FREE CHILDREN OF PROMISE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

Galatians 4:21-31

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia had one central purpose...to convince the Christians there to reject an attempt to a new emerging distortion of the true Gospel.

This emergent threat was from a group of Jews referred to as the Judaizers who were adversely influencing the Galatian Christians to be obedient to the Mosaic Law of the old covenant in addition to accepting Jesus as Savior. In other words, salvation required more than simply believing in Christ.

This was a perversion of the real Gospel, the one Paul had taught when he brought the Galatians to Christ and established the churches there. Paul’s fear was that the Galatia believers, new in their faith, would allow themselves to be persuaded to follow the direction of the Judaizers and so he used his letter to try and discourage them from doing so. As we have seen, he actually invoked prominent figures in the Old Testament to make his point, especially Abraham, and as we see in the final verses of Chapter 4, he continues this tactic. Look again at his words here:

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. Galatians 4:21-31

To understand what Paul is getting at you need to go back to the Book of Genesis and read chapters 16, 17, and 21. There, we find Abraham and Sarah grappling with the matter of conception and child birth in old age.

In chapter 15, God assured Abraham that he would have a son who would be of his own flesh and blood, not a servant as Abraham proposed. And so as chapter 16 opens, we have Sarah losing faith that she would be able to bear a child for her husband and so she tells Abraham to sleep with their Egyptian slave, Hagar. When Abraham did, Hagar became pregnant and delivered a son who was named Ishmael, a name given to Hagar by an angel of the Lord. Abraham was 86 when he became a father for the first time.

As the story moves to chapter 17, God once again assures Abraham that he and Sarah would have a son together named Isaac and the child would grow up to be the father of twelve rulers as God made him into a great nation. In chapter 21, we read where God makes good on his promise as Sarah conceives by Abraham and gives birth to Isaac. Shortly thereafter a feud between Sarah and Hagar erupted again and Abraham’s wife demanded Hagar and Ishmael be sent away, a proposal that God supported as he assured Abraham that Ishmael too would become a great nation as well.

And so it was. The slave woman, Hagar, departed with her son Ishmael who would have no entitlement as a formal heir to Abraham’s birthright for that honor fell to Isaac.

Okay, with this review complete, we can now read Paul’s words from the end of Galatians 4 and understand them better as he uses Hagar and Ishmael and Sarah and Isaac to make his point about a distinction between two covenants.

Paul reminds his readers that Abraham had two sons, one by way of a slave woman (Hagar) and the other from a free woman (Sarah).

Ishmael was born according to the flesh. God hadn’t prescribed that he should bear a son with Hagar. It happened through the will of Abraham and Sarah. In fact, neither of them even inquired with God as to whether or not they should do it. This is why Paul calls Ishmael “born according to the flesh”.

On the other hand, God has promised Isaac’s birth. It was His divine will that Abraham and Sarah would bear a child together. This is why Paul refers to Isaac as being born of a free woman.

Each of these women represent a covenant, Hagar the old and Sarah the new.

Hagar was a slave and Paul’s stance about the Mosaic Law was that it enslaved anyone who was under it. No one could perfectly keep the Law under the old covenant and therefore would never be separated from it. They would never be free.

Conversely, Sarah’s child Isaac represented the future. Go to the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew, chapter 1 and you will see Abraham first in the line followed directly by his son Isaac. In other words, God placed Isaac in the direct ancestral line to His only Son, the One who would usher in the new covenant which would ultimately lead Christians to the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21) or the Jerusalem that is above.

Paul likens all Christians who follow the true Gospel, receiving salvation by simply believing in Jesus as Savior, as being free children of promise, just as Isaac was. Today, we still have that same claim to hold onto, a claim grounded in hope that death is never the end but just the beginning of a glorious future that will last forever.

Today, and every day, let’s give thanks for the gift of Jesus and how He saves all who place their belief in Him, those who will then become free children of promise.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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