only Christ can do that through the gospel.
(Fourth,) Hagar gave birth to a slave. Ishmael was ‘a wild man’ (Gen 16:12 calls him), and even though he was a slave, nobody could control him, including his mother. Like Ishmael, the old nature (the flesh) is at war with God, and the LAW cannot change or control it… Whoever chooses Hagar (the law) for his mother is going to experience bondage. But whoever chooses Sarah (grace) enjoys liberty in Christ.
(And LASTLY,) Hagar was cast OUT. Sarah gave the order: ‘Cast out this bondwoman and her son’ (Gen 21:9-10). Ishmael had been in the home for at least 17 years, but his stay was not to be permanent; eventually he had to be cast out. There was not room in the household for [both]... It is impossible for law and grace, the flesh and the Spirit, to compromise and stay together… The Judaizers in Paul’s day - and in our own day - were trying to reconcile Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael… [But] it is impossible to MIX law and grace… God’s gift of righteousness and man’s attempts to EARN righteousness… [SO, Wiersbe concludes,] The nation of Israel had been in bondage under the law, but this was a temporary thing, preparing them for the coming of Christ. Now that he had come, the law had to go.”
Phillip Ryken adds (191, 185):
“When Paul quoted Sarah’s words (here), it was a not-too-subtle way of saying that the Galatians needed to drive the Judaizers and their legalism right out of the church… If salvation comes by grace, then the church cannot tolerate salvation by works. Freedom in Christ can be preserved ONLY by abolishing our bondage to the law…. Anyone who reduces Christianity to a list of “dos and don’ts” is a SLAVE like Ishmael.””
Alright, so let’s make it personal now: in what ways have YOU turned YOUR faith, your RELATIONSHIP with a PERSONAL God, your LOVING heavenly FATHER, into just a list of “dos and don’ts”?
Are you HERE because you’re SUPPOSED to be, or because worshiping the God who LOVED you so much that he sent his own SON to RESCUE you… worshiping him ALONGSIDE a few hundred brothers and sisters… is it truly the highlight of your week?
Do you read God’s word because “He SAYS so”. I’ve got a 3 year old; EVERYTHING is “WHY?” “Why can’t I have candy for breakfast?” – “Because I SAID so.” That feels like BONDAGE to my son. It’s the right CALL, but it still feels like BONDAGE, under my authority.
Is THAT why you spend time in God’s word? Or because you LONG to HEAR from him, to hear his VOICE each day. Do you long to KNOW your Creator and Sustainer and Father and FRIEND?
Why do you PRAY? Because your parents TAUGHT you to? It’s HABIT? When you wake up, as you lie down at night, and then before every meal; so FIVE TIMES a day. Hey, that’s how the MUSLIMS pray too. Has it become just an empty RITUAL for you; is prayer just more RELIGION, or is it about deepening your RELATIONSHIP with the Lord, pouring your HEART out to Him, and then listening for HIS.
Why are you avoiding SIN? Cuz it’s a “DON’T”? Church, Bible, Prayer: DO’s; Pride, lust, envy: DON’Ts. Is that it? Or as you are being changed day by day, from the inside out, becoming more and more like JESUS, have you grown to HATE the things that GOD hates? See, that’s the thing about the LAW: J.D. Greear points out this sort of “catch-22” of the Law: the Law can’t really COMMAND the thing it’s seeking to accomplish. How did JESUS summarize the Law? With two “commandments”: Love GOD, love OTHERS. Can you COMMAND love? “Thou shalt LOVE me!” No! What’s Jesus DOING? He’s trying to help his LAW-loving listeners - not surprisingly, it was a LAWYER who had asked Jesus, “Which is the GREATEST commandment?” - and Jesus wants them to see, “Without ME, you have NO hope of ever actually KEEPING it! Unless I come into your life and change you from the inside out, and re-orient your very AFFECTIONS, you will ALWAYS be law-breakers, because you’ll NEVER love God and others.” Love can’t be commanded; it must be COMPELLED by God’s OWN love. When you understand who God IS and all that he has DONE for you - HIS love that he lavished on YOU, in his son JESUS, his life, death and resurrection for you - when you finally grasp THAT, you don’t NEED the law anymore, do you? “Thou shalt LOVE me”; you just DO!
And the more we GROW in our love for Christ, and our understanding of HIS love for US, the less we need those laws about avoiding SIN too, Greear points out. He uses a helpful but disgusting illustration, so if you don’t like it, you can blame him. He says, “Imagine if just as I came up to preach, I got sick and vomited all over the front of the platform. But I decided to push through it… he asks, “Would I need to OPEN my SERMON by making a RULE, a LAW, that “No one is allowed to come up here and lick this vomit up off the stage”?
NO! Cuz you don’t need a law to prevent you from doing things you HATE, that DISGUST you. Now, if this was a sanctuary full of DOGS… we’d have to rope that vomit off, pass all KINDS of laws to keep them away.
But friends, Paul’s POINT here is: YOU’RE NOT DOGS ANYMORE! You are new creations in CHRIST; the old has GONE, the new must COME! You don’t NEED the law anymore, to prevent you from doing what you once LOVED but now ought to DISGUST you.
No, brothers and sisters, the REASON that we DO come to church, read our Bibles, say our prayers… and we DON’T engage in “sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, envy, drunkenness…” the whole LAUNDRY list of sins that Paul’s gonna give us later in chFIVE, the reason we avoid THOSE now isn’t because of the LAW - the “Dos and Dont’s” - but because of our new NATURE. We’re not DOGS; we are adopted sons and DAUGHTERS of the KING! And that means we’ve been set FREE from our ENSLAVEMENT to the vomit!
“SO”, Paul exhorts us in 5:1, “stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” He means slavery to sin AND slavery to the LAW. We’ve gotta FIGHT to stay in the faith, to stay anchored to GRACE and not drift back again into LAW. Martin Luther warned we must constantly be preaching the gospel to ourselves, because our hearts are hard-wired for WORKS-righteousness” (in Greear, “Galatians 4”). So “stand FIRM”.
But how did we GET this new nature, in which we now experience FREEDOM in Christ? That is Paul’s SECOND contrast now between law and grace: you can be a SLAVE like HAGAR or be FREE like SARAH; now he says in v23:
#2- You can be born according to the FLESH (like ISHMAEL), OR be born according to the PROMISE (like ISAAC). [4:23, 28-29]
“According to the flesh” can simply mean “the NATURAL way”, through sexual intercourse (Abraham and Hagar), but in the Bible, “flesh” also often has a NEGATIVE connotation. That laundry list of sins Paul’s gonna give us in ch5 - he titles it “the works of the FLESH”. So being born according to the flesh ALSO means “by SINFUL means”, which ALSO refers to Abraham with Hagar, taking matters into his own HANDS. “Flesh” is MY way; “promise” is GOD’s way. Greear points out: “What the Galatians are doing when they turn to the law to bring them closer to God [is] They are attempting to fulfill the promise of God through a scheme of the flesh. Like Sarah, they haven’t totally stopped believing God’s promise of salvation, they just think it’s up to them to accomplish it.”
Wiersbe adds (567-8):
“Ishmael and Isaac… illustrate our two births: the physical birth that makes us sinners [for we are ALL born with a SINFUL nature], and the spiritual birth that makes us the children of God. Isaac illustrates the believer in [that] he was born by God’s power… “born after the Spirit” (Gal 4:29), and, of course, the Christian is “born of the Spirit” (as Jesus declared in John 3:1-7). Isaac came into the world through Abraham (who represents faith) and Sarah (who represents grace); so that he was born “by grace through faith” as is every true Christian (Eph 2:8-9).”
And then Paul mentions ANOTHER really interesting comparison between Isaac and born-again believers now in v29: “just as at that time [the son of] the flesh persecuted him born of the Spirit, so also it is now.”
Wiersbe points out (568): “Ishmael caused problems for Isaac, just as our old (sin) nature causes problems for us.” But Greear takes it a step further, and notes:
“Interestingly, Muslims proudly claim Ishmael as their spiritual father—and Islam is a religion that from start to finish teaches that you are saved by works! Here, Paul predicts that any who rely on obedience to the law— whether we’re talking about Judaizers in Paul’s day, the Catholic Church in Luther’s day, Muslims in our own day, or legalistic Christians in our own churches — they will hate and resent those who rely solely on the promise of grace for salvation. Because the gospel of grace says to them, “All your striving, all your zeal, all your knowledge, doesn’t bring you one whit closer to God. You are powerless to do anything to accomplish your salvation; salvation belongs to God alone, a gift you can only receive by faith.”
So I ask YOU again, friend: have you RECEIVED God’s GIFT of salvation… in Christ… by FAITH? It’s the ONLY way. Turn from your sins, trust in JESUS, and you will be SAVED, born AGAIN, not by the flesh, but by God’s promised SPIRIT.
And when we ARE, lastly now, Paul’s third big takeaway from this allegory: (#3) We are NO LONGER bound for (or we might say, “bound BY”) SINAI; we are NOW bound for ZION. [4:24-27]
Paul says, “Hagar is Mount Sinai… corresponding to the present Jerusalem…” I mentioned earlier; this may be the most OFFENSIVE thing that Paul says in this entire HEATED letter of Galatians. And that’s SAYING something, considering NEXT week he’s gonna say, “I wish those Judaizers so obsessed with circumcision would just go ahead and cut the whole THING off!” But don’t miss what Paul’s saying here: Ryken explains (185): “When Paul said that Jerusalem corresponded to Hagar, he was saying that although the Judaizers were Jews, they were really Ishmaelites, spiritually speaking! This was… like calling a Jew a Gentile, or an Israeli an Arab. The Judaizers prided themselves on being the sons of Abraham. Paul admitted that they were, but he said that they were (the WRONG SON!, they were) spiritually illegitimate”.
“BUT,” Paul reminds the GALATIANS now “the Jerusalem above is free, and she is OUR mother.” The Bible has a NAME for this “heavenly city” to which all God’s FREED sons and daughters now belong: it’s called ZION. It was anticipated in the OLD Testament but now CELEBRATED in the NEW, in Hebrews 12 in particular: “For you have not come to what may be touched… [SINAI; the physical mountain of the OLD Testament, where God delivered the LAW…] But you have come,” Hebrews rejoices “to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (vv18-24).
Church, that is now - HEAVEN is now - our true HOME; ZION is our MOTHER.
And then the whole section CULMINATES in v27, with this somewhat OBSCURE quote from Isaiah 54, which seems like a fitting ENDING to this overall obscure PASSAGE in Galatians 4, but it is also a TELLING conclusion:
“For it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear…For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the [other woman]”
Paul applies this prophecy not ONLY retroactively to SARAH, but FUTURE tense as well, to God’s coming kingdom of ZION. Ryken explains it beautifully (188):
“This quotation from Isaiah is doubly appropriate because it relates to both Sarah and Jerusalem. The connection with Sarah is obvious. She was a barren woman whom God blessed with a joyous multitude of sons and daughters. When Isaiah prophesied about the barren woman, however, he was not thinking primarily of Sarah, but of the city of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem of HIS day (Isaiah’s) was barren because her children had been carried away into exile (in Babylon). But Isaiah promised that one day God would establish a “new” Jerusalem, which would be filled with far more children that the old Jerusaelm could ever contain. Isaiah’s happy promise is being fulfilled at this very moment, not in an earthly city, but in a spiritual one that spreads across the globe. As men, women, and children come to faith in Jesus Christ, they become citizens of the New Jerusalem, to the praise and glory of God.”
How about YOU? Have you been GRANTED citizenship? SON-ship! Have you been ADOPTED into God’s heavenly FAMILY? Friend, if you HAVEN’T, don’t wait a moment longer.
Two mothers, two sons, two covenants, two cities. To which of the two do YOU belong? (Ryken 188)